Estonia vs. Greece (10 October 2016, A Le Coq Arena, Tallinn)

[georgelaz]

staf is winning me over. I remember in 2012 holebas was a huge liability and most of us weren't fans.

he won us over world cup 2014

staf is also 22, and holebas is 32. so he can surpass him. not as devasting when you think about it. would've loved to see tachtsi thrugh balls to a bombing holebas on the left flank tho

 

 

funny how the commentary is greek

Edited October 12, 2016 by georgelaz

[J1078]

On 2016-10-10 at 4:07 PM, The Taxman said:

T

[J1078]

If we play like they way we played against Estonia against Bosnia we will lose, yes we were missing some very key players but we didn't play all that well against Cyprus either. If Bosnia pressure us like Estonia did they will definitely score as they have way better finishers. 

[Rockafeller Skank]

2 hours ago, Amorgos said:

100% correct @J1078

 

Well I agree with both of u but we got only pressured for 10 minutes after the subs happened, while we were literally devastated pschologically, and after 2-0 , when they had nothing to lose, just went all in and we closed up in defence. We re good at that. And yet after 30 minutes of pure pressurethey had like 2 good chances?
Bosnian defence is equal to the Estonian one in my opinion. If they pressure too much but without success, we might bring ourselves up to punish them.

Really hope the Stadium will be full.

[Rockafeller Skank]

I really believe there is a big chance that this is all to seek attention, high chances Holebas comes back to the NT soon, maybe not next game but the game after that.

[ausgreek]

Based on social media, Cholevas has retired from the Pirates. Stafilia is the new Cholevas now.

[J1078]

2 hours ago, Rockafeller Skank said:

 

Well I agree with both of u but we got only pressured for 10 minutes after the subs happened, while we were literally devastated pschologically, and after 2-0 , when they had nothing to lose, just went all in and we closed up in defence. We re good at that. And yet after 30 minutes of pure pressurethey had like 2 good chances?
Bosnian defence is equal to the Estonian one in my opinion. If they pressure too much but without success, we might bring ourselves up to punish them.

Really hope the Stadium will be full.

I agree, we really need the stadium to be full and loud as this is our World Cup game, we need the Greek fans to come out and rock the s%$#! out of the stadium as we need this win more then than anything. 

Edited October 12, 2016 by J1078
Not finished

[Dean97]

Papadopoulos is so essential to the team, I don't care if he plays RB, DM, CB or even ST, put him in there. He will give you 100%. If every player has his mindset we would be smashing everyone. He has the passion, he has the drive and energy and he does it for his country. I'm thinking way ahead of myself but if we want to do well in the World Cup in 2018 he must be in the starting 11.

[Akritis_1944]

On 12/10/2016 at 11:07 AM, Rockafeller Skank said:

After some thought about it I ve came to some random conclusions:
*Everyone b!tching about how poor we played after 2 starters already missing and 2 more comming on the way is completely retarded.

*Everyone b!tching about no good offensive progression without Frtounis is completely retarded. He is way more talented than Mantalos and Bakasetas apparently, and his loss was crucial. Mantalos is also very good but I really rate Fortounis a lot higher than him. His pressing on the Right Flank is remarkable and needs a spot in the starting X1.

*Everyone crying about why Bakasetas is played as a winger/wide AM and not Karelis just needs to watch this match to understand why. Karelis highlights: try to dribble past 1-2 guys and fail, some soft shots on the keeper, giving his hands to the Estonians after final blow. I like Bakasetas LW for only one thing, and that is: We know our Left flank is kinda bad defensively, even Holebas was no Defence god, Stafylidis and Tzavellas are also not that great. Bakasetas runs his bum up and down defending and then helping offence again. Guy is not very fast but his physical is enough. He is the Seba of our NT. And against Belgium/Bosnia, we re gonna need that extra man defending. -> Dont get me wrong, I rate Karelis as a CF, but only as that.

*Did anyone look at that Wasiljev guy's hair? WTF man this is not 1980 no more.

*Kyriakos as a RB is a MUST-NOT-HAPPEN-AGAIN. Forgot himself up front too much. That header should ve gone in mate.

*I posted this before as well but here I go again: Stafylidis is Estonian daddy. All you h8ers go pray for ex-Paok Winger.

