Jose Holebas represented a nation where a club owner armed with a pistol once staged a personal pitch invasion, and where women's volleyball fixtures occasionally spark riots. No wonder, then, that the Greek international appears to find life at Watford a little sedate.

The 34-year-old is expected to appear on the left side of the Hornets' defence in Sunday's FA Cup semi-final with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Should Javi Gracia's side progress Holebas can look forward to appearing in the third cup final of his career having helped Olympiakos lift the Greek equivalent in 2012 and again in 2013. Whatever happens at Wembley, though, is unlikely to remind him of those times in Athens.

"There they live football in a different way to England," he said. "The stadiums are really quiet here in England if I'm really honest. In Greece it is different; in some stadiums you can't even hear your own words, especially Olympiakos, Panathanaikos, AEK - the really big clubs over there."

How would he describe a Greek semi-final? "There the atmosphere would be on fire," he says and there is a quick check to see if he means it literally. After all, earlier this season Panathinaikos fans set fire to a cloth banner during a derby with Olympiacos that required the intervention of police officers with teargas.