Men's Football FIFA World Cup 2022

[thepharoah 2,413]

Denmark is the 2nd team to qualify to WC after Germany , total domination 

[Belle 1,043]

Congrats Denmark! Very impressive! 

[Monzanator 5,073]

Poland hangs on to win 1-0. If we beat Andorra in the next game (kinda probable) then Albania would have to beat England on the road to prevent us from securing 2nd place with one game left after that.

[Makedonas 2,239]

Congratulations @Belle but to be honest (I don't mean to be disrespectful) I think Sweden didn't play that well and we gifted it to you in a way.

 

We dominated the first half, the offside goal and then two posts. It was too bad we couldn't take our chances there and then in the second half we conceded a foolish penalty because of the inexperienced Mavropanos. Had Manolas or Sokratis been there, I don't think we would have conceded that penalty. Then another foolish defensive mistake which led to the second goal.

 

I don't want to sound bitter or disrespectful but it was frustrating because we could have beaten Sweden today and we were by far the better side in the first half and then we totally self destructed in the second half. But that is football....

 

Now we need to beat Spain (and Kosovo) and hope that Sweden can get a result on the last matchday against Spain in order to finish second. Very difficult...

[Makedonas 2,239]

57 minutes ago, thepharoah said:

Sweden is much better offensively 

Normally I would agree with this statement but we had many more shots today compared to our opponents, plus we hit the woodwork twice (Masouras post and Pavlidis crossbar) and then Sweden scored one of their two goals via penalty. Despite the lack of goals we appeared to be more threatening offensively especially in the first half

[LDOG 2,474]

4 minutes ago, Makedonas said:

Congratulations @Belle but to be honest (I don't mean to be disrespectful) I think Sweden didn't play that well and we gifted it to you in a way.

 

We dominated the first half, the offside goal and then two posts. It was too bad we couldn't take our chances there and then in the second half we conceded a foolish penalty because of the inexperienced Mavropanos. Had Manolas or Sokratis been there, I don't think we would have conceded that penalty. Then another foolish defensive mistake which led to the second goal.

 

I don't want to sound bitter or disrespectful but it was frustrating because we could have beaten Sweden today and we were by far the better side in the first half and then we totally self destructed in the second half. But that is football....

 

Now we need to beat Spain (and Kosovo) and hope that Sweden can get a result on the last matchday against Spain in order to finish second. Very difficult...

Manolas and Sokratis were awful last few years before they got kicked out. 

[Belle 1,043]

8 minutes ago, Makedonas said:

Congratulations @Belle but to be honest (I don't mean to be disrespectful) I think Sweden didn't play that well and we gifted it to you in a way.

 

We dominated the first half, the offside goal and then two posts. It was too bad we couldn't take our chances there and then in the second half we conceded a foolish penalty because of the inexperienced Mavropanos. Had Manolas or Sokratis been there, I don't think we would have conceded that penalty. Then another foolish defensive mistake which led to the second goal.

 

I don't want to sound bitter or disrespectful but it was frustrating because we could have beaten Sweden today and we were by far the better side in the first half and then we totally self destructed in the second half. But that is football....

 

Now we need to beat Spain (and Kosovo) and hope that Sweden can get a result on the last matchday against Spain in order to finish second. Very difficult...

You are not disrespectful at all. I think Greece were the better team today. Sweden got lucky. 
 

Feel bad for Greece actually!! 

[Makedonas 2,239]

1 minute ago, Belle said:

You are not disrespectful at all. I think Greece were the better team today. Sweden got lucky. 
 

Feel bad for Greece actually!! 

Thank you, I appreciate it. It is tough sometimes.

 

Also it was nice to see a great crowd/atmosphere again after playing in empty stadiums for so long now.

[Makedonas 2,239]

15 minutes ago, LDOG said:

Manolas and Sokratis were awful last few years before they got kicked out. 

Manolas was awful for the national team. He really pissed me off and was a total primadonna, not taking the national team seriously and then being at fault for an embarrassing goal conceded against Liechtenstein in Euro 2020 qualifying in which the result was 1-1 in the end. I think that was the end of his national team career. 

 

He used the national team to help him boost his club career, did great at the 2014 World Cup to get a big move to Roma and then he stopped playing with passion for the national team, it was quite disgraceful.

 

 

Sokratis made mistakes too in those years but not as bad, and in his case there is personal drama with our coach as well. I would definitely prefer him over Manolas. Sokratis always showed passion for the national team even when we hit rock bottom.

 

 

Siovas was another good CB who was kicked out of the national team last year by this coach who is very divisive and overreacted to a comment Siovas made about Manolas and Sokratis being important to the team (when it was clear that the coach had no intentions of inviting them).

 

So there is a lot of drama and with Tzavellas being suspended, we were left with Mavropanos and Chatzidiakos as CBs (not sure why Kyriakos didn't play, I think he is injured). They are still good players and we have a lot of depth at that position so we are lucky but they made costly mistakes today due to their inexperience.

 

 

 

EDIT-Sorry if what I am saying is confusing, I am quite angry now and my thoughts are all over the place 

[Makedonas 2,239]

Sorry for ranting, I thought I typed it here in one of these posts but I guess I deleted it by accident.

 

But Manolas was seen out at a bar the night before a national team game in Athens, it was very unprofessional and in that game he made a stupid mistake against a small team (I think it was the Liechtenstein game) and he was heavily criticized for it. I don't think he played for the national team after that again. We conceded a late equaliser in the 85th min or something.

 

 

However when he played for Roma and now Napoli he is more serious. It is quite disrespectful and makes it seem that he only cares about money than his country. Of course I don't follow Serie A very closely to know what he is like there but it seems this way to me at least...

 

 

Many years have passed now and I would like to give them both another chance with the national team, especially since toxic Tzavellas (who has a history of drama with other Greek players in the national team and is older than them and far less successful) was given a million chances with the national team and is still playing.