Greece national under-21 football team

The Greece national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Greece and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. The team competes in the European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years.

Greece Under-21

Nickname(s)	Εθνική Ελπίδων ("National team of Hopes")
Association	Hellenic Football Federation
Head coach	Giannis Goumas
Captain	Dimitris Nikolaou
Most caps	Giorgos Karagounis (39)
Top scorer	Nikos Liberopoulos & Lampros Choutos (15)
First colours Second colours
Biggest win
Greece 6–0 Luxembourg (Greece; 1993) Greece 6–0 Latvia (Greece; 1999)
Biggest defeat
Hungary 7–0 Greece (Hungary; 1976)
UEFA U-21 Championship
Appearances	4 (first in 1988)
Best result	Runners-up, 1988, 1998

Greece U-21 team at 5 September 2011

The under-21 competition rules insist that players must be 21 or under at the start of a two-year competition, so technically it is up to an U-23 competition. To be eligible for the Greece National Team, all the football players must hold Hellenic (Greek) nationality and comply with the provisions of Article 15 of the regulations governing the Application of FIFA Statutes. A list of 35 football players must be submitted to the UEFA administration 30 days before the European Under-21 Football Championship opening match. Only 22 of the 35 players listed are authorised to take part in the final tournament and 3 of them must be goalkeepers.

As long as they are eligible, players can play at any level, making it possible to play for the U-21s, senior side and again for the U-21s, as Sotiris Ninis has done recently. It is also possible to play more than one country at youth level or different at youth level and different at senior level (providing the player is eligible). But a football player can represent only the senior national team that capped him first.

Also in existence are national teams for Under-20s (for non-UEFA tournaments), Under-19s and Under-17s. Greece also has a women's national team.

History

The first time that Greece's national team of hopes were formed was in 1968, with the aim of participating in the first Balkan Youth Championship that took place at the Kaftanzoglio Stadium in Thessaloniki.

In their maiden match she played with the corresponding team in Turkey and it was a draw without goals.

The first eleven were the following: Tourkomenis, B. Intzoglou (59' Dimitriou), Chaliambalias, Kyriazis, Athanasopoulos, Karafeskos, Filakouris, Sarafis (46' Stoligas), K. Papaioannou, Koudas, Kritikopoulos (70' Alexiadis).

In the following years, Greece won twice the Balkan Youth Championship (1969 and 1971), and they fought twice (1988 and 1998) in the final of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

Competition Record

As of 13 October 2020

Competition	Pld	W	D	L
UEFA U-21 Championship	225	102	42	81

UEFA European Under-21 Championship Record

Year	Position
1978	Did Not Qualify
1980	Did Not Qualify
1982	Did Not Qualify
1984	Did Not Qualify
1986	Did Not Qualify
1988
1990	Did Not Qualify
1992	Did Not Qualify
1994	Quarter finalist
1996	Did Not Qualify
1998
2000	Play-Off for Final Tournament
2002	Quarter finalist
2004	Did Not Qualify
2006	Did Not Qualify
2007	Did Not Qualify
2009	Did Not Qualify
2011	Play-Off for Final Tournament
2013	Did Not Qualify
2015	Did Not Qualify
2017	Did Not Qualify
2019	Play-Off for Final Tournament
Total	4/20'

Honours

• Balkan Youth Championship

Winners (2): 1969, 1971

• Valeriy Lobanovskyi Memorial Tournament

Third place (2):, 2015, 2018

Results and schedule

The following is a list of match results from the previous 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

2019

6 June 2019 Friendly	Greece	3–0	Georgia	Athens, Greece
18:45 (UTC+2)	Marios Vrousai  29' Vangelis Pavlidis  34' (pen.) Giannis Oikonomidis  86'			Stadium: Georgios Kamaras Stadium

