Greece facing Dutch diamond

By Berend Scholten & Paris Ayiomamitis

With less than seven weeks remaining before their opening UEFA EURO 2004™ fixture against Germany, Netherlands coach Dick Advocaat is ready to experiment with a new system of playing.

Diamond shape
Rather than his usual 4-3-3, Advocaat will try out a diamond-shaped midfield with two strikers leading the attack against Greece in Eindhoven on Wednesday. "In the past we have not created too many chances in our standard 4-3-3 system with wide attackers," Advocaat said, explaining his decision.

'Dangerous system'
"There are top European teams like FC Porto, [AS] Monaco [FC] and AC Milan who play like this nowadays and when you have the right players, it can be a very dangerous system. I think we have the players for it and we still have time to get used to this system." Milan midfield player Clarence Seedorf could be one beneficiary of the switch, although he faces competition for the playmaker's role from Mark van Bommel and Wesley Sneijder.

Strikers
Another reason, according to Advocaat, was his wish to employ two of his strikers. With Ruud van Nistelrooij, Patrick Kluivert, Roy Makaay and Pierre van Hooijdonk all expected to travel to Portugal, the coach feels "it is a pity only to use one of them".

Absentee list
Although Kluivert is fit again and likely to start, there will be no Van Nistelrooij against Greece, with the Manchester United FC striker on the absentee list along with Andy van der Meyde, Edgar Davids and Philip Cocu. The late addition of Manchester City FC midfield player Paul Bosvelt to the squad leaves Advocaat with a squad of 18.

'Excellent team'
Advocaat expects a difficult match against "an excellent team" unbeaten in 15 matches. His counterpart, Otto Rehhagel, said much the same, describing the Dutch as "a tough opponent" and "the sort of team we will be up against in Portugal".

Focus on defence
The 53-year-old German said he was keen to see a sound defensive display from his Greek side in Eindhoven: "Especially for this game, I will tell my players to be careful and to block the free-flowing football the Dutch play, so that we don't suffer the same fate as Scotland who conceded six goals."

No fears
That said, Greece have conceded just one goal in their last three friendlies against Portugal, Bulgaria and Switzerland, and - as Panathinaikos FC striker Dimitrios Papadopoulos asserted on Monday - "have proved we can play against anyone". Still, it has not stopped the Greek media building up the friendly as a "crash test" against the side who ended France's 14-match winning streak with a goalless draw in Rotterdam last month.

Kapsis missing
For this match, Greece are missing AEK Athens FC defender Mihalis Kapsis who picked up a muscle injury last weekend but Rehhagel does welcome back Olympiacos CFP left-back Stylianos Venetidis and FC Internazionale midfield player Giorgios Karagounis. Both are fully fit after recovering from injury problems and are expected to figure in a team otherwise little changed from the one that beat Switzerland 1-0 last month.