J1078

I'm watching it on sports net now.. cost me $30 but I know most places on Danforth like frappes, 521, are all showing it..

Do we have an official line up yet?!

I cant believe how nervous I am...... lets do whatever we have to do to give ourselves the best chance on Sunday with home field advantage. lets not let this game get out of hand... We need to find a way to get an away goal as that would be huge but at the same time lets not fall apart and give Croatia a couple either..

Let's not worry about Sunday as we have a a HUGE task at hand tomorrow..

^I get what you are saying and it does make sense but honestly I think we need to look at the Belgium game we played when we defended to the death and then Mitro scored early in the second half. I completely agree that if we attacked at the beginning we definitely would take them by surprise and maybe that's our chance to get an early away goal and then we can park the bus...

I don't know how vulnerable Croatias defence is as they have only allowed 4 goals against the entire qualifications. On the other hand I'm nervous as F***....I don't think I can handle another tournament going by with out us in it.... I know we have to sit back and defend but I'm worried we will concede witch may lead to us opening up to get an equalizer and then they hit us again. I still think Laz and maybe even Pelkas should start so when we do counter we have guys capable of making something happen.

I understand what you are saying but how about the fact they they let almost a month pass and only until Manolas was cleared to play and chosen on the squad was the suspension then brought down 6 days before? Also a suspension like this has never been given out before. Do you honestly think If Ronaldo did the same thing that Fifa would suspend him from a playoff game? Not a chance in hell does this happen to another top end player on a big team.. This is absolutely bullshit... The fact that Fifa didn't even reach out to the Epo to let them know they will review what happened within a few days after Monalos received the yellow stinks even more.

Listen to what Skibbe and Socratis says about the fifa suspension of Manolas..

Fifa said no appeal is allowed for this ruling... This wasn't a soccer ruling this was a ruling to give one team a little more of an advantage as Fifa would much rather see Croatia and there star players in the World cup then Greece. As I said before the most corrupt organization around.. lets just hope the refs are not involved in any of this and actually let our boys have a chance..

I just read that.. F*** him...

I'm hearing on the radio that Socratis is less and less likely to play. Apparently he's dong everything in his power but the ankle still doesn't feel right..

I'm trying to stay as positive as possible but in the back of mind that is my fear that Croatia pop in a few.. Just the way everything has gone from injuries to made up suspensions luck hasn't been on our side so far..

I would just want to avoid the lose.. 0-0 isn't ideal because it forces us to win if Croatia scores in Athens but considering we will be with out Manolas and maybe either Socratis or Toro id take it. other then us winning witch I don't see because we will have very limited chances a 0-0 draw is what the team will be playing for.

We desperately need these boys back to have a legitimate shot on Thursday.. http://www.agonasport.com/agonasport-allnews/papastathopoulos-availability-more-hopeful-than-torosidis

Ya the odds are insane they're literally giving Greece no chance at all.. The odds are as if Croatia is playing a minnow..

It's never been done that's the BS part.. especially waiting a month after the fact and to see if Manolas was healthy and picked for the squad looks pretty shady to me..

Skibbe frustrated with FIFA’s decision to suspend Manolas During Monday’s press conference, Michael Skibbe expressed his frustration with FIFA’s decision to hand Kostas Manolas a one-match suspension for deliberately picking up a yellow card in September's qualifier away to Cyprus. The German boss stated that FIFA’s decision was wrong, mentioning that players around the world pick up cards on purpose in the final minutes of a game to waste time without further consequences. He went on to say that the decision came four weeks after the incident further adding to FIFA’s unacceptable handling of the situation. In Monday’s press conference before the start of Greece’s first training session Skibbe stated “Surely we have some problems. We are playing against Croatia, a very good team with very good players, especially in their attacking line, and because of that, we will have to put up a great fight. The team is ready for these matches. We have some injury problems and we do not know what will happen with Papastathopoulos and Torosidis as both are doubtful at this point for the first leg. We also have two players that will surely not be with us, including Donis and Mantalos, with the later having suffered a very serious injury which truly saddened me. The other problem we have is Manolas’ suspension. Sometimes FIFA makes some “special” decisions and this one is “special.” I do not know how they decided this. We were winning 1:2 against Cyprus and in the final minutes of a game, every team across the world would tell its players to pick up a yellow card for time wasting. Every team wastes time. That is what happened with Manolas, he picked up a card late in the game against Cyprus and did not play against Gibraltar. And now FIFA decided, four weeks later, to punish him for something that ALL players do. What FIFA did was not right. Despite that, we must play against Croatia and we must be ready. We have been working for two years for these matches and to go to Russia. We will play against Croatia, who has a very good team, but we will also fight with the players we have available in order to qualify for the World Cup.”

I Just heard on the Greek radio station that Socratis is highly doubtful and Torosidis will most likely be out as well. Skibbe in a interview said "he cant believe Fifa would do this after a month he is so shocked and players all over the world do that all the time and waste time to get yellow cards to be clean for a certain game and its a completely wrong and surprising decision" The team has been hammered and the confidence of the team is not as high with all of these injuries. You can sense this in Skibbes interview.

Sport 24 just reported Socratis is only 50-50 to play in the playoffs..

I agree... An I'm sure we can all agree on certain players and how they shouldn't be selected or starting. But you are absolutely correct he did achieve his goal which was 2nd place and heading to the playoffs as we all knew Belgium would take 1st. Croatia also have a much better and deeper squad then us and it is on the players but Skibbe will need to take some responsibility with his line up and game style he chooses. We cant be upset with his defence first mentality as that's the style that makes our team successful. We saw what happened when Raneri tried to make us a more offensive team we become lost.. I just think we are leaving out more talented players and yet that is hindering our potential..

The Epo has already criticized and questioned Skibbe's player selections as mentioned in a previous article and that's why they want to wait until after the playoffs before committing to him for another campaign. Skibbe has done a lot of good but come on guys lets be serious his call ups have not been good and either has his sub choices But we should not be surprised at all as he's done this the entire time he's been here. I pray he doesn't start Tziolis but I think he will.. Regardless we have bigger things to worry about now this week and we pretty much all know which layers will be selected. I don't think Vellios deserves a call up but I highly doubt he will play at all.

Socratis has a chance of missing both matches..

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Oikonomou and kolovettsios Have been called up to the NT do to the injuries and Manolas suspension..

I don't think we will no his status until after his MRI. The fact the he is even doing a mri should concern us..