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Greece - Croatia ( Round 2, 2nd Leg - 12 Nov. 2017, Giorgos Karaiskaki, Piraeus)


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3 hours ago, MelbourneGreek said:

We have absolutely nothing to lose, better the boys lose 3-0 than win 1-0, give the game their all, try and put on some midfield pressure and expose the Croatian defense.

they should play better at home, if they can get a goal within the first 30mins, it will get very interesting

I agree we need to give it all we got. 

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rumoured starting 11

karnezis

torosidis manolas sokratis tzavellas 

zeca tachtsidis/tziolis

mpakasetas/lazaros/gianniotas fortounis stafylidis

mitroglou

speechless he's still considering starting tziolis and mpakasetas with gianniotas.

anyways just give it all and you never know..barca did it against psg and man utd did it against olympiakos.,

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1 hour ago, Boxou said:

rumoured starting 11

karnezis

torosidis manolas sokratis tzavellas 

zeca tachtsidis/tziolis

mpakasetas/lazaros/gianniotas fortounis stafylidis

mitroglou

speechless he's still considering starting tziolis and mpakasetas with gianniotas.

anyways just give it all and you never know..barca did it against psg and man utd did it against olympiakos.,

I think I read the same thing on sdna this morning. Skibbe has shown not to deviate much from his usual starters. My guess is he goes with Tziolis instead of Tax in the center in this lineup (although I think we can agree it should be Tax, or maybe even Kourbelis). That said, I think he will be starting Bakasetas on the wing. If, Bakasetas is doing nothing, I'm confident We'll see an "early" sub in Pelkas or Gianiotas (most likely the latter because he's played before....). I'm confident Lazaro will start. I also think he'll be using this exact defence.

Also something interesting I saw on SDNA, they were talking about Anastasiou coming to PAO. Where is Ouzoinidis going??? Ethniki maybe?

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3-0 would be bigger than what we did in 04. A 2nd miracle. 

But croatia won't sit back on 4-1. They know Greece has to come out offensively from the start. They will use that to counter attack a thin back line and hope to score a goal or 2. I think they don't care if they lose. As long as they keep the aggregate in their favour losing won't matter.

Do I think Greece can score 3 goals? Yes I do.  But Croatia will have the advantage of Greece's exposed back line.

we gifted Croatia 4 goals.  Even with the one away goal we have it's to much. This tie is over.   

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I prefer Taxi if we have proper wingers because he is the only one who can create from behind.

However im still not believeing we ll pull a 3-0 through. No way Bakasetas starts on the wings yet again. Skibbe would go for Lazaros I hope . Strinic is very vulnerable. Leovac is two times as much.

Last time a Greek Team needed a good result to turn things over in their favor was this match. We started good with the obvious Mitro on fire scoring early but the match did not develop as pleased. Let's see. I ll be happy with our boys just winning to be fair.

 

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http://www.sport24.gr/football/ellada/ethniki_elladas/vghkan-mprosta-papastathopoylos-kai-torosidhs.4932899.html

 

Well sadly the players themselves don't really think 3-0 is possible. At least most of them don't. 

Maybe the article doesn't say the complete truth because they'd make a fool of themselves if they said "we can still qualify" like the Romanians did in 14.

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9 hours ago, Dean97 said:

Guys I have a feeling something is going to happen. With Torosidis and Manolas back in defence, we might have a chance making it to Russia. I don't want to say much more but if we bring all three of Sokratis, Manolas and Papadopoulos on the pitch and pick one of them to mark Mandzukic and Zeca to mark Modric we should bang in those goals. Tachtsidis, Pelkas and Lazaros must start with Torosidis and Stafylidis as the attacking wing backs. Mitroglou and Fortounis should be the strikers. With this I believe we can get the 3-0 at home.

A part of me thinks the same thing but then I realize I'm thinking with my heart and not my head... The reality is we haven't scored more then 2 goals against anyone except Gibraltar, We couldn't even score more then 2 against Cyprus or Estonia, and we couldn't score more then 1 goal against Bosnia but now all of a sudden we think Greece will get 3 goals against a top 20 team in the world?? Croatia's defence is not great but it's better then everyone defence that was in our group excluding Belgium.. part of me starts to think maybe we can do it but the reality is this team is not able to as we win games 1-0 and 2-1... Skibbe really f....d our chances and he crumbled with the absence of Manolas and Toro and he completely got out coached...

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It's a brain game. If we score fast and they panic anything can happen. But by anything I mean 95% of chances on a result that does not allow us to qualify (example them scoring after us or us not scoring 3) and maybe 5% chances that everything goes as we d love it.

