Greece vs Russia preview
Posted on | June 14, 2008 | No Comments
Defending champions Greece stand to lose the Henri Delaunay trophy if they fail to put up an improved performance against Guus Hiddink’s Russian side in Innsbruck. If Spain and Sweden draw, and the Greeks lose, they are definitely out of the tournament.
Greece were heavily criticised for their ultra defensive tactics in their opening game against Sweden. Playing with five defenders did not stop them from losing 0-2, although one of the two was an absolute touch of class from Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Rehhagel needs to reinvent this team, who seem desperately low on morale. And what better time than to do it against Russia, the only team to beat them at Euro 2004 !. Rehhagel might choose to go for a slightly more attacking formation, with Russia showing weaknesses at the back against Spain. The problem with Greece is that Gekas, Amanitidis and Charisteas are nowhere in the league of Torres and Villa. And there are no fluid passers of the ball in this side, unlike the Spanish, who had Xavi and Iniesta in their ranks. Greece are a physical team and rely heavily on set pieces to open their account on the scoresheet. Charisteas, Seitaridis and Torosidis each picked up a yellow card and another one here will mean missing the final group game against Spain.
Russia were impressive going forward against Spain, although their defensive performance left lot to be desired. However Spain are by far the best attacking team in this group, and Russia would be happy to have got them out of their way. Greece don’t possess Spain’s quality in attack, and the likes of Denis Kolodin, who was given all sorts of problems of Fernando Torres in the opening game, will have an easier time. Arshavin serves the second of his two game suspension. Pogrebanyak is injured, and there are doubts over Roman Pavyluchenko, scorer of Russia’s only goal against Spain. There is plenty of talent in the Russian team- Yuri Zhirkov, Konstantin Zyryanov, Dmitri Sychev and Igor Semshov are all good players. They just need to come good together. One has to wait to see whether Hiddink reshuffles his defence and brings in the Berezutskiy twins and Ignasevich for this game.
Russia look the better team, and their strength in attack may just see them go through. 2-1 to the Russians, with Zhirkov, Sychev and Charisteas on the scoresheet.
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