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ella RS, u make some valid comments but u miss my point entirely. dont say "its impossible" because it isn't impossible. it's UNLIKELY that we go through given this coach and the players we are missing etc etc etc. BUt its not impossible. ANd, its not gonna hurt -- at all. I am an objective soccer fan who know a thing or two about soccer and team sports in general, and although i bleed blue and white (see the connection ? BBAW) I am not unrealistic nor am I blindly believing without some sort of rationale. I follow the NT for decades. I know our limitations here, and the big mountain we have to climb. who expected faroe to beat us? the unlikely events do happen. and tomorrow, just a few things have to break our way and its on... if u think its imposible go bet 100,000 euros on the game. if i thought something was impossible thats what I would do. we have pride, w r infront of the home crowd, and the greek "pisma" and "kserokefalia uperifania" cannot be measured. our guys were embarrassed and now their backs are against the wall. we are not faroe islands (thorugh we looked like them game 1) i expect a good showing ---like u say if we fall short and play well, it will be a mental boost ---agree..... 97 times out of 100 we dont qualify tomorrow. but its not impossible. that was my only point. have SOME faith...its huge game and can be one of the greatest moments in NT history, dont you think? if they dont make it, they dont make it. I turn of the TV, go to the gym, have dinner with my family and go to work Monday... but lets try and enjoy tomorrow and hope for the best..

Who I play Sunday..and yes I believe there are plent of goals in the Croat backline Mitro missed 2 headers and got one shot fingertipped Sokratis should have dne better with his 2nd header whol net was there for him..WE CAN DO IT ................Anestis (KARNEZIS 7 goals in his last 120minuts Watford Greece).... ...................Retsos.....Sokratis.......Manolas......... Toro...............Zeca..............Tachtsidis................Lykogiannis ...............................Pelkas......................Fortounis.............. .......................................Mitroglou............................. Anestis is a must start in any sport with a goalie..the team must have full confidence..WE cant ask our players to open it up with the way Karnezis is playing and for some reason a fresh golaie always gets a team to work twice as hard!! We need goals Stafylidis or Tzavellas offer zero going forward put WolfJohn in he is in form and more the modern back than Tzavellas I love stafylidis but he ha ZERO confidence. He showed it last game on the 1st goal he got the ball on a switch of play and was 1v1 with there RB rather than take him on and creata chance or get fouled he bottled it back to Tzziolis to the back breaking goal Donis Giannotas Lazaros Lyko would have bombed forward, Pelkas Fortounis give us 2 #10 style players who can create. If Skibbe doesnt make major changes Sunday and goes wit the same clowns then we know EPO call some shots.

I DONT GET IT............. ANYWAY, WE DID OUR BEST. WOULD HAVE NICE TO CHEER A GOAL OR TWO BUT WE JUST DONT HAVE THE FIREPOWER TO PLAY A FORWARD GAME...POOR SPACING, PASSES WITHOUT PURPOSE, LACK OF FIELD AWARENESS , ETC ETC ETC ..... CROATIA IS VERY BEATABLE. THATS THE FRUSTRATING PART. AT EVEN STRENGTH IT WAS A 50/50 PROPOSItION. WE GAVE THEM AN EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFT - BUT HEY THATS SOCCER. WELL FOLKS AS PROMISED YESTERDAY I SHUT OFF THE TV AND AM GOING TO THE GYM - CHEST/BACK YES....SUPERSETS, COMING HOME PLAYING TAVLI WITH MY SON, EATING DINNER, WATCHING A MOVIE AND CRASHING. MONDAY GOING TO WORK. WHY DO I SAY ALL THIS? BECAUSE LIFE GOES ON.... ITS BEEN REAL FOLKS. A VERY EARLY HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU AND HAPPY HEALTHY NEW YEAR.... ALL THE BEST !!!!!!

"This Croatian side is better than they're showing. Playing with ease" SHUT UP!

these c*** announcers are praising Croatia for every little thing..

Screw Kuipers and FIFA

I really hate what FIFA did to Manolas. What a valuable player he is.

