EURO 2008: Hungary - Greece

[TheCity1924]

BRAVO ELLADARA!!!

Sometimes we greeks get carried away and think we know more than Otto but at the end of the day we qualified again, with the most points out of all europeans teams and are in the 1st group.

Bravo OTTO

[Exocet]

WE ARE IN THE 1SR GROUP FOR THE WCQ DRAW

I recall reading that Croatia also has to lose for us to be top seed.

[as5664]

I recall reading that Croatia also has to lose for us to be top seed.

Yes, but who knows....they also lost to Skopjie...we have wone three matches since the last rankings..

[Genome]

England just scored one (penalty) ... still behind with one though.

[dark_horse]

FULL-TIME GREECE HAVE 31 POINTS!!!!

WE ARE AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD CUP QUALIFYING RANKINGS! ! !

WE'RE THE BEST!!! ELLADARA OMADARA!!!! :tup: :tup: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr:

[Crazy]

FULL-TIME GREECE HAVE 31 POINTS!!!!

WE ARE AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD CUP QUALIFYING RANKINGS! ! !

WE'RE THE BEST!!! ELLADARA OMADARA!!!! :tup: :tup: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr:

Can u believe this???When this adventure was starting could anybody imagined that we are going to have 31 points,take 1st place and be in the 1st Group for WCQ??IT FEELS GREAT BEING GREEK TODAY BABY :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup:

[Genome]

:gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr:

Btw Eng 2 - 2 Croatia ...

[DUDE]

HELLAS!

HELLAS!

HELLAS!

:gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr:

THE PIRATES ARE COMING FOR THEIR GOLD!!!!!!!

[Genome]

England - Croatia ended 2 - 3 ... BRAVO CROATIA ! ! ! :tup:

[PAO_OR_DEATH]

more importantly russia beat andora!!!!!!!

adio england!!!!!!!

BUT im seriously pissed off with espn!!!! they didnt show this game(hungary-greece) after they listed it etc!!!!!!

31points hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhhhhaaaaaaahhaaaaaaahaahaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaa

[aekrossoponti]

weak performance today which we managed to win by a gekas dive. anyhow seeing kapsis on the left side and no sign of spyropoulos reminded me of 2005 and the wc qualifying campaign.i see no sense at all having kapsis play leftback, katsouranis as a cb is debatable as well...

while this move made somewhat unsure of ottos intentions for the euro. playing bad and still getting a result is always a good thing.

england being out isnt as positive for us as many may think because i believe russia would be much tougher opponent for us. besides playing and beating england at the euro would have been nice.

[Genome]

Greece cap campaign with rallying cry

Greece ended their successful UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying campaign on a winning note after coming from a goal down to grind out a victory against Hungary in Budapest.

Read the full article here.

[aekrossoponti]

@aek66: very good post. i had very similar thoughts. i am not sure what the reasoning behind this formation was. was it to rest players? probably as karagounis, kiriakos and basinas had to play yet another full 90min. bear in mind kara has a light injury plaguing him. was it to see what alternatives we have at the left back position? i am not sure. i just hope otto doesnt see kapsis as solution on the left side. did otto want to bluff and pull the break on any euphoria that may surround our ethniki atm?

in any case it goes to show that

1. spyropoulos will have to go a long way before having any sort of shot at a first team place on the left side

2. we will have severe problems if either karagounis or basinas get booked and suspended during the tournament. there simply is no adequate back-up on the squad. nor has otto ever spend time finding players for these position. dimoutsos may come to mind...

3. charisteas seems the starter on the right side. its clear that salpi won t impress otto on the right and there will be no other position for him in the team. stelios doesnt seem to play a major role in ottos first team.

[AEK-MTL]

Didn't see the game, but from what I'm reading, I'm not exactly encouraged. It seems like Greece have very little depth. Where in the blue blazes was Spyropoulos? Was he injured or something? And what kind of formation was Otto playing? A sort of mutated 4-4-2 with 4 CMs ???

I think we'd better hope that none of our starters get injured or suspended during the Euro otherwise we could be in serious trouble.

[as5664]

greece didn't deserve the 3 points today...chalkias and in 1 instance, nikopolidis saved the match. people from europe watched today and they shake their heads at how this side is the euro champ.

Man, I'm sorry, but you are WAY too critical. How are we Euro champs?? With 11 wins and 31 points, that is how. That should be enough for the rest of Europe to shut their mouths. Who are we expecting to impress?? France who lost 2x to Scotland, or England -- and the rest of the continent --who failed to even qualifty? <_<

The fact is, we didn't need to give 100%, especially against a team like Hungary; and that is more than justified by the fact the we did not give 100% and still took the 3 pts. If it we didn't get the penalty, I'm sure we would have found a goal somewhere. So why not cut the team a little slack? If we do play like this in Euro 2008, we should expect to be massacred, no doubt about it. But I seriously doubt Otto will allow that to happen.

