Poyet Tries To Mark 20th Anniversary Of Greece’s European Title By Leading Team Back To Tournament – News18

Gus Poyet is aiming to construct on a convention as he tries to grow to be the newest overseas coach to take Greece to a European Championship.

It’s been 20 years since German coach Otto Rehhagel led an unheralded group to the title at Euro 2004 in one in every of soccer’s largest surprises, and 12 years since Portuguese supervisor Fernando Santos helped Greece attain the Euro 2012 quarterfinals.

That was the final time Greece performed on the Euros, however the group is now one sport away from returning to the match beneath Poyet, the aesthetic Uruguay midfielder who spent most of his enjoying and training profession in England.

“Greece have been absent from the Euros for too long,” Poyet stated Thursday after his group cruised previous Kazakhstan 5-0 in Athens in a qualifying playoffs semifinal.

Poyet now takes his assured group to Georgia on Tuesday for a winner-takes-all match in a loud, 50,000-seat nationwide stadium in Tbilisi.

“What everybody is talking about is that 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the Euro 2004 triumph,” the Greece coach stated. “It is a good coincidence and we will try our best.”

Poyet’s contract is ready to run out on the finish of subsequent week, however a win on Tuesday may see him get an extension by means of the match in Germany this summer season.

“If you ask me would I like to stay in Greece, I will say yes, no doubt,” Poyet stated in a current interview in Ireland, the place he has been linked with the vacant nationwide group job.

Two years in the past, Poyet appeared an unlikely rent for Greece after a collection of brief stays with golf equipment in Chile, France, China and Spain.

Still, he did have expertise of the Greek league in a six-month spell at AEK Athens, though that ended with him being fired in April 2016 on the eve of a cup semifinal.

Santos had coached three Greek golf equipment earlier than taking the nationwide group into the knockout stage at Euro 2012 and the 2014 World Cup — its final look on the most important stage.

The subsequent coach from overseas after Santos, Claudio Ranieri, was new to Greece and lasted just a few months. Ranieri was fired after a humiliating 1-0 house loss in opposition to the Faeroe Islands — solely to bounce again by main Leicester to a surprising Premier League title.

Since Rehhagel arrived 23 years in the past, the nationwide group has had simply two Greek coaches for temporary spells totaling 13 video games. Poyet isn’t even the primary Uruguayan to carry the job, with Sergio Markarián having had a brief stint in 2015.

“I know the mentality of Greek people. Sometimes they are too down, sometimes they are too high. We need to control the emotions,” Poyet stated, waiting for Georgia.

The reward for a win on Tuesday will probably be to enter a Euro 2024 group that accommodates the Cristiano Ronaldo-led Portugal, neighboring Turkey and the Czech Republic.

And for Poyet, possibly a renewed contract.

“If you had given me the chance two years ago to have one match in order to go to the Euro,” Poyet stated, “I would take it.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)