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Why they didn't reseed based on FIFA rank is baffling. Greece should be playing both at home!

The final was a random draw, it fell Georgia's way. Their stadium holds 55k, it will be packed and the atmosphere will be electric. Tough road trip for us for sure. As for today's game, so proud of the lads that was a great performance. Foot down from the start, showed they are a better team and kept going until the game was completely safe. The team has definitely developed more of a killer edge under Poyet. Credit to him and the players, I don't think there has been one game in his tenure that we lost where we were expected to win. We beat the teams we should, that is how we topped our group in the Nations League, that is how we stayed in touch with France and the Netherlands during qualifying and that is now why we are one win away from our first major tournament in 10 years.

I'm f***en gutted. Speechless. Which is rare for me. I was so naïve yesterday thinking its a done deal. I really thought there was no way in hell we were not going to win this game. I wasn't expecting a blow out but a 1-0 or 2-1 hard fought Hellas victory was a sure thing in my mind. Once again, I was brutally wrong. This team has let us down once again. I simply don't get it. There are other "smaller population" countries in Europe such as Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Holland, etc. that field competitive teams annually. Even the blockhead Albanians qualified directly. I simply don't understand. That was one of the worst performances I've seen from the Ethniki and I've been watching every game since the 1994 World Cup debacle. Countless backwards passes, no urgency, no desperation, playing in fear against a Georgia...come on! Gutted.

Red Cards to both benches. Won't affect anyone on the field. Also not sure the Poyet hate? He's gotten us a chance to get into a Euro, more than any of the last 3 coaches can say. Can't keep rotating coaches.

I agree with you but they did a draw after qualifying ended. Wales also gets two home matches and will play Poland at home. Greece have won the last 4 matches in Georgia. Most recently in 2022 wcup qualifier 2 nil. Georgia is a better team but we have improved a lot since JVS left and Poyet has the team beating countries that Greece should be beating. Let’s Go 🇬🇷

That is how you play team football, every freakin match Greece must play this way to ensure victory. The next match in Georgia will be a tricky one, but history shows it's on Greece's side.

This is why so many wanted Poyet gone!!! And any of you who wanted him to stay deserve this. Most in form F***in player in Tzolis not even on Bench. Ruins a relationship with fortounis, manolas, sokratis but picks tzavellas for his squads….. plays players like pelkas, kourbelis and Bouchoulakis who should never be close to the NT with ability and form to consider. Masouras was runnning on fumes from 60 min on and we had nobody to come on !!! What a F***in joke

f***ing embarrassing absolute f***ing bullshit

Hi to all the Phantis/Greeksoccer.com folks! Let's go Elladara!!!

Boys this game isn't going to be easy. That stadium is going to be electric and the Georgian team is looking to make history in front of there fans. They sold out the entire stadium in 5 hours 54K. Greece needs to try and get an early goal to take the crowd out of it early. its going to be a tough game. Αμόκ στη Γεωργία για το ματς της ιστορίας της: Σε πέντε ώρες εξαντλήθηκαν τα 54.000 εισιτήρια για τον τελικό πρόκρισης στο Euro 2024 με την Ελλάδα (sport24.gr)

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Really strong performance. They looked on it right away and determined. Put the game away very early. This was encouraging.

Reasonable preview of tomorrow's game: https://amp.sportsmole.co.uk/football/greece/euro-2024/preview/preview-greece-vs-kazakhstan-prediction-team-news-lineups_539292.html

Aston Villa will be next, they are playing very good football this season in the EPL. Fourth place and actually doing better than Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham. This will be Olympiakos biggest test of the Conference League.

I still can't believe Tzolakis outshined Livakovic in the penalty shoot out. That young Greek has ice water in his veils!

Hey, I remember those threads early in the season where there was little hope for this team. They definitely exceed expectations and made some huge European memories.

Fun: my youngest son is texting me on his way home from his internship that a friend is in Thessaloniki with his school and that he is in the stadium. Best education you can get: visiting Toumba!

Tzolis scored two goals yesterday in 2. Bundesliga and is now joined top scorer. His team is now #3 that at the end of the season gives them the opportunity to play promotion-games against #16 of the Bundesliga. 7 MD's remaining. Tough to reach places for direct promotion as they are 7 and 6 points behind St. Pauli and Holstein Kiel. And tough to remain #3 as Hamburger SV and Hannover 96 are close to them.

