Boxou

well yeah just read it..real shame about that. i expect something like that now karenzis, torosidis, sokratis, manolas, tzavellas, samaris, zeca, fortounis, lazaros, stafylidis, mitroglou. it's obvious we don't have a variety of offensive options but with karelis and donis out it gets watered down. do we know if any cypriot player will miss the game?

im reading he didn't got injured in ethniki's training but in stuttgart's one. is it official however? i thought we'd have to wait until saturday for medical report's results.

koutris and mpakakis are coming from behind no need to play zeca there. also torosidis is 32, i think he could be around until the next campaign much like karagounis did. it's not like we have a plethora of better options plus he provides leadership which will be missed once he decides to step down.

comparing greece latest game with belgium is not a right approach. we had a defensive formation at 4-4-1-1 and 2 world class defenders. if we had gone there all out attack they would have slaughtered us. bosnia however will miss 3 out of 4 starters of their defence and pjanic with his replacement as a '10' also being out. they will have to go all out attack and that would mean they will concede a couple of goals rather easily. also they're not strong in the midfield and pjanic missing leaves a bigger gap there. and to those who say it's a must win game for bosnia and they will take it. games against greece at first place and cyprus were also must win games but they failed miserably. the only way i see bosnia reaching the playoffs is by greece failing to beat cyprus. and that won't happen. ps. today we have the first qualifying games. we need scotland to beat slovakia and england to beat slovenia, as well as montenegro to draw denmark. that leaves other groups more open than ours and adds potential candidates for the worst second placed teams.

yeh i want to see that cyprus A game is unreachable for us and we shouldn't even think of playing a game which we're going to get hammerred. some people...

Cyrpiot fans in social media are all over this. I don't get where your negativity comes from, I'm sure they will pay down if with a victory we're ahead of Bosnia.

so samaris is ill and donis got injured in the latest national team training. we'll see on saturday whether he will be ready if he doesn't play i think we'll see one of gianniotas or stafylidis there. im also reading more and more lately, than in cyprus it's rumoured they will not play for the win especially if belgium manage to hold bosnia in the previous game. ideally ireland and wales both fail to beat their opposition tomorrow so we lock the spot in saturday and will not have to wait for the last matchday on a nail-bitting wales-ireland.

so called gaurdian included 17 year old greek asteras tripolis defender in their annual list with the 60 most promising young players around the world. their latest picks from greece were lamprou, limnios and stergakis, the latter is a keeper.

jordan lukaku, defender of lazio, ruled out of the game for belgium... de bruyne is expected to play romelu lukaku is unlikely to play too, while fellaini is still doubtful

i think it depends on will happen this week but overall in the federation they should be leaning towards renewing his contract. changing a coach once in a while is not a good sign, and i believe he will have a better chance for the euros 2020 campaign with more teams qualifying and in general a rather easier format. if he doesn't make it there then yes he should be fired. what i think it's not true however is the good results, i don't consider a good result a draw against bosnia at home even the way we got it, nor a loss at home be it to an unmotivated belgium side. estonia draw was something out of this world though. regarding the call ups i think tziolis will not be a part of future teams as well as possibly maniatis and tzavellas. karnezis is also ageing but he will be around as a back up, perhaps to kapino and hopefully to vlachodimos as well.

well consider bosnia-belgium game is up 2 hours before our game we should be worrying about the result. if belgium wins/gets the draw i think the players will go out there against cyprus determined and concentrated to get the win and wait for the result of the other group/groups.

belgian back ups would like to prove they deserve a spot to the world cup squad, they got huge competition in order to overlook games and waste their chances. it's gonna be the last set of games and possibly one of the last evident to show to their coach they can play. i do agree about the determination you're talking about but here we have a huge difference in the quality of those teams. i expect bosnia to open up and to be slaughtered by belgium mainly on the counter. if their defence in full strength conceded three goals by cyprus i don't see why belgium wouldn't outscore a defence made by their b choices (they will be missing 3 starters) and always take into account pjanic's absence. if de bruyne doesn't play belgium got carrasco, if lukaku doesn't play they got batshuayi or origi, if witsel, fellaini and dembele don't play they can fill the gap with tielemans, chadli and defour. i find it hard that level of midfield to be outclassed by a greek league player cimirot and on top of that, not to score on a such a defence.

