The two sides go into Wednesday¡¯s quarter-final showdown at the FIBA world Championship in Japan just one year after a French defeat to Greece in the EuroBasket semi-finals.

Greece trailed by a big margin the final minute in Belgrade but fought back and clinched an improbable win with a Dimitris Diamantidis three-pointer in the final seconds.

The Greeks then beat Germany in the gold medal game, while France had to settle for a bronze-medal triumph over Spain.

In Japan, France have suffered adversity with a broken finger ruling point guard and international superstar Tony Parker out of the tournament, but they have managed to reach the last eight.

Greece, meanwhile, look a much tougher side with 2.06m man mountain Sofoklis Schortsianitis now coming off the bench when center Lazaros Papadopoulos needs a breather.

Missing, however, is zone-buster Nikos Zisis, who broke three bones in his face in Greece¡¯s Group C triumph over Brazil and will not play again for at least six weeks.

His absence has created more opportunities for Panayotis Vassilopoulos, a 2.03m power forward.

Vassilopoulos made both of his shots from the arc against China in the eight-finals.

Konstantinos Tsartsaris, the Greek power forward, said: "We are in the quarter-finals, but we want to achieve more than that.

¡°We need to beat France before that. France is a very good team, but they miss Parker and that's a big loss for them.

¡°They play like a team, and there's no specific player there to focus on, maybe only (Boris) Diaw. I believe we can win and make it to the semi-finals."

France know they will be in for a battle and with that in mind, coach Claude Bergeaud gave Johan Petro and Mickael Gelabale Monday off.

¡°It will be our most difficult game of this competition,¡± predicted France forward Florent Pietrus.

¡°The two teams match up very well and this will be a very defensive-minded game. It¡¯s going to come down to who can keep up the intensity the longest. That team will win.¡±

After getting revenge, Pietrus insisted: ¡°We have to put it at the back of our mind so that we don't take away from this game and what it means. This is not the same as last year in many ways.¡±