Time to shock the world

How can Skibbe start Tziolis in a world cup playoff, who offers Nothing? This is not a friendly match. He starts Bakasetas who has no touch on the ball. He also sits Fortounis the guy who can deliver free kicks and Corners as we saw on our only goal in the Tie when he swung it in to Sokratis for the header. EPO can you PLEASE find a coach who has a clue on how to set up a team and play the best inform players and find a coach who doesnt play his pals, this isn't a Rec team this is a NT with the opportunity to play for the World Cup. ENOUGH ALREADY

I'm with you man I want him gone... He's saying we need to be more creative offensively and look who he fckn plays...

i m not going to take for serious someone who says we are done because we couldn't get past croatia. we'll bounce back be sure about that.

this sucks we have to wait until 2020 now? Dam it! We need leaders,men to lead and play like warriors like Karagounis and Katsouranis were for the Ethniki. Sokratis, Manolas and Zeca today only showed that fight. If we don't have these players we will be watching another tournament again from home!

Another tournament no Greece. Summer will be painful lol Get use to it boys and girls. Because 2003-2014 was a golden age. Especially Portugal 04 and to a lesser extent but still amazing Brazil14. We won't qualify again for a long time. It's going to be like the 80's and 90's. Maybe worse lol we keep going down in the rankings, our FA is corrupt, our clubs are broke with no proper youth facilities. When we won in 2004 I thought this was it. We had reached the big time. Things were going to change. Investment, infrastructure. But nothing. F*** em

Wow. Anyone just listen to Skibbe's interview? They asked him if he would be the coach for our next campaign, and he said "Of Course." In a very confident way. They ask him very light questions in these interviews. I'm surprised the Greek media doesn't grill him they way they grill coaches in the Superleague haha. My question, "Why did Tziolis play two full 90 minute games?"

The lack of intensity and care for the game should infuriate every fan, we had corners where we somehow ended up with the ball back with the keeper, the refusal to lift the tempo at any point in the game, some free kicks we won it even looked like we were time wasting. From an attitude point of view this was worse then the 1st game. As I said during the game pretty gutless.

life goes on yes But another int. tournament without Greece is going to be painful

the formula should be, Feed Mitroglou If he gets service he scores.

Fire this ass clown right f-ing now! Gianniotas is out there turning Croatians inside out and you're telling me he couldn't have helped us against Bosnia and Belgium??? Nevermind that, he makes 3 subs and doesn't take off even 1 defensive midfielder??? And he takes off f-ing Laz....ya,god forbid we have 2 wingers on at the same time, then we might cause the Croatians some real headaches and actually make them defend.

and everyone even complained about that, all my non Greek mates said that it was never a penalty. No one gives Greece a fair go. Even after we win the Euro everyone said only negative things. On that note, how about this Scottish commentator and his sly remarks about our team? He said that the fans cheering about the (brilliant tbh) overhead kick clearance and said what good is that why are they cheering Fk of you tosser you wish your Scottish national team had a player like Manolas and could do that. THis game is evidence of how HUGE losing Manolas was in the first leg. Would have been a whole different game (and of course Torosidis)

We have needed goals, yet for Skibbe this has been nothing but a 'save face' game, try keep his job. Yes game was over after the first leg, but the team has shown absolutely no fight today. Skibbe out

Let's be honest, this has been a gutless performance, it's the intensity of a friendly.

skibbe needs to go just for having tziolis still on don't we have better players then him

Notice the espn commentator no trouble was going wide lol . Agh no it was close! Funny how croats are close but us wide?? Biased ????

Modification looks like a little girl can't someone just clatter him and put him out of commission?

Croatia is getting away with handling the ball in the penalty area.

The ref needs to open his biased eyes!

Croatia are a team full of diving pussys.

Man, nobody in the stadium.

Croatia will park the bus for first 20 minutes and try to counter so we have to be careful.... We need more crosses in the box from the "wingers" skibbe will play and give mitro some service.... If i think if we get the ball in there box goals will come as I see them scramble quite a bit. For me whoever plays on the wings will make this game for the counter attack and crosses. We need to pressure them just as hard as they pressured us as they had way too much time on ball.

This past March, Estonia beat Croatia 3-0 in a friendly match. Don't know how I missed that. It was a friendly match, but still 3 goals. LETS DO IT!! The Pirate Ship sets sail TODAY.

Guys, I'm f...ing anxious for this match. Cause probably we won't make it, but if we do, it's gonna be EPIC! And there's no impossible when we talk about football!

I dont know if it sux or not. The fact that we re most likely out already I think will sit on us better after the final blow. Other teams like Northern Ireland an Ireland / Denmark who had decent and doable results in the first leg will probably be a lot more disappointed after the 2nd match if/when they are out than us. We ve had 4 days to let reality kick in.

