Gibraltar V Greece: 6 September 2016 World Cup Qualifier Estádio Algarve ( Portugal )

[Dikefale11]

21 minutes ago, PAOKSWEDEN said:

This win won't have any importance if Gibraltar finishes last. The results against the teams that finish last in the groups with six teams get taken away in the end. That means a 1-0 win over Estonia will be more important than today's result AND that it won't matter how many goals the other teams score against Gibraltar.

All groups have 6 teams.

[Giourkas]

We should of scored 3 more and our D worries the s%$#! out of me...

we looked exposed at times and the thought of playing stronger teams scares me...

mitroglou had a great day. Beautiful goal and assist on the Fourtounis goal..

[Rockafeller Skank]

I think the reason this defence fcked up so much is because they had in their minds to play the quick pass to the offence. I repeat a previous post of mine. We played with 2 on the back, Tzavellas and Torosidis very much up front. It was obvious to have a few shots from even such a team. Samaris same thing. Made lots of mistakes because he was trying to hurry and passs. I still believe if we played calmly, we'd  make more chances. 

This whole calm thing happened at the 2nd half but, a few super saves from their fireman GK, a few Vellios selfish shots and a few(acutally a many) Tzavellas bad crosses didn't end up in a goal.

I would love to see this exact system with 3 changes in total.

Karnezis

Toro Manolas Sokratis Holebas(Even Stafylidis man,Even stafylidis gonna be better than this s%$#! we saw today)

Samaris Petsos/Tachtsidis (if they get playtime in their clubs, becuase Maniatis aint even getting training)

Mantalos Fortounis Gianniotas

Mitroglou

 

Yes I know Mantalos isnt good as a winger but he was very active and I still believe that we need to have them both him and Fortounis in our lineup. They are our only offensive hope right now.

Vellios/Tziolis dont get a call up again. Tzavellas meh I dont care. He was very decent vs Holland might be a bad game.

[GreekLunatic]

How much say does tsanas get in the call ups cause he seems like a snitch

[Antaeus7]

On 9/6/2016 at 3:50 PM, PAOKSWEDEN said:

This win won't have any importance if Gibraltar finishes last. The results against the teams that finish last in the groups with six teams get taken away in the end. That means a 1-0 win over Estonia will be more important than today's result AND that it won't matter how many goals the other teams score against Gibraltar.

That rule doesn't apply anymore. All teams in each group have 6, which it evens it out. 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Molon Lave

[Akritis_1944]

I'm not that fussed.

Take the win. Learn from it and then stop dwelling too much. 

On a night where Belarus drew France 0-0, Bulgaria at home scraped Luxembourg, our old Killers Faroes drawing against Hungary and super coach Santos' Euro Champs lost away 2-0 to Switzerland let's agree we we should have scored 5 more in the second half.

[Antaeus7]

I bet Greece will not play like that again when they face Cyprus and Estonia. Those teams will punish us good if Greece bull**** around. 

[J1078]

^Regardless if the rule applies or not we CANNOT compete in goal scoring with the likes of Bosnia and Belgium. We will NOT out score those teams. The only way Greece goes to a playoff is by be getting more points then either Belgium or Bosnia which will most likely require a win over one of these teams. If it has to come down to goal differential then Greece has NO CHANCE to qualify.  When did we become one of the worst teams defensively? We can't shut out teams at all and this is a huge problem. Gibraltor against good teams barely register one shot on goal yet alone score and then create 3 or 4 more dangerous scoring chances. That's a bigger problem then only scoring 4.

[Stratos9]

At times they looked good, but also a bit one dimensional in attack. Nearly every attacking play was down to the winger to put the cross in, nothing came from in the middle where Gibraltar looked pretty exposed. We should take the points and focus on the next game, after the last campaign the real objective was not to embarrass ourselves in the first game. On a side note, Vellios is completely out of his depth. I'm not sure what he brings to the team, he's slow, his touch is off, he can't hold up the ball and his link up play is atrocious.

[skinny]

Great result. Yeah Gibraltar could have scored 3 more. I hear you wieners.

 

We could have and should have scored 5 more. Fact is we scored 4 goals. we usually score 1 against weak teams.

we just need to build on this.   phil watched the game.

[Polikastano]

Nothing surprises me anymore. We lose twice to Faroe Islands and now Gibraltar scored a goal on us.   You guys understand that all of Gibraltars players have other jobs , the goalie is a fireman !!!!

We will finish third in this group, no chance of us beating Bosnia.

[J1078]

The only smart move was Giannatos coming on which I think he should have started to begin with, the kid deserved the shot after the Netherlands game. Horrible decision to have Tziolos come in. We new the game was won when we were up 4-1 so why not add more fire power like Karelis and Holebas? instead a useless Vellios comes in. The thought process of Skibbe really doesn't make sense with those selections. Samaris needs to get his s%$#! together and clean his act up as he looked horrible at times.  

[Akritis_1944]

Amorgos, it's about putting it into perspective. 

