Georgios Samaras helped Greece defy the odds to knock Russia out of Euro 2012 last night.
Playing as a sole striker Samaras attracted widespread praise from the television pundits who had heavily criticised his performance in the opening match against Poland.
Typically Samaras failed to score and it seems that his performances draw most praise when he’s not scoring- with one very obvious exception.
“We are proud that we gave the people back home some joy and a break from their problems even for a short while,” he said after the match.
“We did very well defensively, but the will we had was the main thing. That stopped them from scoring goals.”
Throughout his four and a half seasons at Celtic, supporters have been split over the players worth with Neil Lennon appearing to find a solution last season at Celtic by playing Samaras wide on the left.
The 2012 version of Samaras bears little resemblence to the free scoring young striker that Manchester City shelled out £6m to sign in from Heerenveen in January 2006.
Eight Premiership goals in 28 starts and 27 substitute appearances saw him send out on loan to Celtic two years later with few tears shed by the City support.
Those stats contrasted with the 25 goals that he had netted in 88 games for Heerenveen since making his debut as an 18-year-old.
With 7 goals from 57 international appearances Samaras’ place in the international side isn’t down to his scoring stats but with a place in the last eight of Euro 2012 to look forward to the current season will go down as the most satisfying in the 27-year-old’s career.
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that game was a prime example of what Samaras can do for a team, powerful running and ball retention when needed
only thing that annoys me when they bang on about him only scoring 4 goals is it glossed over that he played left wing and had a nice bundle of assists