Rockafeller Skank

Seeded: Switzerland/Portugal Italy Croatia Denmark/Sweden Unseeded Sweden/Denmark Republic of Ireland Northern Ireland Greece Croatia Denmark/Sweden really look appealing considering the other 2.

Not even a red card in the Ukr - Cro final. Is this the Ex Yugoslavia we ve dreamt of? Definately not.

Yes. This is the worst result but both missing and Slovakia /Ireland going instead was the perfect plan.

Damn it Croatia scored.

Ireland scored. We just want Ukraine to score too to make sure Cro dont get in.

Its sorta irrelevant. By the way I read somehwere that Italy might not be seded based on their current results.

2nd half is soon on. Slovakiaa qualifies if both games Wales/Ire and Ukr/Cro end in a draw. Slovakia has a +5 GD and Croatia a + 2 GD. Wales has a +2 as well but have scored 7 Goals (minues the ones vs last placed Moldova) and Croatia has scored 6. Honestly Croatia is another top team who we ll be the ultimate underdog against so Id rather a Wales and Slovakia came in instead. Rep of Ireland even better but I doubt it ll happen.

Yep. Iceland win and Ukraine win means Ukraine gets in the play offs sending Northern Ireland and possibly Slovakia/Ireland in the play offs.

As I stated previousy im hoping Skibbe rewards some players who have been called up and not fielded against Gibraltar. First half we should play our best and make a lead that can't be lost then Skibbe can honestly experiment as much as he wants.

Today rooting for Ukraine.Iceland and Ireland so that more teams of our level end up in the playoffs.

Holebas stated that he is retiring from NT and noone can say anything to him. He decided, made it public. Skibbe can do nothing else if Holebas aint interested in throwing his ego away and play for a coach that wanted him as a LB. Happened with Georgatos too under Otto and yet noone blamed otto about it then because we won the Euros I suppose. I honestly am of the opinion that apart from Lazaros Christodoulopoulos and possibly Dimitrios Pelkas instead of Bakasetas and Diamantakos every other single call up was justified. Noone disagrees that our Goallie, Defenders , Striker , Fortounis should be in the line up. What peopla dont like are some of hte wingers Skibbe uses (Mantalos-Bakasetas to be fair) and the midfield. When it comes to wingers. Skibbe uses defensively minded players in there. Stafylidis and Mantalos usually. a LB who is very good offensively and a attacking mid who proved why he plays when he pressured high and assisted mitroglou (and hit the woodwork). Yesterday the only one who cant be blamed for the low scoring is Skibbe. Mitroglou lost a few chances. Mantalos hit the wood and his assist to Fortounis was a bit behind than it should and thus cleared. We had 5-6 clear chances to score in myhumble opinion and people are still disappointed. We won them way harder at Athens despite the score. This team apart from the Estonia match , after the 6th is playing very solidly. We are in the play offs coz we deserve it). When it comes to the central midfielders I ll say something that noone wants to hear. We have noone. Samaris is not offensively orientated, yet a class above everyone else in that part so he looks like the best box to box we have. Truth is He is not even a box to box. He is just too good and of an experienced age to know what he has to do and do it. Zeca is defensively decent at worst. Tziolis. Eveyrone hates Tziolis. I see the reason. Tziolis really deserves to be called but not to be a starter. Let's ask ourselves why. Our Greece sux so much that Skibbe needs a tall line up for the set pieces. There it is. Yesterday we had 2 corners where we had a clear header. One went in. Do I praise Tziolis for scoring? No. Did he get the job done in front of 2 Cypriots? Yes. So overall. Skibbe is playing our best defenders, our best goalies , our best centerforward and our best attacking mid. Donis when not injured usually starts and the only problems I see are a)when Zeca/Samaris are injured so usually Tziolis will play b)Mantalos being on the wings. Scrap Mantalos for Lazaros and you got a far more decent attacking mid trio. But what happens with his defensive duties? Skibbe made a solid defence that conceded as many goals as Belgium. Yet we are still complaining.

Did you just ask yourself a rhetorical question and answer it by yourself by calling it stupid?

