Potouridis points to slow start in Greece demise

Captain Giannis Potouridis pointed to the opening defeat at the hands of the Republic of Ireland as the crucial factor as his Greece team bowed out of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship.

Leonidas Vokolos' side opened their Group A campaign with a 2-1 defeat against Ireland and, though they recovered to overcome hosts Romania 1-0 in their second fixture, the Czech Republic proved a step too far on Matchday 3. Needing to better Ireland's result against Romania, instead Czech striker Tomáš Přikryl scored the only goal of the game with 20 minutes left, leaving Greece in third place behind their opponents and the Irish.

"The first match was the key for us; unfortunately we lost it and the whole tournament was ruined," Potouridis told UEFA.com. "We're all so disappointed with the defeat against the Czechs and with our elimination. The Czechs are a good team, as everyone is when you get to the last eight in Europe, but I don't think any of the teams here are better than ours."

The Olympiacos FC centre-back played every minute of his side's nine U19 games over the course of the season – providing three assists in qualifying – and, as the only player to do so, was left to reflect on where his side had come up short. "We played well today, especially in the first 45 minutes," he said. "In the second half we had to take more risks and that's when they scored. After that, physically we couldn't respond."

Potouridis' coach also believed the opening loss, in which his side fell behind after just two minutes was decisive, adding: "We did really well in the qualifying groups in Portugal and Slovakia, but we knew it would be difficult out here. We didn't start the first game very well and that made things really hard for us; a draw would have been a fair result but that's football." 

The defeat of the hosts, plus the way in which Greece pressed for the win against the Czechs that would have taken them into the last four, restored plenty of pride for the Greece coach. "We played well against Romania and won and went into our final game – against very good opponents who had won their first two matches – with pressure to win, and I'm very happy with how we tried to get that," Vokolos added. "We leave with our heads high."