Akritis_1944

APOEL had no problem beating Athletic Bilbao over 2 legs a few months ago. Is this PAO team as good as APOEL though? Tough draw but not impossible.

Hmmm nah RS. You're way too negative and have been proven wrong on so many occasions (I'm referring to predicting results) that if I was counting I'd have given up by now. Bosnia is not Belgium and aside from Pjanic their midfield isn't Super League standard so I could care less who Skibbe chooses, the match against them should be won and is definitely winnable. Siopis and Kourbelis would do a job against Bosnia but I don't see either of these players being selected. My only concern is that Tziolis gets a start and unfortunately he hasn't been an International standard player for about 8-10 years so he has no business being in the squad let alone playing.

Turkish league has spent about a billion dollars over the last decade to be 1 place ahead of Greece in the UEFA coefficient rankings. Bravo, you were right. You waited weeks to come after me. I hope you're the real man you think you are. Can I touch your Bollocks?

Olympiakos to lose on away goals.

O Ivic eine Kinezos e?

This result will go down as one of the best results in Olympiakos, No, Greek football history! Amazing result beating a club from Mongolistan. I'm speechless paidia. Turkish league is easily one of the best in the world. A billion US dollars pumped in to it. OK, sarcasm over. Result as expected. This Oly team is a shadow of previous teams and I can't see them progressing in the next round unless they draw Bekshitass because the Greek League is not worse than the Turkish league and probably on par.

We'll take it.

Let's be honest, SPL is about the standard of the lower end Football League though. I hope Skibbe doesn't think he's NT material now that he's playing.

All those players you mentioned are well into their 30s including Van Persie and Sneijder who I said I'd wish were playing in Greece. It doesn't change the fact that these guys are coming to the end of their careers and are going to Turkey for a massive payday. I don't blame them for that but don't tell me they are transforming the Turkish Süper Lig into a top 5 league. No one is providing any sort of statistics to prove that the Turks have a better league. Asteras Tripolis played a Besiktas team in the UCL 2 seasons ago and drew 1-1 in Turkey and 2-2 home. Besiktas with a budget around 150 times larger layed an egg against poor little Tripoli. Why wasn't their superior league on show? Anyway, Tzavellas plays for a trash club who is not better than the PAOK he left from. I don't blame him for going there for the money but he's not going to play in a better league that's for sure.

Okay. Thanks for that. I'm not debating the billions of euros pumped into their league and their player budgets. I'm talking about how their teams have played and achieved in Europe the last 15 years. There's little difference between the GSL and TSL. You guys want to dress up the Turkish league as the EPL then fine. Knock yourselves out. To suggest that the Turkey is a (big) step up in quality from the GSL is absurd and bears no relation to reality.

You clearly didn't really read my post from your response. This has nothing to do with my patriotism. I said that the Turkish league is considered better but it's marginal and about the same level as the GSL and Jupiler. Although I didn't mention the Portuguese or Dutch leagues that doesn't mean I consider them far superior. This also applies to the Ukrainian and Russian leagues. All these leagues are about the same football standard (give or take player budgets or historical achievement of clubs like Ajax, Benfica, Porto, Anderlecht, Galatasaray, Zenit, Shakhtar Donetsk etc). Outside the big 3 clubs in Constantinople (Gala, Besiktas, Fener) the league is GSL standard but played in better stadiums. You say that in 5 years Turkey will be a top 5 league, that may or may not be realised but I'm not talking about 5 years in the future. I'm talking right now!!! Apparently the Chinese league is going to be the best in the world in 100 years as well. I'm not comparing future or hypothetical states. At this point in history the Turkish league with the billions of money poured in to it is arguably (as we are doing this) marginally better in FOOTBALL standard than the GSL. Yes they clearly attract better credentialed players (I would love to see van Persie or Sneijder playing in Greece). However many other players who have come through Greece have done very well in Turkey. Avraam Papadopoulos to Trabzonspor etc If you think the GSL has hit rock bottom then you haven't seen the Australian league. What I'm afraid of is that all the leagues in Greece have way further to fall which would then definitely make most leagues in Europe far more attractive and better standard than the GSL. We aren't there yet. Let's not argue based on our dissatisfaction with the current state of Greece.

Rubbish club. Rubbish league.

I didn't want to turn this into a discussion on why I don't agree with some posters claiming the Turkish League is superior to the GSL but RS took the discussion off course. I actually do agree with him on the investment in terms of infrastructure and player budgets. There's no doubt that the Turks are superior based on these measures but when it comes down to football standards their league isn't that far ahead. Let's not turn the Turkish League in to Spain's La Liga the way some morons in the PAO threads talk about Belgium compared to Greece. The three leagues are essentially at the same level in terms of football (on the pitch). Players in any of these leagues can interchange between clubs with minimal difficulty. Look at Karelis to Belgium and Rodriguez to Galatasaray. Yes the GSL is and has been in a state of decline, but Turkish clubs aren't making inroads in the UCL or Europa League. So where are the facts that Turkey is so much superior? I originally called Alanyaspor the Veroia of Turkey and since then Levadiakos has been used as the comparison. I agree with either of them. Tzavellas going to such a club in this league only benefits his personal economic situation and not the Ethniki or Greek football. There aren't young players in Greece hoping to play for Alanyaspor in the Turkish league.

Not a major tournament and it's only for players at a development age so I'm not expecting these kids to play for the Ethniki, but it beats losing that's for sure. So well done.

Turkish league is about the same level as the Greek Super League. Given that he's gone to the Veroia of Turkey, I'm not too sure how his career will benefit.

Most of us agreed that Nottingham Forest was a poor choice for Vellios. The club is on a downward slide. Might get relegated. Then what happens to Vellios? He was being pursued by Mainz in the Bundesliga and AEK who might play European football in the near future whereas Forest will be in the English 3rd division.

Show some respect. Mr Marinakis might well be the Prime Minister of Greece one day.

It's diluted the most prestigious and hardest tournament to win. Australia and Canada will be qualifying evey tournament. New Zealand and Fiji ever second. What a joke. I can't wait to see Albania play Curacao.

Newsflash paidia, Rodriguez isn't that good. He's not going anywhere of note post Galatasaray so forget about the 20% resale. This clown isnt fit to clean Lucas Perez's tsarouhia. He'll probably be released by the Turks in a year or 2 then end up playing for Larissa or-don't laugh-...Play in Australia.

He's garbage if he's been bad at Aston Villa.

Tzavellas is an idiot. He needs to be transitioned away from the NT. Thanks for the memories, now kindly f*** off.

Best player in Europe. If you disagree with that statement, then say it to his face and be prepared to pick yourself off the floor.

Make a nostimi psarosoupa then.

Not sure you can blame the "Greeks" when you have the following people apparently making the football decisions: Head coach Paulo Bento Assistant coach Sergio Costa Assistant coach Ricardo Peres Assistant coach Ariel Ibagaza Goalkeeping coach Vitor Silvestre As well as: Strategic Advisor and International Relations: Christian Karembeu Head of Scouting Department: Francois Modesto Vaggela (Greece's future Prime Minister) has a say obviously and he pays the bills but he's being advised by the men listed above.

Karelis' loss is massive but only in theory. Given that Skibbe doesn't use him correctly it makes little difference that he'll be missing. I hope he recovers as it's a serious injury but it's 2017 and not 1987 so if he works hard he can get back stronger.