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Greece return home to face the music

Defending champions Greece will return home to face stinging criticism after they failed to win a single point and scored only a solitary goal at Euro 2008.

  • Reuters
  • Published: 00:08 June 20, 2008
  • Gulf News

Salzburg: Defending champions Greece will return home to face stinging criticism after they failed to win a single point and scored only a solitary goal at Euro 2008.

Greece, who stunned the soccer world with their surprise victory four years ago, will see their presence at this event as a mere footnote, disappointing their fans in all three Group D matches, crashing out without as much as a fight.

Outplayed

Having arrived in Austria, fresh from a qualification campaign that saw them earn more points than any other team, the Greeks eyed a spot in the quarterfinals.

Instead they were dragged back to reality from match one when Sweden outplayed them, scoring twice in five minutes. A five-man defence failed to stop the gutsy Swedes, who first scored with a stunning Zlatan Ibrahimovic strike before Petter Hansson added a second.

"Wonders don't happen every time. Otherwise they wouldn't be wonders," coach Otto Rehhagel said.

"We never believed we would come here and reshuffle the deck of European football again."

Their next encounter against Russia, who had been thrashed 4-1 by Spain, was an even more one-sided affair.

"Our team did not present itself well," defender Traianos Dellas admitted.

"We will learn from our mistakes and not repeat them in our World Cup qualifiers. You can only gain by your presence at such major tournaments."

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