EURO 2008: Greece - Malta

[Guest geok]

I liked the post of nikosvazelas, and I hope the 4 groups are as you mentioned them.

It is good that we will avoid Italy, because they are very similar to us :P

Holland or Spain from the second group would also be approachable. But I am sure that even if we get France or Germany, we are not necessarily doomed.

England or Croatia from the 3rd group. I believe England are over-rated and whoever watches football for the last 10 years would probably agree.

From the final group I would take Turkey or Sweden.

Lets hope that the draw will help us. We need to win one game and draw the other 2 and we are through to the last 8 and then anything can happen!!!

:gr: :gr: :gr:

[NikosVazelas]

considering we play in groups of 4 where its one game against each opponent.. i dont mind playing any team as long as germany and england are not one of them. we have a tendancy to be outclassed by offensive minded teams. it would of been nice to face austria but as long as we play our defensive minded football and we have an in form gekas and or amanitidis, im sure we can get a win and a draw. maybe even two draws.

but i would like to see greece,spain,croatia and turkey or norway or sweden. even romania. any one from the 4th pot would suit me fine.

spain always chokes in big tournaments. im not worried.

[Genome]

Genome.... u can replay everything for the past six days. for example if u miss a game on sunday due to work or u were watching AEK instead of pao.. u can watch it later and for up to 6 days

they keep every program recorded for 6 days on their recorded shows file

for example u can watch this mornings u-19 game from mega.. just check in the recorded shows and click on the bandwith of the show u wish to watch

:o

:blink:

I cannot believe I didn't notice that before :LOL:

Thank you nikosvazelas ! ! ! :tup:

Btw I just checked it, they do have it as a replay but only the first twelve minutes (that's also 'til where I could watch it normally, before the errors/problems came up).

[jcoutavas]

It sucks reading about how a lot of you all were unable to watch the Malta match today. There is a paysite linked from the UEFA homepage that I used to watch the Turkey match and today's match as well. I highly recommend it as I had no connection problems at all. It stopped once during the Malta match and all I had to do was click refresh and I was back in business. The matches run about 5 euros a pop which isn't bad. Picture quality is outstanding.

SPORTFIVE

[Irlandos]

Congrats to our lads for the 5-0 score! :tup:

On to Budapest!

[Genome]

Five-star Greece confirm first place

Greece put five past Malta in the final home match of their successful UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying campaign to secure top spot in Group C.

Full article here.

[AEK-MTL]

Saw the game at a bar. First half was very frustrating as we couldn't seem to really get anything going for the most part. Sloppy passes by the midfield, cheap giveaways, and ridiculous opportunities given to Malta. Against a France or Italy, teties vlakies den pernane. Nice first goal by Gekas off a left-footed cross by Torosidis if you can believe it (I think it was his only left-footed cross the whole game).

The second half was much better in terms of passing and control. Nice goal by Basinas (albeit a little lucky). Amanatidis and Gekas had some good ones too. I think after Basinas scored the second goal, Malta was a bit demoralized and didn't put up as much resistance. Still, they managed to make Dellas look old and slow and our defense seemed to have problems with their pace at times.

I was very pleased to see Spyropoulos come in. He was solid. Made some good defensive plays and had 1 or 2 good crosses from the left. Tziolis didn't really do too much and poor Lybe :whistle: , just wasn't his night to score.

Player ratings (out of 10):

Nikopolidis: 7. Didn't really have much to do although I did see him pull a classic wandering job on one of Malta's corners where he was in no man's land.

Torosidis: 7.5. Made some good offensive runs and he was pretty much the only source of offense for awhile in the first half. Nice cross on the goal.

Kyriakos: 7. Pretty solid in the back. Had a nice header chance at one point.

Dellas: 5. Ugh. Looked old and slow out there today.

Patsatzoglou: 6. Didn't really do all that much. A few decent passes but plenty of stray ones too. Was better in the 2nd half.

