Barca v. Panathinaikos

[PAO_OR_DEATH]

Oh, and it's official. I f-ing hate Barcelona now, and I f-ing hate Messi even more than before. B)

ela re, just now, prepare yourself to face the glory hunting barca fans,

we get slaughtered 5-1, but i have pride that i support a real team with die hard fanatics, not some bs over paid billion dollar club with millions of half arse pussy cowards who just want to follow a winning team ..

ELA gate 13 will set athens on fire for barca, this match will be avenged!!!!

PAO MOY S'AGAPAW

[Irlandos]

This team is unbeatable by any clubs we know back home. PAO should aim for 2nd place.

[PAO-1908]

Embarracing , but at least they went for goal in previous years they would play defensive soccer and it was boring so hopefully they will continue with their set program and defeat The Danish and Russian teams. A good lesson was learned by this match ,you cannot take the gas off the gas pedal.

[aekmafia21]

I freckin hate these british commentators completely jokingly ripped pao apart with there arrogant comments YES!!!! we know barca is great barca is spectacular

my wife was telling relax its not even your team it goes beyond what team u support discusting.

[cyberfish]

Yep, these games provide a gauge of where we stand in the world. We are just a middle of the pack team in Europe. Not a big deal but I can't stand watching these kinds of games where the other team has close to 80% ball possession.

Let's look at the positives:

- First game was the worst. Now we can start the CL groups

- We have established proper perspective where we stand in the world

- We only coped 5 (could have been 10)

- We get to laugh at Olympiakos fans who will act like their team would have done better.

No need to write more. Let this game be forgotten. We have a long season ahead and many important games.

[Euro2004]

I freckin hate these british commentators completely jokingly ripped pao apart with there arrogant comments YES!!!! we know barca is great barca is spectacular

my wife was telling relax its not even your team it goes beyond what team u support discusting.

Yeah the commentating was abysmally anti-Greek, again!

[aekmafia21]

Yep, these games provide a gauge of where we stand in the world. We are just a middle of the pack team in Europe. Not a big deal but I can't stand watching these kinds of games where the other team has close to 80% ball possession.

Let's look at the positives:

- First game was the worst. Now we can start the CL groups

- We have established proper perspective where we stand in the world

- We only coped 5 (could have been 10)

- We get to laugh at Olympiakos fans who will act like their team would have done better.

No need to write more. Let this game be forgotten. We have a long season ahead and many important games.

I completely understand were we stand in the pecking order but a little bit of proffesionallism i understand pao looked foolish out there no disrespect but enough with beating a dead hoese.

Pao will will finish 2nd no dought about it

[cyberfish]

what dead horse?

[Crazy]

5-1 instead of 10-0.Barca is in another level from all greek clubs but i am really looking forward to tomorrow greek press.

[drakos13]

Pao will will finish 2nd no dought about it

Dont rule Copenhagen out. They are NOT an easy team

True, Barcelona was in fantastic form, there was no winning. I am bothered, that we had the game at 3-1, and we let it get to 5-1.

Nioplias, in my mind acted like a jackass with his substitutions. The game was LOST. Ninis, Luis Garcia have no business stepping on the field ( I do NOT CARE ABOUT LUIS GARCIA'S HOMECOMING APPLAUSE, THATS NOT A REASON TO PUT AN ATTACKER IN WHEN WE NEED DEFENSE, SAME GOES WITH NINIS---- NO BUSINESS BEING BROUGHT ON EXCEPT FOR HIM TO MAKE AN APPEARANCE)

WHY defend a 3-1?? Because one, any idiot KNOWS this Barcelona team is in unbeleivable form and we can't get barely any possession, we were a universe away from actually finding 2 goals.

IF we some how screw up in the group stage, the GOAL DIFFERENCE will count against us in head to head. Nioplias, thought stupidly, that the game is lost, who cares if we cop more, let Luis Garcia get his homecoming and Ninis get his dream to play in Nou Camp and such BS.

I seriously doubt, that both FC Copenhagen and Rubin Kazan will suffer as bad as we did in Camp Nou. We can't count on it. a 3-1 would have been very respectbale result and reasonable -2 goal difference.

As for Barcelona, yeah --- theyre the best team in the world. Theyre at the point where missing a CL trophy every odd year really makes no difference because its so obvious nobody is better. They didnt win the CL last year, because they stupidly let Etoo leave and brought in Ibrahimovic who was never right for Barca, throw in a little bit of bad luck and that does it.

They were coming off a shock loss to HERCULES. We know there was trouble, and thats why they went at us even harder tonight.

