Next Sunday, 7th of September 2014, the 2004 European champions, Greece, will take on Romania at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus on a match that will mark both sides' debut at the Euro 2016 Qualifying round.

The departure of the Portuguese manager Fernando Santos from the helm of the Greek team might have opened a gap difficult to disguise on that country’s national football team, because of the huge influence he had over the players and even due to close relationship he managed to establish with the supporters. Back in 2010, Fernando Santos replaced the German old fox, Otto Rehhagel, who helped Greece win the Euro 2004 tournament, and although he failed to win another major competition, he managed to achieve a better winning percentage than his predecessor.

Nevertheless, what happened in the past stays in the past, and it is now time to begin a new page at Greek football and the sometimes controversial Italian head coach Claudio Ranieri will be the man responsible for conducting the destiny of the country’s national team and hopefully at least granting a place at the Euro 2016 tournament.

The Italian head coach will find a team with strong defensive foundations and very dangerous on the counter-attack, as both previous managers have prepared the squad in that particular style. Ranieri himself also uses to favour that particular type of game and because of that he will certainly not face many obstacles to pass his ideas to the players.

As for Romania, next Sunday’s match against Greece will present a great opportunity for them to avenge that upsetting defeat during the Play-Off stage for the latest World Cup Qualifiers. Romania was defeated at Piraeus and obtained nothing better than a draw at Bucharest four days after. Victor Piturca, who is in fact performing a very satisfactory job at the Romanian National Team, has the demanding task of rebuilding a team that seems to have lost their past glory, although such deed takes time to accomplish, regardless of the quality of the manager in charge.

Romania haven't taken part in an European Championship since 2008 and, even back then they did not manage to pass the group stage.

Although it is not every day that you find a footballer such as Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian football “produces” a great deal of talented footballers that, for some reason, have not managed to achieve their full potential recently, something that Piturca needs to address as soon as possible if he wants to restore the team’s lost dignity.

Since they are playing home, Greece are to be considered favourites for next Sunday’s clash, although an inspired Romanian side might have the art of spoiling Ranieri’s debut at the Greeks’ dugout.

Greece

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - LWDLW

Romania

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - LWDDL

Possible Line-ups

Greece (4-4-2) – Karnezis - Manolas - Sokratis - Vyntra - Holebas - Maniatis - Samaris - Kone - Lazaros - Samaras - Mitroglou

Romania  (4-3-3) – Pantilimon - Tamas - Chiriches - Rat - Moti - Torje - Maxim - Hoban - Enache - Marica - Keseru

Sunday, 7th of September 2014 20h45 CET (19h45 GMT)
Karaiskakis Stadium (Piraeus)

Prediction

Greece 1 Romania 1