Greece’s biggest challenge on the road to EURO 2012 is likely to be represented by Croatia, after the draw last Sunday paired the two Balkan nations. Otto Rehhagel’s men also drew two familiar opponents in Israel and Latvia – two of the sides they faced in the successful 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Seeded in the second group of teams, Greece drew one of the weakest groups avoiding giants such as Spain, Italy and England.Georgia and Malta make up the remaining spots in Group F, giving Otto Rehhagel’s men a great chance of making it to Poland and Ukraine in two years time. The qualifying matches begin in September.

A quarter-finalist in Austria and Switzerland, Croatia coach Slaven Bilic expressed satisfaction with his team’s lot in UEFA EURO 2012 Group F, despite having “lots of respect” for ambitious Greece, Israel and Latvia.

Bilic said, “We are happy with the draw. We could have had an easier group, but then again it could have been harder. These groups are the qualification groups for the European Championship, so you don’t get easy ones. We have lots of respect for all the teams – for Greece, Israel and Latvia who showed in the last campaign that they were really close to qualifying for the World Cup. Plus those three teams were in the same group and it was very tight, with Switzerland also there. We have plenty of respect, but we are confident and we have a good chance of fighting for qualification.”

Rehhagel indicated the familiarity of some of the teams with each other could complicate things. “We have played against all our rivals in Group F, except Croatia, in recent qualifying competitions. Theoretically, Croatia are the strongest team but we shouldn’t underestimate the rest.”

“It’s a good group for us and we will fight for top spot or at least second place, which would give us a shot at the play-offs,” he continued.

“In crucial matches recently, Greece’s players have shown enthusiasm, passion and have got the desired results. Right now we are completely focused on the World Cup, where we intend to do well.

Israeli star Yossi Benayoun wanted to focus on improvement rather than speculation.

“We should concentrate on ourselves and how to improve on our previous campaigns. We should do everything we can to get ourselves into a qualifying position. It’s pointless to spend our time talking about an easy or tough group, as we learned in the previous campaign that this makes no difference.”

Aleksandrs Starkovs, Latvia coach, also noted the familiarity of opponents from the previous campaign. “We’ve been drawn in an interesting group, where all the teams apart from Latvia are from southern Europe. We’ve played all of them in previous qualifying rounds, apart from Malta. Because they are familiar opponents, we have old rivalries and there will be a lot of memories as we go into the matches. Now that the draw is finished, it’s time to prepare for a new qualification campaign.”
Levan Mchedlidze, Georgia player was confident, indicating his side was not threatened by any opponent.

“I think we can beat any team from this group. I can’t pick a favourite, although Croatia have the best team in the section. The last qualifying campaign proved there are no more weak national teams left in Europe. We aim to win every match and have to believe we have the strength to succeed,” he said.

Malta coach, John Buttigieg did not share the Georgian confidence. He told UEFA, “It’s a very difficult group. We’ve got two former Soviet countries in Latvia and Georgia plus the might of Croatia and Greece, along with Israel. These aren’t popular footballing countries with the football community in Malta.”

Greece shocked the football world in 2004 by beating Portugal to be crowned European Champions. The Greeks then disappointed at Euro 2008, but this hasn’t affected Rehhagel’s confidence. The successful coach is confident that his men will qualify for Euro 2012.