Boys just count how many coaches we’ve had since our last tournament we made. Not one of those coaches could figure it out? I’m all for getting a new coach I just don’t see it making a difference. At this point how can we seriously think we are only a good coach away from making a tournament. I don’t buy it anymore.. Maybe I’m just still super pissed from yesterday but all the good we did under Poyet means nothing now I feel like we are back square one.. No idea what the answer is at this point.. So frustrating..

Anyways you look at it this is a massive failure.

Poland almost lost as well, game came down to penalties. Georgia was playing more defensive, trying to hit us on the counter. We got gassed and then penalties happened. We had an off game, nothing else to say. We just couldn't connect. Feels terrible. I think every single one on this thread would have picked the same line-up from the last match. Kostantellias played almost 60 minutes. Tzolis could have helped but for who? He had to replace most of the back line bc of their cards/couldn't go on. Half our subs were the backline. You have three more subs, you replace Pelkas (made sense), you replace Ionnidis (he couldn't go on) and then the last one is the one that is questionable, but who would it have been that would have made a difference? I guess Pavlidis instead of Giakoumakis but that is a 50/50 choice.... They didn't have it today - plain and simple.

All I want to say is that we had 1 more match to win to make the tournament and they failed to do that. Smashing Kazakhstan 5-0 is great but it’s inexcusable to not beat a team like Georgia. Just to point out: - Tzolis 20 goals this season - Pavlidis top scorer in holland - Goutas and Siopis play weekly in the championship - Pelkas only played 5 games this season - Konstantelias best player with the ball and plays every week doesn’t start Core players like Bakasetas, Mantalos, Kourbelis and Pelkas have to be replaced. There is a core in this group that are not capable of taking Greece to the next level. Next coach has to see that. Defence and keeper did there job’s in both games. Can’t fault them for today’s loss. Questions have to be asked about the midfielders and attackers.

No Excuses... it doesn't get any easier than this All we had to do was beat Kazakhstan and Georgia to make the Euros. If we can't manage that then we haven't progressed at all. We were in a difficult group during the Euro campaign and we played two very good teams and finished 3rd call it what you want but we still failed to qualify. We had a second chance by winning the nations league but once again we failed. Winning the group means absolutely nothing if we cant beat Georgia in a one game playoff. Even though i have seen some signs of growth the inconsistency of brining it game in and game out is not there. Poyet has done some good things for sure but his ability to read the game and change the style of play when its not working out on the pitch is terrible. Poyet failed in the Euro campaign and failed at the nations league so really does he deserve to stay? Do we start all over again with a new coach and go down the same road we've been going down for 12 years of failure or do we stick it out and let them work it out and build on the chemistry? do we have enough trust that Poyet will shake things up with younger talent or will it just be the status quo. Such a disappointment, we were given a second chance a golden opportunity and once again we blew it and this time to Georgia in the playoffs NOT a team like Croatia which was our last closet chance to qualify under Skibbe. This one is going to hurt for a while.

When you’re putting on Bouchalakis while looking for a goal in extra time, you know you’re in trouble. Would have been nice to have Tzolis or Pavlidis come off the bench..

To be honest i thought they had better chances. Despite willing to give us possesion they looked more threatening running at us. Vlachodimos made 2 point blank saves. The Bakasetas shot for eg isnt really a chance, we had the header and thats it, unforgiveable to create so little in 120 minutes. Im not bothered by the penalty shootout, once you reach that point you're depending on a coin flip. Our job was to win this before then and we failed. Personally i wouldnt have had Giakoumakis take a penalty, his record from the spot was very patchy at Celtic and i can recall him missing for Atlanta as well. That said you'd put your life savings on Bakasetas and he was denied.

Go watch the USA play. You show up every two years to chime in.

In terms of importance arguably the worst loss in our history. We aren’t going to a WC obviously, our next semi decent chance (if that) is 8 years away. If anyone had said 2 years ago that all you had to do was beat Georgia to qualify for Euro you’d bite that persons hand off to be in that scenario and we still blew it.

Poyet has done a good job overall but today he messed it up and we could have used Fortounis cutting edge in the midfield. We came out strong vs France best team in the world and score 2 goals. This game vs an average team our team was timid from the start not like last game we’re they came out so strong. Bakasetas was playing to deep to give passes to the strikers. In the penalties it’s 50/50 but Bakasetas hits one of the worst penalties ever and Giakoumakis misses the target. We lose with Kvaratskhelia not even taking a penalty.

We should’ve been able to play our B lineup and beat a team like Georgia, I didn’t see anybody complaining when we spanked Kazakhstan 5-0 with that exact same lineup. Am I happy with Poyet selections? No, Do I think he’s the sole person to blame? No I don’t because not one coach in the last 12 years could figure it out with the players you’ve named above. Personally, I don’t care if he stays or goes he didn’t take us to the euros so he probably should go.

