Ellada2004

Get a 3rd goal PAOK

Free kick just wide!

Fabulous finish from Zivkovic

Nice goal!!

I have to admit Tzavellas has been terrific during this campaign. He has busted his arse off and made some crucial challenges. Hatzidiakos has been disappointing with his play and decision making. When will JVS ever address or issues at RB? why won’t he give Kotsiras a shot? Anyways I hope we play well against a Spain & finish off with a win vs Kosovo. I am praying to God we can somehow squeeze into the playoff spot.

The whole Siovas thing was overblown by JVS he simply said in regards to Svarnas at the time that he would benefit from having experienced & high end players like Manolas & Sokratis to guide him. Guys who have been playing in CL football and at World Cups and European Championships. I don’t see what was so bad about Siovas comment? Our CBs have been good for most games but we saw the silly mistakes you can’t make at Wcup qualifying especially vs a good side like Sweden and it just took all the steam out of the Ethniki. As for the 1-1 game vs Georgia JVS can not put Mavrias on the field a guy who doesn’t even get game time in the Cypriot league and we saw how he got exposed on the goal. The game in Kosovo at the end we conceded a silly goal but I really won’t put all blame on the defenders but JVS should have gone out and attacked Kosovo instead of sitting back and inviting pressure for the whole 2nd half and they got a goal in the 92nd. That result was totally on him. Greece should have come out in the 2nd half up 1 nil and put the game out of reach but his stupid subs and tactics cost us 2 points there that we desperately needed.

It is tough for that reason that we want stability for the NT and changing coaches all the time is not beneficial. I miss the days when we had Otto & Santos two coaches in a 13 year period. Looking back I think EPO should have kept Skibbe for the 2020 Euro campaign as bringing in Ange was a total mess. He only lasted for 4 matches and all the trouble that started between him and Sokratis and with Manolas kept those players away for this campaign. I said at the start of this campaign that JVS had to at least get the Ethniki to a playoff spot. I thought we could take 4 out of 6 points from Sweden and that would give us the edge. I thought JVS had learned from his mistakes in NL and would have the NT come out and put away Georgia & Kosovo for max points but unfortunately I was wrong. Greece got 3pts but we were unlucky not to get something last game and the defensive blunders cost us. As many of us here have said Manolas and Siovas even Sokratis back there and we most likely do not eat those silly goals. JVS could have used them in the Kosovo match were the equalized again of a garbage goal. For these reasons I think I would go in a new direction as we cant afford to miss out on Euro 2024. Greece have to qualify!!

True JVS is stubborn he has tried to build the NT around Bakasetas? He is a decent player and has given us some good performances recently especially in the win against Sweden but he is not one of our star players going now into Euro 2024 qualification. He has a place on the team as a substitute but he is not one of our core players. As for JVS if he goes I wish him well he has gotten us some good results and at times we have played some attractive attacking football. I would say give Donis a chance he knows Greek football and I think would command respect from the players. Also he may be able to talk to our banned players from the squad and bring some of them back. JVS totally botched that whole situation especially sending Siovas packing over nothing. Especially since aside from finishing goals our other main problem has been keeping clean sheets this campaign with just one vs Georgia. Just another strike against JVS.

Alexandropoulos will be great in the NT midfield for years. He had a solid game in PAO win today. Why didn't JVS give him some game time in the last 2 matches? Dean do you think JVS should stay on after the last 2 qualifiers? I think he should go unless he somehow gets us to the playoff. I think we have reached our ceiling with him. I had no problem when EPO hired him and he has gotten us some good results vs Sweden, Spain and Belgium but its those dropped points vs Georgia and Kosovo that are going to bite us in the arse. I thought he would learn from the NL campaign and that we would get the max points against them. Also I am disappointed with his handling of Manolas, Siovas and Sokratis. Manolas for sure had to be on the NT going into qualifying if he was in the lineup I doubt we drop points vs the minnows and he would have helped us greatly in Sweden but JVS decides to throw Mavrias in the game vs Georgia and he cost us big time! Those 4 points we dropped are going to loom large at the end of this qualification. Very frustrating that we will most likely miss another major tournament..

Great analysis on the Ethniki. I really enjoy the different points of view.

Samaris? he has been out of the NT fold for years..

Good points Dean. JVS has given the youth an opportunity so I give him credit there but why does he change what works in terms of lineups and tactics in games were the Ethniki is successful like in the friendlies or vs Sweden in Greece and against inferior opponents he sits back like Slovenia in NL, Kosovo and Georgia and the team fails. This is the biggest problem along with excluding our experienced players and a top class CB like Manolas who we dam well needed yesterday along with Siovas and Sokratis who is nearing the end of his career but can still contribute. As for Skibbe all I can say is he did manage to get us to World Cup playoff were ultimately we lost to Croatia who made the finals of 2018 World Cup so no shame there.

