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Made the mistake of listening to that Hellas Footy podcast and had to turn it off when they decided collectively that we had to play like cowards (and the spastic-chipmunk-sounding-guy trash talking Thessaloniki didn't help, but I guess you can't expect miracles when a bunch of fans of Athens teams get together). Anyway. Bitterly disappointing here. We can hold our own against any f***ing team, which the first 60 or so minutes showed us today. When we revert to scared tactics, we get our assholes torn open. Big frigging shock.

The full 3 points was almost too good to be true. Slightly disappointing of course but we are sitting in a great position by not losing to them. For me this is about securing Pot 1 and raising rank.

I agree the result is on Jovanovic, the 2nd half we played far too timid and sat far too deep. This team can play football, there is quality there. The 2-3 times we ventured up the pitch in the 2nd half we looked dangerous. With no Tzolis we had no outlet on the counter, no-one pacey breaking into space for us to hit on the break. That doesn't excuse the 2nd half but I guess it offers some explanation. I still have question marks over Jovanovic as plenty do, but if we criticise then we also have to praise him when he gets stuff right. Starting Ioannidis ends up being a master-stroke. He has collected 7 points from a possible 9 against Serbia, Germany and the Netherlands. He made some errors today for sure, tactically the 2nd half was poor. It was not the right move to sub off BOTH Ioannidis and Pavlidis together (I realise fatigue may have been a factor). Another error that he made IMO is leaving Kyziridis out of the matchday squad. When you only have 4 wingers for 2 positions you do not leave one of them out. He would have been invaluable coming off the bench in the 2nd half, his pace on the counter would have at the very least given the other boys an outlet to try hit when we won the ball back. This team is capable, more than capable. Androutsos was another big plus today, very impressive with a dogged display in midfield. It remains to be seen whether Jovanovic has the chops to take this team forward.

First tie breaker is head to head points scored against each other. That’s means if we win this game we are on to the next round!

4 yrs ago or so we were celebrating beating the likes of Kosovo 3-0 in pot C. Of course I am grateful and exciting, but the dark cloud of terrible coaching is something that worries me. Look at the Portugals and Belgiums of the world. Bad coaching can undermined even the best golden generations. I don’t want guys like Kostoulas to get discouraged

GROUP A2 STANDINGS Greece-7 Netherlands-5 Germany-4 Serbia-0

Impressive first half. We need to keep the same pace in 2nd half and don't give them a chance to come back.

IONNIDIS ASSIST TO MASOURAS 😂😂😂😂 whoever I am talking crap about is scoring. BRAVO PAIDA PROVE ME WRONG

WE NEVER DOUBTED YOU FOR A SECOND IONNIDIS (😂😂). He will now be a 4 year starter lol

I’m glad Pavlidis and Jovanović spoke about having great performances away from home, beating big teams, only to come back to a sold-out stadium in Greece and put in a poor performance. That’s been an issue in the past, so hopefully after two huge wins over Serbia and Germany, they keep the same mentality and intensity tomorrow against the Netherlands. Time to bring that form home.