Boxou

i think dzeko is a better striker than mandzukic but the latter can play in the wings and is more versatile so he can cause more problems. unlike dzeko who will be sitting in the box waiting for his teammates to feed him. probable croatian squad; subasic pivaric lovren vida vrsaljko rakitic modrid rog mandzukid kramaric perisic it will be crucial for zeca to make modric eat his tongue and control the midfield. and of course don't start tziolis because he will be abused. i hope at least for manolas and karelis to be back, the former because we have built a chemistry on the defensive end and the latter becuase with donis out we don't have much options up front. however probably skibbe will try not to lose in zagreb and will use stafylidis and mantalos as wingers in a 4-4-1-1 formation, with fortounis and mitroglou putting pressure on their cbs and not letting them to build up the play as it happened in the brussels game. if we execute the same game plan it would be perfect, and i think we will have more opportunities to score than we had again belgium. and in form mitroglou will surely exploit them.

kovacic of real madrid (midfielder), brozovic of inter (winger) and pjaca of juventus (winger)

i suspect we might not see a 4-2-3-1 formation now. skibbe might try the same 4-4-1-1 he used for the belgium game karnezis torosidis-sokratis-papadopoulos-tzavellas mantalos-zeca-samaris-stafylidis fortounis mitroglou the most probable one in my mind

shocking..our chances are quite slim after the 2 latest injuries..

well if manolas will be available for the roma game that sunday then i think he will start for us too in the first game. from croatia, kovacic, brozovic and pjaca will be out. they also have plenty of players who are yellow card away of suspension. i think our performances against belgium were a good evident of how we're doing in big games. and i also rate belgium way higher than croatia. but im afraid of skibbe and his dreadful choices, croatian midfield is world class so starting tziolis will be a suicide. if he doesn't, i give us chances of grabbing a victory away. mitroglou is getting back in form while having donis around is a great bonus. we can score a goal and hopefully we'll not conceding more than 1. even a 1-1 result will be great, going back to athens with us having the advantage is what we need.

he should be around anyways. retsos can be used as a RB as you said. i think that back line would be great to have going on to nations league. RB; torosidis-retsos-lykogiannis CB; sokratis, papadopoulos, oikonomou CB; manolas, siovas, chatzidiakos LB; stafylidis, tzavellas, koutris

he was suspended.

karelis just came back from his injury and played a game with genk's b team...he is slowly coming back and i think he might crack into the squad if he gets fit in time and gets playing time in his team...currently they're doing s%$#! which means they will have him around to help them a bit in the next weeks.

What you guys fail to understand is that the playoffs are related with the AFOREMENTIONED league. Which practically means EACH league will produce at least one Euro 202 participant. The so called playoffs you are bragging about will be between the best 4 teams of each league with the eventual winners gaining a ticket to the Euros, be it LEAGUE A or LEAGUE D.......

wow. i said it doesnt apply for qualifications or eliminations but for games and only that!!! austria for example beat serbia and moldova while scotland beat slovakia and drew slovenia. that means MUCH more points that beating cyprus and gibraltar.

lol guys it playing in the playoffs or not doesn't even matter. we had cyprus and gibraltar and took the maximum of what we could which was only 22 points. the other teams played against tougher opposition hence they got more points and they're ahead of us...simple as that.

so it will be a 50-50 desicion..

he'll keep calling up and starting washed up ex-player tziolis as well as 2nd league players with no playing time such as vellios or diamantakos, gianniotas etc. ofc we shouldn't forget the amazing tzavellas and maniatis duo especially the first who is starting over a premier league defender.

going on to the next campaign that's the squad i'd like to be around for the most part. karnezis, kapino, vlachodimos torosidis, retsos sokratis, papadopoulos manolas, siovas stafylidis, lykogiannis samaris, tachtsidis, charisis zeca, kourmpelis, siopis fortounis, pelkas donis, lazaros mantalos, mpakasetas mitroglou, karelis i know this is not possible judging from what skibbe has shown us so far.

it will be a huge miss but definitely not to the level of mitroglou for example where his back ups are 2nd league players!!!!! (especially with karelis being out)

looks like manolas got injured yesterday and probably will miss the playoff games.

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he scored his first goal against koln today and had many more chances to score a couple more.

no that's not true. you can read it here in greek. http://www.cnn.gr/news/sports/story/98485/uefa-to-nations-league-mpainei-sti-zoi-mas-vid

we ain't moving much but if we get past our playoff opponent it means we'll get a major boost. we're the lowest seeded team so whoever comes in our way means it will give us many points. and hopefully a qualification :D

im not claiming a conspirancy against greece but in favor of italy which means they'll get most likely nothern ireland.

it will be in favor of italy for the reason i explained above. other than that i agree. that's why denmark suits us better as a team with less offensive firepower than rest of them.

Yes because loving Italy after the USA, Netherlands and Chile will be a major blow for their product.

no wrong, winners of each league do qualify for the actualy tournament. hence you here people complaining about the likes of luxembourg and kosovo having the chance to reach the euros through this system. we'll have to see the draw for the actual qualifiers but i think this system will offer us a better chance. especially when you think that greece will be a pot 3 team again for the qualification for the european championship which means we'll have a tough draw. potential opponents for the euro qualifiers; pot1; germany, portugal, belgium, spain, france, england, switzerland, italy, poland, iceland pot2; croatia, netherlands, austria, wales, russia, slovakia, sweden, ukraine, ireland, bosnia pot3; nothern ireland, denmark, czech republic, turkey, hungary, romania, scotland, slovenia, greece, serbia pot4; albania, norway, montenegro, israel, bulgaria, finland, cyprus, estonia, lithuania, azerbaijan pot5; vardarska, belarus, georgia, armenia, latvia, faroes, luxembourg, kazakhstan, moldova, liechtenstein pot6; malta, andorra, kosovo, san marino, gibraltar what would be great imo iceland/poland/switzerland slovakia/bosnia/russia greece lithuania/azerbaijan/cyprus armenia/latvia/moldova san marino/gibraltar/andorra

these are the pots of our league (c) pot 1; romania, scotland, slovenia, hungary pot 2; serbia, greece, norway, albania pot 3; bulgaria, montenegro, israel, finland pot 4; lithuania, cyprus, estonia. i think we have a great chance of making it to the euros. i also think that serbia will qualify to the tournament by their qualification group which means if we reach the final we're there. i also give some chances to scotland and slovenia which gives us more opportunities. a good group would be; romania/hungary greece israel/bulgaria lithuania/cyprus the bad version; slovenia/scotland greece montenegro/finland cyprus playing against romania or hungary means we're almost a lock for the semi finals as i think not only we're better than those teams but they're also likely not to win the rest of their games. slovenia or scotland will be obviously more difficult.