Armenia and Italy losses add to Ethniki’s list of embarrassing results since 2014

The Greek national team suffered a fresh embarrassment in the disastrous loss to Armenia at the OAKA stadium last week, marking their fall to fourth in Group J of UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying. It brought back bad memories for players and fans alike, as the ‘heavy climate’ associated with the team since its demise in 2014 resurfaced. AGONAsport looks back at some of the Ethniki’s “embarrassing” losses since 2014.

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The Ethniki has not participated in a major tournament since the 2014 FIFA World Cup and it is no surprise that the number of defeats have doubled since that time. This is in spite of a high player turnover and several coaching changes. The atmosphere is rotten to the core as seen by the postgame developments on Tuesday.

The years of 2002-2014 marked a golden era for Greek football, featuring the famous Euro 2004 triumph, a Euro 2012 quarter-final appearance, and a World Cup 2014 round of 16 appearance. The team was built on continuity, was highly close knit, and was mentally strong refusing to lose. The playing style was usually dogged but it yielded results.

Since Otto Rehhagel took over in 2001, the Ethniki enjoyed more wins than losses in each and every year right up until 2014 when Fernando Santos departed. During this time, the team played 167 games and delivered a return of 78 wins, 45 draws, and 37 losses.

Conversely, since Euro 2016 qualifying the team has played 45 games for 14 wins, 10 draws and 21 losses. Among these 21 losses there were some embarrassing moments including two defeats at the hands of the Faroe Islands. The first led to Claudio Ranieri’s sacking and it put Greek football back on the map for the wrong reasons. A poor loss to Luxembourg in a friendly was another bitter pill to swallow in Michael Skibbe’s first game in charge.

These negative results have continued even after Skibbe’s departure as Estonia defeated the Greeks in their final UEFA Nations League match in November of 2018 under the guidance of Angelos Anastasiadis (Estonia also picked up a goalless draw in 2017 during 2018 World Cup qualifying during Skibbe’s reign).

Despite that loss, the Ethniki got off to a good start in UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying after picking up four points from their opening to matches away to Liechtenstein and Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, everything took a turn for the worse in June as Italy thrashed Greece 0:3 at the OAKA Stadium on matchday three before Armenia stunned the Ethniki with a 2:3 win in Athens.

The loss to Armenia not only added to Greece’s list of embarrassing results since 2014, but left the Ethniki five points behind second placed Finland in Group J. In addition, chaos ensued in the locker rooms with team leaders Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Kostas Manolas demanding the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) take action and sack coach Angelos Anastasiadis for his incapability to lead the Greek team.

Below is a list of the Ethniki’s results to forget since the downfall began in 2014.

14-Oct-14: Greece - N. Ireland 0:2 (Euro 2016 qualifying)

14-Nov-14: Greece - Faroe Islands 0:1 (Euro 2016 qualifying)

13-Jun-15: Faroe Islands- Greece 2:1 (Euro 2016 qualifying)

4-Sep-15: Greece - Finland 0:1 (Euro 2016 qualifying)

8-Oct-15: N. Ireland - Greece 3:1 (Euro 2016 qualifying)

13-Nov-15: Luxembourg - Greece 1:0 (Friendly)

9-Nov-16: Greece - Belarus 0:1 (Friendly)

31-Aug-17: Greece - Estonia 0:0 (2018 World Cup qualifier)

9-Nov-17: Croatia - Greece 4:1 (2018 World Cup qualifier)

11-Sep-18: Hungary - Greece 2:1 (UEFA Nations League)

15-Oct-18: Finland - Greece 2:0 (UEFA Nations League)

18-Nov-18: Greece - Estonia 0:1 (UEFA Nations League)

8-Jun-19: Greece - Italy 0:3 (Euro 2020 qualifying)

11-Jun-19: Greece - Armenia 2:3 (Euro 2020 qualifying)

Image Source: to10.gr

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