FFS imagine how excited and nervous we would all be right now if we didn't gift them the 2 goals and we lost 2-1 or even if we gifted them 1 goal 2-0 would be very doable.. If we do somehow manage to get up 2 then I will start to get excited again but for now lets just see a good performance and see how it plays out.. It really does suck that we had to be the only team in the playoffs without a chance in our 2nd game.

Anyone in Ontario can watch the match on sportsnet world (370 on Rogers in Toronto) at 2:45pm.

wouldve made our lives easier if cracked a second away goal we had 4+ chances to do so croatia's defense looks shakey and we've seen greece somehow manage to play offensive football when their backs against the wall eg) vs. Ivory Coast / Costa Rica Mitroglou 20 Mitroglou 40 Laz 70 pame lol

^^^Arnold Schwarzenegger used to superset chest & back exercises on same day lol...anyway, it sucks we put ourselves in this position but you never now what can happen, however unlikely.

l'd like to see Charisis in your lineup with Androutsos, Manthatis and Anestis in that squad.

I predict we will be up 2-0 at half time. And we will give ourselves at the very least a chance...

Hopefully Skibbe opens it up we are down 4-1 and we need to attack them from the get go. So he better implement the right personnel (hopefully) Croatia will sit back and try and eat time of the clock. A quick goal and there nerves will start to rattle. Then things will get interesting and we will have our crowd fired up.

Totally agree, I'm nervously waiting to see the line up he fields tomorrow lol @Rockafeller Skank sorry, I can't read Greek to save my life lol I'm gonna get one of my buddies to read it for me. But honestly, we have to look forward. It's been frustrating, hopefully better days are on the horizon.

RS, i'm tired of the "we played well but lost" mentality....YOU DID NOT PLAY WELL, YOU LOST .... U KEEP SAYING NO CHANCE TO GO THROUGH...thats easy to say....but the fact is there is a chance, though its a big thing to ask THIS team to do, there is achance...why play the game then? if you fancy yourself to be a good team, shut up, put on your big boy shorts, and go win that game 3-0, 4-1, 5-2 or whatever it takes to get it done. good teams WIN --- they dont "play well but lose". as i said, I predict (because I dont see anyone here making predictions - and u saying we wont make it is not a prediction its the safe thing to say) i predict tommorows game will have alot of surprises. as i said before, if betting sports was that easy we would all be millionaires. so long as skibbe does the right thing, and the team plays their "A" game. you dont think a quick goal wont rattle them? then we have some momentum and grab another? its 2-0 with 45 to play...you dont think thats possible? then what? 45 minutes to score another goal? if u think this is impossible then you are seriously mistaken...... based on last game it SEEMS unlikely, but remember we HANDED them three gifts....3.....even with that crap lineup we could have kept is much closer without those three gifts....three mistakes that unfortunately all happened in one game.

gsots ----- great points. where u reading my posts ? lol.. cant say i disagree with anything but ----------- enough of revisionist history what will happen tommorrow? what will he do? who will he put on? what will he play formation and tactic wise....what will croatia do? lets get some commitments/predictions here. we have analyzed game one to death. in his ONLY defense and only for the starting squad: 1. manolas/donis/tro/mantalos killed us; 2. very very hard to patchwork a lineup with his call ups (his fault) and the holes he needed to fill

