Euro 2012 Opta Stats: Germany won't humiliate Greece

Michael Lintorn
21 June 2012

Thomas Muller has yet to get off the mark at Euro 2012

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Almost every Opta trend points to a Germany victory, but there are reasons to believe that Greece will keep things respectable...

"None of Greece's last ten goals at the European Championship have arrived before the 42nd minute."

Recommended Bet: Back the second half to feature more goals @ 2.26/5

Greece have met Germany eight times before this meeting, but are yet to win (D3 L5)
This stat won't provoke much surprise given that Germany almost always have the superior players, and in fact could be flipped to suggest that it is fairly impressive that Greece have drawn almost half of their meetings with the most successful side in European Championship history, including three of the last five. They haven't lost any of the last seven by a margin of more than two goals, and have trailed at the break in only one of the last five, so though defeat is being treated as an inevitability, a reasonable resistance should perhaps be expected.

None of Greece's last ten goals at the European Championship have arrived before the 42nd minute
That pattern has shown no sign of transforming this summer, with the earliest of the 2004 winners' three goals being scored late in first-half injury time, the other two coming within eight minutes of the interval. As the first insight points to Germany being forced to wait until after half-time to seal the win - something that was also true of their group games against Portugal and Denmark - it would appear logical to bet on the second half being the more goal-littered of the two.

Germany have won their last 14 competitive games - an all-time record in DFB history
And while Germany have been in the best form of their entire existence, holders Spain have been held once and kept waiting until the 88th minute for the breakthrough in another match, the Netherlands have already exited and the team backed in before the tournament got underway, France, have underwhelmed. It is therefore no surprise that Joachim Low's men have emerged as 3.39/4 favourites, however that is still a handsome price. Opta reveal that on the two prior occasions that Germany have reached the quarter-finals in this format, they have gone on to reach the final.