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EURO 2008: Norway - Greece


dark_horse

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Malta-Turkey 2-2 (Malta tied Turkey on their Independence Day)

Moldova-Norway 0-1

Hungary-Bosnia 1-0

Greece and Norway did not blow any points against the 3 bottom teams whereas Turkey threw away 2 points and Bosnia threw away 8. Losing points to the Top 4 teams is one thing but tossing points against the bottom 3 teams is something that can bite you in the end.

But, I still think Greece and Turkey will qualify

Group C Pld Pts

Greece 7 18

Norway 8 16

Turkey 7 14

Bosnia-Herzegovina 8 13

Hungary 8 9

Malta 8 5

Moldova 8 2

Ever since March 24, when Turkey won in Greece 4-1, Turkey thought they were one of the elite teams of Europe and were going to run away with the division.

Well, since that game:

Turkey-Norway 2-2 (Norway was winning 2-0 and Turkey tied it at the 90th minute)

Bosnia-Turkey 3-2

Malta-Turkey 2-2 (Malta led twice)

The curse of winning in Greece (March 24)

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( I found this in another forum and I think its acurate)

Greece just needs 9 points to qualify.

At the moment the standings are

Greece 18 (5 matches left)

Norway 16 (4 matches left)

Turkey 14 (5 matches left)

Bosnia 13 (4 matches left)

Should Turkey win all games, they end with 29 points, but this means Norway can only win 3 games cause Turkey would have beaten them, so they end with 25 points.

If Norway wins all games, they end with 28, and Turkey which would have lost to Norway wins 4 of last 5 and thus ends with 26 points.

If Turkey and Norway draw and win the rest (worst case), Turkey ends 27, and Norway with 26 points.

Bosnia can now only end with 25 points and that would mean beating both Turkey and Norway.

With 3 wins, Greece ends with 27 points and goes through no matter what situation.

In other words, beat Bosnia and Malta (home) and Hungary (away) and we are through. The road games with Norway and Turkey, even they end with losses, would not matter)

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Now that results have gone our way we need to grab this oppurtunity with both hands :tup:

The only thing that bothers me is that Rehagal won't let go of the geriatric players :tdown:

Kapsis gets injured (should be long gone) and then he recalls Skoto-Anatolakhs ????? and Fyssas?????

KING OTTO what are you on man???? Can i have some too :LOL: :LOL:

:gr: ELLAS MPOREIS MPOREIS NA PROKRITHEIS :gr:

NORWAY 1 - 1 ELLAS

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weve been giving gifts and its our duty to open the offencive machine in norway ,could not of asked for better results, besides norway winning,this gamw will show were we stand goin into a hostile envirroment no fear go for maximim points,take chances up front and seal 1st place, smoke um , again otto recalli9ng scrap players when will go let go we need fresh young legs not 4 wheel rasckals.

ellada yera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :gr:

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Great result for Malta! The Maltese also suffered alot at the hands of the Ottoman Empire & they were billing this match as another "seige" by Turkey. That just goes to show what passion can do! The point is, we have to play with that same passion & intensity in all of our remaining games! If I was the manager my aim would be to make it through without another defeat. If the tactics are right we can def get a result in Norway and Turkey. Believe it or not the match I'm most nervous about (along with this Norway game) is Hungary away.

We'll see how things go, but it's essential to understand that Turkey's slip-up is only an advantage if we don't lose on Wednesday.

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Play some offense against Norway.

I hope that Otto watched the Norway at Moldova match. A few things came to mind during the match.

Norway does have a number 1 striker but then it drops off after that. (however he has to be kept in check).

Moldova outchanced Norway and hit a cross bar late in the 2nd half. With a little more luck Moldova could have won this game 3-2 or thereabouts.

The speed of Moldova really gave Norway some problems.

By thinking offensively Moldova limited the chances of Norway's strikers.

In conclusion....

