Romania are without Tottenham Hotspur defender Vlad Chiriches and veteran striker Adrian Mutu for the first leg of their World Cup qualifying playoff with Greece tonight.

Chiriches suffered a broken nose in Spurs' 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United last weekend, so Florin Gardos comes in to fill the void left by Romania's skipper at centre-back.

Bogdan Stancu takes on the captain's armband and starts up front alongside Getafe forward Ciprian Marica in an attacking lineup selected by visiting manager Victor Piturca, who drops Mutu to the bench.

West Ham United's Romanian left-back Razvan Rat is the only Premier League representative in either team, but Greece do include Celtic forward Georgios Samaras in their starting XI.

Borussia Dortmund defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos is without his usual centre-back partner and Bundesliga colleague, Kyriakos Papadopoulos of Schalke, who is absent through injury.

PAOK midfielder Kostas Katsouranis, who has over 100 international caps, captains the hosts in Athens.

Greece: Karnezis; Holebas, Torosidis, Papastathopoulos, Siovas; Maniatis, Katsouranis, Tziolis, Mitroglou, Samaras, Salpingidis

Romania: Lobont; Goian, Matel, Gardos, Rat; Cocis, Torje, Tanase, Bourceanu; Marica, Stancu