The only team to have a perfect record through qualifying and through the group stages is Germany. They added three wins to in the group stages to the ten they had amassed in their qualifying campaign. Joachim Loew has made incredibly brave decisions in the group stages, all of which so far have paid off.

The story for Greece is different. With one point to their name after the first two matches, very few believed that Greece would qualify. Russia’s profligacy aided their cause undoubtedly but Greece also had to score- their captain Giorgos Karagounis got the goal out of an almost ‘nothing’ situation. A throw opened up the Russian defence to allow the Greeks to score.

As far as suspensions are concerned, Germany already dealt with theirs in the group stages. Jerome Boateng was suspended against Denmark. His deputy, Lars Bender’s performance was fantastic and his winning goal just made his ninth appearance for his country all the more memorable.

For Greece, their leader incurred a suspension due to a yellow card against Russia. He will now miss the quarter-finals. He is perhaps his side’s best player. The Greeks might decide to shift the 20 year old Kyriakos Papadopoulos into midfield to cover for their captain’s absence.

Despite their perfect record, the Germans do have flaws. They are best when counter-attacking but few teams dare to attack the Germans freely to prevent getting drubbed as England and Argentina did in 2010. Germany has had to play the patience game and has started to resemble Bayern. Considering there are eight players from Bayern, seven of whom start every match, this isn’t a surprise.

In terms of pace and strength, Germany is not lacking. Both their wingers, Thomas Mueller and Lukas Podolski are fast and strong. However, in terms of finesse, only Mesut Oezil, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Philipp Lahm stand out aside from Toni Kroos and Mario Goetze who are on the bench.

Joachim Loew will have another decision on his hands regarding who he should start up front. Mario Gomez started with a blast but simply oozed out against Denmark. His performance was reminiscent of his recent performances for Bayern which cost the Munich players a title or two. Miroslav Klose makes Oezil a better performer; the Madrid man’s decreased influence is evident on the pitch.

Greece is an extremely difficult side to break-down. The German attackers have missed some easy chances in front of goal. Joachim Loew spoke about the difficulty of playing a side like Greece and pointed this out exactly. Greece can grab goals through the likes of Dimitris Salpingidis and Georgios Samaras on the counter-attack. Germany has looked quite vulnerable on counters. Also, Germany has a tendency to concede headed goals. Fernando Santos surely noticed that.

In theory this clash could be one sided. On the pitch, it will be anything but. The tie will swing in Greece’s favour if the score is 0-0 for too long. Germany will come out with all guns blazing- but Greece, who have never before beaten their opponents, will be looking to knock out one of the two tournament favourites.

Will Germany blast Greece away? Or will the Greeks spring a surprise? We will find out tomorrow as the Euros head into the do or die stages.