Greece defeated Cyprus and Otto Rehhagel announced the EURO 2008 squad

In Patras, defending champion Greece got their Euro 2008 preparations off to a good start with a 2-0 friendly victory against Cyprus.

Greece dominated the game in front of 22,000 fans.18-year-old talent Sotiris Ninis was the best player and scored the opening goal in the fifth minute. Kostas Katsouranis scored the second in the 60th minute from a penalty shot.

Coach Otto Rehhagel gave six under-21 players a chance to play as several first team regulars were missing from the squad.

After the match, Rehhagel named the provisional EURO 2008 Squad including 24 players. Six of them are from Panathinaikos and four from Olympiakos. Greece will be playing a friendly match against Hungary in Budapest before training in Germany.

Greece Squad

Goalkeepers: Antonis Nikopolidis (Olympiakos) Costas Chalkias (Aris), Alexandros Tzorvas (OFI)

Defenders: Nikos Spyropoulos (Panathinaikos), Loukas Vintra (Panathinaikos), Giannis Goumas (Panathinaikos), Paraskevas Antzas (Olympiakos), Vassilis Torossidis (Olympiakos), Christos Patsatzoglou (Olympiakos), Traianos Dellas (AEK Athens), Socratis Papastathopoulos (AEK Athens), Giourkas Seitaridis (Atletico Madrid), Sotiris Kyrgiakos (Eintracht Frankfurt).

Midfielders: Angelos Basinas (Mallorca) Georgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos), Alexandros Tziolis (Panathinaikos), Stelios Giannakopoulos (Bolton Wanderers), Costas Katsouranis (Benfica).

Forwards: Angelos Charisteas (Nurnberg), Fanis Gekas (Bayer Leverkusen), Georgos Samaras (Celtic), Dimitris Salpigidis (Panathinaikos), Nikos Liberopoulos (AEK Athens), Ioannis Amanatidis (Eintracht Frankfurt).