Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Greece (9 June 2017- World Cup Qualifier- Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica)

[kosaca]

With the fact that we're now missing more players than you, I'm very sure Greece will take 3 pts. I have put 50 euros on it via betfair.

 

 

 

Good luck.

Edited June 4, 2017 by kosaca

[Rockafeller Skank]

I didnt say anywhere theri team is GSL level. Their midfielders apart from pjanic are no namers. Cimirot being a very good player for GSL doesnt delete the fact that he has been playing here for 2-3 seasons, and starter in Europe and had good games vs ajac as well, and so far no bigger team has shown any interest. 

Kolasinac, Dzeko, Ibisevic, Pjanic, Lulic would all be starters for Greece, but therest of their team is mediocre. That was my statement and I believeeven the Bosnian here is agreeing with me. Also , the fact that our b-c choice midfielders will be starters, doesnt erase the fact that their midfielders apart from Pjanic are nothing spectacular. You tried to imply these 2 things are related.

[kosaca]

The bookies still haven't responded to Bosnian injuries, I'd take advantage of the great odds while you can.

 

@Rockafeller Skank, I think that with full strength line ups we are slightly better on paper however your defence is 10 times better than ours. Sokratis, Manolas and Torosidis would start for Bosnia whereas I think Dzeko, Kolasinac, Besic, Ibisevic, Pjanic, Lulic and Begovic could potentially start for Greece. Right now you are in the advantage. 

[Rockafeller Skank]

4 minutes ago, kosaca said:

The bookies still haven't responded to Bosnian injuries, I'd take advantage of the great odds while you can.

 

@Rockafeller Skank, I think that with full strength line ups we are slightly better on paper however your defence is 10 times better than ours. Sokratis, Manolas and Torosidis would start for Bosnia whereas I think Dzeko, Kolasinac, Besic, Ibisevic, Pjanic, Lulic and Begovic could potentially start for Greece. Right now you are in the advantage. 

Pjanic Dzeko Kolasinac definately would.

Besic has not played in Everton so I am not aware if he contributes more than a middle table italian team's midfielder in Tachtsidis , Kyriakos Papadopoulos(can play DM as well) or Samaris.

Begovic I dont think so. Karnezis might only play for Udineze but hes been voted their best player for 2 or 3 seasons in a row. That for a Goalkeeper probably means something. Of course Begovic has had better contracts in heis career with bigger teams but oh well, Gollie can't do much without a decent defence.

[Dampyr]

Pjanić and Bešić are by far best Bosnian midfielders. Pjanić got injured in the game vs Real but still nobody knows how much really is he hurt. As for Bešić I said it, he was injured for half of the year, just returned in the last couple of weeks but only for Everton reserve squad.

As for others midfielders:

- Jajalo. N. team coach really likes him. Me too, he is a DM but can help in offense too. But Palermo was relagated to the Seria B and he wasn't even in the starting 11.

- Cimirot. N. team coach doesn't really like him given by how much playing time he gets. I would like to see him more on the pitch.

- Medunjanin. He is one of those: "They can pass, they can shoot (free kicks), they can dribble but they all are lazy, slow and defensive tasks are non existing for them".

 

As for our defence. We are for a long time forced to use Vranješ as RB even though he is a CB, we just lack decent RB. And now because Kolašinac is suspended, we will probably play Zukanović as LB, and he is also a CB. So yeah, as it seems we will play with four centre backs in our defence.

Who will play CB's? Probably two of those three:

- Šunjić. Same as Jajalo, Palermo was relagated to the Seria B and he wasn't even in the starting 11.

- Bičakić. Not in the starting 11 of  Hoffenheim.

- Cocalić. Plays for mediocre Belgium club. 

 

It would be suprise to see Đumić or Memišević in the starting 11, those two CB's just recently joined national team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2017 by Dampyr

[kosaca]

Good post @Dampyr, we really are a very limited team even though our fans like to pretend we are on the level of France or Germany. 

 

Greeks shouldn't be too worried. 

[J1078]

Our Midfield even when healthy is a below average midfield, Samaris is over rated and not nearly as good as some people think he is. Our attack on most days is non existent and if you take Mitroglou out of our line up I don't think we score on most days.

GOALTENDING - ADVANTAGE BOSNIA

DEFENSE - ADVATNAGE GREECE

MIDFIELD - ADVANTAGE BOSNIA

OFFENCE -ADVANTAGE BOSNIA

 

When both teams have there full roster imo.

 

[Rockafeller Skank]

Football is not about names though.

A bad player (Fellaini s an example) might do exactly what is needed and suits the team.

Greece defence if you check it is nothing more than Manolas and Sokratis. Our Fullbacks currently are nothing special defensively, Torosidis is smart and good offensively still got some pace left although hes getting old, but he never was such a good defender like Sokr or Manolas. 2 people cant keep a defence. Its the defensive mechanism and the mentality of the Greek players who can control the game tempo vs big teams that makes us so hard to score.