Greece can't play back against this team. It will result in a loss IMO. Greece needs the first goal and then only consider playing defensive if they still have the lead and there is less than 15 minutes left. Taking a 1-0 lead by half and then sitting back is poor strategy.

I would also like to point out that Turkey is showing signs of a weak defense as they have given up 7 goals in the last three games. Trying to beat them 1-0 will also end in a bad result. They should go into Turkey thinking of winning 3-1 and let the chips fall where they may.

Good luck to the team this week. I hope the weather isn't too bad in Oslo.

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Play some offense against Norway.

I hope that Otto watched the Norway at Moldova match. A few things came to mind during the match.

Norway does have a number 1 striker but then it drops off after that. (however he has to be kept in check).

Moldova outchanced Norway and hit a cross bar late in the 2nd half. With a little more luck Moldova could have won this game 3-2 or thereabouts.

The speed of Moldova really gave Norway some problems.

By thinking offensively Moldova limited the chances of Norway's strikers.

In conclusion....

Greece can't play back against this team. It will result in a loss IMO. Greece needs the first goal and then only consider playing defensive if they still have the lead and there is less than 15 minutes left. Taking a 1-0 lead by half and then sitting back is poor strategy.

Good luck to the team this week. I hope the weather isn't too bad in Oslo.

I agree. Greece should play a high defensive line because Carew & Iversen aren't the quickest players around, but their aerial threat is impressive. So if we end up defending deeply, we'll lose. Amanatidi is injured & has returned to Germany so a 5-3-2 is the only option now. We don't have a left-winger/midfielder to lay 4-4-2, & no left forward to play 4-3-3 (Unless we play Samaras there who has played there for club & country before) however, I'd prefer a 5-3-2.

-----------------------------------------Chalkias---------------------------------------------

-------------------------Goumas-------Kyriakos----------Goumas-------------------------

Seitaridis---------------------------------------------------------------------------Torosidis

-------------------------Patsa---------Karagounis--------Katsouranis---------------------

--------------------------------Salpingidi-----------Gekas----------------------------------

We only have 4 strikers available now, Salp, Geka, Samara, & Lybe. If we need to make a change I'd go for Samaras & not Lybe. (1) Samaras had a great game against Norway last time out, (2) He'll want to prove his worth, (3) Lybe has been awful so far & following his interview during the forest fires it's clear that he isn't prepared mentally. If Otto gets the tactics right & the players play with passion we could win this game.

I would also like to point out that Turkey is showing signs of a weak defense as they have given up 7 goals in the last three games. Trying to beat them 1-0 will also end in a bad result. They should go into Turkey thinking of winning 3-1 and let the chips fall where they may.

This game is still a long way away but I have to say I disagree here. We tried to attack Turkey in Greece & in backfired. We have to keep it tight against them, and because their defence is so poor we're bound to get chances. Especially if we have hustling players on the pitch, i.e. Salpi, Geka, Stelio, Patsa, Torosidi, etc. I believe that the team is CAPABLE of winning away to both Norway & Turkey, whether they will or not is a different story.

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( I found this in another forum and I think its acurate)

Greece just needs 9 points to qualify.

At the moment the standings are

Greece 18 (5 matches left)

Norway 16 (4 matches left)

Turkey 14 (5 matches left)

Bosnia 13 (4 matches left)

Should Turkey win all games, they end with 29 points, but this means Norway can only win 3 games cause Turkey would have beaten them, so they end with 25 points.

If Norway wins all games, they end with 28, and Turkey which would have lost to Norway wins 4 of last 5 and thus ends with 26 points.

If Turkey and Norway draw and win the rest (worst case), Turkey ends 27, and Norway with 26 points.

Bosnia can now only end with 25 points and that would mean beating both Turkey and Norway.

With 3 wins, Greece ends with 27 points and goes through no matter what situation.

In other words, beat Bosnia and Malta (home) and Hungary (away) and we are through. The road games with Norway and Turkey, even they end with losses, would not matter)

Winning in Hungary is not easy....

