Swinging from underdogs to quarter-finalists at Euro 2012 is Greece’s way to bring cheer to their austerity-gripped homeland, midfielder Kostas Katsouranis said on Sunday.
“We wanted to give everybody back home something to cheer, to celebrate,” Katsouranis told reporters at the team’s training base outside the Polish capital Warsaw, a day after their shock 1-0 defeat of favorites Russia.
“Everybody in Greece — even our families, our friends, our brothers, our cousins, everyone — is having a really hard time,” he said. “The most important thing is that all of us on the team never put ourselves above the team. We represent our country. So we know what we have to do.”
Photo: EPA
Along with captain and fellow midfielder Giorgos Karagounis, suspended for the quarter-final, and goalkeeper Kostas Chalkias, who missed the Russia game due to a hamstring injury, Katsouranis is one of a trio who were in Greece’s Euro 2004 winning side.
In the wake of their shock title eight years ago, Greece failed to shine, suggesting it was a flash in the pan.
Drawn in Euro 2012’s Group A along with Russia, the Czech Republic and co-hosts Poland, they started their campaign with a 1-1 draw against the co-hosts, then lost 2-1 to the Czech Republic.
High-octane Russia had only needed a draw to make the quarter-finals, but Karagounis scored in stoppage-time in the first half and Russia could not breach Greece’s solid defense.
Katsouranis said the players were still coming to terms with having stormed into the last eight, along with the Czech Republic, who beat Poland 1-0 the same night to top the group.
“We can’t describe what we feel in words,” he said. “I think the most important thing is that, in a short period of time, we achieved the status of being among the eight best teams in Europe, and that’s a huge achievement for the Greeks.”
Greece face Germany in their quarter-final in Gdansk on Friday, but Katsouranis said Greece would take that in their stride.
“The next big challenge for us is the next match ... In my opinion, there’s no difference who the opponents are, Germany or another team. It’s a quarter-final. It’s going to be a tough, hard match,” he said.
Greece coach Fernando Santos, 57, said there are no underdogs in the knock-out phase.
“All the matches are going to be difficult, but from now on all the matches are knock-out matches, even if it’s 90 minutes or extra-time or a penalty shootout. Everything is possible,” he said. “There’s no disputing that Germany are a well-known team, a very strong team with exceptional players, and with a very good coach who’s worked with the players for years. So there’s nothing new about Germany.”
Santos bemoaned the loss of the talismanic Karagounis, suspended for earning a yellow card in two games in a row.
“He’s our captain, he’s experienced and for sure his presence is very important for the young players. It’s very sad that he won’t play, because the card wasn’t justified and that’s not fair for the whole team, but I am 100 percent sure that whoever is going to play is going to do the same job, is going to be effective like Giorgos,” Santos said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier