maggica

^you put my hopes up for a second. We could use such a player

I dont mind klaus being called up for the upcoming friendly matches. Keep in mind, it took gekas, mitroglou and salpi YEARS to score regularly for greece. They ended up being important players for the ethniki. My feeling is, once klaus scores his first goal, he'll be on fire and confident.

Aside from a couple players, the callups make sense. I dont wanna sound like otto, but this is greece were talking about, not Brazil. This is the best we got, folks. Tziolis should be replaced by kourbelis. Platellas should replace vyntra or moras. Thats about it, all the other options are injured (kone, lazaros, oikonomou, fetfa, stafylidis mantalos etc..) unless im forgetting one player, but i doubt that. Im looking forward to thw turkey match, should be heated. We better not lose or i wont hear the end of it from my turkish friend. Lol

krasnodar isn't that good of a team. But still, it will be tough to get a win in the russian cold. it doesn't help that kace and berbatov are injured. also, klaus is in poor form. anyhow, good luck to you guys. if you guys have your tactics right and a starting lineup similar to the one boston posted, a win is very possible.

our main fullbacks are either in bad form (torosidis), injured (stafylidis) or not getting playing time (holebas). with that in mind, why isn't tzavellas being called up? if he isn't called up, we may be forced to start/substitute players like skondras, vyntra, kitsiou, and giannoulis against luxembourg and turkey

^ cpao, i was thinking along the same lines...no excuse to put in hawkins, hes having a terrible playoffs. The game was still winnable but gibbons screwed up. I don't like our chances coming back do wn 3-1. Kc is a better team that is more well balanced. But we are capable of better, i hope we win tmrw with estrada

Aravidis is starting instead of fortounis and tziolis instead of tachtsidis. What a joke, at least vyntra isnt starting

platellas, oikonomou, and giannou should have been called up ..such players would have strengthened our bench for the upcoming matches. i think fortounis and kone must start and mandalos could be a good impact sub! one issue our team is having is that our midfield doesn't move up with the offense enough...they are not making runs into the box, they don't move into advanced positions etc..kone could help in this regard. anyhow, i think we will win 1-0, since we have too much talent relative to northern ireland...but with the way things are going, i wouldnt be surprised if we lost yet again

I saw the match, fully deserved victory for Olympiacos. Pretty much the entire team played well, except for ideye and botia. Pardo man of the match for me. Even though im a pao fan, im glad olympiacos won; football is very powerful, and this result gave joy to many greeks. Good luck in the round of 16, you'll need it ;)

i saw most of the game...gyftoglou was very good. aside from the goal and the assist, he had good ball control, flair, and passing. he barely lost possession of the ball. surprisingly, he pressed the defence effectively and made some smart runs!

^pash, im glad manolas isn't starting either, hes been terrible for greece the past year. I expect good games from fortounis and aravidis

assuming we use a 4-3-3 formation, as usual...why not have sokratis as rb? with kyriakos and manolas as the cbs. i prefer kyriakos doesn't play as a midfielder, he's much better as a cb

every single call up is understandable. Especially considering injuries, form, and our lack of depth in some positions. Let me explain. .. Vyntra...considering torosidis is suspended vs Finland, who else should we have called up? Tasoulis? Skondras? I know he is mediocre and we are eager to move forward with youth but we lack depth in this position. To his credit, he hasn't had a tragic game since s korea in 2010. Stafylidis has been defensively poor for club and country for over a fking year! Im just glad holebas is back. Pelkas is injured. Lastly, tziolis' inclusion is debatable and may not be justified. One can argue bouchalakis should take his place. However, tziolis has experience and chemistry with the team. Also, he played amazing against romania, to help us qualify for the world cup 2014. And we play romania a few days after the Finland match. So perhaps tziolis' inclusion is understandable, especially considering many of our other midfielders lack experience and have been playing poor for the ethniki Overall, i like the balanced selections and we will beat Finland. If we beat them, maybe we will get a positive result against romania too!

I definitely agree that pelkas and tzane are young talents. Other talents include: Kaltsas Fortounis Mantalos Kolovos

Hey guys, first time poster here. i didn't catch the pao game, would someone tell me how we only managed a draw against such a poor team?