Blackhawk

Yes it can backfire on Ivic, but his thinking probably is that we still have two games against Football League teams that we should win and still finish first in the group. He is probably looking at the schedule ahead and what he is looking at is Larisa (home), AEK (home), Qarabag (home), Panionios (away) in the next 12 days. The last 3 games are pretty much must win and he will need the starters rested for those games.

Looks like ERT World wants to become available on various cable platforms in Europe. Also looking to find somebody to carry their signal in Canada.

Here is my lineup for the game. Hopefully this rotation will not be a disaster. --------------------- Brkic --------------------- Kitsiou - Poggouras - Malezas - Crespo Canas ---------- Cimirot --------- Charisis Mystakidis ------ Pereyra --------- Thiam

We are looking at a major rotation in tomorrow's game. Ten players did not make the squad. Four of them are injured: Leovac, Tzavellas, Pelkas and Shakhov. The other 6 that will sit this one out are: Klaus, Rodrigues, Varela, Glykos, Matos and Campos The squad announced for the game is: Brkic, Siabanis, Giannoulis, Poggouras, Korovesis, Kitsiou, Dimitriadis, Canas, Biseswar, Charisis, Cimirot, Deligiannidis, Koulouris, Pereyra, Thiam, Malezas, Crespo, Mystakidis

Savvidis already spent quite a bit of money on PAOK. Well over 90 mil in the last 5 years. Some of it were money well spent (paying off the various team debts, Toumba improvements, training facilities improvements), some were spent on players that turned out to good buys, but a lot of it was wasted because he has no clue on running a soccer team, and the people he trusted to do it for him just misused the money. He himself made some very bad decisions (signing Berbatov, Natcho, Noboa, etc.) Hopefully with Lubos Michel he found the right person steer the team in the right direction, and PAOK can get the maximum bang for the money that is invested in the team.

The question should how many teams will finish the competition.

Skank WTF are you talking about? Where did I say I hate defensive football. And even if I did, what does it have to do with following the Greek NT? I don't follow the NT for the style they play, I follow it because I am GREEK. I want a sensible amount of teams in these competitions in order to have an exciting and competitive tournaments, not having games that are being manipulated in the process. The worst thing as a result of the increased teams in the competition are these "best 3rd place" teams, where you can qualify to the next stage even without winning a game. Only the top 2 teams from each group should be qualifying to the next stage. Even better would be to have direct knock-out competition right from the start. There is no need to increase the number of teams in the world cup.

With that in mind FIFA is trying to increase the teams taking part in the WC finals to 40 or 48. Obviously they will try to include more teams from outside Europe and South America. In my opinion this will completely ruin the WC. There is no need for it. Platini already screwed up Euro, and now his right hand man Infantino will try to ruin the World Cup.

If that was called than there would be 5 penalties in each game in the Superleague. Even Marinakis would not make that call.

I did not know there was one.

