Star player:
Theofanis Gekas

Previous appearances:
1994 (first round)

How they qualified
UEFA
Luxembourg (a)       3-0
Latvia (a)                2-0
Moldova (h)             3-0
Switzerland (h)        0-2
Moldova (a)             1-1
Latvia (H)                5-2
Luxembourg (h)       2-1

Qualifying playoffs
Ukraine (h)              0-0
Ukraine (a)              1-0

Chances:
Rehhagel's super-defensive tactics astonishingly prevailed in the 2004 European Championships and they secured their second World Cup finals place by beating Ukraine in a play-off. A no-thrills passage to the last 16 is a possibility given the relatively tame draw but they are surely too one-dimensional to go any further.

Strange but true
Georgios Samaras says he was close to choosing to play for Australia when he was coming through the professional ranks. His grandfather Georgios was a founding member of the South Melbourne football club and his father Ioannis was born in Melbourne, moving to Greece at 13.