Greece–Turkey football rivalry

Greece–Turkey football rivalry

Location of Greece (green) and Turkey (orange)
Location	Europe (UEFA)
Teams	Greece  Turkey
First meeting	Greece 1–3 Turkey Friendly Athens (23 April 1948)
Latest meeting	Turkey 2–1 Greece Friendly Antalya (30 May 2019)
Statistics
Meetings total	14
Most wins	Turkey (8)
All-time series	Greece: 3 Drawn: 3 Turkey: 8
Largest victory	Greece 1–4 Turkey UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Athens (24 March 2007)

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.

History

Main article: Greco-Turkish War (disambiguation)

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

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

• Greece–Turkey relations

References

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.