So if we can’t beat teams like Georgia have we really progressed? I mean Georgia has improved but they are still a bottom team. We had one shot on net in 90 minutes which I think sums it all up.. So busted right now.. I guess we have to wait another 12 years before we even get a sniff at a major tournament..

Damn Georgians booing all through our anthem. Let's make them pay

Big problems at the back. Mavropanos is a mistake waiting to happen and Tsimikas needs to stop prancing around like he's some sort of billionaire. Yeah we get it you play for Liverpool but play for us like you're playing for Liverpool, not that flairish BS he produced the other night. Karhavatskellia is world class. He will create plenty of chances for them and is probably the only thing in our way to qualifying. Need to get an early goal and silence the crowd and most definitely dont go defensive like we did vs Holland.

Highlights: https://youtu.be/rKNiW6p92hI?si=zjVOzjudozNtRZB3

Almost there. One more completely winnable game separates us from our first major tournament in a decade!

One step away...

5-0 yay!

As soon as I get a good feed, the team forgets how to score!

I have a working stream for second half. It's a bit of a pain closing the pop ups and getting it running. https://hes-goals.io/live/15625/1143772/greece-vs-kazakhstan/

3-0?

I would swap Pelkas for Tzolis

Still a few days to go but early media reports suggesting Poyet will start with this team --------------Vlachodimos Baldock---Mavropanos--Chatzidiakos---Tsimikas ------Siopis/Kourbelis---Mantalos Masouras--------Bakasetas--------Pelkas ----------------Ioannidis -Siopis and Kourbelis battling it out for a spot (I wouldn't be surprised to see them both start) -Pelkas is coming off around a 2-month layoff with injury. He played about 25 mins for his club on the weekend off the bench and managed to grab an assist. He may be deemed not fit enough to start. In that instance apparently one of Konstantelias or Tzolis would start. -Vlachodimos and Chatzidiakos have not played for their clubs since January. So hopefully they aren't too rusty out of the blocks. https://www.sport24.gr/football/ethniki-elladas-oi-protes-skepseis-toy-poget-gia-ti-megali-machi-me-to-kazakstan.10284917.html

that was a poor performance over both legs.. i knew after the first 15 mins of the 2nd leg what type of game it would be

Considering how we played, a 1-0 defeat is actually a good result and the tie is well and truly alive. These poor performances are becoming a bit of a habit, the only positive is we seem to bounce back well so hopefully we see an improved performance in Thessaloniki from the boys. Like after the 1st leg vs Dinamo, I don't think we will be that toothless in attack for a 2nd straight game, especially at home. Brugge completely controlled the tempo of the game, their goal was like a training drill, there was never any pressure on the ball during the whole passage of play. They forced us to play slow when we had the ball, and we were more than happy to oblige and play with no energy or movement. Only times we looked threatening was with Taison on a few occasions. Whenever they wanted to, it seemed they could create a chance. Again not dissimilar to the Dinamo 1st leg, Brugge are not a defensive juggernaut we simply made them look so. If we put pressure on their defense (which is now missing half of its starters through suspension) we are good for a goal at Toumba. The week off will do us good, it's been a long season.

The cup final does not take place until SL season is over. I don't really worry about them. We play them at home, so they should not be a problem. My worries are AEK and how we can beat them.

Boys we need to finish this now can’t go to penalties..

Despodov scorer of the sole goal of the match against Tanzania (without Samatta) with a freekick. Bulgaria not playing in the usual white shirt but a yellow one while Tanzania played in a dark outfit. What is this nonsense?!?! Germany changing to Nike, England with their flag in other colours...... Perhaps I'm too old fashioned

Have to get off to another hot start and keep the Georgians at bay.

beautiful cross and a fantastic finish..

NATIONAL TEAM EURO 2024 QUALIFYING - PLAYOFFS SEMIFINAL 21-MARCH-2024 21:45 EET (19:45 UTC, 14:45 CDT, 06:45 AEDT next day) GREECE - KAZAKHSTAN TV: Alpha TV (Greece), Optus Sport (Australia), DAZN (Canada), ViX (USA) FINAL 26-MARCH-2024 21:45 EET (19:45 UTC, 14:45 CDT, 06:45 AEDT next day) winner GEORGIA vs LUXEMBOURG - winner GREECE vs KAZAKHSTAN TV: Alpha TV (Greece)