I watched the press conference the day before the match with Skibbe and Toro and this well spoken Gibraltar journalist asked Skibbe if he felt that this match was a lose/lose.

We win the match but then all the "experts" say yeah of course, but these guys are just students and Street sweepers etc and you only scored 4 and conceded!!!

In retrospect the Gibraltan was very prophetic with his question. 

We won, but to some people we lost because we conceded a goal and didn't bang in another 8. Then we get the posters who want to turn Bosnia into 'Brazil 1982' and apparently we will finish behind them in qualifying bla bla bla.

Let's just pause and recall that last qualification campaign we were losing to Faroe fishermen and Hungary couldn't score on these very trawlerman last night!

So does the team need to improve? Absolutely.

Does Skibbe need to consider dropping certain players and look at players who have been performing? Yes, again absolutely.

Let Bosnia think they'll beat us. They bombed out in Euro qualifying too so let's not wish we were them. Also for those pining for Santos' return, I reckon he doesn't even last the qualifiers.

[georgelaz]

mitroglou is on a mission haha very happy about this win

the mykonos vacay did him wonders! :P

Edited September 7, 2016 by georgelaz

[ausgreek]

In a month's time then, Taxi, Kitsiou and Lazaros come in and Tzioli, Tzavella and Vellios go out. Is that a fair assessment? Samaris has to mature in his deep lying position as well.

[George]

Am I the only one who hasn't been impressed with Gianniotas? Terrible decision maker. 

[nasl]

we take the 3 points and move on.

Nice that we have won 3 in a row , but still alot of hard work to be done to move forward.

Also i have nothing against Velios but with karelis available , i also think he makes more sense.

My last point is , is there any reason Ninis or Fetfatzidis cant aleast sit on the bench  as these

guys have the ability to take the ball and control it and frustrate the opponents a bit.

 

[Akritis_1944]

If anyone fears the Bosnians go and watch the match or the highlights. They scored from 2 corners. A non-existant penalty on Dzeko where his own teammate played on because it wasn't a penalty and the other 2 goals from a combination of poor keeping and amateur defending.

Now I know it's not 2004 and we are seriously dire at times at defending but Bosnia aren't getting gifts like that from us nor Cyprus.

I fear the attack and possession of Belgium but there's time to improve provided Skibbe picks the best players.

Karelis would have been perfect as a sub a against Gibraltar. Let's see if Vellios, Tziolis and Maniatis continue in this team.

[RED SHERIFF]

vellios was a total disaster..He Papazoglou and Aussie Giannou are all very similar...all very poor..

 

we have mitro...Klaus..karelis...as strikers...we then go down to Diamantakos, Ioannidis, vergos....there are no other options..

 

that was a very painful match to watch....especially at 445am..on an old computer with a slow stream..

please tell me it was my computers fault.....please tell me we were not that dreadful..

[Rockafeller Skank]

3 hours ago, aek66 said:

what happened to all those ok with tzavellas? just the other day i said xolebas should be the LB and that tzavellas is expendable. now, tzavellas and maniatis suck? what have we been saying about samaris? inconsistent.

 

the side should be building continuity with better footballers, which is gold in intl. football. instead...we screw around with maniatis and tziolis and bakasetas. 

 

again, why did skibbe call 5 CFs, when we only play with 1 CF in the scheme? we can do better and we post on an internet football forum.

 

Im here. I was ok with tzavellas. my comment was "He was very decent with the fast Holland wingers so he might just had a bad game.

[Rockafeller Skank]

3 hours ago, aek66 said:

 

again, why did skibbe call 5 CFs, when we only play with 1 CF in the scheme? we can do better and we post on an internet football forum.

He obviously doesnt consider Bakasetas a CF, he considers him a with 10.

He obviously doesnt consider Diamantakos a CF, he considers him a winger, like he played him against Austr.

[Rockafeller Skank]

Ok here comes  the long post analysis from Skank:

I will not rate our defence. We can't rate it because it's simple. We played a 2-2-2-3-1 system with Torosidis and Tzavellas higher than Samaris and Maniatis most of the time.

I won't even rate the mistake passes of Sokratis and Samaris. The team was anxious as fukc. Anyone not understanding it needs to check the first minutes again. Skibbe wants the fast pass, something that Greece never had, but he is good to demand it. This is 2016 boys, we can't be playing the 2004 version of football, it's outdated.

So, why did so many mistaken passes happen from defensive players? Because they were trying to make a super fast transition from defence to offence to πιάσουν the Gibraltar guys sleeping.  But even with 2 defenders, our defence could handle it most of the time, with only 1 good attempt on target (the goal scoring is a personal misake of Tzavellas I don't rate it as a defensive error i ll mention it later).

Would these players (Sokratis,Samaris) be more causious when having clearly defensive duties and be aware that their opponent is a PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER? I think yes, but I could just be optimistic.

We did 21 total attempts with 9 on target. Can we say we were kinda unlucky as well, with some good saves from a keeper who "shouldn't have done that on his level". I think yes, but I could just be optimistic.

