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UEFA EURO 2008: Too little, too late for Greece

/noticias.info/ Greece's second UEFA EURO 2008™ match brought a second defeat and despite the premature ending of the defending champions reign, a battling performance against Russia was a marked improvement on the opening day 2-0 loss to Sweden.

Charisteas analysis
The 1-0 reverse against Russia in Salzburg means that Greece will finish bottom of Group D even if they beat Spain on Wednesday. Angelos Charisteas, the goalscoring hero four years ago in the final defeat of Portugal, feels the footballing gods had conspired against his team. "Our performance was positive, but we didn't have luck on our side," he said. "We managed to make our fans happy, though, because our display makes them hopeful for the future. Against Spain we have nothing to lose, we will play without stress and prove that we have a good team."

Improvement
Striker Nikos Liberopoulos – who started last night after not featuring in the opener – agreed with his fellow forward. "Compared to our first encounter, we improved a lot," he said. "We wanted to win so badly and we created many chances, but the ball wouldn't go in. That's football. Even before travelling to Austria, we knew that we would have no easy opponents here. It's the tournament among Europe's best teams. What we should do now is try to relax and enjoy our remaining group match against Spain. The result next Wednesday will be irrelevant." Another attacker, Fanis Gekas, was taken to the hospital after the game to examine a knock picked up on his cheekbone.
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