Quarter-finals
Match 2: Germany vs Greece
Germany
The Germany national football team (German: Die deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) is the football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund), founded in 1900.
From 1950 to 1990, it was essentially the team of West Germany as the DFB is based in Frankfurt, located in the former West Germany. Under Allied occupation and division, two other separate national teams were also recognized by FIFA: the Saarland team (1950–1956) and the East German team (1952–1990). Both have been absorbed along with their records (caps and goal scorers) by the current national team. The official name and code "Germany FR (FRG)" was shortened to "Germany (GER)" in 1990.
Germany is historically one of the three most successful national teams in international competitions, having won a total of three World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990) and three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996). They have also been runners-up three times in the European Championships, four times in the World Cup, and have won a further four third places. East Germany won Olympic Gold in 1976. Germany is the only nation to have won both the men's and women's World Cups.
The current coaching staff of the national team include head coach Joachim Löw, assistant coach Hans-Dieter Flick, goalkeeper coach Andreas Köpke, athletic coach Shad Forsythe, athletic coach Oliver Bartlett, scout Urs Siegenthaler, technical director Matthias Sammer, and team manager Oliver Bierhoff.
Greece
The Greece national football team (Greek: Εθνική Ελλάδος, Ethniki Ellados) represents Greece in association football and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece's home ground is Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus and their head coach is Fernando Santos. Greece spent most of their history in relative obscurity, having participated only twice in the final tournaments of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship, in 1994 and 1980 respectively, until UEFA Euro 2004, when they became European champions in only their second participation in the tournament. The Greeks, dismissed as rank outsiders before the tournament with bookmakers giving odds of between 80–1 to 150–1 for them to win, defeated some of the favourites in the competition including defending champions France and hosts Portugal, who Greece beat in both the opening game of the tournament and again in the final.
Since that victory Greece have occupied a place in the top 30 of the FIFA World Rankings for all but 2 months, and reached a high of 8th from April to June 2008, as well as from September to October 2011.
Statistics
•The only team with a 100% record at UEFA EURO 2012, Germany will hope to continue their fine run of form when they take on Greece in their UEFA EURO 2012 quarter-final in Gdansk.
• Joachim Löw's men will enter the contest as favourites after an unprecedented run of 14 straight competitive victories – including wins against Portugal, the Netherlands and Denmark in Group A.
•
Germany also have history on their side – they have never lost to Greece in eight previous encounters and have won all four UEFA European Championship quarter-finals they have contested.
•
Greece, however, have torn up the script before at this stage of the EURO, beating then holders France 1-0 in 2004 on their only previous quarter-final appearance.
• Fernando Santos's men revived memories of their UEFA EURO 2004 triumph when climbing off the foot of Group B with a 1-0 win over Russia that earned them second place.