Greece national under-21 football team
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Nickname(s) | Εθνική Ελπίδων ("National team of Hopes") | ||
---|---|---|---|
Association | Hellenic Football Federation | ||
Head coach | Georgios Simos | ||
Captain | Apostolos Diamantis | ||
Most caps | Giorgos Karagounis (39) | ||
Top scorer | Nikos Liberopoulos & Lampros Choutos (15) | ||
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Biggest win | |||
![]() ![]() (Greece; 1993) ![]() ![]() (Greece; 1999) | |||
Biggest defeat | |||
![]() ![]() (Hungary; 1976) | |||
UEFA U-21 Championship | |||
Appearances | 4 (first in 1988) | ||
Best result | Runners-up, 1988, 1998 |
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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.
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 16 November 2021
Competition | Pld | W | D | L |
---|---|---|---|---|
UEFA U-21 Championship | 234 | 107 | 45 | 82 |
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 |
![]() | Quarter finalist |
![]() | Did Not Qualify |
![]() | ![]() |
![]() | Play-Off for Final Tournament |
![]() | Quarter finalist |
![]() | Did Not Qualify |
![]() | Did Not Qualify |
![]() | Did Not Qualify |
![]() | Did Not Qualify |
![]() | Play-Off for Final Tournament |
![]() | Did Not Qualify |
![]() | Did Not Qualify |
![]() | Did Not Qualify |
![]() ![]() | Play-Off for Final Tournament |
![]() ![]() | Did Not Qualify |
Total | 4/23' |
Honours
Winners (2): 1969, 1971
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.
2021
5 June 2021 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification | Liechtenstein ![]() | 0–5 | ![]() | Eschen, Liechtenstein |
18:00 (UTC+2) | Report |
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Stadium: Sportpark Eschen-Mauren Referee: Viktor Kopiyevskyi (Ukraine) |
3 September 2021 Friendly | Denmark ![]() | 1–1 | ![]() | Copenhagen, Denmark |
19:00 (UTC+2) |
|
Report |
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7 September 2021 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification | Iceland ![]() | 1–1 | ![]() | Reykjavík, Iceland |
19:00 (17:00 WET) |
|
Report |
|
Stadium: Víkingsvöllur Referee: Gal Leibovitz (Israel) |
8 October 2021 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification | Belarus ![]() | 0–2 | ![]() | Zhodino, Belarus |
18:00 (19:00 EEST) | Report | Stadium: Torpedo Stadium Referee: Mohammed Al-emara (Finland) |
12 November 2021 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification | Greece ![]() | 2–0 | ![]() | Tripoli, Greece |
15:00 (16:00 EET) |
|
Report | Stadium: Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium Referee: Irakli Kvirikashvili (Georgia) |
16 November 2021 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification | Greece ![]() | 1–0 | ![]() | Tripoli, Greece |
15:00 (16:00 EET) |
|
Report | Stadium: Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium Referee: Alain Durieux (Luxembourg) |
2022
25 March 2022 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification | Greece ![]() | 4–0 | ![]() | Tripoli, Greece |
18:00 (19:00 EET) | Report | Stadium: Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium Referee: Rauf Jabarov (Azerbaijan) |
29 March 2022 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification | Greece ![]() | v | ![]() | Tripoli, Greece |
18:00 (19:00 EEST) | Report | Stadium: Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium Referee: Fabio Maresca (Italy) |
6 June 2022 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification | Cyprus ![]() | v | ![]() | Achna, Cyprus |
Report | Stadium: Ethnikos Achnas Stadium |
11 June 2022 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification | Portugal ![]() | v | ![]() | |
Report |
Euro 2023 Under-21 Championship qualification
2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | ![]() |
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1 | ![]() |
7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 25 | 1 | +24 | 19 | Final tournament | — | 11 Jun | 1–0 | 1–1 | 6–0 | 11–0 | |
2 | ![]() |
8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 15 | 5 | +10 | 17 | Play-offs | 0–4 | — | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 4–0 | |
3 | ![]() |
7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 9 | 4 Jun | 0–2 | — | 1–2 | 5 Jun | 6–0 | ||
4 | ![]() |
7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 6 | +2 | 9 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 8 Jun | — | 11 Jun | 3 Jun | ||
5 | ![]() |
7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 9 | +4 | 8 | 0–1 | 6 Jun | 0–1 | 1–1 | — | 6–0 | ||
6 | ![]() |
8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 45 | −45 | 0 | 7 Jun | 0–5 | 0–4 | 0–3 | 0–6 | — |
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(E) Eliminated; (T) Qualified, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (Y) Cannot Qualify Directly, May Only Advance To Play-Offs
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.

- 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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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2004–2007 | 18 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 50.0 | ![]() ![]() |
![]() |
2007–2009 | 19 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 47.4 | ![]() |
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2010–2012 | 19 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 52.6 | ![]() ![]() |
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2012–2015 | 18 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 50.0 | ![]() |
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2015 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100.0 | — |
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2015–2019 | 32 | 15 | 5 | 12 | 46.9 | ![]() ![]() |
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2019–2021 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 38.5 | ![]() |
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2021– | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 66.7 | — |
Totals |
Last updated: 16 November 2021. Statistics include official FIFA-recognised matches only.
Players
Current squad
Players born on or after 1 January 2000 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 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification, to be played at 25 and 29 March 2022.[2]
Caps and goals updated as of 29 March 2022. Names in bold denote players who have been capped for the senior team.
Former squads
See also
References
- "Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2019-21" (PDF). UEFA. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
- "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