Kapsis probably played because he will retire and wanted a last match; I doubt we will see him this summer. As for Spyropoulos, Otto did say this was going to be a game to experiment; I don't understand his rationale for this either. But, the press should not have to "rip" into him. The man has set a major record in Greek football, and deserves some admiration.

As for Samaras, that is very common in a 4-4-2, to bring in a striker into the mf. Why he chose Tziolis, you ask?? Because his performance was poor tonight; why keep him in??

Needless to say, Otto is a very cautious man. Because the score was so close, he seemed wary to experiment...there will be plenty of time for that over the next 6 months.

[loup]

Otto is terrible - our team is terrible - we should not even send a team to EURO

Did we not just WIN again with a B with our 5th CB - and a makeshift defence- team, on the road

Did we not just finish #1 in qualifying - do non of you remember the pre-Otto days - what was the big accomplishment then? USA '92? We qualified because Yougoslavia was tossed out of the tournament

What exactly would make you people happy? No goals allowed?

ENJOY THIS RIDE BOYS BECAUSE IT WILL NOT LAST FOREVER

:gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: Ellas a number 1 seed in WC qualifying

:gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: Ellas a number 1 seed in EURO

:gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: Ellas number 1 qualifier in Europe - not the Dutch not the English not the Italians not the Germans - but Ellas - :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr: :gr:

LOVING IT

[GreekLunatic]

Kapsis should announce his retirement now. Also how does Vydra get a game for Greece. if otto wanted to experiment he should have got some young players in the squad. We have had a successful campagain with most points of any teams. Also we have qualified for the Euro and the poms havent so suffer to them.

[NikosVazelas]

people are way to critical.

First off. you are all WAY wrong about Salpi. On the first goal, he was the player going for the takounaki pass from TZIOLIS,yes Tziolis, which the hungarian defender then headed into his own net. Pressure from salpi.

and, ummmmm, helloooooooooooo but the second goal was because of salpi, and of course a beautiful dive by gekas. katsouranis crossed the ball through the midfield and salpis header into open field sprung gekas into a tete a tete. it wasnt a straight through ball from katsouranis.

And watch the game again and count the number of times that salpi was hustling back to defend a right side guarded by vyntra. Salpi`s defensively backchecking, if u wish was unbelievable. which is the reason otto subbed gekas instead of salpi for amanitidis. how u guys gave gekas a better rating t hen salpi is beyond me. just because he doesnt score, doesnt mean he had a bad game. gekas was invisible all game long. he wa slower then usual and this from a player that has played with these guys many games before. This was salpi`s third start in 12 euro games.

Salpi-7 for his defensive prowess as a CF and being involved in both goals.

5.5-Patsa on the other hand had a HORRIBLE first half but redeemed himself in the second half where he pushed up a bit and helped cut down balls all half long

4-Gekas who did nothing but win a penalty on a dive.

6-Kara who also had a bad first half ut stepped it up in the second half and helped alot defensively.

6- basinas wasnt as good as he has been recently in spite of scoring a big penalty kick.

6- Tziolis helped create the first goal but was a bit weak on the marking along with patsa on hungary`s goal.

5-kapsis. He had no business out there.

5.5 Katsouranis playing in a position he rarely has played.

7-Kyrgiakos- was solid on D even though he was practically alone.

6-vyntra who didnt really make any mistakes, at least according to what we are used to, but was horrible every time he pushed forward.

7-Chalkias was good as long as he was in and can not be faulted on the goal but his injury worries me for ARIS.

7-Nikopolidis was ok but lucky on a few chances by hungary.

6-samaras came on and didnt really light it up but did help with his height in set plays in our zone.

amanitidis didnt really do anythign in the time he was on.

the most imoportant rathing is a 4 on effort but a 10 on total effort throughout this tournament which saw us first in our group and europe with 31 points and undefeated on the road.

[NikosVazelas]

anothe thing is with England losing, this means they fall ionto the 2nd pot for the wcq which means they can be a potential opponent for greece. i hope we get scotland instead but who cares as we avoid italy germany holland etc.

[as5664]

greece didn't deserve the 3 points today...chalkias and in 1 instance, nikopolidis saved the match. people from europe watched today and they shake their heads at how this side is the euro champ.