Giannakopoulos: 7. Made some good plays and him and Amanatidis seem to link up well. Good play on the first goal.

Amanatidis: 8. Good game by him. Got the goal and was always in the thick of things causing havoc for Malta.

Gekas: 9. A hat-trick. Good positioning and cool finishing. Excellent overall.

Basinas: 8. Was better in the 2nd half. Scored a nice goal and distributed the ball well.

Katsouranis: 7. Invisible in the first half but was more involved in the 2nd half, both offensively and defensively.

Karagounis: 7.5. Was pretty lively out there with some good chances (had Greece's first real chance with a great shot in the first half) but seemed to tire in the second half.

Subs:

Spyropoulos: 7. Made some good defensive plays and had 1 or 2 good crosses. All he needs is a bit more experience and he might become a starter.

Lyberopoulos: 7. Had some good chances and gave Malta's backline plenty of problems. Unlucky not to pot one.

Tziolis: 6. Didn't really do much out there.

[aekrossoponti]

overall, the first half was rather poor. we started to play some good football. my main impression from seeing the first half on a very bad tvants streams (anyone else had a similar bad experience?) was that stelios seems more or less finished. which limits our midfield options even more. now if karagounis gets booked the way he did in portugal we are really going to have some problems.

second half was nice though...

the 2nd half came with lymbe on for stelios (gekas now the right forward and lymbe center forward) and finally, a spyropoulos entrance - but torosidis coming out. i wasn't sure if torosidi had a slight injury...but, anyways...praise to otto for playing #23.

torosidis was sick before the game. the reporter was speaking of a flu and fever. thats why he got subbed.

1) i think spyropoulos proved he is international calibre - great, confident tackle in the box. 2) basinas and katsouranis improved their preformances in the 2nd half, but tziolis didn't really show me anything.

i agree 100% on spyropoulos. to me he justified why we were screaming for him to be a starter all the year. endekada paiktis.

on tziolis hard to judgehim. his hot led to a gekas goal. apart from that i dont really remember anything. he will have to see a whole 90min before we can say anything. again, i was very pleased with spyropoulos.

when dellas got beat on his pace and was booked in the 2nd half, i wonder if anyone thought that the malta player could have beaten seitaridi in a sprint. food for thought...i hope otto took notes. i also felt if otto did take notes, he would have noted that patsa had a sub-par match. offensively and defensively. we have better than patsa, it's up to otto to make it happen now.

i really dont see otto bench dellas. dellas is too much of a key figure for otto. giourkas will be the right back thats for sure. i just hope spyropoulos will be the left back and otto find torosidis a nice midfield postion and i would be very pleased.

the more i think of your idea with giorkas as a cb, the more i like it. i just don t see otto using it.

[thrylos]

I like the fact the the Hellines no longer underestimate thier opponent.

They go hard in every game.

[cyberfish]

Nice entertaining second half by our NT.

My Aektzides friends have summarized the game and performances nicely in the posts above, but I would like to differentiate myself from their assessment of Tziolis. He had a very nice game indeed, with excellent positioning in midfield he won all the balls that came his way, and distributed his first pass quickly and accurately to initiate counterattacks.

Other than that, it was nice to see Spyropoulos play, and he did well. I think he will win the starting spot before the EURO. Patsa was really bad yesterday and Delas looks like he has lead in his shoes the entire game.

The team looks like it's gelling, and we have seen better offensive play in the last two games than I have ever seen from our NT. Who would had thought after our monumental defeat by Turkey that we would be qualified with two games to go. Kudos to all who kept the team focused.

Edit: I was looking for the topic Elpides Greece-Croatia, but it looks like no one opened one. Our elpides lost to a better Croatia team and our qualification now is almost impossible. There has been a lot of talk about what youngsters Otto should take to EURO, but I watched the game yesterday, and I have to say that no one from this elpides team is anywhere near contributing to the NT. I think they need to mature much more before they can be thought of as NT material.

