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Greece vs Sweden - Tuesday 10th June 2008 - Salzburg - KO @ 19:45 BST

After an interesting opening to the tournament, it is time for some bona fide underdogs to start pulling their weight.

Despite winning this tournament at long odds in 2004, Greece are a best priced 49/1 to repeat the feat over the next few weeks - not exactly
a vote of confidence in the Greeks!

It seems that general consensus dictates that 2004 was a one-off occurrence, and that lightning won't strike twice. The masses may well be right, and in all honesty
it would be a big surprise if the Greeks managed to get that far again, but nonetheless they will always be a tough team to beat.

Moreover, Greece has retained key personnel from their triumph in Euro 2004. Coach Otto Rehhagel was highly sought after post 2004, but has remained loyal to the cause.
Therefore, given that Greece will give most teams a tough time with their organised style of play, we should be confident backing them against teams who they have the potential to be frustrated in the technical battles around the pitch.

This brings us to the match against Sweden for their opening match in Group D in Salzburg . There is no doubt that Sweden has some talented players, but on the whole I think that they are a great match-up for Greece .

Sweden 's play will be funnelled towards the mercurial Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and this is where the Greeks differ to the Swedes. Whereas Sweden will tend to over-rely on Zlatan, there are few teams which embrace the 'all for one, one for all' team ethos as much as the Greeks.

I feel that if the Greeks can mark Zlatan out of the game, Sweden will struggle to break down their stubborn defence.

NJ's recommended bet: 3pts on Greece AH 0 vs Sweden @ 2.3 Betfair.com