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This is something a lot of people don't understand, and the posters of this specific forum seems to understand it the least. On national team level experience and continuity is the key. You cant call up everyone that has had 3 good games in the superleague. The Germans has understood this, that's why players like Klose, Podolski and Khedira would always be called up, regardless of club form. Joachim Low could rely on them no matter what. If it was up to the the majority of the members of this forum, Siopis would have started a crucial game against Bosnia. It sounds like a bad joke, but it's not.

Pedigree = prestige, past success etc Its not even close between the 2 footballing nations. Greece blows Bosnia away. You want to talk present form, yes I think the teams are more equal currently. Bosnia has better attackers, we have better defenders. I think Bosnia has a better style of play. Anyway, on the game. Draw was a fair result. In fact we were a bit lucky. Both sides had a couple decent chances. As usual with anybody we play Bosnians dominated possession. We have no midfield and it has been killing us badly. Mitro was a disaster up front also, we need better from him. We need to find midfielders who can actually somewhat play the position. At this point who cares what their names are. Tzavellas scored a cracker and it saved our campaign so far but I still can't stand him. (Sorry) I don't have any faith Skibbe will get it all right. Btw, Dzeko is a dick face. Always has and always will be. Hate this player. As for the fans, I also hate s%$#! like this. There is no place for it in football or in the stadium. Stupid a few people can make a whole country look stupid. They should be ashamed and not allowed ever again. We also should not play our games in Athens in my opinion. Last but not least, wake up people the Serb brotherhood is a joke. They don't give a rats ass about us truthfully and we shouldn't about them. They want to be friends and be friendly, sure nothing wrong with that. But that's as far as it should go and don't fool yourselves.

Hi Kosaca, As a referee for 18 years (im not FIFA though lol) i can tell you that FIFA doesnt care for and has instructed refs not to bother with throw ins. Especially at the pro level , yes when we referee 10-15 years olds we call the foul throws. Even when i do Men games we dont even bother calling them, it just slows the game down. And im telling you thats why it wasnt called in that situation , dont think that the refs 'missed' it. As for the ref Eriksson , he is terrible , he was the same guy that thought Karagouni dived in 2012 against Russia in the box when even Collina after said it was a penalty.

Some of both Bosnian and Greek media should be heavily criticized. They find some facebook comments or forum posts and make articles based on that with panic headlines like from one popular Bosnian sport news site:"Greek threats: We will crush your entire country!", and I saw also some Greek articles based on angry comments on Edin Džeko's facebok page lmao. And of course when someone get hurt they will not be blamed.

also what's the attendance in Greece? I know this is spoken of but Olympiakos game 30k+ vs. Ethiniki 15k? That's a joke right? Our NT is quite better than any Greek club. I think it might be an Athenian thing, cause when I was in Kalamata the bars were packed for ethniki games. I got deja vu when someone referred to this "The first thing he taught us was that the national team had to come first," says Fyssas. Greek football is fiercely partisan; so closely did players identify with Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and AEK, the country's three club giants, that forgetting tribal enmity and uniting behind the blue-and-white flag had always proved difficult. "Rehhagel insisted that everything else came after the national team." In qualifying for 2004, the impact was impressive. Greece did not lose for 15 games. They won in Spain. Under Rehhagel's guidance, they strolled to a place in Portugal and along the way, they developed a formidable spirit. "It was more like a family," says Fyssas. "It was not one of these national teams with 55 players. We had 20 or so who were always in the squad -- he would bring two or three more along to have a look at them -- and so we were very close. We would sacrifice everything for each other."

Achievementwise in the last 12 years we are way beyond. Screw the euro we won. Euro 12 Quarters, WC 14 R16. We ll get back to what we used to be , might it be soon , might it take 10 years, we will. You re basing your facts on a 2 year screwup of our NT? Friendly reminder u didnt go to the Euro 16 either, so either it be finishing 3rd or 6th the outcome is still the same. There is nothing to disrepsect, so u can't really mean any disrespect. As for yesterday's match. Referee favoring us? Give me a break, he was happy to even the players without needed to red card Papadopoulos. Kolasinac did many fouls to the winger and nothing was given, suddently our 60kg winger makes a foul on him and you concede, and it's referee pushing the home team. Pathetic way of thinking. You were the best side? Possessionwise, ye. In a total of attempts ye, but I can't remember any better chance to score than Pjanic at 76. The rest are no clear chances, despite you willing for them to be. You had Ibisevic header from a corner?(Not sure if it was ibi but u get the point). We had Sokratis header on target from a corner. You had a woodwork->back of the keeper-> goal.We had a woodwork->keeper-> out. We had a Mitroglou tet-a-tet at 43. Dzeko shot on Karnezis some minutes before getting sent off. I really don't remember anything else worthmentioning as a clear advantage. So saying : we should have won 3-0 because we had 3 good chances is equal to saying : we should have lost 3-0 because you had 3 good chances. But I dont expect you to say anything similar because simply: This is your team and you support it. And yeah, every time bosnia has the ball and is going forward its danjerous. Pjanic Lulic Dzeko Ibisevic are all world class players. But so is our defensive work. So are our defenders. Do you really base your fact that you dominated the game because an offensive team played offensively, while a defensive team played defensively ? LIKE WOW N!GGA ARE YOU SMART OR WHAT? Come get your cookie. Another one: While getting 8 yellow cards in 7 different players (friendly reminder football is played 11vs11) I quite honestly can't understand all the "you play anti-bitchy-football" bullshiet you ve mentioned. Draw was deserved, your team has the ability to score goals but your defence is disasterous. This is exactly the reason we have a chance of grabbing 2nd spot, because if god sleeps, we can stop belgium. Go to sleep Gopnik.