[as5664]

Saw the game at a bar. First half was very frustrating as we couldn't seem to really get anything going for the most part. Sloppy passes by the midfield, cheap giveaways, and ridiculous opportunities given to Malta. Against a France or Italy, teties vlakies den pernane. Nice first goal by Gekas off a left-footed cross by Torosidis if you can believe it (I think it was his only left-footed cross the whole game).

The second half was much better in terms of passing and control. Nice goal by Basinas (albeit a little lucky). Amanatidis and Gekas had some good ones too. I think after Basinas scored the second goal, Malta was a bit demoralized and didn't put up as much resistance. Still, they managed to make Dellas look old and slow and our defense seemed to have problems with their pace at times.

I was very pleased to see Spyropoulos come in. He was solid. Made some good defensive plays and had 1 or 2 good crosses from the left. Tziolis didn't really do too much and poor Lybe  :whistle: , just wasn't his night to score.

Player ratings (out of 10):

Nikopolidis: 7. Didn't really have much to do although I did see him pull a classic wandering job on one of Malta's corners where he was in no man's land.

Torosidis: 7.5. Made some good offensive runs and he was pretty much the only source of offense for awhile in the first half. Nice cross on the goal.

Kyriakos: 7. Pretty solid in the back. Had a nice header chance at one point.

Dellas: 5. Ugh. Looked old and slow out there today.

Patsatzoglou: 6. Didn't really do all that much. A few decent passes but plenty of stray ones too. Was better in the 2nd half.

Giannakopoulos: 7. Made some good plays and him and Amanatidis seem to link up well. Good play on the first goal.

Amanatidis: 8. Good game by him. Got the goal and was always in the thick of things causing havoc for Malta.

Gekas: 9. A hat-trick. Good positioning and cool finishing. Excellent overall.

Basinas: 8. Was better in the 2nd half. Scored a nice goal and distributed the ball well.

Katsouranis: 7. Invisible in the first half but was more involved in the 2nd half, both offensively and defensively.

Karagounis: 7.5. Was pretty lively out there with some good chances (had Greece's first real chance with a great shot in the first half) but seemed to tire in the second half.

Subs:

Spyropoulos: 7. Made some good defensive plays and had 1 or 2 good crosses. All he needs is a bit more experience and he might become a starter.

Lyberopoulos: 7. Had some good chances and gave Malta's backline plenty of problems. Unlucky not to pot one.

Tziolis: 6. Didn't really do much out there.

I'm Sorry but I REALLY must disagree with some of your ratings.

Tziolis, first, was amazing!! That assist for Gekas' goal was just outrageously good! I've never seen crosses of that quality on our team. If we don't see 4 in the midfield, I think he should take the place of Karagounis. He deserves a 10!

The guy never plays, but when he is called in his performance is above stellar!

Lymperopoulos may have missed his shot on goal, but his assist for Gekas was another show of quality. He could have tried for the shot himself and missed, but he headed it toward Gekas. That is quality technical play in my experience. I give him a 9! He deserves his place in Euro 2008. I will take him over Charisteas any day!

Dellas was slow, but he is a giant...I think Otto wants him because of his size.

Basinas's goal was not luck, the goalkeeper was off of his line. His talent shows when we play more technical games. There is a reason why he plays in Spain.

Sad to say, I think Karagounis is finished. He should be used a sub in the future. Patsa was a disappointment too. But I don't want to discount him; he has more good days than bad.

Also, I disagree about Samaras (Aek66's comment). The poor guy was barely even given a chance this entire campaign. And scoring goals is not the only thing that makes a good player. It's assists and quality crosses as well. Remember the goal we scored in Turkey? Amanatidis did not do that on his own...I would like to see a Charisteas or Salpingidis make a cross of that quality.

[Clover22]

Maybe Tziolis was in the wrong position? He's more of a defensive mid than attacking. Kara is more attacking; he was subbed for him.