;) ;)

As I remember Greece won in Malta just with a 0-1.

Malta is not strong side but they play on conter attacks. The play ugly and are defending with 9 men.

It is everytime a problem for offensive team.

Also the Bosnia game will be very hard for Greece.

all of your calculations are a joke cause you can never know how much points Greece can drop in all games left. It is depending on thousand of factors.

I can see also Turkey on first place -Winning all the rest games..

I can see also Turkey out of race ....-losing against Norway and drawing with Greece.

I can see also Greece out of Euro 2008--loosing to Norway,Turkey and droping 2 points against Hungary or Bosnia-

Everything is open folks.....

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Play some offense against Norway.

I hope that Otto watched the Norway at Moldova match. A few things came to mind during the match.

Norway does have a number 1 striker but then it drops off after that. (however he has to be kept in check).

Moldova outchanced Norway and hit a cross bar late in the 2nd half. With a little more luck Moldova could have won this game 3-2 or thereabouts.

The speed of Moldova really gave Norway some problems.

By thinking offensively Moldova limited the chances of Norway's strikers.

In conclusion....

Greece can't play back against this team. It will result in a loss IMO. Greece needs the first goal  and then only consider playing defensive if they still have the lead and there is less than 15 minutes left. Taking a 1-0 lead by half and then sitting back is poor strategy.

Good luck to the team this week. I hope the weather isn't too bad in Oslo.

I agree. Greece should play a high defensive line because Carew & Iversen aren't the quickest players around, but their aerial threat is impressive. So if we end up defending deeply, we'll lose. Amanatidi is injured & has returned to Germany so a 5-3-2 is the only option now. We don't have a left-winger/midfielder to lay 4-4-2, & no left forward to play 4-3-3 (Unless we play Samaras there who has played there for club & country before) however, I'd prefer a 5-3-2.

-----------------------------------------Chalkias---------------------------------------------

-------------------------Goumas-------Kyriakos----------Goumas-------------------------

Seitaridis---------------------------------------------------------------------------Torosidis

-------------------------Patsa---------Karagounis--------Katsouranis---------------------

--------------------------------Salpingidi-----------Gekas----------------------------------

We only have 4 strikers available now, Salp, Geka, Samara, & Lybe. If we need to make a change I'd go for Samaras & not Lybe. (1) Samaras had a great game against Norway last time out, (2) He'll want to prove his worth, (3) Lybe has been awful so far & following his interview during the forest fires it's clear that he isn't prepared mentally. If Otto gets the tactics right & the players play with passion we could win this game.

I would also like to point out that Turkey is showing signs of a weak defense as they have given up 7 goals in the last three games. Trying to beat them 1-0 will also end in a bad result. They should go into Turkey thinking of winning 3-1 and let the chips fall where they may.

This game is still a long way away but I have to say I disagree here. We tried to attack Turkey in Greece & in backfired. We have to keep it tight against them, and because their defence is so poor we're bound to get chances. Especially if we have hustling players on the pitch, i.e. Salpi, Geka, Stelio, Patsa, Torosidi, etc. I believe that the team is CAPABLE of winning away to both Norway & Turkey, whether they will or not is a different story.

Just because Turkey is AT THE MOMENT ! Not the real A-Team ... you cant say Turkey is weak- We play with the B-Team since the match against Greece-

-At the game against Greece Turkeys key players were at 100% and so they were able to beat Greece, in Norway match, Norway was really better then Turkey .

The last two matches of Turkey -Turkey had problems with injuries , and players who are not in form like : Altintop,Emre,Tuncay and Tümer.

At the moment Turkey has a really bad B-Team but we will see a completly another Turkish team on Wednesday and in October.

My message for you is : You will be surprised how good Turkey will play until now against every team.

The Malta match was our tragedy-but it was good that it happened now, Turkey will win this group.

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Play some offense against Norway.

