Greece–Turkey football rivalry

The Greece–Turkey football rivalry (Greek: Ποδοσφαιρική αντιπαλότητα Ελλάδας-Τουρκίας; Turkish: Türkiye-Yunanistan futbol rekabeti) is one of Europe's major rivalries between two national teams, Greece and Turkey.

Greece–Turkey football rivalry
Location of Greece (green) and Turkey (orange)
LocationEurope (UEFA)
Teams Greece
 Turkey
First meetingGreece 1–3 Turkey
Friendly
Athens
(23 April 1948)
Latest meetingTurkey 2–1 Greece
Friendly
Antalya
(30 May 2019)
Statistics
Meetings total14
Most wins Turkey (8)
All-time seriesGreece: 3
Drawn: 3
Turkey: 8
Largest victory Greece 1–4 Turkey
UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
Athens
(24 March 2007)

History

edit

Greece and Turkey have long-standing tensions throughout history.

The Ottoman Empire conquered most of Greece gradually in the 15th century. The Greek War of Independence broke out in 1821, overthrowing the Ottoman rule and became the first Balkan and European nation to set free themselves from the Turks.[1][2] By that time, the Greek identity was soon strengthened and a number of conflicts occurred between Turkey and Greece existed from the 1830s onward.

In 1919, with the collapse of the Ottoman state, Greece attempted to conquer Western Turkey, in their accordance to the Megali Idea, and both the Greeks and Turks caused atrocities on each other. Greeks ended up defeated by the Turks and were expelled back to Greece.[3] Efforts from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Eleftherios Venizelos helped establish official relations between Greece and Turkey.[4] The grievance, however, returned with the Cyprus dispute .

Due to historical grievances, Greece and Turkey have a heated rivalry, though less violent than Greece or Turkey's other rivalries.[5] Both teams are also described as "punching above their weights", due to their successes despite lack of competitive history in football.[6][7][8][9][10][11] Despite up-and-down in relations, so far, both Turkey and Greece only played one match in a neutral ground.

List of matches

edit
Number Date Location Competition Results Home scorers Away scorers
1 23 April 1948   Athens Friendly Greece 1–3 Turkey Kleanthis Vikelidis   70' Fikret Kırcan   9'
Lefter Küçükandonyadis   30'
Şükrü Gülesin   74'
2 27 November 1948   Istanbul Friendly Turkey 2-1 Greece Reha Eken   3', 19' Haralambos Filaktos   44'
3 16 May 1949   Athens Mediterranean Cup Greece 1–2 Turkey Xenofon Markopoulos   11' Gündüz Kılıç   33'
Bülent Esel   44'
4 29 February 1952 Mediterranean Cup Greece 3–1 Turkey Georgios Darivas   15', 44', 80' Şevket Yorulmaz   -'
5 16 May 1952   Istanbul Turkey 0–1 Greece None Ilias Papageorgiou   -'
6 24 September 1987   Latakia Mediterranean Games Turkey 1–0 Greece (a.e.t.) Orhan Görsen   94' None
7 21 September 1988   Istanbul Friendly Turkey 3–1 Greece Tanju Çolak   9' (pen.)
Oğuz Çetin   41'
Rıdvan Dilmen   68'
Nikos Anastopoulos   39'
8 29 March 1989   Athens Friendly Greece 0–1 Turkey None Rıdvan Dilmen   38'
9 8 September 2004   Piraeus 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification Greece 0–0 Turkey None None
10 4 June 2005   Istanbul Turkey 0–0 Greece None None
11 24 March 2007   Athens UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Greece 1–4 Turkey Sotiris Kyrgiakos   5' Tuncay Şanlı   27'
Gökhan Ünal   55'
Tümer Metin   70'
Gökdeniz Karadeniz   81'
12 17 October 2007   Istanbul Turkey 0–1 Greece None Ioannis Amanatidis   79'
13 17 November 2015 Friendly Turkey 0–0 Greece None None
14 30 May 2019   Antalya Friendly Turkey 2–1 Greece Cengiz Ünder   11'
Kenan Karaman   17'
Dimitris Kourbelis   90+3'

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "History of Greece: The Ottoman or Turkish Period".
  2. ^ "History of Greece:The Revolution to the 20th Century".
  3. ^ "The Turkish-Greek conflict (1919-1923) - ICRC". 25 January 2005.
  4. ^ "From Ataturk to Venizelos". 21 March 2016.
  5. ^ "Tension rises as Turkey, Greece voice festering grievances". AP NEWS. 2022-09-06. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  6. ^ Archer, Kyle (2022-09-23). "Emre Belozoglu and Turkey got 3rd at 2002 World Cup but have not qualified since". HITC. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  7. ^ "Turkey Takes Third Place With Win Over South Korea". The New York Times. Reuters. 2002-06-29. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  8. ^ Kokkinidis, Tasos (2022-07-04). "July 4, 2004: When Greece Stunned the World to Win Euro 2004". GreekReporter.com. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  9. ^ Ames, Nick (2021-07-05). "'We wanted to finish the miracle': how Greece won Euro 2004 against all odds". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  10. ^ "Inside Greece's stunning Euro 2004". ESPN.com. 2016-05-31. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  11. ^ Potter, Chris. "Euro 2008: Turkey Holds Their Nerves to Reach Semi-Finals". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2023-02-18.