Greece stand in way of Germany juggernaut

Something has to give when Greece and Germany meet in the last eight of UEFA EURO 2012 at the Arena Gdansk – neither team has ever lost a UEFA European Championship quarter-final before.

• Germany are competing in their fifth quarter-final and have gone on to the final on each previous occasion while Greece hope to pull off a shock to match their dethroning of defending champions France on their one previous appearance at this stage in 2004.

• That Greek victory came under Otto Rehhagel, the German who famously guided Greece all the way to the final and the Henri Delaunay Cup in 2004. Now, after climbing off the foot of Group A with a surprise defeat of Russia, Fernando Santos's side are back in the quarter-finals and planning another upset against Germany, the Group B victors who remain the only team to have won every game so far.

• The winners of this tie will play England or Italy in the semi-finals in Warsaw on 28 June.

Head-to-head record
• Greece first played West Germany in 1960 and, 52 years on, are still seeking a first win. Germany hold the upper hand with five victories and three draws from the nations' eight previous encounters.

• Greece lost home (0-3) and away (1-2) to West Germany when they first met in qualifying for the 1962 FIFA World Cup. There was an identical outcome when the teams last squared off in qualifying for the 2002 finals, Germany winning 2-0 in Hamburg and 4-2 in Athens.

• More encouragingly for the Greeks, their three matches with Germany on the UEFA European Championship stage all ended in draws – in two qualifiers for the 1976 tournament and in the eight-team final round in Italy in 1980.

• Greece also played East Germany seven times, winning two games but losing the others.

Selected previous meetings
 28 March 2001: Greece 2-4 Germany (Charisteas 20, Georgiadis 43; Rehmer 6, Ballack 25 pen, Klose 82, Bode 90) – Olympic Stadium Athens, FIFA World Cup qualifier
 Greece: Eleftheropoulos, Kostoulas ( Mavrogenidis 35), Goumas, Patsatzoglou, Zagorakis, Karagounis (Niniadis 74), Georgiadis, Georgatos, Basinas, Liberopoulos, Charisteas (Alexandris 83).
Germany: Kahn, Wörns, Rehmer, Nowotny, Heinrich, Ziege, Jeremies (Ramelow 90), Deisler, Ballack, Neuville (Klose 67), Jancker (Bode 78).

• Germany had already defeated Greece 2-0 at home the previous September and followed up that victory with a success notable for a goal by substitute Miroslav Klose, the only survivor from a team then coached by Rudi Völler. The Greece side included Giorgos Karagounis and Nikos Liberopoulos, both members of their UEFA EURO 2012 squad.

17 June 1980: Greece 0-0 West Germany – Stadio Comunale Turin, 1980 UEFA European Championship group stage
 Greece: Poupakis, Gounaris, Ravousis, Nikolaou, Livathinos, Nikoloudis (Koudas 65), Kouis, Ardizoglou, Galakos, Xanthopoulos, Mavros (Kostikos 79).
West Germany: Schumacher, Briegel, Cullmann, K Förster, B Förster (Votava 46), Kaltz, Müller, Memering, Stielike, Rummenigge (Del'Haye 66), Hrubesch.

• After two victories, Jupp Derwall's team went into the game knowing a point would secure passage to the final as group winners and managed it despite Hristos Ardizoglou hitting a post for Greece. West Germany went on to beat Belgium in the final, while Alketas Panagoulias's Greece headed home with only the point gained against the champions-elect to show for their first taste of a major tournament.

Form guide
• Greece have lost just one of 13 games in this EURO campaign, qualifying included. Under Fernando Santos their record reads P24 W12 D10 L2.

• Greece's only previous quarter-final appearance in any major tournament was the 1-0 win over France at UEFA EURO 2004, courtesy of an Angelos Charisteas goal.

• Germany are on a run of 14 consecutive competitive victories, a national record. Their 100% record in Group B was the first time they had won every game of a EURO group stage.

• For Germany this is their third quarter-final appearance since the EURO became a 16-team tournament in 1996. Their past results were:
 2008 Portugal 3-2
 1996 Croatia 2-1
As West Germany, they twice competed in two-legged quarter-finals to reach the four-team final round – and won both times.
 1976 Spain 1-1 a, 2-0 h (3-1 agg)
 1972 England 3-1 a, 0-0 h (3-1 agg)

• Germany also reached the semi-finals or better in 1980, 1988 and 1992, when there were no quarter-finals.

Team ties
• Greece coach Santos posted home and away wins over Hertha BSC Berlin with FC Porto in the second group stage of the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League. In 2004 with AEK Athens FC, Santos suffered a 2-0 home loss to TSV Alemannia Aachen.

• Joachim Löw's first taste of UEFA competition was against Greek opposition when as an Eintracht Frankfurt player he earned a 2-0 victory against PAOK FC in a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round match in 1981/82.

• When Greece and Germany met in 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying, Giannis Fetfatzidis and Kostas Fortounis lined up against İlkay Gündoğan. Fourtounis scored but was sent off in Germany's 5-4 away victory on 11 November last year. Gündoğan played again when Germany won the return fixture 1-0.

• Sotiris Ninis and Konstantinos Mitroglou both found the net when a Greece side captained by Sokratis Papastathopoulos beat Germany 3-2 in the semi-final of the 2007 UEFA European U19 Championship in Austria. Germany's team included Benedikt Höwedes, Jérôme Boateng and Mesut Özil.

• When the countries met in the group stage of the same tournament in 2005, Manuel Neuer was in the Germany side that prevailed 3-0 while Giannis Maniatis played for Greece.

• Papastathopoulos and Tim Wiese are team-mates at SV Werder Bremen.

• Kyriakos Papadopoulos plays with Benedikt Höwedes at FC Schalke 04 and was there with Neuer in 2010/11.

• Fortounis was relegated from the Bundesliga this season with 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

• Fanis Gekas was the Bundesliga's 20-goal top scorer in 2006/07 while on loan at VfL Bochum 1848, and later had spells at Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Hertha and Eintracht Frankfurt.

• José Holebas was born in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria and began his career in Germany with TSV 1860 Munich where he played alongside Lars Bender.

• Holebas struck the opening goal when Olympiacos FC beat Borussia Dortmund 3-1 at home in the group stage of the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League. Avraam Papadopoulos, Maniatis and Fetfatzidis were also involved with Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer, Mario Götze and Gündogan featuring for Dortmund, who won the return game 1-0.

• Per Mertesacker's Arsenal FC played in that same section and he helped his team beat an Olympiacos side including Holebas and Vassilis Torossidis 2-1 in London last September.

• In the 2007/08 UEFA Cup, Kostas Chalkias was on the receiving end of a 6-0 defeat by FC Bayern München with Aris Thessaloniki FC, Philipp Lahm hitting the final goal.

• Klose scored both home and away for Bremen when they faced Panathinaikos FC in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage – losing in Athens but winning 5-1 in Germany.

• Giorgos Tzavellas has been an Eintracht Frankfurt player since 2010 but spent the first half of this year on loan at AS Monaco FC. In March 2011 he broke the Bundesliga record for the longest distance goal scored after beating Neuer, then of Schalke, from 73 metres.

• Although born in Greece, Mitroglou was brought up in Germany and started his career in VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach's youth ranks before joining Olympiacos in 2007.