Even teams like Bosnia were unable to get in our goal area to score. They had many chances in Greece but most of them (if not all) were from outside the box, even the goal was from outside the box from a lucky free kick. Maybe Samaris seems to give nothing . I am actually aone of those who call him a "few times plays well - mostly makes terrible mistakes" type of guy, but maybe there is something he does that the camera cannot  catch. Maybe it is away from the ball, maybe it is a certain pass he can do. Tacthsidis the same. People flame him but he has been very good every time he plays, his through balls and long balls in free space can be usually utilized with Gianniotas and Stafylidis in my opinion, especially vs teams with defenses like bosnia and Cyprus, but the coach either isnt interested in such a gamestyle or finds a flaw in Gianniotas and he doesnt even sub him.

[E-M-I-R]

Just checked William hill, greece are now gone up to 5$ and 4$ draw no bet :) wtf is going on how many Greek players missing ? 

[kosaca]

Pjanic is 90% out. Fantastic news for Greece if true. It is as if you were to miss Sokratis & Manolas. By far the best player on our team + only CL finalist for 10 years. 

[E-M-I-R]

100$ on greece draw no bet so now it's a win win for me :) as for pjanic he will play 100% 

[RED SHERIFF]

clearly Bosnia's best player, however i believe you underestimate how poor our midfield really is....

Any combination of Tziolis, maniatis, Zeca, Siopis, Kourbelis  is comical for a game of this importance...., DM/CM role.

 

We do have Fortounis and Mandalos who are very good footballers  as attacking midfield options.

[kosaca]

6 minutes ago, E-M-I-R said:

100$ on greece draw no bet so now it's a win win for me :) as for pjanic he will play 100% 

I put 50 on already, might put another 50. Great odds IMO.

 

@RED SHERIFF, I don't know much about your midfield, that is true, but you have a lot of quality in defence and in attack. Fortounis has a great shot on him, Mitroglou is having a great season, but I don't know much about Mantalos or Gianniotas. 

[RED SHERIFF]

without a solid DM/CM it is difficult to take control of any game of football...and as brilliant as Pjanic is and he will be dearly missed, our CM/DM is not capable of really exploiting this.

 

Yes....Karnezis, Torosidis, Manolas, Sokratis, Fortounis, Mitroglou are very good footballers...that is only 6 players...a game like this will need 12/13 players to take the 3 points..

The pressure on Bosnia will be huge...as a draw is better fir greece.

[paokarag4]

If pjanic is indeed out, its a huge plus for us.... still not gonna be easy, it will be very hostile and of course who can forget Dzeko saying "we are waiting for you in Zenica" when referring to how the Bosnians were treated in Greece. It will be a scrappy, spiteful game, with plenty of fouls. 
Whoever keeps their cool, wins.

A win for us would be huge, would put us 4 points clear of BIH with 4 games to go. It would allow us the luxury of defeat v Belgium later in the campaign without giving up 2nd spot, assuming of course we beat the teams we really should beat. 
And of course it would keep us in touch with Belgium for 1st place, potentially setting up a showdown in Athens down the line for top spot. But that is looking too far ahead. 

Lets avoid defeat in Bosnia and if we manage to pinch all 3 points, it will be a HUGE bonus. 

EDIT: Just looking at ESPN3 tv guide, apparently they won't be streaming the game for us in Australia on Saturday morning, which really sucks... not sure if anyone has anymore info on the game being shown for us here? I know if its not on ESPN it won't be anywhere for us, I'm hoping they've just made a mistake on their listing. @Blackhawk  do you have any more info? always mr.reliable when it comes to coverage of matches

Edited June 5, 2017 by paokarag4

[E-M-I-R]

If you don't mind Bosnian commentary and own a Samsung smart tv then balkaniyum.tv has a month sub for like 7$ Us The game is on bht1 

[kosaca]

42 minutes ago, RED SHERIFF said:

without a solid DM/CM it is difficult to take control of any game of football...and as brilliant as Pjanic is and he will be dearly missed, our CM/DM is not capable of really exploiting this.

 

Yes....Karnezis, Torosidis, Manolas, Sokratis, Fortounis, Mitroglou are very good footballers...that is only 6 players...a game like this will need 12/13 players to take the 3 points..

The pressure on Bosnia will be huge...as a draw is better fir greece.

I don't know who will start for you but Cimirot-Jajalo isn't any better than Tziolis-Maniatis or whichever you guys will start. Add to this we have 4 centreback in defense, no Besic, no Milicevic, no Krunic...

I have not been this hopeless going into a game for years. 

[Dampyr]

Well, to be fair, with Džeko and 10 players from our league I would still belive. I just need Džeko.