I completely disagree with everyone. In the next 2 years if Greece qualifies for the WC they ll make a team much stronger. Stafylidis is becomming a more solid Holebas. Sokratis- Manolas are the best defenders we ve ever produced with back ups of a solid Papadopoulos and a prospect Retsos. Mitroglou enters the age where strikers and CBs reach their peak. He has learned from his experience. He is a statik player and his pace was never anything to care about. Donis a second striker who has everything we ve never seen on a player in the NT. The pace and the dribble to challenge man to man defenders and be able to shoot. Still too young but obviously above promising. He looks like a complete player with only his decision making needing upgrade. Midfield Samaris I suppose will find a new team to be match fit more than he currently is, being in and out of Benfica's bench despite the team clearly not doing well. I suppose he ll start getting more game time since teams who go through bad periods need a change. Benfica defense seems to be the issue so I suppose Samaris will get some chances to prove himself. Our other midfielders are all below average but Zeca has proven that he is solid defensively and probably brings up his game with the NT. Bilbao coach praised him after PAO matches. He has to know more. He called him elite. Offensively he is nothing. Defensively he is another wall in front of our CB wall. This team brought their best game in 3 out of 4 matches with the big boys of the Group. This team if they qualify they will prove us all wrong. Either they go further than Groupstage or not is not the point. If we look every opponent we face as well as we did vs Bosnia and Belgium (mind you half the teams that make it will be equal and maybe worse than Bosnia), we ll look like we deserved that spot out of the 32. As for the whole Dark era. You all f*ckers now understand why Santos was using Karagounis/Katsouranis till they reached elderly age. We had a 6 and 8 who controlled whole games. That's literally what's missing right now. A 8 like Kara who can be a transition god. To dethrone Samaris from his starting spot and create a link from offence to defense. 3-5-2 is on paper our strongest formation. Im only talking about names. Individuals. If it works for this NT or not is totally not the question but 3-5-2 is on paper a formation we could have an extra back pass and a bit more focus over Mitroglou and how to service him.

It's probably going to be Karnezis Toro - Sokratis - Kyriakos - Tzavellas Zeca Siopis Lazaros - Fortounis - Mantalos Mitroglou I expect Skibbe to reward Siopis with some playtime after calling him all these times and not fielding him. I also assumed Lazaros would be played in Cyprus only if we had taken a strong lead and controlled the match 0-2 0-3. The fact that such a result didn't come meant we needed different styles of players like Donis who can keep the ball and run up and down and a fresh up defender sub alongside Samaris who can also keep ball and press high. Thank god he did not shiet himself after his stomach flu. Since that didnt happen. The Gibraltar match is honestly a friendly. Lazaros has to prove why his call up was justified and that the common public asking for him to be part of the NT was reasonable. He has nothing to lose I suppose so he ll bring his best game. Tzavellas over Stafylidis because in both National breaks he seems unable to play for more than 65 minutes. The fact that Augsburg aint fielding him after his supposed transfer might really cost this player a great career. I wonder what happened to Roma Inter and Hamburg and they quit hunting him

Correct. I give a 40% for Wales to draw Rep of Ireland or even lose to them. Gareth Bale is injured and missing. 40% chance for Slovenia to at least draw Scotland 20% chance for the Ukraine match to go our way. I honestly hope Ukraine DOES beat Croatia since they kick Croatia out of hte play offs an then it's probably gonna be Switzerland - Italy the only hard opponents for us. Northern Ireland and Sweden really aren't so hard to beat in a play off format. Maybe a Group stage but definately , a play off match , we know how to win those (rememberhow we got into Euro 2012 WC 2010 and WC 2014 all via play offs). Possibility wise in the first two matches 4 out of 6 results suit us. What are the odds the other 2 results come? Ireland beating Wales by 5 is impossible. Not to mention that those guys (Irish Welsh Scotts English) literally hate each other when it comes to football so I doubt any of them would lose on purpose so that the other has a chance.

WE DID IT BOIS WE GOIN TO THE PLAYOFFZ

doubt Bosnia got what it has to score 2 more now. Belgium probably gonna park it

3-4 p****** olaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Well experience shows that Bosnia are not a second half team. Got drawn by us in 93'. Conceded 3 vs Cyprus. But that doesnt really matter. The pitch looks like is giving them the win.

Much more balanced Group? 3 teams of equal strength. Serbia-Wales-Ireland . None of these 3 teams will go beyond the Groupstages and none of the teams in the play offs will make it. Bosnia is a much better team than Ireland and on par with Wales. In a group where everyone steals points from everyone it's not always αξιοκρατικο who goes in and who goes out.

It is successfull when the qualification is played in the last matchday and 2 summers ago we were last in the easiest qualifying group. Success is a matter of perspective. If you re Belgium and go 2nd it is failure. If you a barely pot 3 team and go 3rd it's not exactly what u would call success, nor is it an undisputed failure.

That honestly has nothing to do with which team deserves 2nd spot more.

Meh do urselves a favor and stop watching this. It's a lot more frustrating than watching our own matches. The ending result is what matters.

Bosnia 2-1.

Dude no point to watch that match. Wait for the end. I heard it was lucky goal though as Dzeko 's pass hit on Vermaelen and then it went to Madudanin feet.