georgelaz

^ all the more proof that it's our midfield that needs work. Before, we mainly relied on Samaras, who's a quasi Striker / Midfielder that can create chances from nothing. Mitroglou is a overall better striker, but needs attacking mids to be effective, which Benfica has and Greece does too (but barely played in proper combos)

There's something magical going on at Leicester. I think the team chemistry as a collective unit is the secret.

agreed. I think Sokratis will be how John Terry is for England. Pretty much on top of his game at 35. he's a very robust defender. Kalamata pride :)

I only watched the highlights but statistically it looked like Olympiakos came to play. 50-50 possession. equal shots on target. Olympiakos could've popped in a few goals from the highlights. Indiye, Siovas, Fortounis all almost got a goal. Olympiakos also got more shots off in total than the Gunners. unfortunately, Arsenal proved to be more clinical.

Olympiakos has been improving their champions league game year by year. Arsenal & Bayern are very difficult teams to top off. If we were in Group H, C, or G the chance to qualify would be greater. Right now, Olympiakos is just a very strong group stage team. Anything above that is punching above our weight.

haven't seen oikonomou play, but Siovas did almost score a goal from a nice header.

i called this from the beggining. Arsenal was getting too much momentum. A few lucky bounces Olympiakos could've went through this game, styll. Arsenal is one of the best teams in the world. They are beatable, compared to Barcelona but they are a powerful team, the better team won today. At least it was Giroud scored the goals, he's so handsome lol.

the goal cushion olympiakos has makes this a relatively even match in terms of the group. could go either way. hopefully for oly arsenal beat bayern 2-0, which is alarming

I disagree, Oly outplayed Asteras big time. i agree that if that penalty wasn't awarded though, it might've been a different game. 0-0 or maybe even a late break for asteras but even if Asteras won, oly was dominating the match

why was there no fans for the game anyways? i didn't see how the penalty was awarded but I saw all the goals. (was at the gym while watching) it looked inevitable that olympiakos would break the score. they're simply at a significantly higher level than then the other superleague teams, even if most calls were made against them, I think they'd still dominate aek pao or paok (maybe not paok cause of savvidis?) probably couldn't afford olympiakos's current lineup if they tried

You're not seeing the analogy properly. I'm not comparing Germany to Pao. That would be stupid. I'm comparing a team who on paper should win, losing to a team that on paper, wasn't predicted to win. Not sure if you're doing that on purpose to win the argument but you're twisting the analogy in a way that it wasn't supposed to be perceived and used. Not sure which games you were watching, but iraklis did not outplay pao. they got the win of course, but outplaying is very generous statement, unless your definition is outplaying is simply getting the win. I think Pao were slightly unlucky to not get the win, but Iraklis weren't massively outclassed either, they played OK. I think PAOK & Pao will catch up and go a little higher than the current table. We aren't even half way through the season, a lot can happen. Panionios is probably punching above their weight right now, don't think it can be sustained all season. Aek is doing well as i predicted before the season start. i predicted they'd finish 3rd.

fortounis with a nice penalty kick and outside box goal (I think?) against asteras. I would rather Asteras have won, but atleast it was Fortounis who got the goals.

still 4th place to iraklis's 11th. Germany lost to Ireland too, can't say that Ireland knows more about the game than Germany because of one game. In a season sometimes you drop points to on paper weaker sides, that's why the game is played. I'm pretty confident pao will finish either 2nd or 3rd this season in the end.

I get that argument, but if he was so good wouldn't he be starting every game for PAO right now? Are the coaches that blind? they weren't blind for Ninis and he won a decent amount of NT caps at 25

^ ya mitroglou cracked open the score in the 6th minute for benfica in the derby cup game against sporting. sporting one it extra time 112 minute (2-1 final) http://sportyhighlights.com/sporting-cp-vs-benfica-2-1-highlights/ Mitroglou & Samaris celebrating the goal together with other Benfica players too

lol I would love to be proven wrong, but I'm pretty sure if Kaltsas, Velios, Giannou started and played a full 3 games they would all flop. they are playing exceptional for Veria, Iralkis, Asteras but if they played for the bigger teams, I don't think their talent would shine as bright. don't get me wrong, would LOVE to be proven wrong. would be nice to know that the other teams talent is real and not just because they're surrounded by mediocrity.

interesting, find any details about the reason why?

Paok were unlucky to not win. Qabala has been so lucky against Greek teams.

^ exactly. i think schibbe will find the best formula for greece, and once he does we will be a great force. his reading of what's effective seems decent from his improvements he made from Luxembourg to Turkey. I think he's getting close to perfecting our defense. Now he needs to find the perfect formula for our attack, which is obviously something close to our 4 goal hungary game

i agree. If mitroglou plays two or more consecutive games next campaign and is abysmall, Giannou deserves a chance. Provided Klaus continues his lackluster form this season. But I think mitroglou & klaus will find form by world cup qualifiers. giannou is probably our best 3rd choice is the aforementioned are playing shitty.

pretty sure Soviet Union won the first euro against Yugoslavia in the final. 1960. Spain won the one after that 1964

we have really good individual players, but finding a winning combination that's resilient to injuries has proven to be a great challenge! the answer lies somewhere between the 4-3 win against hungary lineup and the 0-0 with turkey lineup namely 3 cb's and 4 attacking mids perhaps? and iron dome at the back to let our creativity flourish going forward. both are crucial. we need a strong defense and strong offense to be competitive going forward. kpaps sokratis manolas -> mandatory at the back fortounis pelkas mantalos tachtsidis -> mandatory up front samaris mitroglou holebas karnezis -> to fill up the rest karelis, torosidis, ninis, siovas, kone -> prove very useful bench additions. ^ these are the positives we saw since the World Cup 2014 imO this seems to hint at 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 Karnezis Holebas - manolas Kpaps - Sokratis © Samaris Tachtsidis Pelkas Fortounis mantalos Mitroglou 1. Holebas can launch forward with no worries as we have 3 top cb's and Samaris can even patch up his space 2. we have many offensive outlets to creatively confuse the opposition. 3. it's based on the few positive things we've seen according to current NT and club form. 4. what do you know! karnezis is the oldest starting 11, at 30! This is how it should be! Captain Sokratis Schibbe seems smart, he'll likely find something similar to this through tweaking and investigation.

lol i have a bad feeling about the arsenal game. they're kicking up form in the last half of the group. with two comprehensive victories.

the 4-3-3 seems really nice as well holebas - manolas - sokratis - torosidis tachtsi Samaris Fortounis Ninis Kone Mitroglou the solution I think is more creativity in the midfield. Atleast 4 AM is the solution, not getting our CB's involved in the play. Because we don't have a SUPERSTAR in AM like Ronaldo, but we have depth in quality. Fortounis, Ninis, Kone, Tachtsi, Mantalos, Pelkas, Lazaros are all acceptable starting options. if anything, I think we can utilize kpaps or sokratis as a RB when Torosidis loses his legs completely. Not impressed with our RB options besides him. I'd be also down to even put maybe manolas and siovas on the left. so 4 cb but playing lb and rb respectively. Just an idea

most likely oly will get thrashed. I can see them taking heavy losses from Arsenal and Bayern and coming out 3rd. but it's for oly to F*** up. so hopefully arsenal chokes against dinamo or oly can get 1 point