Greece Prays for 'Minor Miracle' against Germany

A fan celebrates in Athens Saturday night after Greece made it to the second round of Euro 2012 after beating Russia 1:0. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Greece forward Dimitris Salpingidis has admitted his team needed a "minor miracle" to defeat Germany on Friday in the Euro 2012 quarterfinals at Arena Gdansk.

"Germany are the favorites, we are the underdogs, but think about it: we will not play against the Germans ten times to see who wins the most," Salpingidis said.

"It's one match and we will fight to the end."

Inevitably, given this moment of Euro crisis, this game has taken on additional dimensions and interpretations.

Even though Greek striker Giorgos Samaras said this is "just a game" and "you cannot mix football and politics", he did concede "we're playing for the country, for 11 million people waiting for a smile".

Germany was perfect in the "Group of Death" to cement its status as one of the tournament favorites, while Greece narrowly escaped the weakest group in Euros with just a single win.

The German side has also shown incredible patience and preference for scoring its goals late into the game.

Number one priority for the Greek side so far has been to defend.

Although the Greeks have just two wins in 12 group matches all-time at Euros - it won the tournament in 2004 after just a single win in group play.

Football pundits expect Germany to win and thus set us up for another football classic, namely a Germany v England or Germany v Italy semi-final.

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