Mantalos, Fortounis, Mitroglou seem to be working as a triplet. I like Gianniotas as well, and I think he has what it takes to be a starter instead of Bakasetas. Skibbe saw bakasetas against Australia as we,, he did nothing. Gianniotas ran his asss up. Gianniotas played 20 minutes while Bakasetas played 90. Gianniotas highlights are far more than Bakasetas, I think Skibbe, although not accepting it publicly, saw the Gibraltar match as another opportunity to test some stuff like Bakasetas Winger/10 , Mandalos Winger/10 and Tzavellas, but I could just be optimistic. Lets hope he realised this Gianniotas kid needs to start and this Bakasetas boy needs to show big character in derbyes this year in order to be called again. The whole "try-out" thing is obvious because one of our best players since he started joining the NT , Holebas, didn't play either. Which could mean Skibbe was still testing.

Karelis, our second in form striker and Diamantakos , a guy who I can't judge because he is playing in the 2nd German League , have both scored this year. And instead we see Vellios instead. I think this is another Skibbe's test. But really , couldn't score vs Aus, couldn't score vs Neds, couldn't score vs Gibraltar. Fck this man Vellios and Bakasetas are on the same group. They both seemed extremely selfish at some point but Especially Bakasetas seemed off game. Vellios wasn't he greedy could have ended up in 1-2 more goals. Either they don't get picked/called/played again unless EVERYONE ELSE is injured and we see some football, or I could just be optimistic.

Tzavellas. This ugy needs a whole paragraph for himself. He is getting older, he is getting used to being a Centerback. He is getting tired. His plays were mostly bad. Especially after 70 when he was climbing up front all the time, I saw like 5 or 6 crosses for Gianniotas end up in a Gibraltar Centerback. What was he trying to do? Injure them from headers so we play versus 10? Bad overall, The goal was a personal mistake of his, just like Cholevas personal handball cost us our first match with Romania 2-3 years ago. However, the guy had an excellent match versus Netherlands. That can't and won't go away from Skibbe's mind. It could be a bad game. It could be anxiety. It could be that  chasing down the hollish sonic heroes tired him too much. I don't know. I don't think we have anyone else anyways and since he can play both CB and LB he probably will be picked. I believe he can have better games, or I could just be optimistic (too optimistic for this guy to be honest).

Tziolis, the fact that he was picked and played to get the buyers interest was too obvious. We were winning 1-4 what could go wrong. Maniatis didn't show much more yesterday so why don't sub a mediocre guy for another mediocre. Maniatis on the other hand seems totally exhausted, probably anxious about not finding a team as well. It's gotten into him as well. I don't know maybe he got called for the same reason. Tziolis - I don't think he ll be blown the f*ck away from the NT. Simply because he has a vusma. I just hope he doesn't cost us much. To be honest he is not bad defensively. He is a strongand a big guy which helps in set pieces. But the guy doesn't play ball. Can't create can't play fast can't use vision. The team has done well with off form players like Katsouranis, Lazaros, Kone quite a few times and I think a couple of subs in hte last minutes being Maniatis and Tziolis might not hurt, but will also not help either. Either that , or im just too optimistic.

 

So what I believe: The rest of the group's teams are better than Gibraltar, might give us the chance to play defensively, a part at which we are good at. Players like Gianniotas, Fortounis , Mandalos will prove golden in counterattacks. Having our mind in defence first, and then in offence, like we had under Fernando Santos, in one of our most productive football eras-resultwise- is what we need. I just hope Skibbe realises this as well.

And , I believe Skibbe made a mistake for the LB Position. Both Tzavellas and Stafylidis are not the best defenders. But since he wanted someone to climb up front, someone with fast returns and someone who can help set up a goal, why did he not pick the wingerback stafylidis, but he picked a guy who plays CB instead?

 

As for whoever is talking about Fetfatzidis recall. Look at this pic and tell me who the fatty is near Fuster:

http://www.sport24.gr/football/diethnes-podosfairo/antamwsan-meta-apo-xronia-foyster-kai-fetfatzidhs.4183893.html

 

Edited September 7, 2016 by Rockafeller Skank

[RED SHERIFF]

was this performance better than the 1-3 in Belfast 12 months ago?

from a footballing sense, given the caliber of the opposition?

 

My answer is no....

[Rockafeller Skank]

When did this team play football that makes sense? Defence is not football. We are good at anti football. And playing like we tried to play yesterday just doesnt suit us.

[kbxk508]

Ouch. I'll take the win, 4 goals and 3 points and worry about the next match. Positives for me was Mitro's goal plus 3 good minutes. Fortounis is a good player too. How Gibraltar didn't score a 2nd in the 2nd half was puzzling. Seemed harder to miss. With our world class defenders, we should never be conceding goals to Gibraltar, Estonia or Cyprus. Velios tried to rip the net when a simple pass to the corner would have had his name on the score sheet. Gibraltar's goalie made 4 decent saves in the 2nd half, which is 4 more than I expected.