im reading de bruyne is also doubtful for the game i still think however that with all those misses it's just less likely for belgium to win rather than bosnia to get what they want from that match. what i see if all of them miss the game is a draw

i also like the idea of a 3 man defence and a 3-4-1-2 formation, but i doubt it's going to work out for a team like greece. also torosidis unlikely to be able to play as a full back for a whole game but i expect someone like mpakakis or koutris in a few years to be able to do so. not many teams are able to pull off such a formation effectively but i would give it a try in a couple of friendly games. too much of a 4-2-3-1 formation even at times when it's obvious it can't work out (see estonia game) ps cholebas would fit perfectly in such a system imo; karnezis sokratis papadopoulos manolas stafylidis samaris kourmpelis cholebas fortounis donis mitroglou

kompany was going to be a starter over vermaelen, so would dembele instead of fellaini, chadli or tielemans (whoever is going to replace him). although i suspect they can pull of those absences. what i do expect; (3-5-2) courtouis alderweilerd-vertonghen-vermaelen fellaini/tielemans, chadli meunier, hazard de bruyne, batshuayi/lukaku, mertens bosnian team should be like this begovic kolasinac, sunjic, dumic/cocalic, vrsajevic hajrovic, besic, cimirot, lulic/visca dzeko, ibisevic

up to date news about belgium; kompany, witsel, dembele and naingolan are out and lukaku with fellaini have a serious chance of missing the game as well with an ankle injury..

up to date news; simunovic and bicakcic are injured for bosnia and zukanovic is suspended. all of them are defenders. and also aside of pjanic, prcic will also miss that game...

if the draw does not come then the most likely result to happen is a welsh victory and then they will be a point above us. so yeah if a draw doesn't come we can score 100 goals to cyprus and still sit behind wales. at the moment it's MUCH more important for the results to go our way than caring about how much goals we'll score.

with a draw in that game (wales-ireland) it means none of these teams can potentially grab as much points as greece can, and in that case goals won't matter because we'll be sitting above them. that's what im talking about all day long.

still it DOESN'T mind. what's so hard to understund? if wales drop points against ireland they CAN'T REACH GREECE'S POINTS and they will be sitting behind. they have 8, if they fail to win once, they can't reach even 13 points!!!!!!!!! goals will not matter in that case...........

you're wrong again. if wales draw ireland it means none of them can reach 19 points hence they will be sitting behind greece in the 2nd placed teams table. goals matter ONLY in case we're tied up in points, which we'll NOT be if they drop points and greece win both their upcoming games finishing second in the group. on other words since you bring up the last placed teams onto discussion. greece have 11 points atm, if greece wins cyprus we'll be in 14. wales have 8 and have 2 games that both can give them points (georgia and ireland) IF they don't win both it means THEY CAN'T reach 14 which is the key number.

no that's wrong. if ireland (13 points at the moment) draw wales (14 points at the moment) in the last matchday it means that none of them can reach 19 points which will be what greece will have if they finish second. which means beating gibraltar and cyprus only with only one goal doesn't even matter unless we get the 3 points

that doesn't matter..if the results go our way even an 1-0 win against cyprus and gibraltar will be more than enough...

so you do believe that greece is not able to win this game regardless of cyprus' status...i watched their game against estonia, if that side can be called motivated/determined for the second spot then ffs.. btw even if they beat belgium and greece they will also need bosnia not to win in estonia and greece to lose to gibraltar..how likely is this, in order for someone to think they can get the second spot. and EVEN if in this scenario where they finish second, they will be the worst 2nd placed team without a single doubt.......

so diamantakos got injured in his team's training and as a result he will be replaced by vellios.