Greece

The 2004 European champions kicked off the tournament with a battling 1-1 draw against co-hosts Poland but were then beaten 2-1 by the Czech Republic and are really up against it to qualify for the last eight.

Fernando Santos’ side (4/1- Match Prices) paid for two poor first-half performances in those games and they cannot afford a repeat when they take on Russia (8/11) on Saturday.

They were expected to be a side difficult to break down in the tournament and therefore hard to beat, as in 2004, but they conceded within the first 20 minutes against Poland before going two down to the Czechs inside the first six minutes.

They did improve in both games, with a spirited second-half display against Poland when down to 10 men the highlight, but Santos’ ageing side look too short of quality to hurt Russia. They rely too much on playmaker Giorgos Karagounis but when he gets over-run in midfield there is little to fall back on.

Losing first-choice central defenders Avraam Papadopoulos and Sokratis Papastathopoulos for the Czech Republic game clearly did not help their cause at the back and, while the latter returns from suspension on Saturday, Russia still have too much firepower for them.

Dick Advocaat’s men tore the Czechs apart in their first game, winning 4-1, and have a potential player of the tournament in Alan Dzagoev. His three goals so far leaves him joint top of the goalscoring chart in the competition and he will fancy his chances of more against the leaky Greece rearguard. Back him at 2/1 to score anytime.

Elsewhere, Andrey Arshavin has looked much more like the player Arsene Wenger paid all that money for a couple of years ago, providing the inspiration and ingenuity from just behind the forwards to unlock defences, while Alexander Kerzhakhov is also an all-round threat.

They are solid at the back with Sergei Ignashevich and Yuri Zhirkov excelling so another convincing victory is likely in this one.

Russia HT/FT at 8/5 looks a good bet too, while 3-0 in the correct score market appeals at 12/1 as Advocaat’s men power on to send Greece packing.

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Gonzalo Higuain

The Real Madrid hitman leads the race for the Golden Boot after hitting a hat-trick against South Korea on Thursday, but he could be confined to bench duty Tuesday.

Argentina’s coach Maradona, who famously tinkered with his line-ups in qualifying to the extent that he used 78 different players, may now opt to give Sergio Aguero and Diego Milito a chance with Higuain and Carlos Tevez set to rest.

Lionel Messi, yet to score in the tournament, is another who could be taken out of the starting line-up for a match against the fired-up Greeks (5/1 to win in 90 Minutes, Argentina 4/7), who have the chance to reach the second phase after grabbing a 2-1 win over Nigeria.

After the South Korea match, Maradona spoke of his happiness at the strength of his 23-man squad, insisting that they were all great footballers.

“I have 23 beasts in this squad, I have 23 starters,” he said.

Spain’s David Villa is Totesport’s second favourite in the market at 11/1 alongside Diego Forlan, who is on two goals after his brace against South Africa.

Spain, who drew a blank against Switzerland in their opening game 1-0 defeat, take on Honduras next and will be keen to turn their overwhelming dominance of possession into goals against Reinaldo Rueda’s side.

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Greece

Vassilis Torosidis netted a 71st minute winner to secure a first ever World Cup victory for the Greeks.

Kalu Uche had given Nigeria the lead from a free-kick, but after Sani Kaita was sent off, Greece drew level through Dimitris Sapingidis.

Nigeria can still qualify for the round of 16 if they beat South Korea in their final group game and Argentina see off Greece.

“We started the game well, controlled the game, got the goal and then had a sending off. That caused us problems, especially in the first half,” Nigeria coach Lars Lagerback said after the match.

“The positive thing is that if Argentina win their game we still have a chance to qualify,” Lagerback said.

Greece coach Otto Rehhagel was delighted with the outcome.

“We are going to take on Argentina, a world class team. They will clearly be better than us and we have got to see how to cope with them,” he said.

“We all know the Argentine team is of extraordinary quality.”

Nigeria struck first, on 16 minutes, when Uche’s free-kick eluded everyone including goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas.

But in the 33rd minute Kaita was red carded for foolishly kicking out at Torosidis.

Rehhagel reacted by replacing defensive midfielder Socratis Papastathopoulos with striker Giorgos Samaras, who minutes later had a shot cleared off the line.

Salpingidis found space to drive home his country’s first ever World Cup goal with a 44th minute strike that deflected off Nigeria midfielder Haruna Lukman.

Nigeria substitute Chinedu Obasi missed an open goal after a swift counter-attack, but Greece went close again through Samaras before Torosidis stabbed home a second after Enyeama had spilled a low Alexandros Tziolis shot.

Russian-based Kaita apologised after the match for the incident which turned the game.

“I apologise to everyone. To the Nigerian people, the officials and my team mates,” the 24-year-old said.

“I accept the red card as a justified decision, I am very disappointed, I hope Argentina can help us out,” Kaita added.

Nigeria forward Nwankwo Kanu remained typically relaxed about his country’s chances.

“If you look at the table it is not really bad, but we need a win,” he told reporters.

“We cannot go for a draw, we have to go all out and make sure that we win and then it depends on what happens between Argentina and Greece.”

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