To be honest though. Croatia is a team either too high or too low. 2 days ago everything went as they'd love and want it. Maybe a bad appearance in the beginning of the match sends them in troubles, but as previously mentioned, we re thinking with our heart because we don't wanna believe the inevitable.

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9 hours ago, Polikastano said:

So what im supposed to believe is this.  We beat Gibraltar (basically guys who after the game have to start the night shift at their real jobs) 4-1 and 4-0 and yet somehow we will pop 3 against Croatia who have a few guys who play on top european football clubs.  Makes sense to me!

Football doesn't follow this logic, bro. It may happen, even though probabilities are against us. Personally, I prefer to think it's lost and not to have illusions, so I can suffer less. I think we'll win, but not by 3x0.

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GOAT WE LL GO BACK STRONGER.

We have players on good age that can become protagonists in big tournaments. We have quite a few promising players as well who are literally dragging panionios and Atromitos to the top. I can accept missing a tournament but I refuse to believe we ll end up like Bulgaria and Romania who haven't had decent football since the 1990s and are lost there.

I hope we build up to become something like Belgium. Out of nowhere in a period of 5-6 years they went from 0 to hero. And we re not even close to 0.

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Sorry Skank

but that's where Greek football is headed. 

Its now 2 tournaments we have missed in a row( this upcoming summer is going to hurt watching the World Cup and no Greece). It's going to get harder for us. I see a very bleak future for Greek soccer. 

We need changes in the whole FA. Money invested in infrastructure and youth. Right now it's so corrupt it's f%#^. 

One only has to look to Portugal who cleaned house in the mid 80's invested in youth and infrastructure. Look at them now. Once like Greece who never Qualified but now regular qualifying since Euro96, only missing out on 98. Im not sure about stats but I remember them going to 3 semis, 1 finalist, 2 quarterfinals and winning 1 title. 

Thats what Greece needs

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I think its possible - hoping for the best tomorrow. I just had an interesting thought, Mitroglou has probably scored most of his goals on this pitch during his time at Olympiakos and Ethniki. Lets hope he bags a hat trick tomorrow.

Also, I really don't think Bakasetas is a winger. Yet we continue to put him there, and he will most likely start there tomorrow. I actually think he is more suited for the Center Forward position. The guy has a body, holds the ball up, has a nice shot, turns quick. Why do we keep putting him on the wing? He's not quick enough for that. Of course mitroglou is our guy here, and he isnt giving that up any time soon. But instead of calling up Vellios to be a CF? I'm for that. 

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we all know the problems with Greek football, EPO etc etc.....been hearing this for the past 30 years.all valid, correct points but it ain't changing. if 2004 did not act like a springboard to implement those things then im afraid we have a better chance of winning 4-0 tomorrow than we do seeing those types of necessary changes in Greek football programs.....

regarding tomorrow, 3-0 is very possible. Why not? who expected 4-1? its unlikely given what we have seen so far but its far from impossible. At this level, even with our average players, its not impossible. ONly if we change our mentality and tactics and attack will we even have any chance of getting a favorable result....but it would be probably the greatest game in NT history if they pull it off.

admittedly its alot to ask from this group. 

i believe we CAN....but I dont know if we WILL.

TROSK   10000% correct....the first 15-20 minutes are CRITICAL. 

Edited by bbaw
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We will not even have a shot in hell if Skibbe plays Tziolis at midfiled and Bak on the wing. Sibbe has given up on the win he is jut trying to save his ass and have a respectable outcome, he will not go all out for the win he will play a defence style an will be happy with a low scoring draw or  1-0 win.. He will not take the chance of getting blown out and he ill play defensive for sure.. You will see by his line up and formation tomorrow mark my words at this point he's only thinking of his job knowing another blowout and he has no chance at returning.. Plus I think the stadium will not be a packed house anymore...

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j, the two issues are:

1. if we eat a goal we are done. he must figure out how to manage that..

2. we dont paly this way. normally, when we need 1 goal (not 3 goals) we get it. (costa rica, ivory coast, amny examples of that) 

so he has a problem. play open, get scored on or play tight and keep them at zero at the expense of not all out attacking to get the three we need.

not easy...any suggestions? 

 

i think our outside defenders must play line to line (like holevas/toro) and the central mids must play box to box as a starting point....

Edited by bbaw
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We screwed ourselves in Zagreb, losing 1-2 would have been bad enough but we still would have a decent chance. I am still trying to wrap my head around how we give them 4 goals and 3 were so cheap and laughable. Even IN Belgium a far greater and skilled Belgian team could only get 1 and that was with us down to 10 men for 25 minutes and the goal came in the 89th minute. 

