Greece's Mitroglou on the bench, veteran Gekas to start

BELO HORIZONTE Brazil (Reuters) - Greece striker Kostas Mitroglou was left on the bench for their World Cup Group C opener against Colombia on Saturday, with coach Fernando Santos opting to deploy 34-year-old former Bundesliga top scorer Fanis Gekas.





Mitroglou, who has hardly played this year after a Greek record 15 million euro ($20.4 million)(12.02 million pounds) move to Fulham but was instrumental in leading his team to the finals, has only recently recovered from a knee injury.

Colombia coach Jose Pekerman picked Teofilo Gutierrez to replace injured forward Radamel Falcao, who will be watching from the stands.

Gutierrez is joined by Victor Ibarbo up front as the South Americans seek to kick off their campaign with a win.





(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Editing by Nigel Hunt)


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