Olympiakos would have lost 6 or 7-0, so they really shouldnt talk if they are. PAO's class up front allowed them to get a goal out of nothing. The PAO goal was actually quite nice, Govou's first goal and he finished big on the CL stage, and the heel flick, was actually one the best takounakia I've ever seen before.

[AEKPROTATHLIMA]

Well we all had expected a loss here for PAO. Yes maybe 5-1 is a bit mch but we can't compare our selfs to Barca. Greek soccer is waaaaaay behind!!! Good luck to you PAO on your next CL game.

[cyberfish]

my opinion is that we didn't have any cards that could have made a difference. Kara over Katsourani, or Nini over Leto, or whoever, would have made absolutely no difference. In terms of tactics, I don't see what we could have done to keep possession the way Barcelona pressed and swarmed the ball carrier. If we risked a high back line against such speedy and skilled forwards we could have broken Olympiakos' negative record. All out attack? forget it.

But I think we should have ran a lot more than we did. I am a little worried about our conditioning. My feeling is that endurance is suspect and explosive power is just not there. Barcelona players would trap the ball and take two quick steps before a green shirt could get near them. And then, they were gone before we could even get close to foul them. We'll see in the next few games.

I began worrying when Nioblias mentioned in the summer that we play friendlies to build endurance. Also, the way we were flying past opponents in these friendlies was fun but it could be a sign of light workouts. If the work wasn't done in the summer, we'll be looking at a very long season. I hope I am wrong.

[Alex1908]

Good point about the conditioning. I recognize Barca played a great game even by their high standards, and obviously we do not have the firepower/skills to match them, but a little more effort and focus could have saved us from the embarassing scoreline.

Did anyone watch on MEGA? Sotirakopoulos is my favorite commentator, Menios Sakellaropoulos a green cheerleader but they both basically spend the whole game admiring Barcelona...

[thrylos]

Olympiakos would have lost 6 or 7-0

Really? Did your simulator predict this?

Not saying the OSFP would have won, tied lost by less or by more, but a statement like that has no basis. Where is the evidence?

Saying that you doubt OSFP would have done better considering the form that Barca is in is one thing.

Come on guys.

PAO laid a stinker today. Barca is in a class no Greek team has ever come close to. They got beat by a better team. From the little I saw, PAO didn't really quit, they were just not at their level. If people expect Greek teams to win the Champions League, it is time to promote Greek youth and get all the teams stronger. PAO has competitive games against OSFP, AEK, PAOK, and ARIS. Barca has competitive league games against REAL MADRID, VALENCIA, SEVILLA, DEPORTIVO, ATHLETICO MADRID, VILLAREAL who it is safe to say that are on average better than the Greek teams. The smallest stadium in Spain's 1st division has 20,000 seats. They constantly sell-out and money comes in. They have development programs.

[drakos13]

thrylos:

Theres some facts you need to come to terms with :

We both know OSFP would have gotten humiliated, and worse.

Youre team got eliminated by MACCAABI, for starters.

You have NIKOPOLIDIS in goal whos long past it

You don't have class strikers, that can pull a goal out of nowhere and when the chance comes punish like Cisse and Govou.

That Barcelona was the top team in the world, at the top performance, in a game where they were viscious after a shock defeat.

Had PAO not had Cisse/Govou, we wouldnt have taken a goal with OSFP's attackers, and wouldn't have stopped so many with OSFP's keeper.

Its obviously simulated like any conditional tatement with the word "would' in it is.

Barcelona has nothing to do with the Spanish league in my mind. They have the best talent in the world, and fantastic academies on top of that. I don't know about you but this Barcelona team has been amazing for a years now. They've been off on with the CL trophy, but each year they look like theyre going to win it, and either gaffe like with Inter somehow, or win it ---but still are the best team in the tournament.

They did the same thing to Arsenal last year.

This Barcelona team will most probably win the CL this year, and with ease. Theres really not a team that comes close in quality at the moment. Certainly not Manchester United, not Inter, and Chelsea is strong but dont count on it. Real isn't ready.

Anyways the match is some humbling, after the irrelevant games against Inter and Milan over the summer.

Cyber:

the point is not who started over who, thats irrelevant. The point is, when the players are getting tired (who wouldnt) and your making substitutions, do not seriously bring on two attacking midfielders Ninis and Garcia against this team. We needed to keep the goals down for our OWN reasons, and our own pride. Theyre appearances were useless, symbolic, and wasted instead of helping the team keep a respectable 3-1.

I don't care if Plessis never played a game before, or if Dimoutsos is young ----- anybody in there that can mark, tackle and run was the best idea. Even Sariegui, would have been the smarter sub and better for the results. Any CB, or DM.

There was no reason to keep playing with 4 in the back......That was unbeleivably stupid too, as from the first three minutes we could tell the team simply cannot handle that pressure.

