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Road To Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup


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France will win group A and both Sweden or Netherlands will fight for 2nd. 
Portugal winning group B and Switzerland 2nd
Germany winning group C and Northern Ireland 2nd
Maybe Serbia winning D and Ireland 2nd
Poland will win group E. Montenegro will be out of the playoff  due to the least number of points (10). 

In group F, England should win, 2nd place is up for grabs (Slovakia 12 pts, Slovenia 11 pts, and Scotland 8pts) 

Group H, Croatia should win, 2nd place is up for grabs (Iceland 13 pts, Turkey 11 pts, and Ukraine 11 pts) 

Edited by Molon Lave
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Let's  hope Greece can win out all of their remaining matches. Even if Greece is unseeded, some of the seeded teams are beatable and Greece can qualify. Just pray France and Portugal win their groups. 

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On 18/6/2017 at 10:00 PM, Molon Lave said:

Let's  hope Greece can win out all of their remaining matches. Even if Greece is unseeded, some of the seeded teams are beatable and Greece can qualify. Just pray France and Portugal win their groups. 

This

Switzerland is good but totally not unbeatable. Much lower tier than Any other team. Italy/Spain means we have 75% chanc to have a favorable/even/not so miserable draw. Spain/Italy is just impossible. But Id love to see our boys give a fight in the playoffs vs a good team. Even if we lose id be proud if we didnt get down so easily. Everyone keeps praising Sweden but Sweden/Holland arent so much of a bad draw.

Edited by Rockafeller Skank
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If Greece have all it's major players available they are a tough team to break down & will hurt you with one mistake or lapse in defense. They fear nobody & the bigger the opponent or match the better they play. Bring it on!!

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The playoffs is not guaranteed so lets not jump the gun. I always believe in taking it one game at a time because all it takes is one mistake against Estonia or Cyprus and all of a sudden we don't hold our own destiny. I truly believe Bosnia will beat all the teams and draw Belgium so Greece needs to take care of business...

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  • 4 weeks later...

If Greece was to make this world cup I would like to list the players I would choose and also who the coach would choose aswell. The 23 man line up:

Karnezis

Kapino 

Torosidis

Manolas

Sokratis 

Papadopoulos

Retsos 

Stafylidis

Samaris 

Tachtsidis

Tziolis

Siopis

Androutsos

Fortounis 

Mantalos 

Gianniotas

Pelkas

Manthatis

Karelis 

Donis

Mitroglou

Vellios

(Anyone else)

I picked this list because most of the players can play in multiple positions. I also like it I see players being tried in different positions. Also Androutsos is a young talented, up and coming player that can play in any position in the midfield, the wing and upfront. I also think he was played as full back, not sure about that one. I called up only 2 full backs. That's all we need. Also Retsos can play there. Papadopoulos I believe can play anywhere on the pitch. He is that talented. If he played keeper he would still give it his best shot and do well. You don't need 3 keepers in my opinion, 2 is enough. I called 3 tall defensive midfielders who can all help in the midfield when we vs a tougher team so they can help in aerial duels and are strong. Donis can play on the wing and striker. Only called 2 attacking midfielders because Pelkas can play there and maybe one of the central or defensive midfielders can play higher. Mitroglou is our main striker with Karelis being the back up. Gianniotas and Manthatis are true out and out wingers. The last spot can go to anyone. Keeper, defender, midfielder, winger or striker. 

Maybe Tzavellas goes there because of his free kicks and Stafylidis can play on the wing or central midfield. This is the list Skibbe should pick when the time arrives before the world cup. 

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Early indications from Olympiakos are that both Manthiatis and Androutsos are struggling to get game time this year..

 

we have no idea where Giannotas will play this season...and any squad with Tziolis and Vellios is showing signs of how bad off we are..

Siopis and Pelkas will also struggle to get game time at Paok and osfp..

Edited by RED SHERIFF
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Well that's the best we got. Androutsos and Manthatis are the future. Androutsos is a special player and he is only 20. Manthatis will be part of this squad in the future no doubt. Same can be said for Pelkas. Also we don't have much wingers. I understand where your coming from with the Tziolis and Vellios comment. Tziolis has experience and if Kourbelis shows more form this season he should replace him in the list. Siopis can be our next Maniatis or even better. Olympiakos fans seem to like him aswell.

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  • 1 month later...

Things are looking pretty bleak no matter what we do the rest of the way. 

Turkey's win today puts us in a bad spot. Wales will have to draw or lose to ireland in last match day.

Too much needs to happen. How did we ever get ourselves in this position...

