Before the 'record' button was hit on this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast, former Ireland international Keith Treacy brought up the head-to-head stat between the Boys in Green and Greece.
As it turns out, meetings between the men's teams have been curiously rare and all have been non-competitive. The last one was back in November 2012 and the first in April 2000, with just one other match in between.
That November 2002 friendly was the first game after Mick McCarthy's exit as manager and ending in a goalless draw, it was the only time Greece have failed to beat Ireland.
It came at a time when Greek football was on the cusp of its greatest feat. Less than two years later they would shock world football by winning Euro 2004.
And that triumph is the basis of a book by Greek football journalist and broadcaster Vasilis Sambrakos, titled The Miracle: The Football Team That Shocked The World, offering a brilliant insight into the small details that led Greece to one of sport's most unexpected outcomes.
With Stephen Kenny's Ireland in Athens for a crucial Euro 2024 qualifier on Friday - live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player - Sambrakos joined us from the Greek capital on this week's podcast to discuss the legacy of Euro 2004 and to shed light on what the Irish squad can expect against Gus Poyet's team.
Watch the full interview with Vasilis Sambrakos from the 25:30 mark:
As he outlined, Greece's decade-long golden era sparked by the Euro 2004 win and bookended by reaching the 2014 World Cup knockout stages, has been followed by more of a dark age which has run for nine years.
Explaining how Greek football fans generally hold their big clubs, Olympiacos, AEK Athens, Panathinaikos and PAOK, in higher regard than the national team, there is a general sense of apathy before Ireland visit their capital where the game will be held in AEK's relatively new stadium which they have only played at once as a national side.
"They don't follow the news about the national team. That's why you will see that media outlets don't have many words about them. It's like nobody really cares about the national team and that is one of the biggest problems they have in Greece that people don't care about the national team," Sambrakos said.
"That's why the national team don't have facilities, they don't have a preparation centre, they don't own anything, although they did something like that in 2004. We didn't learn anything out of that."
Back in the early 2000s, then-manager Otto Rehhagel focused on building his team around players that were used to playing at Champions League level for their Greek sides or were based at clubs around Europe's big leagues.
But these days, much like Ireland, not too many Greek players feature regularly in Europe's elite competition, especially since Olympiacos were eliminated earlier than usual in the past season's qualifying rounds.
That has meant that former Chelsea player and ex-Brighton manager Poyet is putting the onus on the likes of Liverpool left-back Kostas Tsimikas to be the leaders within the asymmetric 4-3-3 system that Greece tend to employ.
"[Poyet] feels there is a very strong need for Greek players to play abroad, facing bigger clubs, better teams and a higher rhythm of the game," said Sambrakos, who also added that Greece's traditional big three plus PAOK don't have many domestic players, leading to another "difficulty" for the national team manager.
"He's saying that players like Tsimikas, they have to be [bigger] in the national team than they are in their clubs.
"He used the example of Tsimikas. He said this season in Liverpool, he didn't find his space but when he's coming in the national team, he's one of the most important players. So he needs players like Tsimikas to be something like leaders on the field."
Sambrakos added: "You can say there is a lack of, not experience, but awareness maybe. Maybe the players don't feel very comfortable in big matches when the opponent is not from Greece so this is one of the challenges."
Watch the full interview in which Sambrakos also runs through the likely Greek XI for Friday's match on the YouTube video player above or listen in below.
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Watch Greece v Republic of Ireland in the Euro 2024 qualifier on Friday night from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to live radio commentary with Game On on 2fm
