Soprano76

Olympiakos undoubtedly has the greatest pedigree in the continental competitions since I've started following Greek footy (2012ish). This reputation was also reinforced this season with Oly progressing from a difficult group, tying Betis and beating Milan in the process, whereas PAOK flamed out of a group with two cupcake teams.

I disagree with recalling Koulouris IMO. No need to stunt his development as he is playing really well right now. Plus I think Akpom and Karelis are enough for the Superleague (and an 8 point lead).

Great showings from Panachaiki and Kissamikos. As always, Greece does things ass backwards. Having a group stage and two-leg ties almost eliminates underdog runs like in other domestic cups or USA March Madness. A shame.

Καλά Χριστούγεννα παιδιά!!

All in all, no major "giant slayings" in the group stages. Perhaps the most surprising results was Gamma Ethniki side OF Ierapetra getting a draw with two SuperLeague teams. The round of 16 will include 13 SuperLeague teams and 3 Football League teams (NPS Volos, Ergotelis, Panachaiki).

Good to see. Hopefully PAOK can provide some good local players both for the senior team and NT in years to come. Especially if Nea Toumba becomes a reality...

After an embarrassing display in Europe this season by AEK and PAOK, Oly came through. With their win, Greece moved up to 13th in the coefficient rankings

I read that Atromitos got the 3 points back as of today since they repaid the player.

I honestly thought masouras looked pretty solid in the Estonia match. What do you guys think?

Greek Men's Senior National Team results for the 2018 calendar year: Greece 0 - 1 Switzerland Greece 1 - 0 Egypt Saudi Arabia 2 - 0 Greece Estonia 0 - 1 Greece Hungary 2 - 1 Greece Greece 1 - 0 Hungary Finland 2 - 0 Greece Greece 1 - 0 Finland Greece 0 - 1 Estonia That's 4W - 0D - 5L and an average of 0.56 goals per game. That's all you need to know. I'm no longer going to waste my time watching this team.

We should just disband the men's national team for like 20 years

So who do you all think is a better long term option: Koutris or Tsimikas?

Skopia lost 4-0 to Armenia yesterday but is still top of their group. Gibraltar also has two wins haha. Funny thing is that these bozo nations play better football and draw better crowds than our beloved Ethniki.

To the people saying that we will never have a player like Messi, Mbappe, etc.. well why not? Look at Croatia, tiny nation yet producing footballers like Modric. Is it because Greeks are genetically inferior athletes? I think not. Football culture in Greece is both defeatist and not conducive to developing those types of players. A change in culture, brought forward by a national academy and proper coaching staff would be able to do great things. If you want to look on a smaller scale, heck look at Iceland! They got to Euro 2016 and WC 2018 because of proper footballing infrastructure developing their youth players.

So it is slightly more complicated than what I was saying, but there are 4 Euro 2020 spots available from the Nations League. Read more here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2020_qualifying_play-offs. The goal is to make sure the playoffs have teams of similar quality within the same bracket so we will still have two lowly ranked teams (likely from both Leagues C and D) make Euro 2020.

Yeah, pretty sure that was a major selling point to the smaller nations... they would be playing for a Euro spot in League D. Funny thing is that Skopia is probably in prime position to get that spot lol.

Lol you guys think Odisseas will go back on his decision after seeing this game? Just kidding...

They would have to win the group then win the knock outside between the other group winners in League C

Yes, but there will only be 20 spots up for grabs since the victors of Leagues A-D each get a spot in the tournament.

To continue on the subject of the EPO's failures, how many youth teams have we seen that have been very successful in Euro competitions? A fair amount. Yet all of these players fizzle out and end up busting or only becoming average. Look at the U21's now; one of the better sides yet I can almost guarantee none of them will become stars.

Also, why do you guys care about the Hungary-Estonia match? If Finland beats Greece, the group is over.

Anybody who tries to derive anything positive from this match should be insta-banned fromthis forum. After EURO 2004 and the subsequent 10 years, Greece should have invested in things like a national academy to grow the game. Guess not.

Man, Cyprus gave away the game... sadly

Team absolutely plays less than the sum of their parts.

Team must beat Betis next time they play