Greece coach Fernando Santos on Tuesday named his 23-man squad for Euro 2012, leaving out two players he had taken for training in Austria.
Santos cut from his team two midfielders, 24-year-old Panagiotis Kone and 27-year-old Alexandros Tsiolis, who played every minute of Greece's three World Cup games two years ago.
Kone's departure was not a surprise, with Santos angry at the Bologna player for receiving a red card for punching an opponent near the end of the Greeks friendly match with Slovenia in Austria last weekend. The match finished 1-1.
Tsiolis, who plays for Monaco, was an unexpected cut as Santos chose to keep 19-year-old Kaiserslautern regular Kostas Fortounis, who has only two caps compared to 31 for Tsiolis.
Santos named five players from Greek champions Olympiakos, four from PAOK and three from Panathinaikos.
The team will train in Austria this week and have scheduled one final friendly before the Euro with Armenia on Thursday. They are set to leave for Poland on June 3.
Greece, shock winners of Euro 2004, open their Group A campaign against co-hosts Poland in Warsaw on June 8, followed by the Czech Republic in Wroclaw on June 12 and Russia back in Warsaw five days later.
Greece squad
Goalkeepers: Costas Chalkias (PAOK), Michalis Sifakis (Aris), Alexandros Tzorvas (Palermo/ITA)
Defenders: Vasilis Torosidis (Olympiakos), Avraam Papadopoulos (Olympiakos), Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Schalke/GER), Stelios Malezas (PAOK), Jose Holebas (Olympiakos), Giorgos Tzavellas (Monaco/FRA), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Werder Bremen/GER)
Midfielders: Grigoris Makos (AEK), Giannis Maniatis (Olympiakos), Kostas Katsouranis (Panathinaikos), Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos), Giorgos Fotakis (PAOK), Kostas Fortounis (Kaiserslautern/GER), Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos), Giannis Fetfatzidis (Olympiakos)
Forwards: Giorgos Samaras (Celtic/SCO), Dimitris Salpigidis (PAOK), Fanis Gekas (Samsunspor/TUR), Nikos Limberopoulos (AEK), Kostas Mitroglou (Atromitos)
Source: AFP