[Crazy]

Olympiakos would have lost 6 or 7-0, so they really shouldnt talk if they are. PAO's class up front allowed them to get a goal out of nothing. The PAO goal was actually quite nice, Govou's first goal and he finished big on the CL stage, and the heel flick, was actually one the best takounakia I've ever seen before.

Come on....I know 5-1 is not a good score but lets keep my team out of it.Your comparison or simulation between Pao and Olympiakos could never be acurate.My team lost to Macambia a month ago while yours lost yesterday badly to a yes,much superior team.The problem that i see from Pao point is the total surender and the luck of effort from most of the team with the exception of Tzorvas and Govou maybe.Also the fatigue in the second half must be adressed because Pao last year was a team with a great team stamina as a whole while this year so far they seem to slow down as time passes the 50-60 minute.

Just to comment/be funny a little bit more ,Barca could have scored 10-12(lost penalty,crossbar and many tet-a-tet) goals yesterday,the fact that the final score had only 5 it should sit ok with you.So i dont want to hear 6 or 7-0 the final score for Olympiakos in your brain,Nikopolidis might have gone nuts in that game and actually stopped most so we lose 3 or 4-0..... :LOL: :tup:

[cyberfish]

Drako, I don't think Nioblias put Ninis and Garcia in just for the applause and the participation. I am not in his head of course, but he probably thought the same thoughts I had at that time: how do we better circulate the ball in midfield? We needed to manage some possession to keep the ball away from our defense for a little bit. Best option was what Nioblias did. It was evident by that point that no matter how many defending players we have in, they were invisible to Barcelona.

[drakos13]

Olympiakos would have lost 6 or 7-0, so they really shouldnt talk if they are. PAO's class up front allowed them to get a goal out of nothing. The PAO goal was actually quite nice, Govou's first goal and he finished big on the CL stage, and the heel flick, was actually one the best takounakia I've ever seen before.

Come on....I know 5-1 is not a good score but lets keep my team out of it.Your comparison or simulation between Pao and Olympiakos could never be acurate.My team lost to Macambia a month ago while yours lost yesterday badly to a yes,much superior team.The problem that i see from Pao point is the total surender and the luck of effort from most of the team with the exception of Tzorvas and Govou maybe.Also the fatigue in the second half must be adressed because Pao last year was a team with a great team stamina as a whole while this year so far they seem to slow down as time passes the 50-60 minute.

Just to comment/be funny a little bit more ,Barca could have scored 10-12(lost penalty,crossbar and many tet-a-tet) goals yesterday,the fact that the final score had only 5 it should sit ok with you.So i dont want to hear 6 or 7-0 the final score for Olympiakos in your brain,Nikopolidis might have gone nuts in that game and actually stopped most so we lose 3 or 4-0..... :LOL: :tup:

I'm only bringing your team in to it, because of all the crap talk OSFP is talking about it, when they know pretty damn well at their best they would have done just as bad, and would likely cop more.

As for stamina---- Nioplias had the genius idea to bring Ninis and Garcia on when our only method of winning posession was a goal kick or a Tzorvas collection mind you, so that helped the breakdown at the end. In reality, we should have brought on fresh CB's or DM's ------- actually I would have put in Elini Dimoutsos on over Ninis, because Ninis is cheeky passing and moves, but against this Barcelona hes totally useless, because the pressure is on them so hard. Dimoutsos can do a fair amount that Ninis can on the ball (not so much creative playmaking) and the exception is Elini TACKLES, RUNS, and marks.

Even Plessis would have been perfect to make his debut, as we need LEGS and DEFENSE to keep the game respectable.

Not "Oh, the game is lost, so lets let Luis Garcia step on the pitch for his applause""......That was IDIOTIC from Nioplias. Same goes for Ninis, whose supposedly "being watched", or should see some time etc. Its 4-1 and theyre pounding away at you, your team has no ENERGY, no rythm, no space to bother with attacking plays and you bring on NINIS, Garcia!??

Cyber its nonsense to even talk about the ball circulation, or using posession as a method of keeping them away . Their pressure was perfect. Our energy was waning, and we left them plenty of room to create barrages of chances and wear us down. You have to CLOSE them off first, and force them to play in the midfield, not in our area. Trying to play organized offense with this team against their competence is a waste of time, and we couldn't make more than 1-2 all match even in the first minutes. Ninis would change that? Garcia??? No. The SMART decision was to DEFEND, plug people in where there is too much space. We didnt do that, and thats why we gave away literally over 10 opportunities that Barcelona could have scored from, and conceded in the last minutes, rather than accepting 3-1 down with all the pressure in the world as A LOSS that it was.