VS MATCHUP: P.A.O.K. Thessaloniki – A.E.K. Athens COMPETITION: Superleague – Round 9 DATE: 30-October-2016 TIME: 19:30 EET (17:30 GMT, 12:30 CDT, 04:30 AEDT next day) CITY/STADIUM: Thessaloniki - Toumba Stadium (Capacity: 28,703) REFEREES: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (Dodekanesa0 - Damianos Efthimiadis (Pieria), Polychronis Kostaras (Aitolokarnania) TELEVISION: Nova Sport 1 (Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Bulgaria) PAOK vs AEK history: SUPERLEAGUE 2015-2016: 2:1 (Rodrigues, Mystakidis) - Attendance: no fans (PLAYOFFS) 2015-2016: 2:1 (Rodrigues, Athanasiadis-p) - Attendance: 21,999 2014-2015: AEK played in 2rd Division 2013-2014: AEK played in 3rd Division 2012-2013: 1:0 (Athanasiadis) - Attendance: 15,239 2011-2012: 1:0 (Georgiadis) - Attendance: 9,771 (PLAYOFFS) 2011-2012: 3:0 (Vieirinha, Athanasiadis, Salpiggidis) - Attendance: 19,235 2010-2011: 2:1(Garcia, Vitolo-p) - Attendance: 19,075 (PLAYOFFS) 2010-2011: 2:1(Fotakis, Vieirinha) - Attendance: 18,453 2009-2010: 1:0(Muslimovic) - Attendance: 25,303 (PLAYOFFS) 2009-2010: 0:1 () - Attendance: 18,589 2008-2009: 0:1 - Attendance: 28,703 (PLAYOFFS) 2008-2009: 1:1 (Muslimovic) - Attendance: 25,203 2007-2008: 0:4 - Attendance: 11,569 2006-2007: 2:0 (Arabatzis, Mieciel) - Attendance: 15,686 2005-2006: 1:1 (Salpiggidis, own goal)- Attendance: 10,367 ALPHA ETHNIKI (Professional) 2004-2005: 1:1 (Feutchine) - Attendance: 9,568 2003-2004: 3:2 (Giasemakis 2, Salpiggidis) - Attendance: 24,829 2002-2003: 0:1 - Attendance: 11,340 2001-2002: 3:2 (Georgiadis, Katsiabis, Okkas) - Attendance: 21,542 2000-2001: 2:1 (Froussos 2) - Attendance: 7,038 1999-2000: 4:4 (Maragos, Dolberg, Georgiadis, Valencia) - Attendance: 22,226 1998-1999: 2:1 (Olivares 2) - Attendance: 13,535 1997-1998: 0:0 - Attendance: 30,347 1996-1997: 0:0 - Attendance: 24,056 1995-1996: 1:3 (Zouboulis)- Attendance: 7,946 1994-1995: 1:1 (FanRoy) - Attendance: 13,509 1993-1994: 0:0 - Attendance: 11,248 1992-1993: 2:1 (Lagonidis, own goal) - Attendance: 9,267 1991-1992: 2:2 (Toursounidis, Lagonidis) - Attendance: 6,184 1990-1991: 1:1 (Mitsibonas) - Attendance: 13,782 1989-1990: 1:1 (Skartados-p) - Attendance: 35,346 1988-1989: 0:1 - Attendance: 31,969 1987-1988: 2:2 ( Bannon, Karasavidis) - Attendance: 33,243 1986-1987: 1:0 (Vasilakos) - Attendance: 14,167 1985-1986: 2:1 (Siggas, Vasilakos) - Attendance: 24,113 1984-1985: 1:1 (C. Dimopoulos) - Attendance: 40,606 1983-1984: 1:0 (Kostikos) - Attendance: 11,886 (played at Serres) 1982-1983: 5:0 (C. Dimopoulos 3, Koudas, Kostikos) - Attendance: 10,468 1981-1982: 1:1 (Georgopoulos) - Attendance: 15,706 1980-1981: 1:2 (Sarafis) - Attendance: 36,964 1979-1980: 4:0(Guerino 2, Orfanos, Vasilakos) - Attendance: 24,082 ALPHA ETHNIKI (Amateur/Semi-Professional) 1978-1979: 2:1 (Guerino, Kostikos) - Attendance: 41,909 1977-1978: 1:1 (Damanakis) - Attendance: 17,552 1976-1977: 0:0 - Attendance: 45,252 1975-1976: 1:0 (Guerino) - Attendance: 45,010 1974-1975: 1:1 (Kermanidis) - Attendance: 39,017 1973-1974: 3:0 (Paridis, Terzanisis, Aslanidis) - Attendance: 26,426 1972-1973: 0:0 - Attendance: 39,554 1971-1972: 2:0 (Sarafis, Paridis) - Attendance: 35,411 1970-1971: 0:0 - Attendance: 25,660 1969-1970: 4:0 (Sarafis 2, Paridis, Koudas) - Attendance: 21,716 1968-1969: 1:1 (Terzanidis) - Attendance: 18,247 1967-1968: 1:2 (Giakoumis) - Attendance: 22,156 1966-1967: 1:0 (Giakoumis) - Attendance: 19,640 1965-1966: 1:1 (Charalambidis) - Attendance: 13,225 1964-1965: 1:1(Apostolidis) - Attendance: 9,337 1963-1964: 1:0 (Mouratidis) - Attendance: 19,912 1962-1963: 0:3 - Attendance: 14,442 1961-1962: 1:2 (Kiourtzis) - Attendance: 13,276 1960-1961: 1:1 (Raptopoulos) - Attendance: ? 1959-1960: 1:2 (Nikolaidis)- Attendance: 14,230 PANHELLENIC CHAMPIONSHIP (Amateur) 1958-1959: 1:3 (Kiourtzis)- Attendance: ? 1957-1958: 1:1 (Kouiroukidis)- Attendance: ? 1953-1954: 2:2 ()- Attendance: ? 1939-1940: 3:4 (Kalogiannis 2)- Attendance: ? 1935-1936: 4:1 ()- Attendance: ? 1931-1932: 3:2 ()- Attendance: ? 1930-1931: 1:2 (Papaiordanidis)- Attendance: ? GAMES: 59 WINS: 30 TIES: 12 LOSSES: 17

That was the other sideline ref. I think that was his only mistake in the game. The other questionable call was the non red card on Milivojevic on the blatant foul on Klaus in the first half.