10 June 2019 2021 Euro U-21 Qualification	Greece	5–0	San Marino	Athens, Greece
16:00 (UTC+2)	Argyris Kampetsis  26', 68' Vangelis Pavlidis  29', 37' Marios Vrousai  51'	Report		Stadium: Peristeri Stadium Referee: Dumitri Muntean (Moldova)

5 September 2019 Friendly	Germany	2–0	Greece	Zwickau, Germany
18:15 (UTC+2)	Lukas Nmecha  25' Niklas Dorsch  58'			Stadium: GGZ-Arena Zwickau Attendance: 4.512 Referee: Dennis Higler

10 September 2019 2021 Euro U-21 Qualification	Greece	1–0	Lithuania	Athens, Greece
	Giannis Bouzoukis  80'	Report		Stadium: Grigoris Lambrakis Stadium

10 October 2019 2021 Euro U-21 Qualification	Czech Republic	1–1	Greece	Ostrava, Czech Republic
17:00 (UTC+2)	Adam Hložek  76'	Report	Giannis Bouzoukis  45'	Stadium: Městský stadion Referee: Jörgen Daugbjerg Burchardt

14 October 2019 Friendly	Greece	0–2	Ukraine	Athens, Greece
15:30 (UTC+2)			Mykola Shaparenko  53' Nazariy Rusyn  58'	Stadium: Olympic Stadium (Athens)

15 November 2019 2021 Euro U-21 Qualification	Scotland	0–1	Greece	Tynecastle, Edinburgh
21:00 (UTC+2)		Report	Dimitris Nikolaou  90' (pen.)	Stadium: Tynecastle Park Referee: Bojan Pandžić

2020

TBD 2021 Euro U-21 Qualification	Greece	v	Czech Republic
		Report

TBD 2021 Euro U-21 Qualification	Greece	v	Scotland
		Report

3 September 2020 2021 Euro U-21 Qualification	Croatia	5–0	Greece	Varaždin, Croatia
20:00 (UTC+2)	Nikola Moro  1' Lovro Majer  5', 24' Petar Musa  14', 52'	Report		Stadium: Stadion Varteks Referee: Marco Di Bello

7 September 2020 2021 Euro U-21 Qualification	San Marino	0–1	Greece	Serravalle, San Marino
21:30 (UTC+2)		Report	Dimitris Emmanouilidis  24'	Stadium: San Marino Stadium Referee: Jason Barcelo

8 October 2020 2021 Euro U-21 Qualification	Lithuania	2–0	Greece	Marijampolė, Lithuania
18:30 (UTC+2)	Svajūnas Čyžas  17' Linas Mėgelaitis  66'	Report		Stadium: Sūduva Stadium Referee: Kateryna Monzul

13 October 2020 2021 Euro U-21 Qualification	Greece	0–1	Croatia	Athens, Greece
17:00 (UTC+2)		Report	Lovro Majer  27'	Stadium: Leoforos Alexandras Stadium Referee: José Luis Munuera Montero

Euro 2021 Under-21 Championship qualification

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Czech Republic	10	6	3	1	20	4	+16	21	Final tournament		—	0–0	0–0	1–1	2–0	6–0
2	Croatia	10	6	2	2	37	7	+30	20			1–2	—	1–2	5–0	7–0	10–0
3	Scotland	10	5	3	2	16	5	+11	18			2–0	2–2	—	0–1	0–0	2–0
4	Greece	10	5	1	4	10	11	−1	16			0–2	0–1	1–0	—	1–0	5–0
5	Lithuania	10	3	1	6	9	15	−6	10			0–1	1–3	0–1	2–0	—	3–0
6	San Marino	10	0	0	10	0	50	−50	0			0–6	0–7	0–7	0–1	0–3	—

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Coaching staff

Managers

The following table provides a summary of the complete record of each Greek manager including their results regarding European Under-21 Championship.