I hope that Otto watched the Norway at Moldova match. A few things came to mind during the match.

Norway does have a number 1 striker but then it drops off after that. (however he has to be kept in check).

Moldova outchanced Norway and hit a cross bar late in the 2nd half. With a little more luck Moldova could have won this game 3-2 or thereabouts.

The speed of Moldova really gave Norway some problems.

By thinking offensively Moldova limited the chances of Norway's strikers.

In conclusion....

Greece can't play back against this team. It will result in a loss IMO. Greece needs the first goal

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THOUGHTS AND TACTICS FOR TOMORROW

Folks, I agree with several in the forum that we cannot play the whole game defending. And we won't: I always remember Otto waving to his players to attack and this is what we will see tomorrow as well. However, the idea is to attack cleverly.

I saw the game Moldova-Norway: what impressed me was the amount of pressure that Norwegians put while Moldovans had the ball in their defense. They just pressured them so much that they had to kick the ball away and then Norwegians won it with a header; easy. For this reason we must pressure them a lot and not keep the ball around in our defense much. If we kick it away, we need strong and tall players to win it. This would be an ideal game for Charisteas but unfortunately he will miss this.

For the reason of long kicks by Greek defense we will need tall and strong middlefield/strikers to win the header and keep the ball. I am a big fan of salpi. But we need players that will win headers. So I can see why Samaras could/should start. But because of the performance of Salpi during Spain, it would be equally good to see him instead of Sam. No-one could critisize Otto for choosing one over the other for a partner to Gekas

It will be important to defend in the middlefield and pass the ball around too, so there is little doubt that Basinas and Kara must play well this one! They will have to pressure the Norwegians a lot on this game. I think the middlefield and the attack are our crucial lines for this game. I don't worry much about their strikers (!!!) as they are slow and Dellas with Kyriakos can handle them, especially in the air. So for the defense I don't worry!!!

I want a heavy middlefield with all Katsouranis, Karagounis, Basinas and another player there preferably (let Otto choose, that is his job hehe). A heavy middlefield that will stop the Norwegian attacks on their making and will hold and pass the ball around. But I cannot guess the fourth player there. Perhaps Patsa, Perhaps Tziolis. I don't know; I think Patsa is more defensive and maybe he would be better, but only Otto knows for sure. If our defenders on the sides mark well, there will be less crossings and therefore less need for a 5-man defense. So Katsouranis can help in the middlefield. The other choice is with Dellas as libero, meaning that Katsouranis needs to return to defense: A usual tactic of Otto that has been successful, especially during Euro games.

In the defense, although having all my recent doubts about Dellas, he will play and it is ok for this game as Karew is slow and Dellas is needed there to intercept

the long balls. Alongside with a good Kyriakos, all will be fine there. But on the sides, both Torosidis and Seitaridis must intercept the crosses, otherwise we will have a very difficult night. I am almost sure that these should be the players in defense.

Finally in attacking, we all know that Gekas is sure. His partner? I will surprize many perhaps, but for this game it should be the tall Samaras (not in his best form though). We need a heavy presence upfront to win the headers from Dellas and Kyriakos clearings (hehehe), because there will be many of those (remember me when you watch the game!).

As for the formation: Many days now we hear 5-3-2 on sportfm mainly. That is way too defensive, but it can work if Giourkas and Torosidis attack from the sides (this is the system we also played against Malta but with Vyntra instead of Giourkas). Such a formation is easier for me and I hope for all of you to guess:

Chalkias (no question there, we need someone tall and good for this game)

Seitaridis - Kyriakos -Dellas- Antzas - Torosidis

Basinas Karagounis Katsouranis

Gekas Samaras

But I would personally dispense with the very heavy defense and play a 4-4-2 (Euro 2004 style):

Chalkias

Seitaridis Kyriakos Dellas Torosidis

Basinas Karagounis Katsouranis Tziolis/Patsatzoglou

Gekas Samaras

with Katsouranis helping on the rear. My justification is that we should and will attack them. Especially at the beginning of the game we should surprize them by a good attack and holding the ball. The best defense is to attack and I am sure that Otto will do just that. So for those reasons I hope for a 4-4-2 formation with the appropriate modifications depending on the opposition.

