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Greece vs Estonia (31 August 2017- World Cup Qualifier- Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus)


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I believe Estonia will hold Bosnia as well. We needed to score a goal today and vs Bosnia but we could not. Meanwhile Cyprus lit up the crappy Bosnian defence as I have said they are for the taking with the way defend! 

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what does the club soccer have to do with this...skibbe is a complete moron for sitting samaris out and playing TZIOLIS instead, for refusing to call up our 2 in-form rbs mpakakis and koutris (with torosidis being injured) and played  a CENTRE BACK instead, for not calling up lazaros who is the only winger capable of doing something good..he was lucky not lose bosnia and belgium games, basically we have played no football during the campaign, it looks we're back in our 2016 form where cyprus and estonia outplayed us and we couldn't score for a whole half against gibraltar (and also losing to belarus at home in a friendly game)..btw what about his tactics? LONG BALLS against a 5 men defence? we had only 2 good chances in the whole game, nothing else...p-a-t-h-e-t-i-c...

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The showing today was not pathetic, we had a bad game...We had opportunities to score and didn't.  You make it sound like they played us off the pitch.  I agree we should have won but their goalie played great and made the saves that he needed to make.  We did not have any teeth today but you can't attribute that all to Skibbe.  Outside of Tziolis, you can't fault him for Vellios/Retsos playing.  We do not have an in form striker.  We do not look anything near 2016. 

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Skibbe did the obvious. Made sure we re not hit on the counter , as myrwdias ranieri did. Look at the statistics. 0 shots on target for Estonia. Oh, look again 0 shots in general (1 shot recorded in their statistics which was no shot but a desparate defense from a counter attack). 

As I said. Skibbe did what Ranieri could not. Not allow a minnow team to piss on us and go away with a 3 point.

Did we play good? No.

Did you expect us to play at our top potential without Mitroglou, Papastathopoulos , Torosidis? Toro is our second top goalscorer in this campaign with two goals and two assists. He has been part of 40% of the goals we ve scored. 
 

They played full defensive and were very disciplined. Our players made terrible mistake when it comes to offside. Many chances ruined because they were literally a finger or two offside. The referees were excellent, something unexpected from such a low quality championship like Israel.

Skibbe's only mistake was the defensive midfield duo. He wanted two players who were only defense orientated. This totally secured not conceding, but in a matter also reduced our number of attacking players.

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At least Retsos played a decent game, Tziolis was Tziolis but Vellios starting was an utter waste. I thought Skibbe would pull him after 50 minutes not 70. He could not control the ball and had the ball fall to him off a rebound in front of the gk and rushed his chance and fired way wide instead of squaring the ball across the goal. 

If Skibbe is calling up Tziolis who plays in the Saudi league why not Fetfa this match was screaming for a player of his attacking qualities. What a waste...

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16 minutes ago, Brklyngrk said:

The showing today was not pathetic, we had a bad game...We had opportunities to score and didn't.  You make it sound like they played us off the pitch.  I agree we should have won but their goalie played great and made the saves that he needed to make.  We did not have any teeth today but you can't attribute that all to Skibbe.  Outside of Tziolis, you can't fault him for Vellios/Retsos playing.  We do not have an in form striker.  We do not look anything near 2016. 

Finally someone reasonable. Suddently the last pot 3 team(Yeah im talking about us) in the beginning of the group draw, can't win a pot 4 team and we re suddently not worthy of existing in the football map. Pathetic posters who are expecting us to play like Barcelona offensively, with a offensive net worth 1/5th of Suarez alone.

When we were losing/drawing teams like Finland/Northern Ireland/Faroe Island we didn't have such an appearance. We didn't dominate the game and we deserved to lose. Most of our players apart from Vellios didn't have a bad game. a couple of bad crosses when anxiety kicks in because no other obvious opportunity arises as time goes away is obvious. We werent in a position to afford losing points.

But at the end of the day. we re two points in front of Bosnia, we both have to play Gibraltar and Belgium. If only one team f*cked up today the group would be decided. With both teams losing points we re literally in the same situation, and maybe slightly better.

Estonia is a solid side defensively in the second round. Belgium only managed to score 2 against them , as many as we , and they didnt; play in the middle of the winter.

