Hellas Football

AEK – PAOK Match Analysis (3.2.2019) Lineups PAOK lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Matos and Vieirinha helping El-Kaddouri and Leo Jaba on the wings when PAOK is on the attack. Biseswar acted as a number 10 to target Alef so he can find some space behind AEK’s midfield and Akpom was used as a sole striker so he can hold up the ball. AEK lined up in a 3-5-2 formation with Galo and Hult acting as attacking fullbacks, Alef linking the defence with the midfield, Mantalos and Bakasetas tried to find some space behind PAOK’s midfield and Livaja played just behind AEK’s target man Ponce. The Game 1 st Half After the first 5-6 minutes which saw AEK launch some promising attacks, it quickly became clear that their 3-5-2 formation caused major problems at the back. PAOK were able to target the wings, taking advantage of the fact that Galo and Hult were alone in each side when AEK was defending. This coupled up with the fact that Mantalos and (mainly) Bakasetas were not that k...

Five years ago Greece qualified for the 2014 World Cup, since then the National Team & Greek Football has really struggled, the organization & development of players from the Greek Football Federation since Fernando Santos and Fyssas left has basically been non existent (until recently at least). At club level aside for 4-5 teams the same problem exists. Fortunately with the internet these days, the advanced scouting, agents, and the avenues opened up with the success of former players Dellas, Karagounis, Samaras, Sokratis, etc. Its not all dark for Greek Football, especially with plenty of talent on the way. With all this, the Greek youngsters & their agents are simply just being smarter about their careers (for the most part at least) then they have been in the past. One example is you'll see someone like Olympiakos' Left Back Tsimikas going on loan last season to a Dutch team in the first division which greatly improved his game, while others like Kampe...

Amidst the plethora of other issues that seem to surround Greek Football on a daily basis, sits the issue of stadia and facilities. Where do we currently sit? And what can be done to improve the situation? For years now, Olympiakos has reaped the benefits of having the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium. Although it is nominally owned by the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Olympiakos essentially operate it and run it themselves. When it was built in 2003, Olympiakos received an exclusive 50-year lease for its use, until 2052. Olympiakos would cover all costs surrounding the operating and maintenance of the facility and in return, Olympiakos would pay somewhere around 10% of all revenue generated, back to the Hellenic Olympic Committee. The Georgios Kariaskakis Stadium cost around € 60 million to build by the time it was finished in 2004, this roughly comes to € 75 million in today’s money. In relative terms we are not talking about that much money and you won't find very many peop...

Many of you reading this will by now know, who Greece has drawn, in the group-stage for EURO 2020 Qualifying. Much talk has centred around how easy or how hard the Draw was, is or will be. But with us currently ranked at 43 in the World (some might argue even that is too high for how we are currently playing) and never ever doing anything “easy”, this will no doubt be another nail-biting year of following the Ethniki, as we chase a spot at EURO 2020. Here is a short summary of our opponents as well as our histories against them: Italy (Current Rank - 18) Italy needs no introduction, 4-time World Cup Winners and EURO Winners back in 1968. As has been pretty well publicised in recent times, they have gone through their own problems, having surprisingly missed out on Qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. Football nations the size of Italy do not stay down for long, so you can expect with the talent they have at their disposal, to be looking to hit back in this campaign and they will obvio...