Some final thoughts:

(1) No doubt, we play with one of the best teams of this group. A strong opponent equal to us, and in some areas better. To win against such teams, you need to attack, as simple as that; keep the ball upfront. We can also sit back and counter-attack and perhaps this what we will do (since Norway declared a ferocious attack against Greek defense). We are good at that. If it goes back to Euro where we defended heavily, that is ok too. Then we need a 5-3-2 formation with Salpi for the counterattacks. But because Norway is not so much better than us, I would prefer a 4-4-2, more attacking formation. We will have to adjust with the game and the squad selection and formation is rather difficult.

(2) Don't expect to see great football. We must get a result here. It will be a tactical game of chess where we will try to destroy their game and kill them in the counter-attack; fair enough. Expect to see a great fight though!

(3) Every game and every point counts in a qualification campaign, we all know that from our last failure attempt to qualify for the World Cup 2006. In that respect we have extremely done well winning against all the second rate teams. Because we failed against Turkey, a victory tomorrow would clear this mishap and even with the evidence of the table, it would yield a 99% qualification. The loss of points for Turkey against Malta, Bosnia and Norway at home will be crucial. It will put a lot of pressure on both Bosnia and Turkey to earn points in the games to come, leaving a weaker defense.

(4) I don't want to hear any crap that we play for a draw, this is nonsense. We should always play for the victory. Victory will make our life easier in the remaining games, means that we can also decide who will go on as second!!!!!!!! In this particular situation though, a draw is also a good result for us. But a victory would enable us to relax and watch the others eat eachother in the remaining games, cutting points from eachother.

(5) Don't underestimate any team: Malta played with spirit and Hungary have shown excellent form recently. I am not sure of a confortable victory of Turkey on Wednesday. And this shows how big were the victories that we got against these teams.

(6) A victory would be the best for us, a draw a good result and a loss for us is a necessity for Norway. They have to win this game. If we lose, everything is open, if we win we qualify and Turkey have the advantage for 2nd place (because they have a game less than Norway) and they play eachother too, which means more opportunity for us to further our distance with either with them. A draw gives an equal chance to Norway and Turkey for 2nd place. A loss for us really means that we start from point zero as everything in the group will be open and we will have to get a good result in Turkey and win all our remaining games. And this will be tough.

So, this is a real cracker game as we must not lose but Norway have to win! So lets both settle down with a draw!

Best of luck to us :gr:

Geok

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Rehhagel's statements before Greece's departure for Norway were the following:

"We are on top of our group and we must protect that lead until our last EURO 2008 qualifier game. This means that on Wednesday we must play with passion and at the same time use our brains."

"Norway is in a much worse situation than us, since even a tie is a bad result for them. Our chances of qualifying are good but in order to do that we must take advantage of the situation. Everyone watching the game must see a team that is full of passion and ready to leave their last drop of sweat on the pitch."

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I too think we will see 5-3-2 but I don't like a combo made up of Kyrgiakos ,Dellas and one of Antzas and Goumas - this group is to heavy footed and too similar in their play, I'd rather have Patsa slip back there, he would add a little different dimension than 3 tougher, slower players clogging the middle

As for size matters - Norway is tough and big - but Kapsis made Koller his p****** in EURO and I think that Patsa can do the same.

If Basinas is healthy the only other question is who supports Gekas up front - Amanitidis was doing well as a winger I thought - but if he is out I guess it is Salpigidis. I think that Samaras would do a great job - I know he hasn't played much or at all) but maybe he pulls out a great performance out of a hat - say what you will about his effort in manchester - he has shown heart, and skill (more than Amantidis or Salpigidis) and a bit of a scoring touch for the ethniki

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