Greece - Turkey Euro 2008 Qualifying Match

[admin]

Greece - Turkey Euro 2008 Qualifying Match

24/03/07 Stadio Karaiskaki 21:30

Referee

Wolfgang Stark (GER)

Assistant referee

Carsten Kadach (GER) Sönke Glindemann (GER)

Fourth official

Peter Sippel (GER)

UEFA Referee observer

Hugh Dallas (SCO)

News: Rustu the Turkish goalie is injured.

Greece defender Giourkas Seitaridis believes Saturday's qualifier against Turkey in Athens will have a significant bearing on whether the holders will be defending their UEFA European Championship crown in Austria and Switzerland next year.

Greece's Theofanis Gekas has urged fans to be "committed but not aggressive" when the European champions host neighbours Turkey in Saturday's big match.


Greece looking like it will use 4-3-3 offensive football...

http://www.contra.gr/Soccer/Europe/E...ey/147362.html





Se gnoriso apo tin kopsi,
Tou spathiou tin tromeri, Se gnoriso apo tin opsi, Pou me via metra tin yi. Ap' ta kokala vialmeni, Ton Ellinon ta iera, Ke san prota andriomeni, Haire, o haire, Eleftheria!
Ke san prota andriomeni, Haire, o haire, Eleftheria!
Ke san prota andriomeni, Haire, o haire, Eleftheria!G

[bluecool]

what happened man?

[macedonian]

We lain an egg. Simple as that. I hate to say it, but our goalie laid the egg himself.

[bluecool]

it was a important victory for us...but not a biggest one b/c we do it usually...haha...to see when greeks were applausing our players was a good event...they deserved this praise...

[Beckhams]

What a loss for Greece... it was so close as well. Greece had numerous chances, Turkey finished better. Could easily have went either way except for Greeces goalie....But the MVP player of the game is Nikopolidis (for the Turkish team!) :P

[admin]

Like Beckhams said, the ball is round.

Greece supporters should be happy they won the Euro 2004 and saw the 300 Spartan movie. Yes it is quite sad that they lost, however everyone learns from mistakes. It is how good you get up after you fall that makes you who you are.

But back to the game.
Nikopolidis was awful. Greece's midfield was atrocious (only 3 in the middle with 4-3-3) and 2 of the midfields (of the 3) were defensive mids.
This left a huge gap in the middle.

Also flanks (wings) of Greece were weak at the back with Seitaridis attacking. Also, poor finishing from Greece (2 goal posts, 1 break away and 2 open nets with ZERO goals) really makes for a sad event.

Add to that the senile old Nikopolidis who cant see a ball straight even right at him, and Greece needs some changes.

Maybe Otto should leave...

[admin]

YouTube Video

Turkey Greece Highlights of Game March 24 Euro 2008 Qualifying 4-1


(if you see first Turkey goal, Dellas the Greek defender is too lazy to run up with defenders to press for offside - result is 4 Turkey attackers are onside in the box for easy shoot in)

[brkhvk]

hey greeks does it hurt ? . . . ..

[shevchenko]

Nikopolidis was terrible!!! those turkish goals were below amateur at best...Nikopolidis should have had them to begin with...any other keeper in this world would have saved those garbage goals...Dellas looked terrible too...

[killer_6]

The first goal Nikopolidis allowed he should have/could have caught, but instead he punched it away and gave Turkey another chance.
The second was pretty weak, he seemed slow to react.
The third was attrocious. It looked almost like he let it in on purpose.
The fourth you can't really blame him, Dellas got schooled, but it wasn't an unstopable shot. It was from a bad angle, maybe Nikopolidis should have saved it...

Overall it was his worst performance ever... I hope there is a young replacement somewhere, waiting in the wings.