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http://www.agonasport.com/agonasport-allnews/all-the-wrong-moves

This article is spot on and it explains exactly what everyone is saying and thinking.. This is the true reason we blew it against Estonia and it has to do with Skibbe.. Why is he so blind when it comes to call ups? Skibbe has taken us back to defensive soccer which is good but he's killings us and costing us games with his selections and subs. 

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11 minutes ago, J1078 said:

http://www.agonasport.com/agonasport-allnews/all-the-wrong-moves

This article is spot on and it explains exactly what everyone is saying and thinking.. This is the true reason we blew it against Estonia and it has to do with Skibbe.. Why is he so blind when it comes to call ups? Skibbe has taken us back to defensive soccer which is good but he's killings us and costing us games with his selections and subs. 

I was just about to post that haha. The thing is subs don't make much sense. More so his call ups make no sense. 

Does anyone know why exactly Fetfatzidis doesn't get called up? Imagine him coming on and linking up with Fortounis and Donis. 

Androutsos should have been called up. Tziolis should not play again if he does it's a crime. Pelkas, Lazaros and even Androutsos should be considered for the wide options... I don't want to see Mantalos on the wing again. 

What Skibbe should was call up Pelkas or even play Gianniotas right midfield and have Zeca as the right back. Zeca did well at right wing. 

Also inform players like Masouras, Galanopoulos and Bakakis need to be looked at. 

The biggest mistake Skibbe did was not play Tachtsidis. 

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^Well put his selections don't make sense. Many of us here can't understand why Fetfa never gets a look? Also why has the EPO not set up any friendly games this year? I really hope we get to the playoffs and qualify or else it's going to be really hard to wait until 2020.

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17 minutes ago, Ellada2004 said:

^Well put his selections don't make sense. Many of us here can't understand why Fetfa never gets a look? Also why has the EPO not set up any friendly games this year? I really hope we get to the playoffs and qualify or else it's going to be really hard to wait until 2020.

I agree we need 2 wins next nothing else if Bosnia can lose to Belgium we should be fine. There's other talented players like Lamprou and Limnios who can get called up but players like Pelkas, Lazaros and Androutsos should be first to be called up. 

Also Tachtsidis and Gianniotas who are currently in the team should be given more game time instead of Tziolis and Bakasetas. 

Will Skibbe now see that Vellios, Diamantakos and Tziolis are not good enough? Also if you don't want to call up Fetfatzidis then don't call up Tziolis. Simple. There are more worthy players out there. Bouchalakis and Kourbelis might have to impress and lift their game even more so that Tziolis is not even considered. 

I have to say that our crosses are very poor. Tzavellas and Stafylidis can hit a good a cross. Maniatis can't and Retsos can't. 

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1 hour ago, J1078 said:

http://www.agonasport.com/agonasport-allnews/all-the-wrong-moves

This article is spot on and it explains exactly what everyone is saying and thinking.. This is the true reason we blew it against Estonia and it has to do with Skibbe.. Why is he so blind when it comes to call ups? Skibbe has taken us back to defensive soccer which is good but he's killings us and costing us games with his selections and subs. 

I wouldn't be surprised one bit if certain players are called up, played, or excluded due to corrupt reasons. Certain players in the past, such as Amanatidis, have hinted about that in interviews.  Perhaps player agents bribe to get their player called up, or the EPO wants certain players called up etc... Skibbe's hands may be tied. 

Chalkias starting in Euro 2012...Vyntra starting in world cup 2010 instead of kyrgiakos...tziolis starting important matches even though he is mediocre, at best...the list goes on and on and on. 

Nicolo Macchiavelli said to always assume incompetence before conspiracy.  Most of the baffling squad decisions were/are probably due to negligence.  However, something is wrong here.  Greece is also a corrupt country, so corruption has irrefutably extended to the soccer domain.

 

On a brighter note, if Greece beats Cyprus and Gibraltar, I like our chances of being one of the top 8 second place teams. Lol

 

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9 hours ago, Dean97 said:

I was just about to post that haha. The thing is subs don't make much sense. More so his call ups make no sense. 

Does anyone know why exactly Fetfatzidis doesn't get called up? Imagine him coming on and linking up with Fortounis and Donis. 

Androutsos should have been called up. Tziolis should not play again if he does it's a crime. Pelkas, Lazaros and even Androutsos should be considered for the wide options... I don't want to see Mantalos on the wing again. 

What Skibbe should was call up Pelkas or even play Gianniotas right midfield and have Zeca as the right back. Zeca did well at right wing. 

Also inform players like Masouras, Galanopoulos and Bakakis need to be looked at. 

The biggest mistake Skibbe did was not play Tachtsidis. 

 

My dear friend do you remember when in 2010 and 2012 we had a midfield of Katsouranis Karagounis Tziolis/Maniatis and people complaining that Katsou and Kara are too old? You wanted Tachtsidis / Kone / Ninis and every random person in there. I even remember discussions about Vlachodimos (the wanna-be- professional winger of B Gallias) deserving a call up. 