That's not the play in question.

If it wasn't for the silly smoke bombs interrupting the game every 20 minutes, this was a quite an exciting game to watch. It had action and good scoring chances by both teams. This game could have gone either way and could have ended in a tie as well. After the Quarabag debacle I expected a bad game by the team, but they showed up for the game and were quite competitive. If we had some luck and forwards that could actually score we would have walked away with a win. This game clearly showed me that our problem is in the midfield. Once Canas left the field, it was over. Shakhov was the weak link, and Charisis who replaced Canas is clearly not to the level where we can count on him to solidify the midfield. He is not a starter material. Hate to say this, but Kace should have stayed on the team. As for the ref, he did play the usual 60-40 for the home team, but he did not influence the final result of the game. The problem was one of the sideline refs who was inconsistent. He allowed the play to go on that resulted in the tying goal, but in exactly the same situation his flag went up when Rodrigues was ready for a breaking run.

Superleague has voted to award the league sponsorship to Savvidis's Dimera Media Holdings for the next two seasons. Dimera will pay 2.25 mil for this season and 2.75 mil next season. It's quite laughable for a league to only get a sponsorship for 2.25 mil Euro.

I don't think Jairo would have made any difference. He's not setting things on fire at Giannina either. Campos is not in form and needs to sit few games out in order to regain focus and overcome any physical issues that he might have. Also, since the beginning of the season he must be the most fouled PAOK player on the roster, which I think is taking it's toll. I am very worried about the return game with Qarabag in two weeks. This looks like the same set up as last season with Krasnodar. Qarabag is a dangerous team and will play for a win at Toumba. Also they were missing three starters yesterday. They will have a full squad in two weeks. If we don't take that game seriously we will pay for it. We need to win that game.

Mystakidis and Klaus are ok and took part in today's practice in Athens. Tzavellas also joined the team for limited practices, but will not play on Sunday.

VS MATCHUP: PAOK Thessaloniki - AE Larisa COMPETITION: Greek Cup – Group Stage – Round 1 DATE: 26-October-2016 TIME: 17:15 GR (15:15 GMT, 09:15 CDT, 01:15 AEDT next day) CITY/STADIUM: Thessaloniki – Toumba Stadium (28,703) REFEREES: Ananias Fotiadis (Serres) - Nikolaos Koutoulis (Serres), Spyridon Vasilopoulos (Evros) TELEVISION: OTE Sport (Greece), Laola1.TV (Worldwide) TAPE DELAY: 15:15 CDT Antenna Satellite (USA, Canada), 07:15 AEDT Antenna Pacific (Australia) PAOK – AE Larisa Greek Cup History: 1984-1985: 1:4 (56. Skartados-p) - Attendance: 24,994 (Final – played at OAKA) 1990-1991: 3:0 (Karageorgiou, Lagonidis, Borbokis) - Attendance: ? (Quarterfinal – Leg 1) 2003-2004: 1:1 (10. Giasemis) - Attendance: no fans (Ambelokipi Stadium (Round 1 – Leg 1) GAMES: 3 WINS: 1 TIES: 1 LOSSES: 1

That's not really why we lost. The team just did not show up for the game. There was no enthusiasm. The players did not care. They were just going through the paces waiting for the game to end. They expected the the game to be served to them on the silver platter. On the other hand Qarabag, which is a an average team, came in and had a purpose in the game. They knew what they wanted and they went and got it.

1. Fiorentina 7 2. PAOK 4 3. Qarabag 4 4. Liberec 1

For the last 4 PAOK games I have not seen anything positive from this team. Not sure what can change.

Just like that. I got news for you. we are not qualifying from this group.

We are just pathetic. Have not created anything in 2nd half. Against a better team we would be down at least 3:0 by now.

Pereyra in for Thiam

And here it is.