[Clover22]

Also why did he bother to call Vyntra and why didn't he use Mantzios after it was reported he got the call?

[AEK-MTL]

I'm Sorry but I REALLY must disagree with some of your ratings. 

Tziolis, first, was amazing!!  That assist for Gekas' goal was just outrageously good!  I've never seen crosses of that quality on our team.  If we don't see 4 in the midfield, I think he should take the place of Karagounis.  He deserves a 10! 

The guy never plays, but when he is called in his performance is above stellar!

Lymperopoulos may have missed his shot on goal, but his assist for Gekas was another show of quality.  He could have tried for the shot himself and missed, but he headed it toward Gekas.  That is quality technical play in my experience.  I give him a 9!  He deserves his place in Euro 2008.  I will take him over Charisteas any day! 

Dellas was slow, but he is a giant...I think Otto wants him because of his size. 

Basinas's goal was not luck, the goalkeeper was off of his line.  His talent shows when we play more technical games. There is a reason why he plays in Spain.

Sad to say, I think Karagounis is finished.  He should be used a sub in the future.  Patsa was a disappointment too.  But I don't want to discount him; he has more good days than bad. 

Also, I disagree about Samaras (Aek66's comment).  The poor guy was barely even given a chance this entire campaign.  And scoring goals is not the only thing that makes a good player.  It's assists and quality crosses as well.  Remember the goal we scored in Turkey?  Amanatidis did not do that on his own...I would like to see a Charisteas or Salpingidis make a cross of that quality.

My ratings were relative. I gave Gekas a 9 and he scored a hat-trick. Obviously I can't give Lybe a 9 as he didn't score. You're right though, he did set up Gekas nicely with the header. If he had scored on his chance, I would have given him an 8. As for Tziolis, maybe you caught something that I missed. I didn't really see too much out of him but maybe I wasn't paying too much attention. Which goal are you referring to when you talk about the "outrageously good pass" and great cross? As for Basinas' goal, yes it was nice. Only reason I said it was a little lucky was because he seemed to be slightly off-balance when he took the shot, like it was almost a mis-hit.

Charisteas has a spot locked up and everyone knows it, whether we agree or not, he is Otto's man. I agree with you about Samaras. I think he deserves more of a chance and he should likely be #3 or #4 on the depth chart of forwards (Gekas, Amanatidis, Lybe, Charisteas) just owing to his raw talent.

[NikosVazelas]

on the last gekas goal, tziolis pass a through ball from 20 feet right on gekas foot. he did everythign a DM should do in the 20 minutes he played,

[cyberfish]

I think the formation dictates who would play on offense. Gekas has been established as the striker, and in the current 4-3-3 Otto needs two wingers that can do the dirty work in midfield and to spring forward when on offense. It seems that Samaras and Salpigidis are two excellent forwards that don't seem to have what it takes to play the whole wing. Amanatidis and Haristeas have fitted nicely into that role. Samaras can play that role as well, but he does not seem to have the work ethic to work an entire wing.

Salpigidis is a role player in this NT, just as important as any other position. He can be used when a game calls for his skills but I don't think he can't play on the wing very well.

Lyberopoulos worked hard to find a place in the NT, and he largely won Otto's trust with the vital goals he made for us. I think he is a very good player that can play as an SS and be lethal in set pieces.

Personally, I don't care who plays and who doesn't as long as we win the next Euro :)

[Genome]

Coefficients

The seeded teams will be the host associations, with the reigning European champions if they qualify, and one or two teams with the best coefficients on the basis of results achieved in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying competition and/or in the qualifying competition for the 2006/08 UEFA European Football Championship. The other finalists will be assigned to the four groups by means of a draw, according to their coefficients.

Source.

Does this mean we will be in a group with Austria, Switzerland and (probably) Italy?