Tactician??? I wouldn't trust this guy to pick his nose at this point lol Throwing a bunch of defensive minded guys on the field isn't tactical. It would be like saying Otto was tactical when he tossed on 8 defensive players against Argentina. Ill toss out some things and you guys tell me if these seem like the ideas of a coach with great sense and tactics. Maniatis: doesn't play for his club much. Isn't in game form. Has played almost exclusively as cdm because his crossing and dribbling aren't very good, but he works hard. But Skibbe thinks its a good idea to toss him at rb to protect the flank... Tsiolis: plays in SA cause he stinks and no one wants him (not like Fetfa who went cause they pay him a s#!t ton). Doesn't play consistently, so isn't in form. Can't make that critical pass. Plays in 1 of the most critical positions for us for possession and distribution yet fails miserably consistently at both. Tzavellas: plays as a cb for a mid table team. Consistently stifles our left side on offense by offering little support on the attack, always looks to pass back when he has room going forward. Stinks defensively as well. Aside from that goal against Bosnia (embarrassing that we were even losing to them) has shown me nothing that he has cemented that position. Stafylidis: I don't mind him, but he's not playing for his club right now, so to ask him to play LW and track back and forth to cover numbnuts Tzavellas is insane. He's obviously not in game shape, so of course he's gonna look like s%$#! and make mental errors doing that much running. And let's not forget this same stupid coach played staf as a cm lol Samaris: again, I like him, but he's not playing much either, so to start him at cdm in this game was always going to be tough. That game against Belgium away, anyone could see that Tachtsidis was gonna eat a 2nd yellow, especially once we were up and you knew we'd have to really tighten up. He should have been subbed off... But nope, too logical, I guess God's gift to our nt bakashitas wasn't wormed up yet lol K let's look at the beginning of the 2nd half. It definitely made sense to remove maniatis, but if Retsos was the replacement, then he should have just started cause that was a f-ing colossal waste of a sub. But ok, maybe he's thinking we hold them, maybe get a lucky corner and pull one back. But then we go down 4-1 and he's picking butterflies on the bench for what seemed like another 15-20 mins before he was forced into a sub cause Samaris went down. And instead of bringing on a winger to inject some speed down the side, on comes Tachtsidis to continue with the failed formation and tactics. We don't just sit and whine about him when we lose and praise him when we win. We praised him early in the campaign cause he seemed very competent. But he doesn't seem competent now and hasn't for a while. Maniatis off, Zeca to rb and laz on to rm should have been the first move to start 2nd half. See how that went for a few mins, then make the next sub accordingly. Samaris off for pelkas could have been next and play an upside down triangle 1cdm Tsiolis and 2 am pelkas and Fortounis behind Mitro. And then depending on the situation when staf needs to come off, either Retsos on (Retsos to rb and Zeca to lm or laz to lm and Zeca to rm) or Gianniotas on.

j, it can happen very easily. now, WILL it happen - ......... i think many people on this thread and all over r gonna be in for a big surprise.... we always make thing difficult..... we got them just where we want them, we just needed a little motivation....thats all ....lol

Lol omg! It was actually patza in for karagounis lol I actually called it too. I told my buddy "watch, he's gonna bring in patza to defend the lead we don't have" Otto had lost his mind by the world cup I think lol he actually started vyntra and avraam at cb instead of moras and kyriakos cause he was pissed kyriakos didn't wanna play sweeper. Then karagounis apparently snapped at Otto during halftime, so he subbed him off too

sometimes coaches make decisions that work out yet they were not the proper, highest percentage choice...likewise coaches make the proper decision but it does not work out....in both cases, you can see the thought process behind the decision at which point you can debate it.... but this guy ----- what POSSIBLE "strofi tou mialou" did his brain take to make the substitutions he made? I cant find ANY ANY rational or logical explanation....like u guys have said..... based on the information he had after the first half, and going into the first several minutes of the second half --- all real time factual data --- what was the thought process behind those choices.??????? i would be very curious to hear him explain all that.. all i can think of is maybe at 3-1 he figured if it ends 3-1 he can maybe snatch a 2-0 win at home....? ok i can bbbbbbbarely see that though i dont agree, ican see that. but at 4-1? i just dont get it. again, we may not agree with the logic behind any decision, but at least that logic has a basis in the coaches reality, right? but i would love to know what exactly his assessment and evaluation was of the game and what he hoped to accomplish with those substitutions.... are we all missing something?

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.

he had saved a couple when he was in udinese. anyway i don't get it why people are bashing karnezis thinking it's easy to save a penalty. probably you're one of those who started blaming him for the costa rica game meanwhile costa rica played with a man down for abotu 60 minutes and still we couldn't utilize our chances. im fairly convinced the hate of karnezis started back then.

Reality is, our chances are 0.1% or less. Many would say 0%. Real pity. Our only hope is, if we can score 1-0 in 1st half and find a 2nd without conceding and with enough time to make them sweat. This guy Alefantos makes a lot of sense. Zeca has to man mark Modric. We need run in the midfield and on the flanks. It's doable. We will know in the first 15 minutes if the players give it a go. After the match, Scibbe said "Όλοι μπορούν να κάνουν λάθη. Είμαστε ομάδα και όλοι μπορούν να κάνουν λάθη στο γήπεδο. Ακόμα και ο προπονητής μπορεί να κάνει λάθη. Σήμερα δεν νομίζω ότι εγώ έκανα πολλά λάθη". He needs to do better.

Wow all calls going in Croatias favour..