Greece was the outsider not only of the group, but at the finals as a whole. During the 1970s Greek football steadily improved and qualifying for the 1980 European finals was not only a testimony of that , but the highest success of the country to date. So far, it was Panathinaikos playing at the final of the European Champions Cup in 1971. The national team surpassed that at the end of the decade. The only direct link was the defender Anthimos Kapsis – a young player in 1971 and now one of the most experienced stars in Greece at 29. Yet, the improvement of Greek football did not make it close to the best of Europe – there was still huge gap and Greece really was way bellow the rest of the finalists. The opinion was unanimous around Europe. At home it was different: the euphoria was out of proportion and the country not only expected, but demanded from the team to win the championship. To escape the hype Alketas Panagoulias rushed his team to Italy earlier than the other teams. He wanted peace and quite, so to concentrate on preparation.
A colourful figure, involved with much more than football, Panagoulias was good coach, but, unfortunately, also given to bombast. His statements were not realistic at all. ‘I am directly linked to Alexander the Great and can’t stand to lose’ was stated before the championship. ‘We are the moral winners’ after the team was eliminated. The players had realistic approach. ‘If it was so good, as Panagoulias says, we would be champions’, said Maik Galakos. He knew all too well, because he grew up in West Germany and was a product of the German youth system. A big star in Greece, he failed twice in the Bundesliga – he played a total of 2 matches there, both for Fortuna (Dusseldorf). In his second attempt with lowly St. Pauli (Hambourg) he was never fielded. That was the reality. Greek football was getting better, but was still far behind the leading nations and reaching the finals was a bit lucky – Hungary and especially USSR were in bad shape. If Greece was in any qualification group, the finals would have been just a dream.
1
1GK
Vasilis Konstantinou
(1947-11-19)19 November 1947 (aged 32)
Panathinaikos
2
2DF
Ioannis Kyrastas
(1952-10-25)25 October 1952 (aged 27)
Olympiacos
3
2DF
Konstantinos Iosifidis
(1952-01-14)14 January 1952 (aged 28)
PAOK
4
2DF
Anthimos Kapsis
(1950-09-03)3 September 1950 (aged 29)
Panathinaikos
5
2DF
Giorgos Foiros
(1953-11-08)8 November 1953 (aged 26)
Aris
6
3MF
Spiros Livathinos
(1955-01-08)8 January 1955 (aged 25)
Panathinaikos
7
3MF
Christos Terzanidis
(1945-02-13)13 February 1945 (aged 35)
Panathinaikos
8
3MF
Takis Nikoloudis
(1951-08-26)26 August 1951 (aged 28)
Olympiacos
9
4FW
Christos Ardizoglou
(1953-05-25)25 May 1953 (aged 27)
AEK Athens
10
4FW
Maik Galakos
(1951-11-23)23 November 1951 (aged 28)
Olympiacos
11
3MF
Ioannis Damanakis
(1952-10-02)2 October 1952 (aged 27)
PAOK
12
2DF
Ioannis Gounaris
(1952-07-06)6 July 1952 (aged 27)
PAOK
13
4FW
Charalambos Xanthopoulos
(1956-08-29)29 August 1956 (aged 23)
Iraklis
14
3MF
Giorgos Koudas (c)
(1946-11-23)23 November 1946 (aged 33)
PAOK
15
4FW
Thomas Mavros
(1954-03-31)31 March 1954 (aged 26)
AEK Athens
16
3MF
Dinos Kouis
(1955-06-05)5 June 1955 (aged 25)
Aris
17
2DF
Petros Ravousis
(1954-10-01)1 October 1954 (aged 25)
AEK Athens
18
2DF
Lakis Nikolaou
(1949-07-17)17 July 1949 (aged 30)
AEK Athens
19
4FW
Giorgos Kostikos
(1958-04-26)26 April 1958 (aged 22)
PAOK
20
4FW
Nikos Anastopoulos
(1958-01-22)22 January 1958 (aged 22)
Panionios
21
1GK
Eleftherios Poupakis
(1946-12-28)28 December 1946 (aged 33)
OFI Crete
22
1GK
Stelios Papafloratos
(1954-01-27)27 January 1954 (aged 26)
Aris
Few Greek players were known around Europe, but the squad reveals objective problem without solution: the pool of good players was very small. Not enough even for a full squad, so entirely anonymous players were selected as well. There was also something peculiar – the biggest Greek stars tended to be also very old. Terzanidis was 35 and most of the key players were pushing 30. Compared to the other teams, the Greeks were not expected even to be able to sustain physically a full game. The shortage of quality players made one wish Domazos, Antoniadis, Ikonomopoulos were born a few years later and were now fresh 35-years old and in the team. Yet, even if those instrumental for rise of Greek football were still playing the team would have been too weak compared to the other finalists.