Greece bolstered by rising talents

A player with 270 minutes UEFA Champions League experience will form the bedrock of Greece's bid to pip Italy, Croatia and Sweden to the UEFA European Under-19 Championship finals.

Young stars
Greece stage Elite round Group 2 and coach Nikolaos Nioplias, who played in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, has called up AEK Athens FC central defender Socratis Papastathopoulos. An U21 international, Papastathopoulos played in three of AEK's UEFA Champions League games this season including the 1-0 defeat of AC Milan. Nioplias, Greece coach when they qualified for the U19 finals in 2005, also has Panathinaikos FC right-winger Sotirios Ninis, who made his top-flight debut in January while still 16 and has scored three Super League goals, including a spectacular long-range effort against AEK.

'Fair chance'
Nioplias said: "Apart from an injury to Vassilios Pliatsikas, an important player for us, we haven't any other significant problems. Our aim is to qualify for the final tournament and I believe we have a fair chance of achieving it." His team, who defeated Ukraine and Bulgaria but lost to Kazakhstan in a tight qualifying round group, prepared with a 2-1 win against Kallithea FC and 5-2 defeat of PAOK FC reserves.

Azzurrini ability
Their first two opponents, Italy and Croatia, met in the U17 third-place match two years ago and both teams have important survivors from that tournament. Italy, who won 2-1 in extra time to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, retain S.S. Lazio defender Lorenzo De Silvestri among others and have the same coach, Francesco Rocca, who has called up Fernando Forestieri after the Argentina-born prodigy's starring role for Genoa 1893 this season. Rocca said: "My team is a mix of U18 and U19 players, a group of very good lads who are working with great commitment." They have already proved their worth in a warm-up tournament last October by beating Austria and holding England and Spain to finish first.

Kalinić out
While Croatia can call on the likes of defender Dejan Lovren from their talented 2005 U17 generation, injury means they will be without striker Nikola Kalinić, the top scorer in that tournament two years ago who added four more to his UEFA competition tally in this season's qualifying round. Fellow forward Tomislav Šorša is also just back in training. "We don't have class individuals so we have to work as a team and that's the only way to get a decent outcome," said coach Ivica Grjna. "We couldn't get a harder group. Italy are definitely favourites, but Greece have a very good team. Sweden are also always difficult opponents." This year Croatia have played Hungary twice, winning 2-1 and drawing 0-0, before 1-1 draws against finals hosts Austria and Switzerland.

Swedish prospects
Sweden beat the Faroe Islands and Iceland and lost to Poland in the last stage before two recent friendly draws with Slovakia, and coach Ulf Svensson will hope Rasmus Elm can perform as well for the national side as he has for Kalmar FF in recent weeks. IF Elfsborg striker Denni Avdic and Blackburn Rovers FC left-back Martin Olsson are also fine prospects. "We've had our share of injuries but overall it's looking good," Svensson said. "The season has just started and many players are on their way to top form."

Additional reporting by Paolo Menicucci, Elvir Islamović & Jan Juhlin