Edited by Rockafeller Skank
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Absolutely no excuses for today's result. Sure, some key players were missing but this was Estonia. We just missed a huge opportunity and the way my luck is going in football right now (PAOK getting knocked out by some Swedish fishermen and Greece not being able to beat some woodcutters from Estonia), I honestly think we will pay the price. No Russia for us next year.

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we'll need to beat one of the 2 games vs cyprus and belgium DESPERATELY. bosnia will drop points to belgium (not sure about estonia). if we say that both greece and bosnia will beat gibraltar and both will lose to belgium, then all is up to cyprus game for greece and estonia game for bosnia. i can't see how we're going to score against cyprus, i'm predicting a draw there and if cyprus beats estonia in 2 days they will be in the race for the second place which means they will not gift us any points. better for us to beat belgium and finish the job otherwise it's highly unlikely to wait for a miracle in the next 2 games..bravo for kicking away such a chance..now we'd only have to beat gibraltar at home and would be at least 2nd no matter what.......

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we only have two good strikers mitroglou and karelis who are both out and would both start if available.

sokratis out. torosidis out. annoyed we didn't get the win but happy that cyprus beat bosnia. by the time we face cyprus we'll likely have a full squad so I don't fear them as we already beat them last time.

I had a bad feeling about the Estonia match though, they aren't exactly a pushover side like Gilbratar.

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2 minutes ago, Athens4 said:

Absolutely no excuses for today's result. Sure, some key players were missing but this was Estonia. We just missed a huge opportunity and the way my luck is going in football right now (PAOK getting knocked out by some Swedish fishermen and Greece not being able to beat some woodcutters from Estonia), I honestly think we will pay the price. No Russia for us next year.

Like if russia next year is the goal mate.

The reasonable goal for this NT is to reach the play offs so we dont downgrade much more in the ranking, and maybe try to step up as well.

After that- what we can do or what we cant is all a matter of luck with teams like Spain/Italy/Netherlands/Portugal/Switzerland/Turkey as possible opponents.

Just shutting some Bosnian mouths about how we re utter shitte because we ended up 6th last campaign while they managed to not qualify in a more fashionable way is gonna be enough for me. Youth talent exists. WC is gonna be hard for current roster and with many teams stepping up their game. We can be a regular team at Euros since its 24 teams now.

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3 minutes ago, Boxou said:

we'll need to beat one of the 2 games vs cyprus and belgium DESPERATELY. bosnia will drop points to belgium (not sure about estonia). if we say that both greece and bosnia will beat gibraltar and both will lose to belgium, then all is up to cyprus game for greece and estonia game for bosnia. i can't see how we're going to score against cyprus, i'm predicting a draw there and if cyprus beats estonia in 2 days they will be in the race for the second place which means they will not gift us any points. better for us to beat belgium and finish the job otherwise it's highly unlikely to wait for a miracle in the next 2 games..bravo for kicking away such a chance..now we'd only have to beat gibraltar at home and would be at least 2nd no matter what.......

Why though is your mentality so bad?

Why are you forcing the opinion that this team, with or without luck will f*ck up. Today luck was with us since Cyprus won. Today luck wasn't with us though since no matter what we did Estonian wall wouldn't move. Estonians played an A M A Z I N G game defensively, but trying to force that this team is nothing more than the 2016 side who was not only losing scorewise but based on the view of the match against minnows is unwanted in the forum. Yes Skibbe picked Tziolis. But the reason is obvious. He has been playing matches in Saudi Arabia. What every player and skibbe himself said post match is "This season is the hardest because all players are unfit and they were tired after some point." The game was unfair and unlucky based on date. Estonians play in meme leagues of the north that do not stop in Winter. They are 100% match fit while we have Stafylidis, Vellios, Donis(due to injury) with literally 0 competitive playtime since June. Vellios sucks. I agree with you on that I was the only one defending him so far but he ruined chance after chance, not only his bad positioning and shots but also chances created by others. No more defending for him, still unacceptable however that noone from the others scored.

Donis is an upgrade to the team and with less tight defences his man-to-man ability to go through will shine.

 

And after saying this, my question to you is, what better does Bosnia seem to have in this campaign that ours doesn't, so that we do not deserve the 2nd spot? 

