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Greece vs Belgium (3 September 2017- World Cup Qualifier- Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus)


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Vellios and Tziolis should not be called up again after this qualifying campaign, the latter being slower than death itself.

We played well today and didn't deserve to lose. Some players need to take a hard look at Zeca. He isn't even Greek yet he plays with more heart than them. I really wish there was a replacement/competition for Fortounis as well. He isn't good enough to start.

Skibbe is still to blame for Thursday's mess. Then again I don't think the agents putting pressure on him to play their players are doing him any favours either.

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9 minutes ago, nick said:

Estonia game will keep us out of the World Cup along with skibbe's tactics and player selection. Vellios,tziolis, and bakasetas have no business wearing that jersey. 

calm down, how likely you think it is for bosnia to beat belgium at home without fans? even a draw is still in favour of us. what we have to do is just to beat cyprus and gibraltar. 

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The Estonia game will completely keep us out of the World Cup playoffs.. no question... 1 point out of a possible 6 is not the result that Keeps you in the World Cup running.. I fully expect a hungry Bosnia team to beat a Belgium team that has absolutely nothing to play for... I personaly don't think we will beat Cyprus on the road but regardless Bosnia are now favourites for the 2nd spot and I truly think they will take advantage and secure that second spot.. I see Bosnia taking there final 2 games.

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There are three crucial moments that I can think of which may have cost us a place in Russia next year (though like all of us I hope this won't be the case).

1) Lukaku's goal against us in the dying minutes of the game in Belgium, easy to say but we really should have held on

2) Mantalos (who shouldn't even be wearing a NT shirt in the first place - refer to my earlier comment about agents) missed chance 1 on 1 against Bosnia away

3) The embarrassment on Thursday against Estonia

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We played well today. Unfortunately Tziolis played. Donis played well and worked hard. He was exhausted after the 70th. Fortounis is good I don't understand why he should sit out he is the best attacking midfielder we have. Also Stafylidis should be considered as a left winger.

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17 minutes ago, nick said:

Estonia game will keep us out of the World Cup along with skibbe's tactics and player selection. Vellios,tziolis, and bakasetas have no business wearing that jersey. 

100% AGREE 

Tziolis has no business being called up let alone playing 

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2 minutes ago, J1078 said:

The Estonia game will completely keep us out of the World Cup playoffs.. no question... 1 point out of a possible 6 is not the result that Keeps you in the World Cup running.. I fully expect a hungry Bosnia team to beat a Belgium team that has absolutely nothing to play for... I personaly don't think we will beat Cyprus on the road but regardless Bosnia are now favourites for the 2nd spot and I truly think they will take advantage and secure that second spot.. I see Bosnia taking there final 2 games.

bosnian defence is horrendous, they can't keep belgium at zero even if they field their b side. they'll have to go all out attack and that's a good sign considering belgium will have many chances to score. like i said even a draw would work for us.

 what we have to do is to beat cyprus which is possible after their loss today and gibraltar. don't underestimate estonia, they're hosting bosnia it tallinn in the last matchgame. 

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2 minutes ago, Athens4 said:

There are three crucial moments that I can think of which may have cost us a place in Russia next year (though like all of us I hope this won't be the case).

1) Lukaku's goal against us in the dying minutes of the game in Belgium, easy to say but we really should have held on

2) Mantalos (who shouldn't even be wearing a NT shirt in the first place - refer to my earlier comment about agents) missed chance 1 on 1 against Bosnia away

3) The embarrassment on Thursday against Estonia

I agree 100%. Though I do think Mantalos should be in the team but not starting. It looks like Donis will take his position.

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4 minutes ago, J1078 said:

That's the other problem even if we somehow take 2nd it's looking now like we may be the worst 2nd place team and not go through anyways.

looking how the things are right now in other groups, i see at least 3-4 of them with higher chances than us to end up as a worse second placed team. 

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1 minute ago, Boxou said:

bosnian defence is horrendous, they can't keep belgium at zero even if they field their b side. they'll have to go all out attack and that's a good sign considering belgium will have many chances to score. like i said even a draw would work for us.

 what we have to do is to beat cyprus which is possible after their loss today and gibraltar. don't underestimate estonia, they're hosting bosnia it tallinn in the last matchgame. 

Yeah but we could end up worst 2nd place

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6 minutes ago, J1078 said:

That's the other problem even if we somehow take 2nd it's looking now like we may be the worst 2nd place team and not go through anyways.

Dude there are still two games and there are various teams with 11-16 points in second place. All it take is a win and a loss to change that.

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Just now, Dean97 said:

Yeah but we could end up worst 2nd place

i just said that our fixtures are too easy compared to some other groups. if we get to 19 points by winning the next 2, i think one of group c, d, e, f and i will provide the worse runner up. look at their 2nd placed teams' schedule and you will come to the same conclusion

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6 minutes ago, J1078 said:

I guess all we can do now is go out and win both games and see what happens as it's out of our own hands now.  Bosnia is thinking the same thing. Bosnia also beat Estonia 5-0 last time they played them.

estonia are drastically improved so thinking a win against them is guaranteed is wrong, they just proved at to us. especially when we're talking about an away game. 

athens4 aside from mitroglou there's karelis.

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On the whole i thought that the team played well against a strong Belgian side that is firing on all cylinders.

Early on I thought that Stafylidis was for sure going to score, then it hit the post. Had that gone in the stadium would have erupted. That said, I liked the start of the game and I really was impressed with Donis and the trouble his speed was causing.

The first Belgian goal was among the few times the shooter was not pressed by a defender. When you give a talented player that has a strong shot that much space...it can never be a good thing.

Zeca's goal was a beauty and the incoming cross was a delight and the stadium was buzzing. 

Unfortunately Lukaku again victimized Papadopoulos to quickly regain the lead. I must say the Greek defence had him pretty quiet and contained all night up until that point.

I would like to note an observation on Karnezis tonight. There were 3-4 times at least when he was so deep in his net, and should have challenged a bit more for the ball in his 18. I could be mistaken but perhaps even on Lukaku's goal he should have even come out and punched it out. Easier said than done. He did however make a few fantastic saves.

With the absence of key players I wanted to mention that I thought that Maniatis played very well. Of course as everyone has an opinion on the selection of the Greek squad, you cannot please every armchair manager/coach. Our National team is what it is, and we have a limited pool of talent in comparison to the super powers of the world (for example Brazil could create 3 full squads that would be impressive).

All said, I was proud of the team. I thought they played well. The coach Skibbe prepared his team properly for such a momentum clash. In the end we were not embarrassed by this FIFA power in Belgium. With the players that were available, the coach assembled a squad that gave their best. However, ended up short.

With the remaining games, I concern myself not with what others team will do, hypothetically are capable of, play master predictor, and so on. What I would like to see is nothing more than the return to health/fitness of our players. A level headed, positive, and methodical approach to the final qualifiers. 

I stress again, that compared to our last qualifying campaign  with Ranieri. I am pleased that even with the hiccups, and adversity that the Ethniki can continue to improve. 

Greece rarely has had easy qualifying campaigns, we like it the hard way.....always have, always will. 

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