Greek national football coach Otto Rehhagel, of Germany, has been forced to make two changes to the squad that took part in the match against Turkey last Saturday.

Giannis Amanatidis and Giourkas Seitaridis are out of the squad for the match against Malta, due to injuries. Both players were injured during the Greece-Turkey match on Saturday. Amanatidis had a fractured rib and Seitaridis pulled a hamstring. No replacements have been called for the Malta match.

Turkey lead Group C with 12 points from four games, followed by Greece with nine and Norway with six. Malta are fourth with four points.

Greece's players and coach Rehhagel faced rare criticism after Saturday's match. The German coach was accused of making insufficient changes to the 2004 line-up, resulting in a team with an average age of nearly 30.

Saturday's disappointing performance led to fan violence at the Stadium in Athens, with fans throwing broken flagpoles, plastic bottles and flares at Turkish players.

The Greek squad arrived yesterday in Malta and Rehhagel has with him 21 players, who are: Antonis Nikopolidis, Giorgos Anatolakis, Vassilis Torosodis (Olympiakos FC), Dimitris Papadopoulos, Dimitris Salpingidis, Loukas Vyntra, Giannis Goumas, Alexandros Tziolis (Panathinaikos FC), Nikos Lyberopoulos, Traianos Dellas (AEK FC), Kostas Chalkias (Aris FC), Fanis Gekas (Bochum VFL), Sotiris Kyrgiakos (Eintracht Frankfurt), Angelos Charisteas (Feyenoord), Giorgos Samaras (Manchester City FC), Takis Fyssas (Heart of Midlothian FC), Angelos Basinas (RCD Mallorca), Kostas Katsouranis, Giorgos Karagounis (SL Benfica), Stelios Giannakopoulos (Bolton Wanderers FC), Michalis Kapsis (APOEL FC).

On their arrival at the airport yesterday evening, the Greek contingent appeared to be nervous, especially because of their heavy 1-4 defeat at home against their rival neighbours Turkey last Saturday. They made no comments whatsoever.

German coach Rehhagel said that he was not understanding a question in English and moved on while Charisteas only managed to say that information will be given after today’s training session at Ta’ Qali which starts at 7pm and will only be open to the press for the first 15 minutes. The match tomorrow will be kicking off at 7.30pm).

The Greeks are accommodated at the SAS Radisson Bay Resort in St Julian’s.