Gus Poyet is aiming to build on a tradition as he tries to become the latest foreign coach to take Greece to a European Championship.
It’s been 20 years since German coach Otto Rehhagel led an unheralded team to the title at Euro 2004 in one of soccer’s biggest surprises, and 12 years since Portuguese manager Fernando Santos helped Greece reach the Euro 2012 quarterfinals.
That was the last time Greece played at the Euros, but the team is now one game away from returning to the tournament under Poyet, the cultured Uruguay midfielder who spent most of his playing and coaching career in England.
“Greece have been absent from the Euros for too long,” Poyet said Thursday after his team cruised past Kazakhstan 5-0 in Athens in a qualifying playoffs semifinal.
Poyet now takes his confident team to Georgia on Tuesday for a winner-takes-all match in a noisy, 50,000-seat national stadium in Tbilisi.
“What everybody is talking about is that 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the Euro 2004 triumph,” the Greece coach said. “It is a good coincidence and we will try our best.”
Poyet’s contract is set to expire at the end of next week, but a win on Tuesday could see him get an extension through the tournament in Germany this summer.
“If you ask me would I like to stay in Greece, I will say yes, no doubt,” Poyet said in a recent interview in Ireland, where he has been linked with the vacant national team job.
Two years ago, Poyet seemed an unlikely hire for Greece after a series of short stays with clubs in Chile, France, China and Spain.
Still, he did have experience of the Greek league in a six-month spell at AEK Athens, although that ended with him being fired in April 2016 on the eve of a cup semifinal.
Santos had coached three Greek clubs before taking the national team into the knockout stage at Euro 2012 and the 2014 World Cup — its last appearance on the biggest stage.
The next coach from abroad after Santos, Claudio Ranieri, was new to Greece and lasted only a few months. Ranieri was fired after a humiliating 1-0 home loss against the Faeroe Islands — only to bounce back by leading Leicester to a stunning Premier League title.
Since Rehhagel arrived 23 years ago, the national team has had just two Greek coaches for brief spells totaling 13 games. Poyet is not even the first Uruguayan to hold the job, with Sergio Markarián having had a short 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 said, looking ahead to Georgia.
The reward for a win on Tuesday will be to enter a Euro 2024 group that contains the Cristiano Ronaldo-led Portugal, neighboring Turkey and the Czech Republic.
And for Poyet, maybe 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 said, “I would take it.”
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