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Cyprus vs. Greece ( 7 October 2017, GSP Stadium, Nicosia )


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Bosnia missing some key players but with all of Belgiums misses Bosnia I think have a great chance for the win. Bosnia will show more determination and heart in this game and Belgium will treat it more like a friendly...

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22 minutes ago, J1078 said:

Bosnia missing some key players but with all of Belgiums misses Bosnia I think have a great chance for the win. Bosnia will show more determination and heart in this game and Belgium will treat it more like a friendly...

belgian back ups would like to prove they deserve a spot to the world cup squad, they got huge competition in order to overlook games and waste their chances. it's gonna be the last set of games and possibly one of the last evident to show to their coach they can play. i do agree about the determination you're talking about but here we have a huge difference in the quality of those teams. 

i expect bosnia to open up and to be slaughtered by belgium mainly on the counter. if their defence in full strength conceded three goals by cyprus i don't see why belgium wouldn't outscore a defence made by their b choices (they will be missing 3 starters) and always take into account pjanic's absence. if de bruyne doesn't play belgium got carrasco, if lukaku doesn't play they got batshuayi or origi, if witsel, fellaini and dembele don't play they can fill the gap with tielemans, chadli and defour. i find it hard that level of midfield to be outclassed by a greek league player cimirot and on top of that, not to score on a such a defence. 

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1 hour ago, Boxou said:

belgian back ups would like to prove they deserve a spot to the world cup squad, they got huge competition in order to overlook games and waste their chances. it's gonna be the last set of games and possibly one of the last evident to show to their coach they can play. i do agree about the determination you're talking about but here we have a huge difference in the quality of those teams. 

i expect bosnia to open up and to be slaughtered by belgium mainly on the counter. if their defence in full strength conceded three goals by cyprus i don't see why belgium wouldn't outscore a defence made by their b choices (they will be missing 3 starters) and always take into account pjanic's absence. if de bruyne doesn't play belgium got carrasco, if lukaku doesn't play they got batshuayi or origi, if witsel, fellaini and dembele don't play they can fill the gap with tielemans, chadli and defour. i find it hard that level of midfield to be outclassed by a greek league player cimirot and on top of that, not to score on a such a defence. 

What you're saying makes sense and I hope that's how it plays out.. It also makes sense that Belgiums B squad will be out to prove something since they don't get much playing time. We will even take the draw I just pray Bosnia DONT get the win because I think Estonia won't be able to hold them off and do us a favour...the only thing that worries me is we all no Bosnia can score goals so they definitely have the ability to score and steal a win...I hope not.. I guess at the end of the day if we don't beat Cyprus it's pointless worrying about what happens..

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17 minutes ago, J1078 said:

What you're saying makes sense and I hope that's how it plays out.. It also makes sense that Belgiums B squad will be out to prove something since they don't get much playing time. We will even take the draw I just pray Bosnia to get the win because I think Estonia won't be able to hold them off and do us a favour...the only thing that worries me is we all no Bosnia can score goals so they definitely have the ability to score and steal a win...I hope not.. I guess at the end of the day if we don't beat Cyprus it's pointless worrying about what happens..

You mean Belgium to get them win*

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3 hours ago, J1078 said:

What you're saying makes sense and I hope that's how it plays out.. It also makes sense that Belgiums B squad will be out to prove something since they don't get much playing time. We will even take the draw I just pray Bosnia DONT get the win because I think Estonia won't be able to hold them off and do us a favour...the only thing that worries me is we all no Bosnia can score goals so they definitely have the ability to score and steal a win...I hope not.. I guess at the end of the day if we don't beat Cyprus it's pointless worrying about what happens..

well consider bosnia-belgium game is up 2 hours before our game we should be worrying about the result. if belgium wins/gets the draw i think the players will go out there against cyprus determined and concentrated to get the win and wait for the result of the other group/groups. 

 

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Until we see the line ups for Belgium Bosnia, it's tough to say. Bosnia needs this and Belgium doesn't, but Belgium has enough skill in their depth to cause Bosnia problems. And Belgium will be playing loose cause they have nothing to lose. Bosnia can't afford to F*** up, but Belgium can, which will calm the nerves of younger Belgium players. 

One things for sure though, in my mind anyway, Skibbe has to go if we don't make the playoffs. He started of better than we all could have dreamed, then he decided to go to lala land and never came back. 

 

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5 hours ago, gsots said:

Until we see the line ups for Belgium Bosnia, it's tough to say. Bosnia needs this and Belgium doesn't, but Belgium has enough skill in their depth to cause Bosnia problems. And Belgium will be playing loose cause they have nothing to lose. Bosnia can't afford to F*** up, but Belgium can, which will calm the nerves of younger Belgium players. 

One things for sure though, in my mind anyway, Skibbe has to go if we don't make the playoffs. He started of better than we all could have dreamed, then he decided to go to lala land and never came back. 

 

I personally liked the hire of Skibbe and in the beginning he had his tactics right and the team started of with 3 wins from 3 games and in the next game he got the late draw with Bosnia. He set the team up well in Belgium and were so close to a famous victory but since then he has disappointed especially the Estonia match where it looked like he was playing for a draw and after the game he seemed content with the draw?  If they win that match at home vs an inferior team then the playoff spot is virtually ours and we are not going through all these different scenarios. I believe he has to get us to the playoff at the very least to hold his job.

 

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Overall, he has done a pretty good job.  Not sure where all of this backlash is warranted.  Outside of the tie in Estonia, all the other results were ok.  He had to deal with injuries to our only striker (and to be fair, we still should have won the game against Belgium - both times).  He has brought up new faces as well - Donis, Retsos - who figure to be a big part of the national team for years to come.  I am sure non of us like Tziolis in there but he has stabilized what was a bad environment.  The national team needs continuity to be able to build trust, he is getting that now.  Let's give him a chance. 

