Greece coach Fernando Santos on Friday recalled veteran strike duo Fanis Gekas and Angelos Charisteas for the Euro 2012 Group F qualifiers at home against Croatia (October 7) and in Georgia (October 11).
Eintracht Frankfurt's Gekas, who is a former leading scorer in both the Greek Super League and in the Bundesliga, had announced his international retirement last year, but made himself again available this month.
He has been capped 52 times and has scored 20 goals.
Charisteas is best known for scoring the winning goal against Portugal when Greece won Euro 2004 and last played for the national team in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.
He is the second leading scorer of all time in the Greek squad with 24 goals in 85 contests.
Croatia currently lead the group with 19 points, one ahead of Greece with just the group winners guaranteed a place in the finals.
"It will be a difficult match but we will have the advantage of playing at home," said Santos. "The only result for us is a win which will move us closer to qualification."
Squad
Goalkeepers: Alexandros Tzorvas (Palermo/ITA), Dionisis Chiotis (APOEL/CYP)
Defenders: Loukas Vyntras, Nikos Spyropoulos (both Panathinakos) Vasilis Torosidis, Avraam Papadopoulos, Giannis Zaradoukas (all Olympiakos), Athanasios Petsos (Kaiserslautern/GER), Socrates Papastathopoulos (Werder Bremen/GER), Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Schalke 04/GER)
Midfielders: Kostas Katsouranis, Giorgos Karagounis (both Panathinaikos), Grigoris Makos (AEK Athens), Giorgos Fotakis (PAOK Salonica), Alexandros Tziolis (Racing Santander/ESP), Panayiotis Kone (Bologna/ITA)
Forwards: Giorgos Samaras (Celtic/SCO), Dimitris Salpigidis, Stefanos Athanasiadis (both PAOK), Angelos Charisteas (Panetolikos), Fanis Gekas (Eintracht Frankfurt/GER)
Source: AFP
