The players
Star man
Kostas Mitroglou is the likeliest source of goals, which may come as a surprise to Fulham fans wondering if he is merely a figment of their imagination. The striker, who has played 153 minutes of football since moving to London in January, was in exceptional form during the play-off against Romania, scoring three times over the two legs. Not that Felix Magath cares.
One for the Premier League
Liverpool fans have probably grown tired of the free-jazz approach to defending taken by their squad, so could they revive a move for Kyriakos Papadopoulos? They were in for the Schalke defender last summer, although he has had problems with his knees and his temper.
The bad boy
Theofanis Gekas was signed by Tony Adams for Portsmouth in 2009 and there can be no higher praise than that. But the striker is not shy of falling out with managers and retired from international football in 2010, citing "special circumstances inside the team". He realised he'd made a mistake a year later, though, and returned to the fold under Fernando Santos.
The weakest link
Greece's lack of goals undid their fine defensive work during qualifying, with just 12 goals – including 1-0 and 2-0 wins over Liechtenstein – suggesting that Greeks are no better at breaking through well-organised defences than in the old hide-inside-a-wooden-horse days.
The coach
Chain-smoking Santos may be Portuguese but he knows Greek football inside out and has a degree as an electrical and telecommunications engineer, so shouldn't have much problem getting his message across to his players. Also bears a passing resemblance to The Sopranos antagonist Phil Leotardo.
Tactics
Greece's style, or lack thereof, has not won them many friends, not that they cared about people liking them when they bored their way to Euro 2004 glory under Otto Rehhagel, an Allardycian results-oriented coach with a predilection for positioning buses in front of goals. Santos is happy to veer between 4-5-1 and 4-3-3 formations and Greece remain strong defensively, conceding only four goals in qualifying. Yet Bosnia, who topped their group, scored 30 goals to Greece's 12, a weakness Santos may wish to address. Though obviously that's what Georgios Samaras is for.
Grudge match
Old rivals Turkey haven't qualified, and even older rivals, the Trojans, are yet to make their long-awaited comeback, which means that Greece are going to have to be inventive in their search for some needle. They did make Cristiano Ronaldo cry when they beat Portugal in the final of Euro 2004, so that's a start, while much of the buildup to their quarter-final against Germany at Euro 2012 was given over to Clever People talking about the economy. Greece will hope not to get merked by Merkel again.
Holed up
The general manager of the Radisson in Aracaju said it was "an honour and a challenge" for his hotel to welcome the Greeks, requiring "only a few adaptations" for which they were "almost 100% prepared". The players will train at the Lourival Baptista Stadium, which is due to be fully completed in August. "They only wanted the pitch, the changing rooms and the floodlights to be ready," said the local tourism minister, Elber Batalha. The local airport is currently being renovated, a process scheduled to end in 2015. Still, there's a nice beach.