With the mammoth task of facing a country that appears to grow great players on trees, Greece go into their final Group B clash with Argentina on Tuesday knowing they have nothing to lose.
"They say that in Argentina and Brazil great players grow on trees," coach Otto Rehhagel said at the prospect of facing a virtual Argentina reserve side with almost as much talent as Diego Maradona's first-choice team.
"Tomorrow we have a big game against Argentina, all world class players, and we have nothing to lose," the German told a news conference ahead of the match in the northern South African city of Polokwane.
Greece will need a shock of similar proportions to their European Championship title in Portugal in 2004 to reach the second round.
Argentina lead the group with six points after beating Nigeria and South Korea, who are second by a marginally superior goal difference to Greece. South Korea face Nigeria in Durban on Tuesday.
Greece achieved their first ever World Cup win when they came from a goal down to beat 10-man Nigeria 2-1 last week.
Rehhagel recognised that Lionel Messi was Greece's chief concern but also pointed to the fact that Argentina had the luxury of being able to rest Carlos Tevez and replace him with Diego Milito, the player who downed Bayern Munich in the Champions League final.
"We're not going to say how we'll try to stop Messi, that would be to give away secrets ... No-one has successfully controlled him 100 per cent," Rehhagel said.
"We must try to find the right way to hold our own," he said.
"We'll have to judge from the bench how we are doing. We don't want to have any regrets," he added.