Missing Manolas was a huge loss a crime by FIFA if he's in there its safe to say the backline is more stabilized and we are not running around like a bunch of chickens. 

Skibbe better field a lineup that will attack and no Tziolis and Samaris please. Bakasetas should not see the field at all.

The team has worked hard for 2 years to get to this point and needed help from other results to get a top eight 2nd place and its ashame things went sideways for us from having Manolas suspended, Torosidis out and Donis injured who I thought would have put the weak Croatian defence under pressure with Mitroglou.

I pray to the good Lord that we can get a 3-0 it would hurt to miss a World Cup after what happened missing out on the Euros in what was as straightforward a group as you will ever see.

PAME ELLAS!

 

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7 minutes ago, Ellada2004 said:

We screwed ourselves in Zagreb, losing 1-2 would have been bad enough but we still would have a decent chance. I am still trying to wrap my head around how we give them 4 goals and 3 were so cheap and laughable. Even IN Belgium a far greater and skilled Belgian team could only get 1 and that was with us down to 10 men for 25 minutes and the goal came in the 89th minute. 

Missing Manolas was a huge loss a crime by FIFA if he's in there its safe to say the backline is more stabilized and we are not running around like a bunch of chickens. 

Skibbe better field a lineup that will attack and no Tziolis and Samaris please. Bakasetas should not see the field at all.

The team has worked hard for 2 years to get to this point and needed help from other results to get a top eight 2nd place and its ashame things went sideways for us from having Manolas suspended, Torosidis out and Donis injured who I thought would have put the weak Croatian defence under pressure with Mitroglou.

I pray to the good Lord that we can get a 3-0 it would hurt to miss a World Cup after what happened missing out on the Euros in what was as straightforward a group as you will ever see.

PAME ELLAS!

 

I'm with you bro and I think we all feel the same way but unfortunately I'm hearing more and more that Skibbe will play Tziolis with zeca and Bak on the wing and we are still going to play more of a defensive game which wont allow us to attack like we need to to get 3 goals. If Skibbe plays Tziolis and bak on the wing then he better have his suitcase packed because he's truly clueless.. We have nothing to lose go al out and press like crazy for an early goal DO NOT SIT BACK AND ATTACK ON THE COUNTER That wont work tomorrow when we need 3 goals.. We  need to leave our D exposed so be it we need two goals in the first half..

Edited by J1078
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3 minutes ago, J1078 said:

I'm with you bro and I think we all feel the same way but unfortunately I'm hearing more and more that Skibbe will play Tziolis with zeca and Bak on the wing and we are still going to play more of a defensive game which wont allow us to attack like we need to to get 3 goals. If Skibbe plays Tziolis and bak on the wing then he better have his suitcase packed because he's truly clueless.. We have nothing to lose go al out and press like crazy for an early goal DO NOT SIT BACK AND ATTACK ON THE COUNTER That wont work tomorrow when we need 3 goals.. We  need to leave our D exposed so be it we need two goals in the first half..

I hope that he doesn't play Tziolis but we always hear ourselves say this. Bakasetas should take a seat too and Lazaros should be in. Need to go all out and attack Strinic, Vida and Lovren who is a joke just as when I watch him play at Liverpool. If we score early Croatia will get rattled and start to run around as they did at the end of the first game. It's a shame Mitroglou didn't get a goal at the end, would have been a huge boost. 

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This coach is a f#*king goof, I've been saying it for a few months now. That line up we started against cro didn't surprise me at all, cause we knew he was gonna play chicken s#!t soccer against them. 

But his subs when we were down 3-1 just floored me. "maniatis off, Retsos on" why? To defend the lead we don't have? Might as well have put Zeca at rb and put Laz or Gianniotas on. Then Samaris goes down, and instead of putting Zeca THERE... Nope bring on another defender. And bakasetas?? Might as well bring on vryzas or kapetanos. 

That line up nullified our wing play completely, we had nothing down the right side, and barely anything on the left cause he had stafylidis doing double duty. There wasn't a single momentum shift all game. Croatia never had to worry and really track back, cause we would take the ball from themand hand it right back. Mitroglou and Fortounis were literally left out to dry, with no one to support them and make runs and help create space... You know, logical normal things that happen during a soccer match in order to create chances. 

Honestly it's almost better we don't make the world cup, cause can you imagine seeing theses bone headed line ups on the world stage?? I'd lose my f&#king mind! 

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