Nations League: Greece-Ireland(13 October 2024, Stadio Giorgos Karaiskakis, Piraeus)

[J1078]

Goalllllll

[Omonoia9]

+3

[Omonoia9]

MANTALOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PaokCT]

Is that the goal that knocks England out!?

[ChrisT]

I'm really surprised the Irish goalkeeper didn't pull Mantolas down there. What an awful mistake.

[Ellada2004]

Goal Mantalos!!

[J1078]

We needed that 2nd goal to secure the win and go +2 in goals for as England did the same today so we maintain our advantage in goal differential.

Edited October 13 by J1078

[ChrisT]

Ft 2-0

[Omonoia9]

Greece 2-0 Ireland   FT

 

[Ellada2004]

Siopis had a fantastic match

[PaokCT]

With that result we clinch top 2. Meaning we will at minimum have a playoff shot for league A. Also we have a 98% shot at being in Pot 2 for WCQ. And if we top this group , we will be guaranteed at minimum a playoff spot for WCQ

[pash]

59 minutes ago, PaokCT said:

I’d bring on Delias & Pelkas

I'd bring Pelkas to your parents' home so that in nine months you could have a new, much superior sibling.

 

I missed the first goal because I was so busy trash talking Irish people on group chats that I neglected to actually look at the score line until the 65th minute.

[Greekoz]

Goal difference comes down to h2h, so if we draw against England we finish 1st no matter what. If we lose the ideal loss is 0-1 as that gives us the tiebreaker.

 

Current goal differential will only count if we lose 2-1

Edited October 13 by Greekoz

[Ellada2004]

Fantastic 2 matches for Greece this international window. Greece in the first half totally dominated the ball & should have finished a couple goals with Pavlidis not finding his footing in front of goal. Siopis was an all over the place with great tackles and winning the ball. He even towered over a much taller Irish player to win a header. Mavropanos is so steady at the back and Gianoulis had a great match too. Bakasetas scored again and now sits one goal behind Demis Nikolaides. Ivonovich has the team geling and I see him ending our tournament drought with qualification to the 2026 World Cup. Go 🇬🇷 

[pash]

I've been actively hating on the stipiki for a few years. These last two games have solidified my belief that they're FINALLY back. This team has an abundance of talent, both offensively and defensively. And on top of that, they actually have some technical skill - something we never really showed off in the Santos era.

While we had glimpses of attractive football over the last few years, they've always seemed mentally fragile and only half-certain of their own game plan. We may have turned a corner; perhaps their rallying around Baldock's death did it...or perhaps it's Jovanovic (though I doubt a coach can make that kind of a change in so short a time). Maybe it's just that a lot of these guys have now been playing with each other for a while. Whatever it is, I think they may now be "clicking" and could actually do some damage internationally.

 

For what it's worth, this surprised me. Surely we can't be favorites to win against England again? This is probably assuming a substantial (50%?) chance of a draw, to get us to that number (considering the 31% chance of a loss this chart implies). Can't imagine we'll be troubled by Finland either way.

 

[Omonoia9]

GROUP B2 STANDINGS

 

Greece-12

England-9

Ireland-3

Finland-0

[Brklyngrk]

Great results - funny how we are playing better in Pot B than we did all those years in Pot C.  

[Ellada2004]

On 10/14/2024 at 8:26 AM, Brklyngrk said:

Great results - funny how we are playing better in Pot B than we did all those years in Pot C.  

That is true we played down to the lower ranked countries but with Jovanovich I doubt we will see draws with Kosovo as was the case under JVS and not coming up with wins in a knock out match vs Georgia were Poyet was totally out managed. Greece have so much young talent coming up and lots of skill at every position. I believe Jovanovich will get us to the World Cup and Greece will be formidable for years to come. 

[pash]

The performance of the stipiki over the past decade is a classic case study in organizational dynamics. The quality of the players is irrelevant when both leadership and morale are lacking. If you want to quantify this, you can think of it as "momentum" - I'm sure one could plot a regression of actual results against an expected outcome (expected goals, expected wins) for matches, and show the clear terms how and where our mindset changed.

That's a fancy way of saying, we were sad and so played badly. Now we're happy and are playing better.

I would also call your attention to a similar situation that our Balkan neighbors over in Bosnia are experiencing. As someone with a few Bosnian friends, I can confirm to you that their NT is caught in the exact same issue we've had for most of the past decade. I hear about it constantly. The main difference between our situations is that their downfall started about four years after ours, so they're only now starting their descent to rock bottom.