Go tell the Spartans…

Very proud of our national football team last night and how it fought till the death against a strong German side (going down 4-2 in the end) and, indeed, how it has battled and scrapped throughout Euro 2012. It seemed when Samaras equalised early in the second half that we might be about to witness something special, but it wasn’t to be. Even when Germany went 2-1 up, Gekas had a good chance to make things level and it was only the third German goal that put the game beyond us. Shocking display of goalkeeping from Sifakis not only for the Klose goal but throughout the game. Not one shot – not even the tamest – seemed to stick in his gloves. Karagounis would have made a difference and perhaps our coach Fernando Santos – ‘Greeks won’t take lessons from anyone’ – got it wrong with his starting line up, preferring Ninis over Gekas and playing Salpingidis down the middle. Greece looked better in the second half, after Gekas had come on for Ninis – who was again disappointing – with Salpingidis out wide right, where he provided that brilliant cross for Samaras to score.

I also note the amount of vitriol aimed at our side and at Greeks in general by the British media during this tournament. One BBC commentator said after the game that the way Greece played football made him physically sick, while others said our football was ‘garbage’, that our style was anti-football and they were glad to see the back of us, and so on and so on and blah, blah, blah. We don’t care about these comments and we are not complaining. Let them say what they like. We are not victims. We know who we are and we know who they are.

‘Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie.’