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GROUP C2 STANDINGS Greece-6 Kosovo-3 Northern Ireland-1 Cyprus-1

?? win!! Poyet the new santos!

Greece up 1 nil thx to another great strike from Bakasetas. Poyet please sub of Mantalos his touch is awful and is losing the ball to easily.

At least its not the group of death with Faroe Islands, San Marino and Kosovo. shite a brick, we have Kosovo! Oh no Kosovo! Oh no Kosovo!

No exceptions this is our biggest game in the campaign. Yes we play them again but this is a statement game. We will not get lost in a group of minnows again. We win this game and lead the group by 3 points and by goal differential. We put our foot down here. A draw makes this whole campaign complicated and much more open to us messing it up. Statement game HELLAS

Baldock was impressive if only he would have finished his chance it would have put the cherry on top. We are possessing the ball & stroking it around with much more confidence. With JVS there was a lot of kick and run. Limnios was fabulous again. Vlachodimos looking like one of the best goalies in Europe! We will top this group even with 6 one nil wins. Go ??

Exactly, until the final whistle I was still worried they were about to sneak a crappy goal through, so that is big that we controlled the ball instead of letting them bombared us for 30 minutes

The threat of Tsimikas on one side and Baldock on the other is looking amazing. Baldock + Limnios look to only get better in their connection. We did something today that I haven’t seen us do in ages. KEEP THE BALL. We were passing around establishing possession all things we couldn’t do against this very same team in previous campaigns. I know it’s only two games but it’s two games against two teams we’ve either lost or drawn to multiple times recently. The only change I would make is Tziolis for Masouras give the lil guy a chance and make our mid 3 Siopis Kourbelis and Bakasetas. Other than that I am excited for the first time in a while.

BIG WIN BABY TOP OF THE GROUP

Vix is free and it’s streaming all uefa nations league games but downside it’s in espanol. GOAL BAKASETAS AGAIN!

By the way in the other game in this group, plus a team you should all care about anyway, Cyprus and NI drew 0-0 earlier today in Cyprus. That can only help

Looks good. I agree Siopis probably tired after all the running he did last game. Baldock first start. Hopefully Mantalos can put in a good performance.

Decent starting 11 Vlach Baldock Tsimikas Hatzidiakos Mavropanos Bakasetas Kourbelis Mantalos Masouras Limnios Giakoumakis GREAT LINEUP BOYS IM HYPE BOUCHALAKIS IS GONE. Siopis is prob tired from the great performance he put on, really the only difference I’d make. Also Mantalos shouldn’t start but I like this attacking line up with both Masouras and Mantalos playing! Hopefully Poyet understands how much we need to win this one! PAME HELLAS

I agree it’s time we reseperate ourselves from the bottom teams of Europe.

I want Greece to smash Kosovo. Enough of these small countries getting results from us. JVS was the major reason why we didn’t beat them in World Cup qualifying. I’m confident Poyet will get the job done.

Can't tell me I'm not Patriotic, I'm having my Yeeros with tzatz to prove it! Opah boythes!!!

Good start for Greece and Poyet. 2 wins and on the road too. Plus we rack up FIFA points. Also it’s crucial to keep our pot 3 ranking for the Euro draw!

Unlucky we could not get a 2nd goal a few good opportunities but we are winning and playing sound defensively. This is the type of match JVS would have managed to screw up.

Kosovo 0-1 Greece FT

AHAHHAHAHA GET WRECKED THIS IS SO SATISFYING THEY HAVE BEEN GIVING US A HARD TIME FOR YEARS NOW 2 REDS AND WERE JUST PASSING A STORM AROUND THEM

How does he keep doing this lmaooo

Goalara!!! Bakasetas!!!

Baka should never leave the field again!

Man these streams suck.

One of the better lineups we have started in a while..

GREECE 1 Vlachodimos(GK) 21 Tsimikas 17 Hatzidiakos 4 Mavropanos 2 Baldock 20 Mantalos 6 Kourbelis 11 Bakasetas(Captain) 7 Masouras 18 Limnios 19 Giakoumakis BENCH 12 Paschalakis(GK) 13 Athanasiadis(GK) 3 Tzavellas 5 Bouchalakis 8 Alexandropoulos 9 Douvikas 10 Chatzigiovanis 14 Goutas 15 Rota 16 Pavlidis 22 Giannoulis 23 Siopis Manager: Gustavo Poyet(URU)

Bravo Cyprus! they played well and could have won it.

Cyprus 0-0 Northern Ireland FT Not bad

Tzionis! GREAT SAVE PEACOCK-FARRELL!

I would have to say Mavropanos is better than Sokratis right now. Sokratis has been on the decline. The best players in each position should play and if they can’t because of injury or suspension then you pick the next best replacement. That’s common sense. I base it off on what a players does on the field. The definition of the best could be different for some people here but I base it on players who are talented who have heart and can make a difference through there skill. Also players that have performed well for Greece. You could perform well for club but when it comes time to play for Greece and you don’t perform then you should be benched that’s how it normally works. If you play well then you should be rewarded with another game. Some players could have loads of game time and deserve a call up but also don’t perform for Greece which is the case here, most of the time. We have problems in midfield and attack and until we choose players that make a difference in those positions then I don’t see anything improving.

Greece need a comfortable 2 goal win here. Kosovo have a few good players going forward but they are leaky in defence so we have to take advantage and finish our chances. Reports state Masouras should be ready to play.

He cops a lot of criticism Bakasetas but fark me he took his chance EXTREMELY well like a real pro.