*I honestly don't understand how people blame Tachtsidis. He did some remarkable stuff and most importantly keep the midfield not be a κέντρο διερχομένων. Did some really smart stuff throughout the game that seemed retarded for one simple reason: noone could read his mind. It is obvious that this player has not trained with this team and they don't know him well enough. Liked the fact that he tried with high through balls at first, but after watching how slow our attackers were he adapted to the team. Really seems like a situation where an unknown guy is brought to play to your 8x8 team because someone found a gf and there is no time for him to play.

*Stop praising Karnezis for existing. I mean ok he stopped everything vs both Cyprus and Estonia, he is not a keeper to let a cheap goal come on. He is very talented, good Keeper (kinda problematic with penalties), but all the shots that were made on target were literally comming on him. This is in both matches. Also secure with his feet. After I saw Panayi of Cyprus I really felt some relief that we have Karnezis and Kapinos.

* Cyprus you could ve done better. That -2 points would keep Bosnians 5 points behind us before the clash. Now if that ain't displeasent for them , I don't know what is.

*Holebas Idgaf(i dont give a fak-for you old people) if he used the NT for fame and contracts. He was and is our best LB and played at his full potential.Proved to care despite eveyrone saying otherwise. And Skibbe mistreated him. That's on the coach.
HOWEVER, had he stayed and there indeed existed a problem, that would mean the changing rooms would be lost and the team would return to the EURO16 path. On the one side, problematic behaviour players leaving (and willingly) is a bonus. But our other options are far inferior.

*That translater after the match taking an interview from Skibbe. WTF man, why dont we find someone who knows about football?I mean ok that's really nothing serious but EPO seems full of trolls.

*I honestly believe we are going to qualify for the play offs at least. Bosnia seems troubled. A player stated that"If we played like we played today(vs Cyp) in Greece we will take a result". Another player stated some minutes later "If we play like we played today(vs Cyp) in Greece we are going to have problems". Even they dont know if they played good or bad. So I guess its not just us. Its the whole Group's thing.
If we go to the WC depends on who we meet.

I agree with everything you said. 

Especially about Vasilijev's head and not just his hair. He has the look of a younger John C. Reilly (the actor). He looks like my 8eio. What up with that?!?

[Makynia]

2 hours ago, Akritis_1944 said:

We've scored 8 goals from three games so far and I believe we had 7 total for Euro qualifying. 4 vs Hungary!!! 

 

Edited October 13, 2016 by Makynia

[Dean97]

Reaper where can I find replays of full matches of the Ethniki?

[Dean97]

Do you have to pay or anything?

[Dean97]

Alright thanks.

[georgelaz]

haha ellas you always have the most positive mind set on things! that's a crazy stat. we beat everyone by at least 2 goals too. might be one of our greatest starts stats wise.

[J1078]

Guys its great we won but please guys let's not forget who we beat. Playing the way we've played in all 3 games if we were to start against Bosnia, Belgium and Gibraltor then We would be 1 wins 2 losses, we have no chemistry no fluidity, our coverage is poor our passing is even worse, no one is asking for this team to turn into Germany we just believe we can play better and cleaner football. Everyone in my mind was poor in the Estonia game, some guys worse then others. I pray These guys are ready for Bosnia and Skibbe which I have no faith in makes the right selections for once. 

[georgelaz]

we have slight wiggle room with bosnia. on paper we are in much better shape. belgium we have to make all the right moves and have some lady luck.

we need kpaps, manolas, sokratis at the back at the same time for the above two no doubt.

[Chris Tsamados]

I just hope we can have all our players fit and injury free for the Bosnia game! Our players seem to be so fragile. 

[Brklyngrk]

The thing is we are moving in the right direction.  We haven't played our best but got the results.  This was a trademark of the ethniki for the past 16 years which went missing during the last campaign.  I am sure when the quality of the competition increases, so will our play.  Generally, against teams which we are deemed to be better than, we tend to struggle more as we are expected to be the primary attacking team which is not in our dna.  Against the Netherlands, we pressed more and played a lot more crisper.  One can argue that it wasn't their best team, but they still were ahead of the three teams we played. Winning builds confidence.  Our goal was to win 3 out of 3 and we accomplished that. 

