It's about football! Eurozone strugglers Greece ignore financial gloom ahead of Germany quarter-final
Greece's Euro 2012 squad spent more time watching election results on Sunday than they did watching quarter-final opponents Germany defeat Denmark 2-1.
The Greeks were shock qualifiers ahead of Russia and Poland in Group A, and are to face an imperious German side on Friday in Gdansk.
The clash pits the eurozone's biggest strugglers against its wealthy pay-masters, but the Greeks believe the economic climate will not have any bearing on proceedings.
'No, this will not have an impact, its football we're talking about, its sport,' midfielder Giannis Maniatis said.
'The most important thing for us is to give some happiness to the Greek people, that's all, to make them celebrate in the street, given everything that is going on.'
New Democracy, a centre-right party, won the Greek election on Sunday, and quashed the prospect of an exit from the euro which may have profound consequences for the European financial system.
Still, there are some tensions between the two countries.
There is some anger in Athens at Germany's enforcing of strict conditions for its international bailout, which have crippled Greek households - or anger in Berlin at what many see as the country's irresponsible financial past.
'They (the Germans) have in their mind that the whole situation is about politics,' team spokesman Panos Korkodilos said.
'It is not. It is just football. This is their character, not ours, we are not saying anything about this.'
The Greeks, written off before squeezing through the group stages thanks to victory over one of the stronger teams in Group A, Russia, were also bullish about their chances against a German team who have won all their games.
'It is a major achievement. We fulfilled the first of our targets even after we had injuries and some other unfortunate incidents in the games,' midfielder Grigoris Makos said.
'Of course we respect them but we are not afraid of them. We will look them in the eyes and fight.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/euro2012/article-2161095/Euro-2012-Greece-focused-Germany-eurozone-problems.html#ixzz1yKyiImJv
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