Losing 5-0 to Belgium or being the worst team against Greece at home and against Cyprus away?

Second spot is there for Grabs.Belgium are already in the WC. They will play as relaxed with us as they will with Bosnia next matchday. We are 6 points behind and we need to tie them and score about 20 goals to Gibraltar(not counting the goals to come) to steal their spot. 

 

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bosnia doesn't need to have something themselves, they have us saving their lives matchday after matchday when we can't finish the job (belgium and bih away, now estonia at home) winning one of these matches would mean the group would be already over. but no, thanks to us it's not. 

a draw against belgium is possible only because we can't do anything else than playing on counters as we saw today. 

and the awesome defence of estonia wasn't testsed once, we only played with long balls, what did you expect. 

our 2nd options in defence are a total joke. talking about vellios, mpakasetas, diamantakos, gianniotas etc..

still can't get over this result...

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Don't rule Bosnia out at home to Belgium, keep in mind Belgium will already be mathematically qualified and are likely to leave the bulk of its first team players out. They will also reclaim 2nd spot after this weekend most likely. its in Greeces best interests that Estonia beats Cyprus now (feel bad for saying that) because if we go there locked on 13 points each we are screwed. At best I can only see 3-4 points being picked up from the remaining games.

 

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5 minutes ago, Ellada2004 said:

Witzel got a straight red today so he will miss Sunday's game along with Nainggolan who is injured. Still will be huge test against Belgium, is Mitroglou back for Sunday's game?

Mitroglou and Papastathopoulos are considered 100% sure (for now) for the match vs Belgium. Torosidis is a 50-50, probably will miss next match too though.

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Πάντως πρέπει να πούμε ότι αυτό το πρώτο ματς τέλος Αυγούστου-αρχές Σεπτέμβρη διαχρονικά είναι μεγάλο ζόρι
Με Ρεχάγκελ χάσαμε 2-1 από Αλβανία αμέσως μετά το γιούρο και κερδίσαμε με τα χίλια ζόρια 1-2 στο 95 στο Καζακστάν. Επίσης φέραμε χ 1-1 με Μολδαβία.
Με Σάντος φέραμε 1-1 με Γεωργία και 1-1 με Λετονία και κερδίσαμε με τα χίλια ζόρια 0-1 στο 80 στο Λιχτενστάιν. Είναι εντελώς ανέτοιμοι οι Έλληνες παίκτες τέτοια εποχή

just a random post I found in a sports site about today's result.

Im sure Santos and Rehaggel were terrible coaches as well right? Let's kick Skibbe, Im already tired of him.

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the positives

1. Donis played great and was creating lots of opportunities. Finally have another threat besides Fortounis in midfield.

2. Bosnia lost to Cyprus so we still are in the drivers seat for second place.

3. The last tournys we went through via playoffs eg) vs. Romania and Ukraine which we played well. We're hard to beat in big games.

4.. we have a great starting 11 if everyone gets playing time and no injuries.

                 Mitroglou

Fortounis         Karelis         Donis

       Tachtsidis              Kpaps

Staf   Manolas Sokratis   Toro

                       Karnezi

 

plus Samaris, Zeca, Tzavella

 

 

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Let's remember who played, who did not. Who has experience, who does not. Who had experience but normally does not play as much.  A lot of things one cannot control ended up the Ethniki with a water down and inexperienced lineup. 

BUT all teams miss key players vs Injuries or otherwise and such is life. I saw highlights, but not the whole game. I was pleasantly surprised that Cyprus upset Bosnia down 2-0 to guns a blazing to win 3-2. Some exceptional goals I must say. So thank God for Cyprus today.

That said players that were miss hopefully most are back for Sunday. The big question mark is Mitroglou. I have said a few times, when the Greek team has performed well it has been a TEAM effort. We DO NOT have a the spoils 4-5-6-7 superstars. 

Our trademark is defence and timely scoring, but it usually is 1-2 goals not victories of 3,4,5 goals or so. Since Euro 2004 We are usually sporting a lone striker, and it drops off from there calibre wise.