[J1078]

^i also tend to agree that we don't play well against the weaker teams and we tend to play down to our competition, hopefully against Bosnia the players step up and play there asses off. I feel like Greece has always played better when they're considered the underdog, but for some reason when they tend to be the favorites going into a game they don't play well, I'm really hoping this is the case for our poor play lately and the NT comes up huge in the big games against Bosnia and Belgium. One of the reasons I believe we didn't play well besides the obvious in the Euro qualifier is that we went in there excepting to jsut dominate the the group and thought it was going to be a breeze and that reflected in our play, and once 3-4 games settled in with losses it was such a shock and we couldn't turn it around. The Bosnia game is absoloutley crucial to get a win as that would put to 12 points to there 6 with some breathing room. We cannot lose this game under any circumstances if we want  to control our own destiny for the WC.

[Rockafeller Skank]

15 hours ago, ELLAS75 said:

Hopefully the injured guys can play vs Bosnia if they do I can see us getting a win. The team will rise up to the opportunity, as others have said they play down to the weaker teams level most of the time. For me I watched Bosnia vs Belgium and vs Cyprus and there defending is very lax. We will get a few chances to bank a few goals,we just have to put them away. 

Their coach has already said that they are (only) aiming for 2nd spot. To do that they needed wins against minors Estonia/Cyprus so a lax defence is somewhat expected. Belgium is Belgium, they dont have the defensive talent to actually stop them. 
If they really are aiming for 2nd spot, a draw here and a win at Bosnia secures it for them. So we might not see so lax defence from their side.

On the other hand , our good defence can actually steal a point or two from Belgium, something that Bosnians probably can't do. If we win Bosnia at home and manage to draw Belgium orBosnia in our away games they ll be left too far behind.This means we need at least 4 points in our upcomming 4 matches. This is the only possible route to come out as 2nd in my opinion, as I doubt Bosnians will drop points to Gibraltar/Estonia/Cyprus.

Once again I hope Cyprus gives us the 3pointer if that is the occasion.

Edited October 15, 2016 by Rockafeller Skank

[J1078]

8 hours ago, tantra129 said:

i think we will finish first, but i don't like what skibbe is doing nor the way the team is playing

You think we will finish ahead of Belgium? Are you serious? Our only chance to the World Cup is through 2nd place and a playoff. Belgium has first locked up.

Edited October 16, 2016 by J1078

[Chriskiato]

This is my take on our campaign so far.

Skibby is purposely starting a defensive line up and has every intention of turning to attack when he needs too, Whats happening is we are scoring early and therefore no need to use players such as Holebas (sharme that he retired) Gianotas who are wingers. It makes sense to hold on to the lead with the players you have. The Otto days are here again.

 

Secondly I seriously underrated Mandalos. He is glueing the team together. We no longer have those ugly gaps between defence and attack and run around like headless chickens.. He is a rock and gives our team calmness, stability and direction. His skill is also spectacular. So much control and composure. It inspires the team in my opinion.

I am happy so far but things can change quickly...

 

Edited October 17, 2016 by Chriskiato

[Nikod]

On 10/16/2016 at 11:03 PM, Chriskiato said:

This is my take on our campaign so far.

Skibby is purposely starting a defensive line up and has every intention of turning to attack when he needs too, Whats happening is we are scoring early and therefore no need to use players such as Holebas (sharme that he retired) Gianotas who are wingers. It makes sense to hold on to the lead with the players you have. The Otto days are here again.

 

Secondly I seriously underrated Mandalos. He is glueing the team together. We no longer have those ugly gaps between defence and attack and run around like headless chickens.. He is a rock and gives our team calmness, stability and direction. His skill is also spectacular. So much control and composure. It inspires the team in my opinion.

I am happy so far but things can change quickly...

 

Mantalos is class. He and Fortounis will be the keys to any success this team has over the next 4-6 years.

[Chriskiato]

Agreed.  The partnership works very well. Mantalos has succeded Basinas and Fotakis IMO. They provided composure and stability to the team. Mantalos is doing the same.

[Dean97]

Fortounis is more vital to the team than Mantalos. But Mantalos is needed in the team.