Greece

Spain field second string side v Greece

17:53 BST, Wed 18 Jun 2008
[-] Text [+]
 Email  |   Print  |   Digg This
 
Spain national players attend a training session for the Euro 2008 soccer tournament at the Salzburg Wals-Siezenheim stadium June 17, 2008. Spain will face Greece in their Group D Euro 2008 match on June 18.  REUTERS/Miguel Vidal (AUSTRIA) MOBILE OUT. EDITORIAL USE ONLY

By Simon Baskett

SALZBURG, June 18 (Reuters) - Spain rested almost their entire first-choice team ahead of the quarter-final showdown with Italy and fielded a second string side against Greece in their last match in Group D on Wednesday.

Midfielder Andres Iniesta was the only usual starter included in the lineup because of doubts over the fitness of Santi Cazorla who was named on the bench.

Pepe Reina was given the goalkeeping spot ahead of Andres Palop, Cesc Fabregas starts in midfield, while Primera Liga top scorer Dani Guiza leads the attack.

Greece coach Otto Rehhagel reverted to his familiar 4-4-2 formation for their final game, with defenders Loukas Vintra and Nikos Spyropoulos coming in for the injured Vassilis Torosidis and Giourkas Seitaridis.

Striker Dimitris Salpigidis replaces Nikos Liberopoulos, while Yannis Amanatidis is moved back into midfield to join Giorgios Karagounis, who wins back his spot in the starting lineup in place of Christos Patsatzoglou.

Greece: 1-Antonis Nikopolidis; 11-Loukas Vintra, 16-Sotiris Kyrgiakos, 5-Traianos Dellas, 4-Nikos Spyropoulos; 6-Angelos Basinas, 21-Costas Katsouranis, 14-Dimitris Salpigidis, 10-Giorgios Karagounis, 20-Yannis Amanatidis; 9-Angelos Haristeas

Spain: 23-Pepe Reina; 18-Alvaro Arbeloa, 20-Juanito, 2-Raul Albiol, 3-Fernando Navarro; 14-Xabi Alonso; 22-Ruben de la Red, 10-Cesc Fabregas, 16-Sergio Garcia, 6-Andres Iniesta; 17-Daniel Guiza

Referee: Howard Webb (England)

Any person accessing the football section of this website is prohibited from any unauthorised re-production of any photographs and or text content other than for the purposes of viewing the same as part of the web site.   

MATCH CENTRE

29 Jun 19:45 Germany 0 - 1 Spain FT
26 Jun 19:45 Russia 0 - 3 Spain FT
25 Jun 19:45 Germany 3 - 2 Turkey FT
22 Jun 19:45 Spain 0 - 0 Italy FT
21 Jun 19:45 Netherlands 1 - 3 Russia FT
20 Jun 19:45 Croatia 1 - 1 Turkey FT
19 Jun 19:45 Portugal 2 - 3 Germany FT
18 Jun 19:45 Greece 1 - 2 Spain FT
advertisement