Giannis Goumas is the current U-21 Greek national team manager

Key: Pld–games played, W–games won, D–games drawn; L–games lost, %–win percentage

Manager	Greece tenure	Pld	W	D	L	Win %	Major competitions
Stelios Aposporis	2004–2007	18	9	1	8	050.0	2006 European Championship – Failed to qualify 2007 European Championship – Failed to qualify
Nikos Nioplias	2007–2009	19	9	5	5	047.4	2009 European Championship – Failed to qualify
Georgios Georgiadis	2010–2012	19	10	2	7	052.6	2011 European Championship – Play-offs 2013 European Championship – Failed to qualify
Kostas Tsanas	2012–2015	18	9	2	7	050.0	2015 European Championship – Failed to qualify
Michalis Iordanidis	2015	1	1	0	0	100.0	—
Antonis Nikopolidis	2015–2019	32	15	5	12	046.9	2017 European Championship – Failed to qualify 2019 European Championship – Play-offs
Giannis Goumas	2019–	10	4	1	5	040.0
Totals

Last updated: 13 October 2020. Statistics include official FIFA-recognised matches only.

Players

Current squad

Players born on or after 1 January 1998 will be eligible until the completion of the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.[1]

The following players were named in the squad for the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Qualifiers, played on 8 October 2020 and 13 October 2020.[2]

Caps and goals updated as of 13 October 2020 after the match against  Lithuania and  Croatia. Names in bold denote players who have been capped for the senior team.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	GK	Konstantinos Tzolakis	8 November 2002	2	0	Olympiacos
	GK	Christos Mandas	17 September 2001	0	0	Atromitos
	GK	Marios Siampanis	28 September 1999	7	0	Aris
	DF	Kostas Apostolakis	28 May 1999	7	0	APOEL
	DF	Alexandros Katranis	4 May 1998	17	1	Hatayspor
	DF	Dimitris Nikolaou (Captain)	13 August 1998	21	1	Empoli
	DF	Apostolos Diamantis	20 May 2000	2	0	OFI
	DF	Giorgos Liavas	12 February 2001	3	0	Panetolikos
	DF	Apostolos Konstantopoulos	2 August 2002	1	0	Panetolikos
	DF	Stefanos Evangelou	12 May 1998	13	0	Górnik Zabrze
	DF	Odysseas Lymperakis	5 June 1998	1	0	OFI
	MF	Giannis Fivos Botos	20 December 2000	6	0	Go Ahead Eagles
	MF	Giannis Oikonomidis	3 January 1998	3	1	Atromitos
	MF	Spyros Natsos	9 June 1998	4	0	Atromitos
	MF	Charis Tsingaras	20 August 2000	4	0	PAOK
	MF	Marios Vrousai	2 July 1998	10	2	Olympiacos
	MF	Giorgos Xenitidis	4 September 1999	0	0	Jeunesse Esch
	MF	Abdul Rahman Weiss	14 June 1998	5	0	OFI
	FW	Anastasios Douvikas	2 August 1999	9	0	Volos
	FW	Dimitris Emmanouilidis	24 October 2000	4	1	Fortuna Sittard
	FW	Giannis Papanikolaou	18 November 1998	5	0	Raków Częstochowa
	FW	Fotis Ioannidis	10 January 2000	1	0	Panathinaikos
	FW	Theodosis Macheras	9 May 2000	2	0	AEK Athens
	FW	Georgios Koutsias	8 February 2004	1	0	PAOK

Former squads

• 2002 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squads – Greece
• 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squads – Greece
• 1994 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squads – Greece

See also

• Greece national football team
• Greece national under-23 football team
• Greece national under-20 football team
• Greece national under-19 football team
• Greece national under-17 football team

References

1. "Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2019-21" (PDF). UEFA. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
2. "Greece U-21 current squad at the HFF's website" (in Greek). epo.gr.

External links

• Greece U-21 at HFF (in Greek)
• Greece U-21 at UEFA
• UEFA European U-21 Championship at uefa.com