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Today at 21:45 Lithuanian time in the second quarter-final of the UEFA European Championship, the national teams of France and Greece will meet. The match will take place at the José Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon, which has a capacity of about 52,000 seats. The referee for the match will be Swedish Anders Frisk.
The clear favorites for the match are the European champions, the French, but the Greeks, who were considered underdogs before the tournament, have already proven that they cannot be underestimated. By causing a sensation by defeating the Portuguese in the group stage, they managed to secure draws against the Spanish and advance to the quarter-finals. However, the Greeks are not planning to stop and promise to fight against the French until the very end.
"We will enter the field with self-confidence, hoping to play as well as we can and at least play in a way that all of Greece can say we fought like true heroes," said Greece's national team coach Otto Rehhagel. "The French footballers are excellent players and this will be a tough test for us," continued the German.
Meanwhile, France has not lost in 16 consecutive official matches and hopes to continue this streak. However, the impression remains that the French have not yet found their best game and their coach Jacques Santini knows that answers need to be found to why the team cannot seem to get going. They got an answer to one of them - the lack of goals - in the match against Switzerland, where the Arsenal forward led his team to victory by scoring two goals. However, in that match, Willy Sagnol suffered an injury, which disrupted Santini's plans to not change the team lineup. The good news is that William Gallas, also injured in the match against the Swiss, has recovered from his injury.
The coach will likely have to rearrange the defense, as Patrick Vieira is still not properly prepared for the match after suffering a thigh muscle injury: "We still don't know if Patrick will play. So far, he can't train with the team," said Santini on Thursday. The most likely replacement for him will be Roma defender Olivier Dacourt or Sochaux's French midfielder. It is likely that the forward David Trezeguet, who has been struggling in this championship, will be replaced by a player who played well in the English Premier League last season.
Greece's coach Rehhagel, after the unsuccessful attempt to play with three forwards against the Russian national team, should return to the previous formation of 4-4-2 on the field. A reliable and experienced forward will not be able to play due to two yellow cards, and a Madrid Atletico player will likely join the attack. Meanwhile, in the defense line, the Milan Inter player, who will return to the starting lineup after missing a match due to two yellow cards, will replace the injured player.
Predicted starting lineups: Greece (4-4-2): Nikopolidis; Seitaridis, Kapsis, Dellas, Fyssas; Katsouranis, Karagounis, Zagorakis, Basinas; Charisteas, Nikolaidis. France (4-3-1-2): Barthez; Gallas, Thuram, Silvestre, Lizarazu; Makelele, Dacourt, Pires; Zidane; Henry, Saha. Guess the match results in the bookmaker's office!