Man, I'm sorry, but you are WAY too critical. How are we Euro champs?? With 11 wins and 31 points, that is how. That should be enough for the rest of Europe to shut their mouths. Who are we expecting to impress?? France who lost 2x to Scotland, or England -- and the rest of the continent --who failed to even qualifty? <_<

The fact is, we didn't need to give 100%, especially against a team like Hungary; and that is more than justified by the fact the we did not give 100% and still took the 3 pts. If it we didn't get the penalty, I'm sure we would have found a goal somewhere. So why not cut the team a little slack? If we do play like this in Euro 2008, we should expect to be massacred, no doubt about it. But I seriously doubt Otto will allow that to happen.

Kapsis probably played because he will retire and wanted a last match; I doubt we will see him this summer. As for Spyropoulos, Otto did say this was going to be a game to experiment; I don't understand his rationale for this either. But, the press should not have to "rip" into him. The man has set a major record in Greek football, and deserves some admiration.

As for Samaras, that is very common in a 4-4-2, to bring in a striker into the mf. Why he chose Tziolis, you ask?? Because his performance was poor tonight; why keep him in??

Needless to say, Otto is a very cautious man. Because the score was so close, he seemed wary to experiment...there will be plenty of time for that over the next 6 months.

you have every right to your opinion(s)...i'm just kind of wondering what you base them on. i don't think i'm being unfair, i explain in detail why i criticize or praise.

1) you say that greece didn't give 100% and still got the 3 points. as the greece manager, would you be happy with your players not giving 100%? when a team doesn't give 100%, they deserve to be cut slack?

2) you're sure greece would have found a goal. ok, from where? we already had an auto-goal and a penalty. 90 minutes were played and hungary had more clear cut chances, in my opinion.

3) you claim that if we play this way, we'll get massacared at the euro. i agree with this 100%. do you think we played this way because of the formation & tactics, or, because the players didn't give 100%?

4) you say kapsis played because he will retire and wanted a last match. i don't understand this...is otto the manager of greece or the manager of a union side and seniority demands playing time? does a last match and a gold watch mean more than a nation preparing for a major tournament?

5) you say greece played a 4-4-2. can you please tell me who were the midfielders and where they played in the midfield. i'm curious as to who the left and right midfielders were, running up and down the touchlines crossing the ball.

6) yes, otto has made his own history. yet, he is not above criticism, especially if it is deserved and explained. remember, he's been fired before from other clubs for various reasons. he's not infallible.

I base my opinion on the results of tonight's match, our qualification as a whole, and the circumstances of our group.

First, it is VERY difficult to give 100% when you have qualified and are playing 2 minnow teams for nothing (wc qualification aside). The fact that they put any effort at all and still won both matches --especially tonight's away game to a team desperate to avoid humiliation--was, for me, quite astonishing.

Second, I did not say you don't have a "right" to your opinion; but, when you say things like "Europeans wondering how we are champions," or Otto should be "railed" by the media for this or that reason, it's somewhat curious, and, even insulting.

Like loup said above, we have gone so far since Otto! It would have been unimaginable before Otto that we would qualify for a major tournament, not only top in our group, but top in Europe. And still we are disappointed? You don't have to be happy, but to be disappointed??? This guy has done wonders, and you say the media should rail into him??

In my opinion, they should let the man do his job.

Do you realize that we have 10 wins (+1 tie) and 32 points, and have only conceded 8 goals?? And please don't say how this was an easy group, blah, blah, blah. There are no such things as easy groups anymore. All of the big guns struggled against "easy teams".

As for Kapsis: like you said, OTTO is the manager of the team. Period. Not you or I, nor the media. Whatever his reasons, that is it. We can speculate all we want, who knows why. Regardless, did Kapsis in the back bring the doomsday everyone imagined??

Whenever it was detrimental to our team, Otto has done the right thing, so why bash the guy? Kapsis hasn't played since Malta in March!

If our players get treated like dog sh__t (i.e. play every game 100% or get bashed and sidelined, like they do in England), I doubt that any player would put in ANY effort in. As for tactics, what do you want? When we are in Europe and have lost every match like in USA 94 with 0 goals, then I will say we need drastic changes. Until then, I will be satisfied. :gr:

[as5664]

anothe thing is with England losing, this means they fall ionto the 2nd pot for the wcq which means they can be a potential opponent for greece. i hope we get scotland instead but who cares as we avoid italy germany holland etc.

Maybe we might make 10th place, since Croatia lost against Skopje, Netherlands lost today, Germany tied with Wales, Portugal tied, and England lost 2x. They will drop in the rankings (except for Croatia, who won't get too many points), possibly pushing us up (we have 3 wins since the last ranking).

