Greece vs Gibralter: Euro 2024 Qualifiers Preview

Greece vs Gibralter: 

Euro 2024 Qualifiers Preview

By Christian Leggas




The Way Forward 


Fresh off the worst performance the Ethniki has produced since the horror home showing against 

Italy in 2019, our beloved National Team take to the pitch in Athens against winless Gibraltar today in 

what is not only a must win game but also a must win game by plenty of goals, which would ease the 

nerves for supporters about both the main-man in charge and his current batch of personal 

preferneces.


The match against Holland earlier this week saw a combination of rare defensive brain fades as a 

team and a total lack of open play attacking maneuvers. If both horror ingredients are seen in the 

recipe to win this game? (Which I know was not then plan then and won't be today). The crucial win 

will undoubtedly elude the team.


We go into this game without the injured George Baldock and the suspended quartet of Manolis 

Siopis, Dimitrios Kourbelis, Kostas Tsimikas and Petros Mantalos. Five regular starters of recent times 

missing could present itself as nervewracking, but also a chance to give more opportunities to the 

likes of Lazaros Rota, Giannis Papanikolaou, Sotiris Alexandropoulos, Dimitris Giannoulis and 

Taxiarchis Fountas. Dinos Mavropanos should slot straight back into the starting line-up after 

completing his suspension, whilst there is a definite need to change things in attack.


You can only lye in the bed you make once you've already picked your squad, and our available 

wingers, attacking midfielders and strikers should help get the desried result against a minnow like 

Gibraltar, but in particular, the need to find more wingers and attacking midfield options is pivotal for 

the rest of this qualifying campaign and going into the upcoming calendar year. For starters, Gus 

Poyet must re-integrate the likes of Christos Tzolis and Giannis Konstantelias for starting next month 

against Ireland and the return fixture against the Dutch.


I'm sure the efforts and hard-work of the likes of Dimitris Pelkas and Tasos Chatzigiovanis deserve 

plenty of applause. But the reality is that a Tzolis and a Konstantelias, who present as enormous 

future and present-day prospects for this team, have to be given every chance for minutes now 

ahead of these two for the sake of more-likely favourable results for the Ethniki. I don't want that to 

sound like they're to blame for this teams good attacking deficiencies entirely. That would be 

blatantly insulting and unfair. They're just two who have to make way for better players.


The Tasos Douvikas elephant in the room is another point of conversation. The dury is still out for 

how well he'll do if he gets the nod up front Nationally again soon, as performances so far under 

Poyet have been underwhelming from him. Impressive performances and goals for new club Celta 

Vigo would hopefully make it impossible for Poyet not to select him for Octobers fixtures. He 

deserves another chance off because of his recent outputs at FC Utrecht.


Back to what is ahead of this team today, a win is needed most of all, and I hope, as promised, Gus 

Poyet and the boys have learned a lot this month.


@chris_alcoswil_

Hellas Football

Comments

  1. Anonymous10 September 2023 at 15:11

    How can you write an entire article on Greece's attack or lack of it and not even mention Bakasetas - one of the main reasons Greece has not qualified for a tournament in over a decade?

    ReplyDelete

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