Ellada2004

Both of you guys make great points. @Alphonse for sure JVS initially had a nice attacking style of play and high pressing keeping the opposition on there heels. JVS went away from it in the qualifiers vs Kosovo & Georgia and sat back and played to defend first as if we were playing Spain and of course it ended up costing us 6pts. As for our midfield Bouchalakis doesn’t have the pace and does not move the ball quick enough. Zeca runs hard and covers a lot of ground defensively but I agree with @Dean97he doesn’t have the vision to play nice through balls. As for Bakasetas we have all said he should not be in the starting eleven. Period. Going forward Alexandropoulos has to be given a chance to lead the midfield. Hopefully Fortounis will come back from his injury and be the player he was. Not having him for this campaign really hurt our chances and his absence showed how he is our most skilled & creative midfielder. As for Galanopoulos he put in some good performances & I would not mind seeing him get some game time and even Ninis who still has the ability to create in the attacking third of the pitch.

Good draw for PAOK! Another Danish side.

I want Turkey too! They will be really intense fixtures and that is what this team needs. I wish the Skopians were not a Pot 2 team so Greece could get them as well. I would like us to get the Faroes and go and blast them as we should have when that useless over hyped coach Ranieri was in charge. Greece have to TOP whatever group they get. Bulgaria is a Pot 1 team ahead off us. Oh my God. We have to get back on track its crazy how we have got to this point.

Good for Pavlidis. I just want him to be more clinical with the Ethniki.

That is a fair point. It would be good interesting to see them up against a Greek coached side. I think Leicester, Marseille and Braga would be the worst match ups.

I think from those teams Sparta Prague or Celtic would be the best options.

Copenhagen up 2 nil

Goal!!

Antwerp deserved the win Olympiakos was really sloppy in possession, lots of giveaways and they only generated a couple good chances. They will have to be way more focused in the playoff vs the CL opposition.

just tuning in, how is PAOK playing? have they created lots of chances?

Terrible first 20 minutes from Olympiakos. Way too many sloppy giveaways.

Vaclik big save. OLYMPIAKOS need to get into the game.

Cisse got a touch on the shot with his head and it slightly changed direction & beat the goalie.

Goal Antwerp poor defending

Any good link? Jokerstream is not streaming well

Lets hope they win the group and avoid one a playoff with what could be a tough CL opponent like Dortmund for example.

PAOK have to hit 5 goals against this club.

I heard an interview on Sport FM with Donis and he said now is not the time for him to coach the NT but he would love one day to coach the NT. He said Karagounis approached him about the job a few years back just before they hired Markarian. He said he was disappointed how Zagorakis left due to EPO not giving him the power to run the Ethniki as president. He stated that EPO can not have a fan color either red, green or yellow.

Look at some of the country’s in League B ahead of us Israel, Ireland, Slovenia, Montenegro, Albania and Armenia. Greece have to get promotion to League B. The draw is on December 12.

Thanks for the video. He is quick and skillful with the ball at his feet. Maybe he will get a call up with the new coach.

Dean great break down. JVS played scared against Georgia in that game in Greece we did not go and attack them and sat back and they dictated the play. We got up on a lucky OG and should have locked up the win but he had Mavrias playing RB and he gets turned inside out on the goal from the skillful Georgian winger. As for Bakasetas he is a decent player who had a few good games like the game vs Sweden but he cant play the #10 role he lacks the vision and distribution. I still cant understand how JVS put all his trust in this player. Even if Fortounis had been healthy and in form JVS still would have gone with Bakasetas which is mind boggling. Like you said Greece have talented players at our disposal like Fetfa who can do things with the ball at his feet that not many others can and yet he is left out by JVS? As for the banned players I can understand if he did not want to call back Sokratis because he had a go at Ange publicly but Manolas had to be there how could JVS with EPO not sit down with him and bring him back to the NT. It is crazy. Though JVS says he called him and would keep him in his plans? Psemeta! Looking back the way he got rid of Siovas it was criminal just for saying that having Sokratis & Manolas on the NT too help the team on the pitch and mentor Svarnas and the other younger players. JVS did bring in some younger players to the NT but why the heck did he not play Alexandropoulos in the game vs Spain we could have used him in the mid to hold the ball when we won possesion. Even worse he did NOT start or play him vs Kosovo! Looking back I wish EPO would have sacked JVS after the NL failure and not trusted this guy with our World Cup hopes in his hands.

He knows Greek football well and has Greek citizenship. He has coached Olympiakos, AEK. PAOK and Aris. I remember him last coaching Bosnia for Euro qualifying were he took over during NL and for the Euro playoff were they lost on penalties to North Ireland.

A very uninspiring performance from PAOK. They better get the job done in Europe.

Good points from both of you. JVS came in with the attacking & high press tactics but during these qualifiers we only saw Greece play that way for the game vs Sweden in Athens and the reverse fixture in Sweden where we took it to too Sweden in the 1st half but were unlucky to find a goal. The matches vs Kosovo and Georgia JVS for some reason had the team playing in a defensive shell and we sat back in Kosovo with a lead and instead of going to finish them off he subs of Douvikas our goal scorer & biggest threat and we sit back and they equalize. Say Santos had overseen this qualification campaign Greece would have taken max points vs these teams all be it with 1nil score lines. We gave away 3 leads late in those games to those two countries. 6 Points gone that would have taken us above Sweden who for me were underwhelming during this qualification if you go back and watch some of their games they were fortunate to get results were they got outplayed and got some very fortunate calls by the refs. If the Ethniki had Santos at minimum he would have gotten us to 2nd place in this group. JVS never learned from his mistakes by constantly playing players out of position like having Bakasetas in the #10 role, having Tsimikas play CB and calling up guys like Mavrias for example that had no business being on the NT let alone on the pitch and costing us points!

He scored the 3rd goal today in a 3-1 win over Sparta Rotterdam.