Sports Mole looks at the head-to-head record and previous meetings between England and Greece.
England will be out for revenge when they travel to Athens to lock horns with Greece in their penultimate UEFA Nations League fixture on Thursday night.
The Three Lions were surprisingly beaten by the Blues and Whites at Wembley Stadium last month and the latter currently sit pretty at the top of League B Group 2, three points clear of the former with two matches remaining.
Indeed, Greece have won all four of their Nations League games in this campaign, while England have picked up nine points from a possible 12 available, most recently beating Finland 3-1 in Helsinki.
Here, Sports Mole takes an in-depth look at the head-to-head record and previous meetings between the two nations.
Head-to-head record
Previous meetings: 10
England wins: 7
Draws: 2
Greece wins: 1
After trying and failing to conquer the Three Lions in their first nine attempts, Greece stunned a sparsely-populated Wembley crowd on October 10, 2024, mere hours after learning of the passing of former Pirate Ship international George Baldock.
Indeed, a Vangelis Pavlidis brace propelled Greece to a shock 2-1 win in the UEFA Nations League against an experimental England side, but the Three Lions have generally had the better of this battle down the years, winning seven of their other nine battles.
That Nations League contest was the first England-Greece reunion in just over 18 years, as the two League B sides had previously not locked horns since a Steve McLaren-led team eased to a 4-0 friendly victory in 2006.
Peter Crouch scored a brace at Old Trafford that day, where Chelsea legends Frank Lampard and John Terry also made the net bulge in a first-half whitewash, as England scored all of their goals before the 42-minute mark.
The Theatre of Dreams was also the venue for the most iconic moment in England-Greece football history – and one of the most memorable overall for the Three Lions in the 21st century – as Sven-Goran Eriksson‘s side were heading for a 2-1 defeat in a 2001 World Cup qualifier.
That was until David Beckham lined up a free kick some 25 yards from goal in injury time, aimed for the top corner and found it with absolute aplomb, thereby guaranteeing England first place in the group over Germany on goal difference and sealing direct entry to the 2002 World Cup.
Earlier in that qualifying cycle, Beckham was also on target alongside Paul Scholes in a 2-0 win in Athens, and the only other time that England have conceded a goal to Greece came in a 1989 friendly, where Dimitrios Saravakos scored a penalty inside the first minute.
Replies from John Barnes and Bryan Robson turned that game on its head, but England have only won one of their four competitive home games against Greece – a 3-0 triumph during their inaugural showdown in a 1971 European Championships qualifier.
Previous meetings:
Oct 10, 2024: England 1-2 Greece (UEFA Nations League League B Group 2)
Aug 16, 2006: England 4-0 Greece (International Friendly)
Oct 06, 2001: England 2-2 Greece (World Cup Qualifying)
Jun 06, 2001: Greece 0-2 England (World Cup Qualifying)
May 17, 1994: England 5-0 Greece (International Friendly)
Feb 08, 1989: Greece 1-2 England (International Friendly)
Mar 30, 1983: England 0-0 Greece (European Championship Qualifying)
Nov 17, 1982: Greece 0-3 England (European Championship Qualifying)
Dec 01, 1971: Greece 0-2 England (European Championship Qualifying)
Apr 21, 1971: England 3-0 Greece (European Championship Qualifying)
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