DISASTER: EURO 2016 QUALIFYING

Euro 2016 Disaster

By Greg Gavalas

It’s July 2014 and Greece is eliminated from the World Cup in Brazil after losing out to Costa Rica in the Round of 16, there is a bittersweet feeling amongst Ethniki fans, on the one hand we should have beat Costa Rica and made a historic trip to the Quarter Finals, on the other hand, it’s another major tournament we have done a decent job at and we move on to the next one – Euro 2016.

Still in July and a notable change amongst a few for the team, coach Fernando Santos is not retained by EPO and as such, they hire veteran boss, Claudio Ranieri to lead the team through the Euro 2016 Qualification process in what is the Italians first ever role with a National Team.

Outside of the coaching change, the other big change was the retirement of Giorgios Karagounis and Kostas Katsouranis, the two midfielders had featured heavily for Greece for years, including the European triumph of 2004 and every tournament since. Karagounis was a player not easily replaced, his leadership and inspiration is something that comes along rarely.

Group

The group for the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign looked comfortable, Greece was paired with Romania, Hungary, Finland, Northern Ireland and Faroe Islands, with the top 2 automatically qualifying for the finals in France and third place going into playoffs, it was expected Greece would qualify one way or another.

Early Warnings Signs

To kick off the campaign Greece faced a familiar opponent in Romania, Greece had beaten the visitors in the playoffs for the World Cup in Brazil and the game saw a first look of Panagiotis Tachtsidis and Andreas Samaris in the midfield and Petros Mantalos would feature also after good performances with AEK.

Played in front of an empty stadium due to fan restrictions it was a mediocre performance from both teams but a clumsy challenge by Jose Holebas would lead to a Romania penalty which was converted and would ultimately lead to a 1-0 loss at home. Not the start Greece and Ranieri were looking for.

In the next game, Greece came away from Finland with a 1-1 draw, despite an unfamiliar line up, a goal from Nikos Karelis gave the Greeks hope of better results to come.

The Downfall

Greece’s next game was against Northern Ireland at home, a win was expected and as such the campaign to get back on its feet.

Greece had never lost to the Northern Irish at home, however a dismantled performance saw the visitors come away 2-0 winners and the once great Greek defence started to look vulnerable as the 4-3-3 formation did not work well at all, it was a worrisome performance that heralded a dark new age for the Ethniki.

Matchday 4 in November of 2014 saw the Ethniki host the Faroe Islands, with Romania, Hungary and Northern Ireland starting to get away on points the Ethniki needed a win more than anything and against a team they have never lost to.

A mediocre line up that featured Nikos Karambelas, Giannis Maniatis, Vangelis Moras and 34 year old Fanis Gekas up front, should still have been enough to beat the semi-professional Faroes, but it wasn’t and Greece would sensationally lose 1-0, first time loss to them Islanders and 3rd successive loss at home, something not experienced in decades. 

The laced jeers had begun through the stadium before the final whistle and it was the start of a downfall that would last for years.

Ranieri was rightfully terminated from the bench of the Ethniki and the year of 2014 ended on two very different notes, from World Cup qualification to a 3rd straight home loss thanks to the Faroe Islands.

New Coach

Sergio Markarian was brought on board to steady the ship, the Uruguayan veteran had history with Greek football having coached at Ionikos, Panathinaikos & Iraklis in the past.

His first game in charge was away to Hungary and it saw the return of Yiannis Fetfadzidis to the fold. The team would come away with a 0-0 scoreline and since the campaign started it would be Greece’s best performance.

In June 2015, Markarian and the Ethniki would travel to the Faroe Islands, the match was to be some revenge for the embarrassment of the first game and some new faces like Sotiris Ninis and Taxiarchis Foundas to the squad.

Despite dominating possession, Greece would find themselves 2-0 down in the 70th minute and the best that was managed was a conciliation goal to make it 2-1. 

People spoke of “the dark ages” coming back for the Ethniki however I am sure many do not realise this was a new low the Greek team had not been through before and as this was happening we watched out rankings start to plummet. 

Markarian Quits Tsanas In

Tensions were high following the Faroe second disaster, in July Markarian resigned as coach after an apparent rift with Karagounis who was director of football and in turn had his contract terminated.

Kostas Tsanas was brought in from the Under 21’s to spearhead the team, in the past the Elpides played good football under Tsanas so I did have some little bit of optimism in what was truly tragic times for this team.

The sinking ship continued though as the 4-3-3 that Greece was playing just didn’t seem to have any connection in attack, and with Greece’s defence, especially that of Holebas, being exposed, this time Finland came to the Karaiskaki stadium and came away 1-0 winners.

The campaign was all but over and the team had yet to register a win, it was really now just looking for combinations that could work as a fair few new players had been played, including Christos Aravidis, Stelios Kitsiou (limited time though) and Vangelis Platellas.

Next up was an away match with Romania, Tsana reverted back to a 4-2-3-1, Greece came out with a respectable 0-0 draw, although the attack still looked disjointed, any clean sheet was a success after leaking in silly goals the last 6 out of 7 games.

The match in October against Northern Ireland all but summed up the campaign, two teams who everyone thought would be in the opposite situation come this game, saw the Brits all but confirm their ticket to the Euro’s for the first time whilst Greece was the one conceding from corners and was down 3-0 by the hour mark in a game that once again highlighted how badly this team had fallen. Greece would lose 3-1 and the back to back losses to NI would be the first time that’s happened.

The Only Win

Greece’s last game would herald their first win in the “Campaign from Hell”, 4-3 winners over Hungary, the Ethniki’s first win in 13 games or 16 months since the 2-1 win over Ivory Coast at Brazil 2014.

Goals from Kostas Stafylidis, Tachtsidis, Kostas Mitroglou and Panagiotis Kone would put a small glimmer of hope to the Sinking Ship.

One thing that stood out in this game that we have not seen since the John Van Schip days, we saw Tsanas play to our changing strength. Since winning the Euro, Greece relied on strong holding midfielders, this was no longer the case with no Karagounis or Katsouranis, Greece now had better attacking midfielders like we saw in this game with, Mantalos, Dimitris Pelkas, Kostas Fortounis and Tachstidis was played in an attacking role for a change, something you don’t see happen often. 

Icing on the Cake 

One month later the disaster year of 2015 would cop another backhand that we didn’t think was possible, a 1-0 loss to Luxemburg in a friendly in Michael Skibbe’s first game in charge of the team. In one year Greece would lose their first games to the likes of Faroe Islands (twice mind you) and Luxemburg, a few days later Greece drew 0-0 with Turkey away.

All in all, to summarise, it was the worst Qualification campaign ever and Greece have had their fair share or poor campaigns for World Cups and Euros.

Final standings:

Group F 

1. Northern Ireland - 21
2. Romania - 20
3. Hungary - 16
4. Finland - 12
5. Greece - 6
6. Faroe Islands - 6

Hellas Football