Still thinking back to the game I do not want to jump all over JVS because it was a mental mistake that cost us the game but why was his first sub Masouras the player that was causing Sweden's backline havoc? Why did he not pull Pavlidis out earlier for Douvikas? Pavlidis has been a decent player but he needs to be putting away that header from in close yesterday. Anyways its still hard to take this defeat when Greece played the best half plus of football in years vs a tough Sweden team as many others here have said as well.

Guys I remember way back when the draw was made and a lot of people were saying its going to be to tough to get second over Sweden. With Spain and their class it is one of the toughest groups we could have landed in. Sweden as I said are tough side with experience something we lack by not having Manolas, Sokratis and Siovas included was probably what contributed to our downfall along with not being able to finish but when we look at it Sweden were extremely lucky to get 3 points of us even in Stockholm were we went and basically outclassed them for most the match and they were sitting back defending for their lives for the first 55 minutes. In the end its going to come down to losing points to Georgia and Kosovo (where we lead until the 93rd minute). 2nd place was ours for the taking in this group and dare I say we could have had a chance for 1st place over both Spain & Sweden. We dropped points to Georgia but Sweden barely held on vs Georgia early in the campaign and Spain needed a 94th minute wonder goal from Olmo from 30 meters out to beat Georgia. So Georgia gave all the top teams in the group a tough time. It sucks that this loss to Sweden was Greece first competitive loss since losing in 2020 euro qualifying at Italy a match that we outplayed Italy until we gave up a penalty in the second half like yesterday.

Reporter asked JVS that Chivas in Mexico are interested in his services and if he would leave before next months games. He said he coached there before and its just a rumor and that he still wants to stay on even after his contract expires. I can feel the disappointment in his voice. I also liked when he stuck it to one of the Swedish reporter saying today Sweden absolutely got lucky lol.. after some back in forth with the game we won 2-1 were JVS claimed Swedish media said Greece were 'lucky' after the win.

For sure that was a moment of madness Isac momentum was taking him over the goalie so no reason to foul him over there. You could see how devastated Mavropanos was after the game I feel for him but that can’t happen. Sweden scored of two errors off 2 long balls. Toughest loss since Croatia wcup playoff.

Today that first half was just incredible so unlucky we did not score and we could have finished the Swedes off early. My ? is why we don't play like this all the time I can understand sitting back vs Spain on the road but the game at home vs Georgia if we came out like this we win by 3 goals ez. If I look at JVS job in its totality he came in during the 2020 Euro qualifying and things were looking up with the way we played even the game we lost in Italy we looked sharp like today. Then the NL was a failure as we failed to top Slovenia a team we should beat and that cost us a possibility at a playoff spot. Now with this wcup qualification we have had some positives like getting a result in Spain and beating Sweden, even today the way we played was encouraging. On the flip side we had the huge disappointment of drawing Georgia & Kosovo by allowing a needless late goal. If JVS would have approached those games differently we most likely would be sitting on 13 points even after todays game (worst case 11 points) JVS should have brought Manolas into the fold he would have made a huge difference. Also missing Fortounis for most these matches cost us too if we have him in these games we win he is that gifted a footballer one we cant afford not to have at our disposal. Will see how we finish up with Spain and Kosovo and then what will happen with JVS. I would keep him on if he gets over this silly feud he has fueled with the key players he has left of the squad and he has to stop the silly comments he makes about Fortounis not getting in the starting 11 because he was not at OLY but then he calls up and plays guys like Mavrias and Staf ( and makes him captain) that crap needs to STOP! Anyways I am proud of the team today with their play and utter domination of the Swedes in the first half but I am sooooooo gutted we will be missing yet another tournament.

Sweden at home were under duress they could not even string a few passes together in our half. There first chance came in the 57th minute. Greece gave the game away after the best half we played in 7 years. Mavropanos had no reason to make that challenge on Isak and the second goal was an absolute gift too. It sucks that we did not dispatch of Kosovo last month but we deserved much better in this match. Again Sweden did not impress but they took advantage of our mistakes.

We had Sweden in the first half no finish though. Imagine mitroglou on the end of some of those chances. Anyways not that impressed with Sweden they beat us because of our own doing and they didn’t deserve to beat Georgia early on in qualifying.

Just Gutted!! Greece dominated every stat and we lose from 2 stupid mistakes.

Definitely I was thinking that at HT why didn’t we attack those teams like we did Sweden!

Sweden have just capitalized on our stupidity

Unreal

Fuk

Sweden look so disorganized and losing the ball with our press!