Faroe Islands v Greece background

The Faroe Islands will look to build on their extraordinary victory against Greece in Piraeus last year as the sides come together again in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying Group F.

Previous meetings
• Jóan Edmundsson's 61st-minute goal earned the Faroe Islands a surprise 1-0 win in Greece in the sides' first Group F encounter in November. It was the Faroes' first competitive away win since 2001, and prompted the departure of Greece's Italian coach Claudio Ranieri.

• Greece captain Vasilis Torosidis said: "We lost to a weaker team that played better than us. I don't know how to summarise our performance. Non-existent, unacceptable?"

• Greece had won both of the nations' previous meetings, with a 5-1 away success and 5-0 triumph at home bookending their EURO '96 qualifying campaign.

• In the first of those encounters, on 7 September 1994, Jan Allan Müller (88) belatedly struck back for Allan Simonsen's Faroe Islands side after Konstantinos Polychroniou's team had taken a 5-0 lead through Dimitrios Saravakos (11), Panagiotis Tsalouchidis (17, 86) and Alexios Alexandris (54, 61).

• There was to be no consolation goal in Heraklion on 15 November 1995, however, with Alexandris (59), Demis Nikolaidis (62), Nikos Machlas (66), Georgios Donis (76) and Vasilis Tsiartas (80) all on target.

Form guide 
• The victory against Greece remains the Faroes' only success of the campaign, but they have conceded just seven goals in five Group F games to date, matching their best ever defensive performance at this stage of a qualifying campaign – they let in seven in their first five 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

• The win against Greece also brought the Faroes their only clean sheet in their last 18 competitive games.

• The Faroes' best ever defensive performance over the course of a whole campaign was in qualifying for UEFA EURO 2000, when they conceded 17 times in ten fixtures – an average of 1.7 per game. At the moment, they are conceding at a rate of 1.4 per match.

• The Faroes are without a win in eight competitive home contests (D1 L7) since a 2-0 success against Estonia on 7 June 2011.

• The Faroes have done the double over three sides in European qualifying campaigns: San Marino (EURO '96), Malta (1998 World Cup) and Luxembourg (2002 World Cup).

• Nikos Karelis's goal in Greece's 1-1 draw with Finland in Helsinki remains their only Group F strike; they have not scored in three qualifiers since, most recently recording a 0-0 draw with Hungary in their first outing under new coach Sergio Markarián.

• Greece are unbeaten in their last five away games in qualifying competitions (W2 D3).

Trivia and links 
• Greece have won all six of the nations' meetings in UEFA men's age-group competitions without conceding, averaging three goals a game at the other end.

• The only previous encounter between the nations' clubs came in the 1997 UEFA Intertoto Cup group stage, Panahaiki FC recording a 4-2 home victory against B36 Tórshavn.