Do you remember after 2014 where Karagounis/Katsouranis sorta retired we had no cohesense in the midfield and lost to teams like Finland/Faroe Islands/Romania? The image of those matches was the same. Apart from 1-2 in the Euro 2016 campaign we looked shitte in all matches and we were actually the worst team. Not resultwise but THE WORST DAMN TEAM on the field vs Faroe Finland Romania and many many more. The reason was simple. We didnt have Karagounis and Katsouranis no more. Maniatis started being benched. Kone lost all motivation for his career and football in general and Tachtsidis proved to be no Katsouranis.
You ask for Skibbe to play Tachtsidis? Last time he did it vs Belgium he takes 50% of the blame for the draw because he left us with 10 men for 30+ minutes. But suddently you forgot it. Tziolis did nothing too good vs Belgium but he barely did 1-2 mistakes, fewer than many of our players. He is good at freezing the rhythm and that's why skibbe prefers him. Tachtsidis attributes are his height and his long pass. When we play Gibraltar and need goals or Cyprus he might be used.

Zeca was the back of De Bruyne. Skibbe can literally ask him to make an opponent MF player vanish from the field and he will do it. He did it with Pjanic he did it with De Bruyne.  Teams like Bosnia  who are literally too reliant upon a few names we literally have the advantage based on Karolos Zekas (or maybe Karolos Zekakis,Zekouranis Zekagounis)

 

I will remain to my aspect. It took Skibbe 7 months to take a team from 1win/4draws/7defeats in 12 matches (friendlies counted in the 2014-16 period) to make a team that can draw Belgium and Bosnia.

The thing is , even with the bad result of Estonia and Belgium. The team DID DEFINATELY NOT look like the sh!th0le it was under Ranieri Markarian and Tsanas. We dominated the whle game vs Estonia and just lacked that 1-0 goal that we usually scraped. Even if we do not qualify, even if we end up as the 9th team, as long as we finish 2nd in this Group Skibbe has totally transformed them from zero to hero. The only game we looked bad was vs Bosnia home. 

Rome was not build in a day. A team that missed the Euro finishing last in a Group (a non typical qualification ranking I suppose would be somewhere between 46-53) has now many possibilities to be in UEFA's top 18 for this qualification.

You keep asking for a new coach but you never gonna accept the fact that we are no Germany/ France/Italy/ Spain/ England. The only coach in recent days of Greek football that has heard nothing is Ouzounidis. Everyone, reporters and fans, say nothing against him. The only thing you ll listen is "kai ti na kanei aftos re m#$%! me toso xamhlou epipedou paiktes". Bento had the worst roster of Olympiakos in the last 10 years and he literally got us further in Europe than all these seasons. Yet everyone called Bento bad. It's easy to blame Skibbe, because it's easier to replace one person and not 23 as the call ups.

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Really our only reasonable avenue is through the Group D teams.

Assuming Bosnia drop a point and we beat Cyprus 1-0 followed by Gibraltar. Greece will finish second with 19 pts and at 13 pts  +4 in the playoff group.

On Oct 6, safe to assume Ireland will beat Moldova by whatever and lets assume Wales beat Georgia 2-0.

Wales will stay second with 17 pts, ireland 3rd with 16. In the playoff group, Wales will be at 11 pts + 3, Ireland 10 pts +1.

On the last matchday, Wales are at home to Rep of Ireland. If Wales wins they will finish 2nd in group D and with 14 pts leapfrog Greece in the playoff group. If they draw, Wales will finish 2nd in the group and have 12 pts in the playoff group (below 13 pt Greece). If Ireland wins, they will finish 2nd and have 13 pts in the playoff group, tied with Greece, but will have to beat Wales by 3 or 4 goals if they want to overtake (minimum)+4 Greece in GD.

So assuming we get the job done, Wales just cannot beat Rep of Ireland.

This will go down to the final seconds of the final matchday for us. 

 

Edited by Argy
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Doesn't sound too bad tbh and doesn't sound too far fetched either. Georgia will not be an easy beat for Wales away, so the Georgians may help us out. As you say argy, its gonna be real tight and go down to the wire, first things first though, we need to take care of ourselves before any of this is possible 

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Bottom line we can waste our breath trying to analyze who will be last of the 2nd place teams but the reality is if Greece don't beat Cyprus or if Bosnia beat Belgium then there is no need to even bother with the other groups.. The Cyprus match will be very difficult as there new coach will not want a another lose under his belt and he will do everything he can to prove his worth and have Cyprus prepared so they can beat us or at least draw us.. This will NOT be an easy match for us.. 

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