Russia Euro 2012: Predicting the Match Against Greece

Russia and Greece will face each other in their final Group A Euro 2012 Preliminary match on June 16, 2012. It is a match that is expected to determine which of the two countries will advance to the next phase of the tournament.

The third and final preview of Russia in the Group A Euro 2012 Championship will talk abut the two clubs as they face each other in Poland. An invitation is sent to the B/R community to sit back, relax and enjoy the slideshow.

Russia

According to the UEFA website, Russia has defeated Greece four times in the UEFA European Championship matches. Unfortunately, Russia lost one of its defenders, Vasili Berezutski, to a thigh injury.

Russia will maintain the same team with Andrey Arshavin, Aleksei Berezutski, Yuri Zhirkov, Vladimir Granat and Denis Kolodin. Alan Dzagoev, Igor Denisov, and Magomed Ozdoev will play prominent roles as well.

We cannot forget Roman Pavlyuchenko and Aleksandr Bukharov on the Russian National Football team, either.

Greece

According to the UEFA website, Greek National Football team coach Fernando Santos chose experience over age. Greece won once in the Euro 2004 tournament and is hoping for a repeat performance.

Greece may have Kostas Chalkias as the goal keeper. Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Stelios Malezas, Giorgios Tzavellas and Vassilis Torossidis will be participating.

Giannis Maniatis, Sotiris Ninis, and Giorgios Fotakis may be needed. Georgios Samaras and Nikos Liberopoulos may each play a prominent role but it remains to be seen what will happen.

Outcome

While Greece can present an element of surprise like in Euro 2004, this will not be the case in Euro 2012. The decision by Fernando Santos to choose experience over age for Greece is going to be a disaster.

Greece will lose heavily to Russia since the latter mixed age with experience in their players. Greece's Nikos Liberopoulos is 36 years old and may not keep pace with Alan Dzagoev of Russia, who is 21.

The end result will be Russia 2-0 Greece unless there are any last minute miracles in the match.

My thanks to the B/R readers for reading this slideshow. I hope you enjoyed the series of previews of Russia in the Group A Euro 2012 Championships.