It looks set to be the ultimate grudge match. Germany may be threatening Greece with exit from the euro, but the debt-stricken country now has an unexpected opportunity for revenge against its biggest and most critical creditor – by knocking its football team out of Euro 2012.

After Greece's surprise win against Russia on Saturday night and Germany's 2-1 victory over Denmark in the European championships, the two countries will now face each other in a quarter-final on Friday. Given the tensions, the prospect has filled Greeks with hope that, on the football pitch at least, they will be able to come out on top.

"Bring us Merkel," demanded Goal News after the defeat of Russia. "You will never get Greece out of the euro." The German chancellor was also the subject of various bellicose chants in Omonia Square on Saturday night, when football fans bedecked in blue and white and waving flags descended into the centre of Athens and indulged in a brief outpouring of national pride.

Captain Giorgos Karagounis, star of Greece's legendary 2004 championship victors and scorer of Saturday's winning goal, said the country's debt woes had encouraged the players to perform on the pitch. "When we left Greece, we all said, 'Really give it everything,'" he told reporters. "We would have anyway, but the [hardship] made us fight more." Twitter was awash with jokes ahead of the piquant Friday showdown. "If Greece get Germany in the quarter-finals, will Angela Merkel try to tell the Greeks how many goals they have to concede?" wondered @Nndroid.