3 1 Italy 1387 -2 -101

4 2 France 1271 2 51

5 3 Germany 1245 -1 -85

6 4 Spain 1226 1 48

7 5 Netherlands 1207 -2 -39

8 6 Portugal 1203 0 34

9 7 Czech Republic 1174 2 92

10 8 Croatia 1155 0 4

11 9 England 1137 -2 -28

12 10 Romania 1086 0 49

13 11 Scotland 1049 1 24

14 12 Greece 1034 1 94

16 13 Russia 960 10 109

20 14 Poland 837 -4 -89

21 15 Norway 830 8 67

22 16 Ukraine 828 -5 -72

24 17 Sweden 821 -4 -67

27 18 Serbia 786 -5 -91

28 19 Turkey 771 -7 -112

29 20 Denmark 769 -1 -25

32 21 Republic of Ireland 722 0 -11

34 22 Bulgaria 717 1 -10

36 23 Northern Ireland 716 0 9

37 24 Israel 707 -4 -25

41 25 Switzerland 676 1 -7

44 26 Finland 667 0 -11

48 27 Hungary 630 7 86

48 28 Bosnia-Herzegovina 630 -9 -56

50 29 Slovakia 600 -4 -63

54 30 Belgium 577 6 68

57 31 Cyprus 556 11 104

58 32 Wales 521 -5 -30

61 33 Moldova 497 20 84

70 34 Albania 455 8 35

71 35 Georgia 447 33 120

75 36 FYR Macedonia 423 -8 -32

76 37 Slovenia 422 -1 -7

79 38 Iceland 410 1 -4

82 39 Armenia 400 5 7

86 40 Latvia 386 8 22

88 41 Austria 382 -3 -13

90 42 Lithuania 380 -6 -18

94 43 Belarus 358 -24 -87

116 44 Azerbaijan 279 -1 -8

119 45 Liechtenstein 262 23 96

122 46 Kazakhstan 249 -2 -10

130 47 Estonia 211 -3 -27

137 48 Malta 196 -13 -54

150 49 Luxembourg 132 26 88

171 50 Montenegro 65 15 44

173 51 Andorra 61 -4 1

194 52 Faroe Islands 12 -1 -5

196 53 San Marino 6 0 0

Prev. rank (Sep 2007)SearchConfederations

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[NikosVazelas]

he was still the one being covered on the goal instead of standing around the box waiting for the ball to come to him which is gekas way of playing in todays game.

and on the second goal it was a flick header by salpi.

[as5664]

Actually, it was a header from their defender. But go to goal4replay and watch Gekas after the ball goes into the net! Hilarious!!! :LOL:

[AEK-MTL]

I think what some of you have to realize here is that the expectation for Greece has risen from the pre-Otto days. Those people who say that "just imagine how things were before Otto" and "we should be happy we qualified and got first in our group" are not properly evaluating the team. Just because some of us may criticize the team, doesn't mean we don't support them or cheer them on or appreciate what they've accomplished. 10 wins, 1 draw, and 1 defeat is an excellent accomplishment but you know what, we're European Champions! These sorts of accomplishments are now expected, especially considering how weak our group was. What's more, you have to look deeper than just the scoreline or the stats if you want to evaluate a team and its coach.

Throughout this campaign, I've watched Greece play both good and sloppy games. I've watched them play more offensive, with better passing, and more clinical finishing than I've ever seen from them. But I've also watched them give up HUGE chances and making schoolboy errors against teams that are weaker than us. This is worrying for Euro 2008. My only hope is that the players will raise their games against the big boys and tighten up defensively because if not, all this talk about "being first in our group" and "scoring the most points out of any team in qualifying" will be for nothing. In Otto we Trust! :gr:

[as5664]

2aek 66: Back when 8 teams qualified there were not so many teams involved...how could we have only eight teams qualify since after the fall of the Socialist block??? What should it be, groups of 15 and only 1 qualify of each???

I don't get it, you think we have had it easy???

Besides, the point is moot; we can discuss what if all night, but the competition is as it is. And I am not saying Otto does this or that therefore it must be right. I am merely saying your disappointment is unwarranted. You don't have to be happy; but, to be disappointed? You actually feel we are fools in Europe???

And I'm not going to answer your questions, because (1) I don't know how to cut and paste individual quotes; and (2) you ask them in a way to give you the answer you want.

Today was a match against Hungary in a qualifier we already clinched. How can you expect them to begin preparing from now??? Let them relax and clear their minds a little. Sheesh, even Otto gave them Sunday off.

Honestly, I think a lot of people hope we are unsuccesfull this summer(as in the past), so they can point their finger and celebrate how they were right all along. Unfortunately for them, Otto has consistently proven them wrong.