Let's live in the present guys....Sokratis is at best a bench veteran , Manolas has been out for the last 2-3 months Hatzdiakos and Mavropanos deserve at the present moment to be starters and are beginning to find a good chemistry between them. Baldock and Rota bring some much needed depth to the RB position and along with Kotsiras in a pinch....and I hope as mentioned above Lyratzis continues to develop. Giannoulis had a dismal season at Norwich and I think both he and Tziolis are better off either staying in the Championship or moving to a different league because they were out of their depth in the Premier League. Galanopoulos is another player that can't stay healthy so let's just forget about him for now. I don't get why Bouxalakis starts : he's slow, sucks defensively and doesn't cover much ground. Offensively he makes to many turnovers and the occasional good pass doesn't make up for his faults. Siopis performances of late means that he is a viable replacement for Zeca who at 33 and coming off an injury is past it. Bakasetas sucks but he plays well for his club and must be doing all the right things in practice and gets the starts regardless who is manager...at least he's present and accounted for and occasionally contributes. Unfortunately, Fortounis has played a whopping 200 min all year....he won't get any better and if you think he's going to be a difference maker at this point in his career you're kidding yourselves (of course I hope he makes a full recovery and comes back stronger but let's be realistic). Masouras and Limnios are serviceable wingers and bring an element of speed down the flanks....both are really good at tracking back which makes a difference against quality opponents. Giakoumakis has all the right tools and timing to become a top striker...let's hope he brings it to he NT. Add Douvikas, Fountas and Pavlidis (who gets a lot of flack for not scoring but does a lot of the dirty work) and the forwards look pretty versatile even if they aren't world beaters. What's missing is a credible playmaker who can perform on a consistent basis. I always hoped either Mantalos or Fortounis would pick up that role but I think it's time to move on from them as they both seem to have gotten stuck in the GSL quagmire. Hopefully Poyet can piece together the puzzle and bring back some success to the NT

What is the meaning of this? Far too much sense to be posting on the Ethniki forums, show yourself out young man! Absolutely ridiculous.

If soon to be 34 year old Sokratis is our best CB, god help us... Also, Baldock wasn't even Greek 2 days ago, and we are acting like he's Trippier. He isn't better than Lyratzis, at least not in my opinion. Tzolis hasn't played meaningful first team minutes in months. Based off of potential he is, but right now I wouldn't start him neither.

Limnios whole game was impressive. He has been playing well in the Dutch league. Greece was passing the ball around really well especially in the 1st half and were not hitting aimless long balls. The N. Ireland commentators said we we deserved the victory and it should have been a more comfortable win as well. N. Ireland hardly threaten until late in the match. There best chance was Laferty free kick just outside the box that just went over the net. Kosovo played well in the second half and scored a couple nice goals. They will try and push forward but they are vulnerable at the back. I hope Greece can score 2 goals and keep another clean sheet.

Limnios has always had the defensive side of the game down pat. He tracks back and supports his full-back and its why coaches like him. Limnios biggest challenge is his attacking play and more specifically when he doesn't have space to use his pace he can be rendered ineffective due to his lack of dribbling ability. Good to see he had a hand in the goal but again once he beat the defender diving in, he had space to work in. Never the less, I have been encouraged by the season he had in Holland and am curious to see if he's learnt a new trick or two. I didn't see the game but good to win especially away to one of the trickier road trips in the group. Must back it up, Kosovo will be plucky as they always are. Wonder if Poyet will rotate given only 2 days between games, back-to-back road trips and there are another 2 games on the horizon.

Good points. Greece kept a clean sheet and we did not give up some late cheap goal like we saw under JVS. The important thing is we follow up this result with a win vs Kosovo and not repeat what happened last wcup campaign when Greece got a great result in Spain but then dropped points at home vs Georgia.

Douvikas is not a winger... On the game, very big 3 points and that the main thing. The defence stood tall for a change and we kept the clean sheet which is good, my big concern is midfield still, the goal we worked well and thank god for that because besides that and the chance Limnios created again that Giakoumakis didnt get to we butchered every other counter attack when we had the Northern Irish players totally scrambling, wrong passes, horrible crosses etc... we could have easily had a second goal if we got some of these right. Bouchalakis was horrid, could love to see anyone get a run over him right now. Get someone else on the left wing also. Tzolis couldn't be worse than Mantalos, again, I dont consider Douvikas a winger. Bakasetas - he can score but he with Bouchalakis in midfield is killing us, I am sure we can look to keep Baka there somehow but combined the can not control a game or keep possession and this is vital for us to get to another level.

Here is what I will say boys. This is the type of game we let the other team score and draw in the last couple campaigns we have had. That makes this big for me. Don’t forget they beat us twice last time they were in a qualifying group with us. Our biggest match of the nations league will be our Kosovo match in a few days and our subsequent match with them. 1-0 will more than suffice. Hopefully the Irish can keep some points off them too

Yes true especially vs the Kosovo of the world. I thought we would get 2 today. N Ireland don’t concede many goals. Italy could not score 1 on them. Getting the win is most important especially against countries that are close to our calibre or better.

I completely agree with you but on the other hand it is the coaches first competitive game so let’s give them a little bit of time and secondly when has Greece ever beat anybody in the past by more then 1 goal. In saying that I believe with wingers like Masouras, Tzolis, Douvikas and a striker like Giakoumakis and hopefully at some point Fortounis there is no reasoning on we shouldn’t be able to win by a couple of goals against these types of teams..