Soprano76

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

Should have been 1-1... incompetent linesman

Bravo PAOKakia... btw, is that type of banner typical for these matches or only due to recent developments since last season?

with the Josh Gordon trade, I think the Patriots are going to come out of the AFC. As for the NFC, that is typically always a toss-up but I think Minnesota has it this year. In other news, Ryan Fitzmagic has been something else through two games. Let's see if he can keep it up; I think he comes back down to Earth sooner rather than later.

Oh. most certainly that language does not equal ethnicity. It just seems to me that those areas up north were so thoroughly Slavic that it's hard to imagine many ethnic Greeks remained. Not to mention, from what I understand the Greek peninsula was severely depopulated in the Middle Ages, leading to significant settling of Slavs and Albanians in the area. On the other hand, genetic studies done have shown that modern Greeks have a very close genetic make-up to Mycenaean era and Classical era Greeks and their closest modern relatives are southern Italians (Magna Graecia). So, I go back and forth on this.

Based on my limited knowledge, it seems like most the people in northern Macedonia, such as from Kastoria or Florina, are either Pontians, Bulgarians who became Hellenized or Hellenized Vlachs. I would say that most of the "ethnic Greek" presence in Macedonia during the Ottoman occupation through to the Macedonian struggle was concentrated around Olympus and Chalkidiki

All in all, a much better performance vs Chelsea than in the 2nd leg vs Benfica, imo

IMO the most impressive teams so far have been: 1. PAOK 2. Oly 3. AEK 4. Aris Aris has really surprised me given that this is their first season back in the top flight for some time. Will be interesting to see if they can break into the European scene.

Tough game. For AEK, Greek football and the all-important coefficient

I read online that there was a 400% increase in attendance on MD3 compared to last year. I'm sure Aris being back in the tope flight helped greatly.

haha that's rich. I don't know much about the guy but what has he done to earn that reputation? Seems like he invested a decent amount into the team since they put together a great performance last year. Thanks for the info, Blackhawk

So what's the deal with this team? They were founded in 2017 and in their first season comfortably topped their group in Gamma Ethniki with 20W - 3D - 1L, earning promotion. Did they form as a splinter group from one of the more established teams in Volos or did some wealthy guy decide to start a new team in the town?

Here's the results of the group stage draw: Group A: Atromitos, PAS Giannina, Iraklis, Thyella Kamari Group B: AEK Athens, Lamia, Apollon Larissa, Volos NFC Group ? Panetolikos, Panathinaikos, AO Chania Kissamikos, OF Ierapetra Group ? PAOK, Aris Thessaloniki, Ergotelis, Aittitos Spata Group E: Olympiakos, Levadiakos, Panachaiki, Aris Avato Group F: Asteras Tripolis, Apollon Smyrnis, Trikala, Apollon Paralimnio Group G: Xanthi, OFI Crete, Kerkyra, Niki Volos Group H: Panionios, AEL, Apollon Pontou, Irodotos Some interesting results. Looking forward to seeing these matches and hopefully some upsets.