Greece national under-21 football team

Greece Under-21

Nickname(s)	Εθνική Ελπίδων ("National team of Hopes")
Association	Hellenic Football Federation
Head coach	Nikos Papadopoulos
Captain	Konstantinos Tzolakis
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 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
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
2021	Did Not Qualify
2023	Did Not Qualify
Total	4/23

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.

2021

Greece v Belarus

12 November 2021 (2021-11-12) 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification	Greece	2–0	Belarus	Tripoli, Greece
15:00 (16:00 EET)	Sourlis 16' Supranovich 53' (o.g.)	Report		Stadium: Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium Referee: Irakli Kvirikashvili (Georgia)

Greece v Iceland

16 November 2021 (2021-11-16) 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification	Greece	1–0	Iceland	Tripoli, Greece
15:00 (16:00 EET)	Michailidis 37' (pen.)	Report		Stadium: Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium Referee: Alain Durieux (Luxembourg)

2022

Greece v Liechtenstein

25 March 2022 (2022-03-25) 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification	Greece	4–0	Liechtenstein	Tripoli, Greece
18:00 (19:00 EET)	Michelis 21' Kosidis 27' Tzolis 38', 90+5'	Report		Stadium: Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium Attendance: 405 Referee: Rauf Jabarov (Azerbaijan)

Greece v Portugal

29 March 2022 (2022-03-29) 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification	Greece	0–4	Portugal	Tripoli, Greece
18:00 (19:00 EEST)		Report	Carvalho 12' Vieira 32' (pen.) Silva 45+1' Araújo 82'	Stadium: Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium Attendance: 1,620 Referee: Fabio Maresca (Italy)

Cyprus v Greece

6 June 2022 (2022-06-06) 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification	Cyprus	3–0	Greece	Achna, Cyprus
18:30 (19:30 EEST)	Katsantonis 27' (pen.) Nikolaou 73' Naoum 83' (pen.)	Report		Stadium: Ethnikos Achnas Stadium Attendance: 257 Referee: Alexandre Boucaut (Belgium)

Portugal v Greece

11 June 2022 (2022-06-11) 2023 Euro U-21 Qualification	Portugal	2–1	Greece	Barcelos, Portugal
21:15 (20:15 WEST)	Bernardo 48' Ramos 56'	Report	Koutsias 90+1'	Stadium: Estádio Cidade de Barcelos Attendance: 11,523 Referee: David Coote (England)

Poland v Greece

23 September 2022 (2022-09-23) Friendly	Poland	0–1	Greece	Białystok, Poland
16:30 (17:30 EET)		Report	Kosidis 49'	Stadium: Stadion Miejski Referee: Łukasz Kuźma (Poland)

Euro 2023 Under-21 Championship qualification

2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification

Main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	10	9	1	0	41	3	+38	28	Final tournament		—	1–1	2–1	1–0	6–0	11–0
2	Iceland	10	5	3	2	25	7	+18	18	Play-offs		0–1	—	1–1	3–1	5–0	9–0
3	Greece	10	5	2	3	16	10	+6	17			0–4	1–0	—	2–0	0–0	4–0
4	Belarus	10	4	0	6	16	15	+1	12			1–5	1–2	0–2	—	2–0	6–0
5	Cyprus	10	3	2	5	16	16	0	11			0–1	1–1	3–0	0–1	—	6–0
6	Liechtenstein	10	0	0	10	0	63	−63	0			0–9	0–3	0–5	0–4	0–6	—

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Coaching staff

Managers

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

Giannis Goumas was the most recent U-21 Greece 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	33	16	5	12	048.5	2017 European Championship – Failed to qualify 2019 European Championship – Play-offs
Giannis Goumas	2019–2021	12	4	2	6	033.3	2021 European Championship – Failed to qualify
Georgios Simos	2021–2022	10	5	2	3	050.0	2023 European Championship – Failed to qualify
Nikos Papadopoulos	2022–	1	1	0	0	100.0	—
Totals

Last updated: 23 September 2022. Statistics include official FIFA-recognised matches only.

Players

Current squad

The following players were named in the squad for the friendly game against Poland, to be played 23 September 2022.

Caps and goals updated as of 23 September 2022 after the match against Poland. Names in italics denote players who have been capped for the senior team.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	1GK	Konstantinos Tzolakis (captain)	(2002-11-08) 8 November 2002	12	0	Olympiacos
	1GK	Konstantinos Balomenos	(2002-03-11) 11 March 2002	1	0	PAOK
	1GK	Georgios Theocharis	(2002-06-30) 30 June 2002	0	0	AEK Athens
	2DF	Panagiotis Panagiotou	(2002-01-16) 16 January 2002	1	0	PAOK B
	2DF	Kyriakos Aslanidis	(2002-03-11) 11 March 2002	1	0	Volos
	2DF	Angelos Tsavos	(2002-04-11) 11 April 2002	1	0	PAS Giannina
	2DF	Georgios Tourkochoritis	(2002-04-10) 10 April 2002	1	0	Panathinaikos B
	2DF	Apostolos Apostolopoulos	(2002-12-11) 11 December 2002	1	0	Olympiacos B
	2DF	Fotis Kitsos	(2003-03-31) 31 March 2003	4	0	Omonia
	2DF	Georgios Sideras	(2002-05-30) 30 May 2002	0	0	Panathinaikos
	3MF	Vasilios Troumpoulos	(2003-12-23) 23 December 2003	1	0	AEK Athens B
	3MF	Thomas Karaberis	(2002-01-29) 29 January 2002	1	0	Panserraikos
	3MF	Christos Kryparakos	(2003-06-12) 12 June 2003	1	0	Panathinaikos B
	3MF	Christos Belevonis	(2002-07-29) 29 July 2002	1	0	Veria
	3MF	Anastasios Sapountzis	(2002-01-28) 28 January 2002	1	0	Olympiacos B
	3MF	Argyris Darelas	(2003-10-16) 16 October 2003	1	0	PAOK B
	3MF	Dimitrios Metaxas	(2003-12-16) 16 December 2003	1	0	Volos
	3MF	Titos Koutentakis	(2003-08-22) 22 August 2003	1	0	PAOK B
	3MF	Giannis Konstantelias	(2003-03-05) 5 March 2003	1	0	PAOK
	3MF	Christos Kourfalidis	(2002-11-11) 11 November 2002	3	0	Cagliari
	3MF	Vasilios Sourlis	(2002-11-16) 16 November 2002	11	1	Fortuna Sittard
	4FW	Giannis Karakoutis	(2003-02-02) 2 February 2003	0	0	Olympiacos B
	4FW	Michalis Kosidis	(2002-02-09) 9 February 2002	4	2	AEK Athens
	4FW	Marios Tzavidas	(2003-10-08) 8 October 2003	1	0	Atromitos

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

External links

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