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i think it depends on will happen this week but overall in the federation they should be leaning towards renewing his contract. changing a coach once in a while is not a good sign, and i believe he will have a better chance for the euros 2020 campaign with more teams qualifying and in general a rather easier format. if he doesn't make it there then yes he should be fired.

what i think it's not true however is the good results, i don't consider a good result a draw against bosnia at home even the way we got it, nor a loss at home be it to an unmotivated belgium side. estonia draw was something out of this world though. 

regarding the call ups i think tziolis will not be a part of future teams as well as possibly maniatis and tzavellas. karnezis is also ageing but he will be around as a back up, perhaps to kapino and hopefully to vlachodimos as well. 

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I will say the one thing I do like how  Skibbe has brought his defence first mentality as this is the way the Greek team needs to play to be successful. We have to work to our strengths and utilize our best assets which is our Defence. We all saw what happened when we tried to play a more offensive style we ended up neglecting our strengths which is our D and we were losing to the worst of the worst teams and that should NOT happen. In saying this I do wish we could find a happy medium to a good defence and a balanced offense and not depend on only one structure. Maybe this will happen if and when we can find someone to solidify our Mid which really controls the game and we are definitely lacking in that position.

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What most of you do not understand, and what Bosnians honestly dont understand when they suddently mumble stuff about their coach and we do about our coach is that we are no longer the team we were in 2008 and 2010 and 2014. We ve declined. We had more players from the Greek League then and far more players playing outside Greece currently but the Greek League was something far better then.

This season it is starting to draw interest and show that even small teams can get results from the big ones but overall the league level has dropped. 

Currently, apart from Sokratis, Manolas Mitroglou Karnezis Stafylidis Papadopoulos the rest of our players seem mediocre at best. Fortounis is showing signs from game to game and Donis/Siopis/Bakakis/Retsos seem promising but honestly our best midfielder Samaris is having 0 playtime in one of the worst Benfica seasons(a team that s not going well usually undergoes line up changes and different players are tested). He is no longer what he was 2-3 years ago. Torosidis same. He is playing in a position where age is a key factor and he has reached a limit. I expect if we fail to qualify for the play offs this week he quits the NT. Zeca is good too defensively but honestly we ve proved that we are too tough to break defensively but we can't do the extra step and get the ball in front quickly. Transition in this team is 0. 

Anyways what I wanted to say is that , we are not a team where a non qualification with a 5/4/1 Wins/Draws/Losses should be considered a failure. A disapointment definately, but not because we have players who have the ability to go high in the upcomming tournament, but simply because we are USED TO qualifying in big events. Same goes for Bosnia. They don't have the team they hope to have. Not even close. I ve said this again. I will consider this campaign a total success if we reach the play offs(or just finish 2nd and dont get a play off spot). After that considering the teams we will face I don't have many hopes for the miracle. But if we end up missing the 2nd spot just because we had one bad result, (Draws with Bosnia are fine results. Draw with Belgium is an excellent result. Loss to Belgium 1-2 with such an appearance is a good result appearancewise, not pointwise) im not gonna be the average Greek who s gonna start saying Ethniki Mykonou or Skibbe out.

 

Skibbe has some bad picks imo but strategically he knows how to build a defensive wall, and that's what our team has always been since 2004. If you see some results under Santos and under Otto you ll be surprised. But I hear noone calling Santos bad. In fact I remember that everyone was calling Santos a dud coz he was picking Katsouranis. The moment he left Greece we finished last in a qualifier. Hmmm. Im remaining in my position. Most of you here no shiet about football. 

Do yourselves a favor and stop posting about coaches with only their last match in your mind. You were sucking his sausage when he got you an away draw to Belgium. You wanted him out after Estonia. Torosidis/Mitroglou/Sokratis missing was his fault too? You don't have the players to ask much more. Get back to earth.

 

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so samaris is ill and donis got injured in the latest national team training. we'll see on saturday whether he will be ready

if he doesn't play i think we'll see one of gianniotas or stafylidis there. 

im also reading more and more lately, than in cyprus it's rumoured they will not play for the win especially if belgium manage to hold bosnia in the previous game. ideally ireland and wales both fail to beat their opposition tomorrow so we lock the spot in saturday and will not have to wait for the last matchday on a nail-bitting wales-ireland.

 

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You're r reading that Cyprus will not play there best and kind of gift us the match if Belgium hold off Bosnia?? As much as I would love that to be true I highly doubt that Cyprus will somehow not play there best..

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1 hour ago, Boxou said:

so samaris is ill and donis got injured in the latest national team training. we'll see on saturday whether he will be ready

if he doesn't play i think we'll see one of gianniotas or stafylidis there. 

im also reading more and more lately, than in cyprus it's rumoured they will not play for the win especially if belgium manage to hold bosnia in the previous game. ideally ireland and wales both fail to beat their opposition tomorrow so we lock the spot in saturday and will not have to wait for the last matchday on a nail-bitting wales-ireland.

 

You see what you want to see. 

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All we can do is believe. We used to have a team that when put against the corner we fought back harder and stronger. I believe this team has the momentum to do it. We may not have Donis, but we still have a selection of players who were in front of him when we played against the netherlands and won. 

We are going to the world cup in Russia and we will play extremely well. Skibbe is a good coach, who unfortunately is controlled in his game plans by the EPO. Tziolis needs to leave, and siopis needs to replace him NOW.

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