Ellada2004

When is the deadline to choose the squad? Croatia and other teams announced there's last week. I guess its most likely the injury issues.

AEK 0 AC Milan 0 Another great result for AEK looks like they should get through to KO round.

I guess Skibbe maybe mentally messing with Croatia not giving up the line up, hence the delay.

^ ok that's good. Hopefully Brozovic sits out he has 6 goals in 24 appearances, with 2 of those goals coming against Iceland this campaign.

According to a report Kovacic is trying to get back to on field training. Hopefully he's out, he's a game breaker. Lovren playing would probably benefit us.

Thats right Barca had not been shut out in a long time, love seeing Messi and Suarez and co. held off the scoresheet. Botia ran his arse off and Proto made some big saves.

Personally I like Skibbe and for the job he has done taking this team to a playoff in a difficult group to get to the WorldCup, especially considering where we were a few years back. I just hope Donis can somehow recover and play if not he absolutely needs to call up Karelis to give us an offensive option. Vellios has no business getting a call up. We shall see.

Fortounis played a great match and Tachtsidis defended well vs the Barca stars. Hopefully he starts instead of Tziolis but I doubt it. Let's hope we keep Croatia of the scoresheet and Mitroglou pops one in and the Ethniki come back to Greece with the advantage.

True, they play the top clubs very tough at home like Barca, Juve, Man U etc.They should have gotten something from the Sporting match had they been more prepared in the 1st half. Hopefully they can still grab a Europa league spot.

Bravo Great result, OLY limited chances for Messi and co. Fortounis played an excellent match hopefully he brings the same vs Croatia.

Is game on TSN in Canada? Any links?

According to Agona sports they say Donis will miss the playoffs due to his shoulder injury. That's tough luck for him and the NT.

Thats great news.

Mandalos is expendable, plays well for AEK but with the NT he seems lost at times and misses sure goals. Donis being out would be a huge blow he would give the Croatian defenders problems with his pace and dribbling. We need that element in this tie.

Thats great if we have Donis

Olympiakos barely generated anything going forward. There only good chance came late when our goalie made a leg save against the post. All and all a very good performance from PAO.

Any news on Donis? Staf is injured? I can't wait for Skibbe to name the squad.

PAO win 1 -0

I too believe Fetfa should be at least a bench option for Skibbe. He is a gifted offensive player and it can't hurt to have him on the bench if we need a goal. He should be playing his football in Europe, if he was I'm sure he would get the call up.

Hopefully he can play at some point vs Croatia

I read Donis could be back for first leg? Hopefully.

Donis could be the wildcard here, if he plays like we saw vs Belgium he could give Croatias backline problems. I expect to see us sit back and wait for counter to open up. If we limit there chances they will get nervous as will there fans and they will try hard to force the issue and then mistakes will happen.

When will Skibbe announce the squad?

Hopefully Torosidis is ready to go in the first leg. As for Croatias forwards they will find it difficult to find space with Sokratis and Manolas on them. Mandzukic is good but he is no Lukaku. Defensively Croatia are no where near what Greece has to offer. Lovren, Vinda, strinic etc can be exposed, Lovren with Liverpool at Tottenham had a really rough match, he costed his team a goal when Loris through the ball over him and could not recover to get back into position. The key will be not allowing Modric to have time on the ball as he has such great patience and vision. Hopefully we keep them off the board in Zagreb and we hit them for a goal.

Olympiakos are up a man for a half trailing by a goal and they decide to pretty much sit back? Then they get scored on twice. It's a very tough group with Juve and Barcelona but it looks like they will finish last in the group and miss out on Europa league. This team has won the GSL 8 years straight and they collect 30million every time they qualify for CL but they can't even make it out of the group stage. That's got to change.