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Can Greece avoid a tragic exit?

Russia’s coach Guus Hiddink too has a record at stake

The schedule
Sweden vs. Spain, 9.20 p.m.
Greece vs. Russia, 12.05 a.m. (Saturday)

— Photo: AFP

PRACTISING HARD: Greece will be looking to the likes of midfielder Giannis Amanatidis, seen shooting the ball at a training session, to deliver the goods against Russia.

Leogang (Austria): Greece is only one match into the European Championship and already close to surrendering the title it won four years ago. After losing to Sweden 2-0 in its Group D opener, Greece needs a positive result against Russia in Salzburg on Saturday.

And to make things tougher, Russia is in a similar position.

“It’s a very important game. If we lose we’re out. Everyone knows that,” Greece striker Dimitris Salpingidis said.

But a defeat at the Wals-Siezenheim stadium could also end Russia’s chances of qualifying for the quarterfinals and bring to a close Guus Hiddink’s record of reaching the knockout rounds of every international tournament he has coached at.

Three strike outs

Russia could go into the match without his top three forwards. Striker Pavel Pogrebnyak has been ruled out of Euro 2008 with a left knee injury and attacking midfielder Andrei Arshavin is suspended for the Greece game.

On Thursday, Hiddink said replacement striker Roman Pavlyuchenko had a leg muscle injury and it was unclear if he would be fit for Saturday.

Greece appeared content to play for a draw and offered virtually nothing in attack against Sweden, with coach Otto Rehhagel widely criticised for fielding a lineup that included five defenders and seven players from the team that won Euro 2004.

Basic errors

Hiddink, meanwhile, has called his players naive and lambasted them for handing Spain a 4-1 win with basic errors.

Now, Hiddink seems to be trying to goad Greece into playing a more attacking style on Saturday.

“I think as European champion you should take a little bit more initiative,” Hiddink said. “But OK, that’s their way of playing, we have to deal with that.”

Russia didn’t deal with that style of play against Spain, attacking early and then giving the ball away too easily to set up Spanish counterattacks.

“We had wallets in our pockets and we gave them to the Spanish team, ‘Take it please’,” Hiddink said. Hiddink might get his wish for a Greece team prepared to take risks and attack.

“We only had two chances in the whole 90 minutes ... It’s out of the question to talk about qualifying from the group if we play this way,” attacking midfielder Giannis Amanatidis said. Russia was the only team to beat Greece four years ago, but Shirokov said that result offered no clues or confidence for Saturday’s encounter.

“It doesn’t mean anything. I don’t know about Greece, but the Russian team is completely different,” he said.

Current Russia players Igor Semshov and Dmitri Sychev both came on as second-half substitutes in their team’s 2-1 win over Greece in the final group match four years ago, when Russia had only pride to play for having already been eliminated after two straight losses.

“The situation is completely different,” Shirokov said. — AP

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