As for the negativity in this forum about the next match(es), qualifying for the world cup in Russia. I beg the question, which of our campaigns where we did qualify were we just breezing along? Remind me, because I recall there were some campaigns  stronger than others.....but for the most part. I recall close matches, sometimes a stumble, and most often we qualified at the very end. Greek drama.

In regards to Sunday, with strong experienced players back, with it on the line...I expect a battle. If we do not match Belgiums battle level then we are in trouble. But if the leaders of this squad, with a hostile crowd, bring their best then in a card filled match Greece has to lay it on the line.

 

 

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46 minutes ago, georgelaz said:

the positives

1. Donis played great and was creating lots of opportunities. Finally have another threat besides Fortounis in midfield.

 

 

 

Fortounis is not a threat for the NT. He is average. Donis did in his first full 90 stuff Fortounis has never done for NT.

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1 hour ago, MItsaras9 said:

HLet's remember who played, who did not. Who has experience, who does not. Who had experience but normally does not play as much.  A lot of things one cannot control ended up the Ethniki with a water down and inexperienced lineup. 

BUT all teams miss key players vs Injuries or otherwise and such is life. I saw highlights, but not the whole game. I was pleasantly surprised that Cyprus upset Bosnia down 2-0 to guns a blazing to win 3-2. Some exceptional goals I must say. So thank God for Cyprus today.

That said players that were miss hopefully most are back for Sunday. The big question mark is Mitroglou. I have said a few times, when the Greek team has performed well it has been a TEAM effort. We DO NOT have a the spoils 4-5-6-7 superstars. 

Our trademark is defence and timely scoring, but it usually is 1-2 goals not victories of 3,4,5 goals or so. Since Euro 2004 We are usually sporting a lone striker, and it drops off from there calibre wise.

As for the negativity in this forum about the next match(es), qualifying for the world cup in Russia. I beg the question, which of our campaigns where we did qualify were we just breezing along? Remind me, because I recall there were some campaigns  stronger than others.....but for the most part. I recall close matches, sometimes a stumble, and most often we qualified at the very end. Greek drama.

In regards to Sunday, with strong experienced players back, with it on the line...I expect a battle. If we do not match Belgiums battle level then we are in trouble. But if the leaders of this squad, with a hostile crowd, bring their best then in a card filled match Greece has to lay it on the line.

 

 

True it's always a grind to qualify when we reached Euro 2008 we topped Turkey by 7 points. As for today missing Mitroglou was a huge void as Vellios struggled, also missing our leader Sokratis affected us. Torosidis crosses could have helped as there were a lot of mishit crosses into the box. We are lucky that Cyprus came back and won, when it was 0-2 it was looking like we were going to be back a point. Hopefully the team is at full strength vs Belgium, they will be missing a few key players and Hazard is not 100%. 

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Greece are winless in 5 games (4 draws 1 loss), scoring 2 goals and conceding 3.

 

Problem: Clearly, scoring goals is the problem.  Bakasetas, Vellios and Diamantakos have a combined 19 appearances, 0 goals for the NT.  Also, our CMs/CDMs are all terrible at scoring goals...every single one of them.  

Solution: We need to insert goalscorers into the squad.  

Observations/Opinion: Lazaros should be a regular in the team.  Pelkas, Mystakidis, Masouras, Manias, Giakoumakis (AEK) and Nazlidis are all players that get playing time, score goals, get assists and are generally involved in the build-up leading to goals..they all had better seasons in 2016-17 than Bakasetas, Vellios and Diamantakos...some of them should have been called up over the past year.   

Edited by maggica
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7 hours ago, Greekoz said:

Belgium will wrap up top spot mathematically on sunday and then head to bosnia with its reserves. We butchered our chance to knock bosnia out of the running. As it stands i see bosnia finishing 1 point ahead of us. Lets hope we only lose by a few.

Pains me to say it, but it's hard to believe it won't play out this way.  

We now need a result against Belgium.  The team is just too thin in certain positions and Skibbe did not compensate well enough with his choices or tactics this time.

I give him credit for getting us this far and making the team credible again, but today I put some of the blame on him.  Even with a so-so performance, they should have been good enough for a 1 - 0 at home.  Very disappointing.  The Cypres match is also very worrisome now.  I just don't see any reason why they can't beat us,  the second spot is completely up for grabs and our 2nd spot looks temporary.  

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