Karagkounis I can accept, because the guy also hustles a lot and tackles.

We should have compressed back and kept the goal difference down with defensive players. theres no shame in trying to hold Barcelona from tearing you apart, and frustrating their players.

Now, can go beat Copenhagen 3-0 in Athens, draw in Copenhagen and theyll still ahead of us now in the standings. So------ Nioplias cannot seriously be absolved from responsibility because Barcelona are Gods. He didn't even give closing the game down a chance.

[Euro2004]

http://www.sportdog.gr/v3/article.aspx?id=145884

PAO ran fewer kilometers than any other team last night, with Katsouranis running merely 6.8 km, merely 2.3km more than Tzorvas!

This is completely unacceptable! There should be widespread fines for this s%$#! and Kats should be dropped too. Sorry but these players are scumbags! The fans pay so much money to follow the team and they are repaid with this minimal amount of effort. Seriously, EVERYONE except Tzorvas should be fined heavily

[Crazy]

Barcelona - Pao 5-1

Highlights and goals

[Crazy]

Also some good news after the match.Paters after the SL board of directors meeting that he had this morning he said that the reporters that were present:(Now i am going to Paiania to give me congrats to Pao players).When he went to Paiania he actually told them:(If you dont respect the history and the jersey that you are wearing i will show you no mercy.From now on you better play hard and bleed for the club or else).

http://www.contra.gr/Soccer/Hellas/Superle...kos/288551.html

I like his style.

[athinaios]

If I were the coach, I'd like to see how much the players ran. There may be a bad sign. Poor conditioning isn't good when you play a great team.

As for being tired (assuming that most PAO players had the proper endurance).... it's true that when you chase the other team and have only 20% of ball possession you get tired a lot faster.

Awful PAO performance, granted Barca had a lot to do with it, but not being able to string 2 passes together is miserable.

Another thing I observed: our players had no options. OK, the opponets mark well, but when, say Letto, had the ball there was nobody withing 20 yards for support. It's pointless. You can't run down the field with the ball dribling 7-8 players when there's no support. The defenders worry only about you and they eat you alive.

Clearing the ball.... Another problem for us. Noblias has to figure out why every time the players cleared the ball (often only 15 meters out of the box) always the ball went to a Barca player! They had the same number of players, no?

Yes, once we were down by a couple, Noblias should have tried to keep the score. Goal differential counts. The team, yesterday could NOT do anything else but defending. I don't care if you got Iniesta, Xavi and Mesi to change into a green jersey after 3-1, PAO wouldn't hold the center or do anything but defend in their half of the field.

Anyway, the good news is that this first game we expected to lose; not by this much but it's done now. This is not the disastrous game. The ones against the other 2 teams may turn out to be if we don't shape up.

At least we can win the league game now...:) everytime we do well in Europe we come home and we suck (drop points) in the next league game... :P

[pao123]

http://www.sportdog.gr/v3/article.aspx?id=145884

PAO ran fewer kilometers than any other team last night, with Katsouranis running merely 6.8 km, merely 2.3km more than Tzorvas!

This is completely unacceptable! There should be widespread fines for this s%$#! and Kats should be dropped too. Sorry but these players are scumbags! The fans pay so much money to follow the team and they are repaid with this minimal amount of effort. Seriously, EVERYONE except Tzorvas should be fined heavily

i disagree, i believe govou ran his heart out and worked hard too...but thats just about it... :D

i agree about kats though...sit him, he has been a none factor after acouple games, give him a rest, he may react positively and start playing well again like he did at the beginning of last season...i am angry at his constant laziness...you are a midfielder, you need to run and sprint, not jog and walk.

i dont know why we are wasting our time with this match...its over, we got killed by a great team, our performance was no good...we have a long road ahead of us...lets not get ourselves down before a very important october where we will see paok, aek, olympiakos and rubin in back to back games...when that is over, i believe we will be able to judge to team better...they dont have too many games under their feet...we need to try and find some rythym...

oh and about the conditioning, i hope nioplias sees this as an issue and they are in the process of addressing something that should have been looked at in the summer...we took a gamble, it might backfire...lets hope our players will make it until the winter, luckily we have a pretty deep squad...

[Alex1908]

From the NYTimes website:

South Americans Take Charge in Champions League

By ROB HUGHES

LONDON — The Champions League belongs to Europe, but those South Americans are everywhere.

A week ago, Argentina lured Spain

[Euro2004]

If I were the coach, I'd like to see how much the players ran. There may be a bad sign. Poor conditioning isn't good when you play a great team.

http://www.sportdog.gr/v3/article.aspx?id=145884

:tdown: They ran less than any other team in the CL, with Katsouranis only covering marginally more ground than Tzorvas!