[DUDE]

i'm one of samaras' biggest backers..

i said that i would have liked him to start...but otto didn't even have this player in the greek 18 for the match. it looks ominous for him, because now it seems lymbe is #1 off the bench. to be fair to lymbe, he's been alot better with the national team than his club side. if it looks ominous for samaras, then it looks pitch black for salpiggidis.

and i'm not really a fan of salpi, you can ask dude.

if we need a victory against hungary (for a possible #1 seed in a w.c. qualifying group in this new confusing way for rankings), then i doubt otto will sit gekas and play samaras on wednesday.

With the way Amanatidis has developed and what Lybe offers the team I would say it looks ominous for both Samara and Salpi.

Guys, it's not always about talent, but effectiveness and within that comes team-balance.

Haristeas HAS to be in the squad because he offers an aerial threat like no one else does. Gekas is also a given because he's our only natural goalscorer. Amanatidis can offer width from the left and seems to have found confidence following that mamouth performance in Turkey so he's also a certainty. Lybe has scored vital goals for us and 90% of the time changes the game when he comes on. He's effectively a super-sub. That would leave us with one more option....

So who?

It's between Samaras, Salpi, Papadopoulos, and Mantzios. Pap and Salpi are similar so they would be in group A and Mantzios and Samaras in Group B. The question is what type of forward do we need most?

SAMARAS:

PROS: He's good with the ball at his feet and when given time and space he can hurt you with his creativity.

CONS: Lybe is also very creative so imo Samaras can't offer much more than that. For a squad member though (i.e. not in the starting 11) he is fairly talented. But if he isn't playing for his club in the build up to the tournament that could be a problem. Samaras seems to do well against weak opposition where he's given time and space but against the top teams he disappears. The way the Euro draw is shaping up I can't see us drawing any weak sides and he could be a non-entity. He also misses way too many chances, chances that we might not get a lot of at Euro 2008.

CONCLUSION: Unless he finds a new team in January he quite simply can't hold down a place in a 21 man squad. He has to be judged on his performances this season.

SALPI:

PROS: He'll always cause a problem through his sheer work rate and pace. He also has the ability to drift to the right if necessary.

CONS: Otto doesn't seem to know how to use him and that nulifies anything he does have to offer. He's also inconsistent and his goals usually seem to come from the opposition's mistakes. Salpi would of course argue that he recognises the opposing teams weakness and capatilises on their mistakes, but his overall talent at the highest level is in question.

CONCLUSION: He'll bleed for you, but whether he can be relied on to come on in the last 20 mins and make a difference is in question.

PAPADOPOULOS:

PROS: Similar to Salpi but not quite as effective at harrying defenders, but imo he gets better goals, so might be more likely to make a goal out of nothing. His strike rate has also been exceptional this year so far.

CONS: Too inconsistent and isn't a great all round player. He doesn't offer much except for hard work.

CONCLUSION: Probably not good enough for the top level and doesn't seem in Otto's plans. But if he carries on scoring like he is he'll have to be considered.

MANTZIOS:

PROS: He has a great ability to make something happen when he has his back to goal and the ball is rolled into his feet so offers something different.

CONS: He's inconsistent, he can't even break into PAO's first team how on earth Otto called him up is beyond me.

CONSLUSION: He just isn't good enough imo.

So if Samaras doesn't find a club in January and start performing as a manager I'd go for whoever has a better season out of Papadoupoulos and Salpi. If, however, Samaras ups his game by 200% (which I'd like to think he's capable of doing), then I'd probably go with him if I was manager... Having said all this I guarantee you Samaras goes because of Otto's preference of players that play in prestigious leagues (even if they are in the reserves).

[paxiotis7]

good post ^ ive been thinking the same.... if samaras doesnt find a club, then he shouldnt be in the euro team.

