The Republic of Ireland look to get their first points on the board as they face Greece in a UEFA EURO 2024 qualifier at the Opap Arena in Athens this evening.

Stephen Kenny’s Ireland side started their qualification campaign with a narrow 1-0 defeat against World Cup finalists France at the Aviva Stadium in March having deserved at least a point with a spirited performance. Greece began theirs with a win over Gibraltar.

“We’re looking forward to the game, it’s the first competitive game in the new stadium, you want to be involved in that, we want that historic away win,” said Kenny.

“Greece have a very good home record and have been in good form over the past year, we have got to respect that, nothing will be easy, we are going to have to fight for everything, it’s only the second game in the group, nothing will be decided so early. It’s certainly an important game for both teams.”

“One of main objectives coming into the week, the training camp we had prior to here, it’s always a concern with a six-week gap and some players who hadn’t been playing there is a temptation to do much, we have to get balance right, one of our objectives was to get everyone fit here tonight, so credit to the backroom team that this is the case, everyone is available, we’re very pleased about that.”

“A lot of preparation has gone into preparing for this game, we had a really important training camp which was needed to make sure everyone got back up to a level,” added Captain John Egan.

“It’s been great to get everyone together to hone in on what we do as a group and really concentrate our efforts. The staff have been brilliant and we’ve had a really good training camp in Turkey and we’re raring to go tonight.”

Opta Facts – Greece v Republic of Ireland

  • This is the first meeting between Greece and the Republic of Ireland since November 2012 in a friendly, a 1-0 win for the Greeks, who are unbeaten in all three meetings with Eire (W2 D1).
  • Republic of Ireland have failed to score in all three of their games against Greece (D1 L2), with all three coming in friendlies in 2000, 2002 and 2012.
  • Greece have won each of their last four European Championship qualifiers, winning three in October/November 2019 and their opening qualifier of this campaign against Gibraltar. Before this, they’d only won two of their previous 17 (D5 L10).
  • Republic of Ireland lost their opening European Championship qualifier of this campaign against France, last suffering defeat in their opening two games of a campaign in Euro 2008 qualifying, losing to Germany and Cyprus.
  • Greece have won six of their last seven competitive international matches (L1), with five of those wins coming in the UEFA Nations League and one in this European Championship qualifying campaign.
  • Republic of Ireland have won three of their last six away games in all competitions (D1 L2), as many as they’d won in their previous 22 away matches (W3 D9 L10).
  • Greece striker Vangelis Pavlidis was involved in 36 goals in 40 appearances for club side AZ in the 2022-23 campaign in all competitions (22 goals, 14 assists). Pavlidis, however, only has one goal in his last 12 appearances for his national side.
  • Republic of Ireland striker Michael Obafemi has been involved in four goals in just five starts for the Boys of Green, scoring twice and assisting twice.