Blackhawk

Win at any cost, even if it is just 1:0 with a goal in the 92nd minute. Wonder if we will see Glykos in goal. Possible injuries to Berbatov and Tzavellas might mean they will not be available for Thursday's game.

vs MATCHUP: P.A.O.K. Thessaloniki - FC Krasnodar (Russia) COMPETITION: Europa League - Group Stage - Round 3 DATE: 22-October-2015 TIME: 22:05 GR (19:05 GMT, 14:05 CDT, 05:05 AEST next day) CITY/STADIUM: Thessaloniki - Toumba Stadium (28,703) REFEREES: Stefan Johannesson - Fredrik Nilsson, Magnus Sjoblom - Mohammed Al-Hakim, Andreas Ekberg (All Sweden) TELEVISION: OTE Sport 2 (Greece), Fox Soccer 2GO (USA), TSN2 (Canada), beIN Sport Connect (Australia), Arena Sport 2 (Serbia), NTV+ Sport (Russia) Group Standings 1. Borussia Dortmund - 4 points 2. FC Krasnodar - 3 3. PAOK Thessaloniki - 2 4. Qabala FK - 1 Our European history against Russian teams: USSR era 1976-1977: Dinamo Kiev - PAOK FC 4:0 - Attendance: 30,000 ( Champions League - Round 2 - Leg 1) 1976-1977: PAOK FC - Dinamo Kiev 0:2 - Attendance: 27,350 ( Champions League - Round 2 - Leg 2) Post USSR (Russian Federation) 2010-2011: PAOK FC - CSKA Moscow 0:1 - Attendance: 22,245 ( Europa League ? Round of 32 ? Leg 1) 2010-2011: CSKA Moscow - PAOK FC 1:1 (Muslimovic) - Attendance: 8,000 ( Europa League ? Round of 32 ? Leg 2) 2011-2012: Rubin Kazan - PAOK FC 2:2 (Athanasiadis, Fotakis) - Attendance: 14,350 ( Europa League - Groups Stage - Round 2) 2011-2012: PAOK FC - Rubin Kazan 1:1 (Vierinha - p) - Attendance: 15,625 ( Europa League - Groups Stage - Round 2)

Olsen has become the easy target for being blamed when result goes the wrong way. He should not be blamed on any of the goals in this game. The only thing I question is why he did not make a move in order to make that offensive foul more believable. Had Berbatov converted on the penalty kick, we would not be talking about Olsen right now! I am not saying he is superb, but playing Glykos is not an improvement. The reason we did not win today were childish defensive mistakes. AEP had 4 attempts and scored on 3 of them. One of our biggest weakness are set pieces ( 2 goals today), and what does Tzevllas do? Unnecessary foul to give them a chance to tie the game.

Here is a longer version of the video that is making the rounds on internet and Facebook. Greek soccer at it's best.

Not acceptable to be losing to this team. Tragic defensive mistakes. Two gifts from our defense. Need to get serious in 2nd half.

Now reports are that he will start Sabo over Kace. Don't know if I agree with that move.

Looks like Tudor is leaning towards starting Leovac, so the lineup might look something like this: ------------------- Olsen -------------------- --- Vitor -------- Costa -----Tzavellas-- Rodrigues - Tziolis - Kace -- Leovac ------------------- Pelkas ------------------ --------- Mak ----------- Berbatov -------

I would blame PAOK in most of these cases. The attitude of the team towards those players, letting them get away with murder. Hopefully with Arnesen now running the team such practices will become history. His handling of Lucas, Martens, Pereyra shows me that he is handling these kind of situations.

Lazar is injured and will not play for Iraklis, so we don't have to worry about an ex-PAOK player to score against us as is usually the case. That's unless Stamou manages to sneak one past Olsen.

I don't think we have any friendlies in November. The only friendlies that I heard of are two games against Australia in late May/early June down under.

My lineup: ------------------ Olsen --------------------- ----- Vitor ----- Costa ------ Tzavellas-- Rodrigues --- Tziolis -- Kace -- Mak ------------------ Pelkas ------------------- --------- Klaus ----------- Berbatov ----- We should have no problem beating Iraklis, as we have a much better team. At least offensively. The only thing that worries me if by any chance they score first and then park the bus and counter-attack taking advantage of our questionable defense.

Can someone tell me under what criteria was Nikopolidis appointed the coach of U-21 NT?

No he is not bad, but he can't handle playing non-stop. He's been solid so far this season, but he will burn out like he did last season. On top of that he plays for the NT as well. He needs to be rotated in and out, but Cimirot is injured and Tudor does not trust Antonis. The only other option is Sabo.

He scored the 3rd goal for Slovakia. He should be saving himself for Sunday.

I am afraid we will see Tziolis in the lineup one again.

Statistically speaking (see first post), the results away at Iraklis are fairly even. Most common result is a tie. PAOK has 12 wins, but our last win was way back in 1997-1998 season. I think it's time to break this streak.

Kitsiou got injued in the game and at a minimum will miss the Iraklis game. Might be a chance for Skondras to finally get playing time. I liked Pelkas today. He was very good, specially in 1st half. By the end of the game it was evident he was out of breath. Kitsiou had a decent game as well. Great pass on the Stafylidis goal.

Actually 2 (Mak, Sabo) and one ex (Stoch)

Clubs in my opinion should be demanding that none of their players be selected for the NT until all the EPO scum is cleaned up.

For this game every little granny will come out. I expect them to have around 12 to 15K in the stands. That's probably triple the size that shows up for their other games.

What? And risk pissing off all the agents and managers that are really running the national team? Why do you think Sarris and company eliminated him from the NT, and even forbade him to travel back with the team from the WC. They needed an NT coach that would kiss theirs and the agent's ass. Why do you think they push Tsanas to be the sidekick for every possible coaching prospect? The situation within the NT is sick. Don't you think the players notice? There is a reason why they don't give a rat's ass about performing for the team. Unless somebody comes in and cleans house, the situation will remain the same. The first step to rebuild this NT is simple. Disolve the current EPO an rebuild it from scratch.

How did that get past the Phantis censors? :D

I have updated my TV schedules page to include the complete 1st half of the Superleague: http://home.earthlink.net/~ziaka/GreekSoccerTVSchedules.htm