FIFA World Ranking

[Dutch Eagle]

The new FIFA-ranking was released today and Greece climbed from #46 to #39.

[Rockafeller Skank]

I believe Winning the next match vs Bosnia gives us high hopes of claiming 1st spot as well as climbing further more. One thing we can wish for is to at least climb in the rankings so that next Euro Qualification campaign is easy.

[Argy]

@Rockafeller SkankYup we discussed this in a little more depth in the Road to Russia thread if you wanna take a look. We likely won't win the group after blowing the lead vs Belgium, but with some results in the upcoming matches, we can easily be a seeded team come playoffs and avoid the likes of Spain, Italy or Portugal. 

Edited April 6, 2017 by Argy

[kbxk508]

Next games with Bosnia and Sweden are big matches. If we beat Bosnia then we probably move into top 20s and we start to get close to Iceland (21), Slovakia (23), Ireland (26) and NI (26) <in the rankings> who are all vying for 2nd spot in their respective Groups. 

If we finish 2nd in our Group we want to finish in Pot 1 and avoid likes of Spain : Italy and Switzerland : Portugal.

Edited April 6, 2017 by kbxk508

[Antaeus7]

Sweden? So a friendly was arranged? 

[Argy]

On 06/04/2017 at 10:12 AM, kbxk508 said:

Next games with Bosnia and Sweden are big matches. If we beat Bosnia then we probably move into top 20s and we start to get close to Iceland (21), Slovakia (23), Ireland (26) and NI (26) <in the rankings> who are all vying for 2nd spot in their respective Groups. 

If we finish 2nd in our Group we want to finish in Pot 1 and avoid likes of Spain : Italy and Switzerland : Portugal.

Did you mean to say Belgium instead of Sweden?

[kbxk508]

Argy, yes. How strange. I think we will need a result with Belgium in the return match. I can't see how we can get a win vs Bosnia away with so many starters suspended.

[georgelaz]

we're more likely against bosnia still imo. the core of the group is sokratis, manolas, mitroglou, karnezi, fortounis. every other position has decent replacements I think.

belgium I think will play harder against us next round cause they'll know what we're all about + they'll likely have hazard and de bruyne who are game changers.

[RED SHERIFF]

the problem with the Bosnia game is that our only quality/decent DM/CM are out.

As poor as Taxi and Samaris have been at times, they are our on options AT THIS HIGH LEVEL.

Siopis, Zeca, Tziolis, Maniatis. Petsos, Kourbelis etc..will get slaughtered by the BiH midfield.

[Akritis_1944]

Hmmm nah RS. You're way too negative and have been proven wrong on so many occasions (I'm referring to predicting results) that if I was counting I'd have given up by now.

Bosnia is not Belgium and aside from Pjanic their midfield isn't Super League standard so I could care less who Skibbe chooses, the match against them should be won and is definitely winnable.

Siopis and Kourbelis would do a job against Bosnia but I don't see either of these players being selected. My only concern is that Tziolis gets a start and unfortunately he hasn't been an International standard player for about 8-10 years so he has no business being in the squad let alone playing.

 

[Dean97]

There is always limitations in this team. There arnt all rounders in this team. Samaris is the closest to an all rounder. Kone is an all rounder, he can pass, shoot, control the ball, tackle, good at delivering set pieces and can also get on the end of them. Maniatis can't pass, Tziolis is too slow and can't pass, Siopis is too short. Tachtsidis is slow and can get lazy but has amazing passes. Zeca and Maniatis are the right options to play against Bosnia. They run all day and help out the defence. 

[RED SHERIFF]

On 16/04/2017 at 9:18 PM, Akritis_1944 said:

Hmmm nah RS. You're way too negative and have been proven wrong on so many occasions (I'm referring to predicting results) that if I was counting I'd have given up by now.

Bosnia is not Belgium and aside from Pjanic their midfield isn't Super League standard so I could care less who Skibbe chooses, the match against them should be won and is definitely winnable.

Siopis and Kourbelis would do a job against Bosnia but I don't see either of these players being selected. My only concern is that Tziolis gets a start and unfortunately he hasn't been an International standard player for about 8-10 years so he has no business being in the squad let alone playing.

