Sokratis Papastathopoulos

Greece and former Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos has signed for Greek champion Olympiakos in a deal worth a reported 1.2 million euros ($1.46 million).

The contract the 32-year-old Papastathopoulos had at Arsenal was canceled by mutual consent last week after he made 69 appearances at the London club.

Greece paid for two lapses of defensive concentration in the second half to go down 2-0 to Italy in Rome, after a decent performance that could have merited a better result in this Euro 2020 qualifier on Saturday.

The drabbing by Italy last Saturday and above all Tuesday's 3-2 home loss to Armenia has split the Greece camp into two, as the coaching setup refuses to see reality and targeted captain Sokratis Papastathopoulos who stated the obvious, that the Euro 2020 campaign is all but over and extensive changes are needed in the national team.

A rather experimental Greece team lost 2-1 to Turkey on Thursday at a friendly game in Antalya, showing manager Angelos Anastasiadis has plenty of work to do to gear the national team up for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Italy and Armenia at home.

Greece will miss talismanic striker Costas Mitroglou in its key clash with Bosnia on Tuesday due to his injury in the game at Liechtenstein, but at least it will welcome back captain Sokratis Papastathopoulos.

Mitroglou picked up a leg injury that is ruling him out of the game at Zenica, so coach Angelos Anastasiadis has called up Panionios striker Fiorin Durmishaj to replace him.

Greece suffered a 1-0 friendly loss to Switzerland on Friday in its first match for 2018, going down at the Olympic Stadium of Athens to a team that will feature in this summer's World Cup.

The “time of the truth” has come for the Greek National Football Team, which is currently facing Croatia in the first match for the qualification rounds in the 2018 World Cup finals, with the rematch being held on Sunday night in Karaiskakis Stadium.

The first half didn’t start well for Greece which finds itself losing 2-0.

Greek centre-back Socratis Papastathopoulos is expected to be in the starting line-up of the national team for tonight’s crucial away 1st-leg knock out qualifier for the 2018 Russian World Cup finals against Croatia.

Greece central defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos remains doubtful for the national team's do-or-die play-offs with Croatia after the rather superficial injury that forced him out of last Saturday's Borussia Dortmund game. In view of this and the ban on Costas Manolas, coach Michael Skibbe has called up two more central defenders.

Belgium ended Greece's unbeaten run in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers on Sunday winning 2-1 in Piraeus.

The result means Greece has dropped to third at the table, one point behind Bosnia, while Belgium has qualified to the World Cup finals. Out of the two home games with Estonia and Belgium Greece has therefore collected just one point.