I don't agree with what 30 dumb ass Greek fans did at the game with the banner and Serb flag, they aren't football fans and they don't belong in the stadiums. These people who do s%$#! like this don't realise the dangers they put other fans when they want to travel and see their NT play. Now any Greek who goes to the game in June will be a target.

Moving on to Belgium I think Skibbe really has no other option than to play with 3 center backs. Let's face it, we have no other option than to park the bus and hope to kill them on counter attacks. As most people probably still remember Italy beat them 2-0, playing 3 CBs. So that's a formation Belgium has struggled with before. Also I think Mitroglou has no business starting. He's way too slow, and if we're going to play on the counter we need a striker that can exploit the room the Belgian defenders will leave behind them. With other words, I think Karelis is the perfect fit for the match. This is how we should play with the current form of our players: KARNEZIS Manolas Sokratis Tzavellas Torosidis Stafilidis Zeca Maniatis Samaris Fortounis Karelis The midfield is the only questionable positions, with Zeca being the only secure. Hopefully Maniatis will have found a new club, while Samaris needs to get his act together on the NT. Mantalos and Kone should both be candidates for their spots, although Skibbe seems to have an issue with the later.

From what I saw in the video, Kyriakos Papadopoulos should have never attack a Bosnian player and should have kept his hands to himself in the process of the ref pulling out a red card. I'm afraid he has stoop down to the level of other dirty footballers like Nigel De Jong or Diego Costa.

Usually such an offence is given 3 game ban.

I wish Claudio Ranieri understood this, he called up anyone and everyone and set us back as a team, we still haven't recovered.

Yes we will crush your country, but not just yet. Everyone is currently at the kafetaria playing tavli.

to even utter Istanbul is accepting genocide

2006....

We did.

I think a key difference between the teams is that of "potential". On an imaginary good day for Bosnia, they "could" beat us 4-0. They have the players to do it. We on the other hand could maybe beat them 2-0 on our perfect day. We'd probably still be outplayed but we'd get 1 goal from ... somewhere ... and then maybe exploit some space in the 2nd half to get a 2nd. The return leg will be interesting. Lots of time between now and then. Injuries, match fitness, form will affect selections and strategy. Or not, who knows what Skibbe is thinking. That midfield duo of Maniatis and Samaris can't happen again. I'd almost be inclined to play 3 in the middle and forego a number 10 right now. Maybe with some luck their fans storm the pitch or do something crazy to give us the 3 points ? Ha ha.

It actually works. Great. Spirit of Socrates is strong in you.

I disagree highly that the ref was biased. if anything there should have 10+ minutes extra time at the end with 8 yellows on their end. Bosnia is definitely not better than us. Yeah they play more attractive football but at the end of the day we're just as talented. Defense ain't pretty. If we had Fetfa and Holebas on the wings, we could make them look stupid, but alas, Politics.

Dear god. Did you not watch the game? Our guys couldn't exchange a second pass. The game plan was find mitroglou. When you have maniatis in the midfield with samaris and the opposition has pjanic, you don't have a leg to stand on. Our defenders are not even that great. Manolas and sokratis are heavily overrated in these forums. But even if we had hummels and bonnuci, without proper midfielders that can retain the ball to relieve pressure, you are always going to struggle. The bosnian team is much , much better and they proved it. The result would've felt like a loss for them and rightly so.

http://www.sport-fm.gr/article/podosfairo/s****-stin-ellada-tha-gemisoume-to-gipedo-simaies-tis-makedonias-sti-zenitsa/3241657 Dzeko showing his true colours, this next match is going to go off big time.

Constantinople*

extended highlights in greek.