 

Siopis and Kourbelis are from ready...

You forget how Bosnia outplayed us in Greece?

We have been more than lucky so far in this group.

[Argy]

Sheriff, we were fortunate for the late goal vs Bosnia, but were unfortunate to eat the late goal vs Belgium. How fortunate were we missing a stud CB in Manolas vs Bosnia and now a top class CB/DM in Papadopoulos for our two most important matches (Belgium and 2nd leg Bosnia)? And now Samaris and Tax are out as well at the worst time. 3/4 of our big games were/are going to be played shorthanded. No luck here; quite the opposite.

I say we have played well and are exactly where we belong.  

Edited April 19, 2017 by Argy

[Dutch Eagle]

As nobody posted it yet. Greece was #40 on the latest ranking that was released on June 1st. 

Next release: July 6th.

[J1078]

Will greece improve there rankings with the  tie to Bosnia?

Edited June 14, 2017 by J1078

[Antaeus7]

Greece might move up a little, I just don't understand why EPO doesn't arrange friendly matches? 

[Ellada2004]

We need to play friendly matches and get some points to move up. I don't understand why they have not scheduled anything since the matches with Montenegro and Iceland.

 

[maggica]

I expect Greece to stay put or drop in next month's ranking. This is because our very good world cup 2014 performance will be devalued next month. 

Other teams that performed well at the world cup 2014 and euro 2016 will also have the results at those tournaments worth less. For instance, I think that france, who performed well at both tournaments and lost to Sweden a few days ago, will drop in the rankings. 

[Dutch Eagle]

The new FIFA-ranking was released today. Greece improved a little bit and is now on #38.

Next release will be on the 10th of August.

[Ellada2004]

Greece at 38th, lets hope they keep climbing. Switzerland are at 5?? Don't think they are anywhere near a top 5 team. Greece never got there even after are Euro win and results after that.

[Rockafeller Skank]

Every time the ranking changes I think is in favor of us. We re getting away from the 3 yearsa ago games we had in the Euro qualification campaign and once in a lifetime achievers , aka teams that literally somehow just managed to qualify for the Euro (Czech Republic, Ukraine, Albania, Romania, North. Ireland) are getting further away meaning that, if we keep up the good performances we ll sooner or later surpass them. The number is not a big of a deal. Sure #38 still is low for our roster and our achievements as a team, but what we should consider for now is our ranking in UEFA which is #22. Austria will probably be surpassed by the end of the qualifying campaign of WC and I doubt they ll even go for the play offs. Turkey will probably be surpassed as well due to teir hard group, while we will probably see at least 7 points (at worse) in our upcomming 4 matches. Close behind us however are Czech, who I doubt will surpass us, but also Serbia and Denmark.
Hopefully we ll make it in pot 2 before the campaign is over so we have better chances for Euro Qualifiers.

[ausgreek]

Ethniki may have started to appear more experienced around the middle with Samaris, perhaps KPaps and Zeca with his age - and afew more international games under his belt and we look more settled. The ranking may well go toward top 25 for us. Added to them are Taxi, Arab and Tziolll.

There is more consistency these days and I hope the ethnoes  keep it going, top 25 with a WC qualification.

Edited July 7, 2017 by ausgreek

[Dutch Eagle]

Greece remained on #38 on the ranking released today by FIFA.

Next release September 14th.

[kbxk508]

Down 9 spots to 47

http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/uefa.html

We're making it hard for ourselves even if we by some chance make it to the knock out rounds. Need to get some wins in October.

 

[Argy]

What an embarrassent. FIFA rankings are garbage. We don't reserve that ranking by any extent. Look at so some teams above us, it's really hard to swallow, like Congo DR, Bolivia, Scotland, Tunisia. The 3 countries directly below us are Haiti, Burkina Faso, Australia...Great company. 

At this point, there is zero chance we are a seeded team even if we do manage to somehow make the playoffs. We will face the likes of Italy, Portugal or Sweden. 

Edited September 14, 2017 by Argy