SPORTS

Greece draws Colombia, Ivory Coast and Japan for the World Cup

The Greek national soccer team will face the might of Colombia, as well as Ivory Coast and Japan in the finals of the 2014 World Cup in June, according to the draw conducted on Friday at Bahia in Brazil.

The schedule of the finals is sending Greece to face the seeded team of Group C, Colombia on June 14 at Belo Horizonte. The Greeks will then play Japan at Natal on June 19 before ending the group stage against the Ivory Coast on June 24 at Fortaleza.

The top two teams of each group advance to the knock-out stages of the competition.

The group is fairly balanced, with none of the teams ever having played in the semifinals of the tournament.

The first reaction to the draw from the Greece internationals came from left-back Giorgos Tzavellas, who said that “all three teams are difficult, but not the worst possible scenario for us. We will have to see them first, they have remarkable players, especially Colombia, but we should not be afraid of them.”

Defensive midfielder Alexandros Tziolis qualified the group as “difficult, as we know little of the teams because they are not from our continent, but we have our chances for qualifying.”

Greece was represented at the draw by national team coach Fernando Santos, national teams’ director Takis Fyssas and soccer federation president Giorgos Sarris.

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