[loup]

Of the guys mentioned - can you see any of them save Samara actually contributing in Austria/Swit?????

with Lybe -Char- gekas- Aman- Stelios what possible role do the other three have - any role that is required has a better option as far as I'm concerned

Gekas and Charisteas are better in the middle

Amantidis on the left

Lybe as a sub

Stelios as a mid or a winger on either side

Charisteas has also done some decent wing work and filled the Vryzas role of holder when needed

Samaras vs Salpigidis

Samaras creates better look at BH and atTurkey

Samaras has a better goal scoring record

He holds the ball better

He is more talented

Dribbles better

he has more upside

he has better hair

Salpigidis is faster and works harder (although I have never seen Samaras dog it on the Ethniki)

even if he doesn't see much action in England - Otto doesn't seem to care

[AEK-MTL]

I really can't see Salpignidis, Papadopoulos, or Mantzios contributing much at Euro 2008 (whether Mantzios even gets called for the tournament is still debatable). As it stands, Gekas, Amanatidis, Charisteas, Lyberopoulos, and Samaras is the pool of forwards Otto uses and will use at Euro 2008.

Salpi and Pap would be good bench players but I doubt they'll see any time during the tournament.

[as5664]

So if Samaras doesn't find a club in January and start performing as a manager I'd go for whoever has a better season out of Papadoupoulos and Salpi. If, however, Samaras ups his game by 200% (which I'd like to think he's capable of doing), then I'd probably go with him if I was manager... Having said all this I guarantee you Samaras goes because of Otto's preference of players that play in prestigious leagues (even if they are in the reserves).

I agree with this as well. Unfortunately, as we have seen before, Otto has played guys without clubs before, so I wouldn't put it past him :LOL: Nevertheless, I think he will have a team (considering he leaves Man. City). In fact, I have even heard Lazio have expressed an interest in him. Either way, I have a feeling that he will be in it along with Charisteas, and Salpi will be out; Papadopoulos has been out for a long long time now.

But I'm not so sure about Charisteas starting anymore, I personally think Otto will use him as a reserve in Austria, or only if we need someone with a lot of strength and height in the center. Seems like he is always injured, and can't really do anything unless the ball is fed to him. If anything, I think Charisteas and Samaras might share the spot on the left and play a half each (like in the Turkey match).

[DUDE]

Btw, isn't anyone else disgusted by the turnout against Malta or is it just me?

Our NT just secured qualification to the European Championships to defend our title, and they did so by beating the old enemy in style, and all the Greeks could manage was a 40k turnout and a s%$#! atmosphere??? Ungrateful pricks!!! With s%$#! fans like that we don't deserve to win it again! Where's the patriotism re gamoto?!

[jarvis1981]

They should play their National Games in Karaiskaki anyways.

33,000 in a packed house with the fans close to the field is alot better than 50,000 fans separated by a large track.

Better views for fans....always a sell out.

Since I live in Canada I've never been to either stadium but I'm interested in if people support my views.

I have visited a number of sports venues throughout North America and I always prefer an intimate setting over size.

[AEK-MTL]

Btw, isn't anyone else disgusted by the turnout against Malta or is it just me?

Our NT just secured qualification to the European Championships to defend our title, and they did so by beating the old enemy in style, and all the Greeks could manage was a 40k turnout and a s%$#! atmosphere??? Ungrateful pricks!!! With s%$#! fans like that we don't deserve to win it again! Where's the patriotism re gamoto?!

I think that's a bit harsh DUDE. 40k isn't all too bad considering the bad weather and the fact it was against Malta. Let's face reality here, Greece won't fill OAKA unless we're hosting a tourney. This wasn't a "life-or-death" game against a quality opponent, it was a gimme against a minnow (who btw still managed to get two ridiculous chances against us). If EPO wants a stadium full (or close to it when it comes to OAKA), do the sensible thing: drop the prices on tickets! As for your comments about "atmosphere", again I have to disagree. To me, being patriotic doesn't mean lighting flares and yelling out m@laka every 5 seconds. Let people enjoy the game the way they want to enjoy it.

I think slowly but surely, the NT is gaining importance in Greece. A string of good appearances, which starts with Euro 2008 and continues with WC2010 qualifying, will go a long way in raising the NT's profile.