[kosaca]

The game is on OTE Sport 1 in Greece, Sportsnet World in Canada, BHT1 in Bosnia, Sky Sports in UK, Movistar+ in Spain, and DAZN in Germany. 

[Argy]

IF Pjanic is out, that is a massive loss. It is indeed as if Sokratis or Manolas were missing (just as in the game in Athens, mind you), I will give you that, but we are missing Kyriakos Papadopoulos who is almost at their level and a huge leader on the pitch. He is a natural CB but would have probably started at DM alongside Samaris or Tachtsidis, who are also both suspended. This is a depleted Greece squad coming into Zenica and I have a feeling Pjanic will be fit. 

Edited June 5, 2017 by Argy

[Rockafeller Skank]

@E-M-I-R said pjanic will play 

@kosaca said pjanic is 90% out.
which one is true guys?

Also yeah, Greek midfield is bad but so is the Bosnian one with Pjanic out. And Pjanic aint much of a DM , plays as offensive midfielder for the NT, I remember bosnians asking for hime to be moved further behind to have a better impact.

I honestly beleive we will win the midfield with the new players, not sure about the game. I think if pjanic is missing or if he can barely play with an injection, we ll be fine.

[kosaca]

50 minutes ago, Rockafeller Skank said:

@E-M-I-R said pjanic will play 

@kosaca said pjanic is 90% out.
which one is true guys?

Also yeah, Greek midfield is bad but so is the Bosnian one with Pjanic out. And Pjanic aint much of a DM , plays as offensive midfielder for the NT, I remember bosnians asking for hime to be moved further behind to have a better impact.

I honestly beleive we will win the midfield with the new players, not sure about the game. I think if pjanic is missing or if he can barely play with an injection, we ll be fine.

We will definitely know tonight if he is out, but he said he still feels pain which means the chances are low. 

 

Cimirot & Jajalo is a midfield on the same level of Maniatis & Tziolis or Siopas or whoever you will play. However, we usually play with two strikers so Fortounis could make an overload in the midfield for you guys.

[jason]

Friday, June 9, 2:45 PM game time. I see us winning especially with Pjanic out. 

Edited June 5, 2017 by jason
Oops

[Rockafeller Skank]

51 minutes ago, kosaca said:

We will definitely know tonight if he is out, but he said he still feels pain which means the chances are low. 

 

Cimirot & Jajalo is a midfield on the same level of Maniatis & Tziolis or Siopas or whoever you will play. However, we usually play with two strikers so Fortounis could make an overload in the midfield for you guys.

Skillwise yes, but Tziolis is 1,92.  If you play 4-4-2 with 2 wingers and 2 strikers we might even dominate the midfield just by that. We used Tachtsidis vs Belgium only to disable the high game of Fellaini.

Damn, just imagine Tziolis - Medudjanin both starting. Slowest progression in football since the sport itself began.

Fortounis is nothing on retreiving the ball and pressuring. He is creative and that's just it. So I doubt he ll be any much of help in the midfield, just an extra option for a pass.

But I guess the "wingers" we use arent exactly the "i w8 the ball on the flank area to hit them from there". the one is an attacking midfielder and the other one a Left Back, they usually close in, we know our midfield sux so we put lot of men in there.

Edited June 5, 2017 by Rockafeller Skank

[Dampyr]

As for Bosnian forwards:

- Džeko. You all know the story. Best Bosnian forward of all time. Great season behind him, top scorer of Seria A and top scorer of Europa league. Missed dozens of opportunities in a match in Athens, it would be very disappointing if he perform same in Zenica.

- Ibišević. We often play with two forwards and most of the time he is a second guy alongside Džeko. He is invisible on the pitch for the most of the time but his huge national team fan base would always say:"He sacrificed himself for the Džeko", "He does useful things for the team hard to see". Right.

- Hodžić. Good season behind him, top scorer of Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian league. 

- Bajić. Good season behind him, top scorer of Konyaspor in the Turkish league.

- Kodro.  Osasuna was relegated to Segunda and he wasn't in the starting 11 but still scored 7 goals in the season. He is a son of Meho Kodro, former Barcelona player and one of the greatest Bosnian forwards of all time.

 

One important forward will miss this game:

- Đurić. His club career is really poor,  Seria B and Championship and he isn't some great player even on that level. But he always produced for the national team. He is 2 metres tall, strong and dominant in the air. He's our super sub. When nothing else works our coach use our ace in the hole tactics:"Long balls on Đurić!". He saved us couple of times and actually even when in starting 11 he was more useful then Ibišević. Unfortunately he will miss this game because of injury.

 

While they are not forwards, duo to injuries we will miss Milićević and Krunić in this game too. They are AM's but sometimes used as wingers and far more dangerous for the opposite goal than Višća and Lulić.