Hellas Football

 Olympiakos U19: Champions of Europe By Stephen Kountourou The first in history  The first Greek side to win a UEFA competition. Saying that out loud feels strange….but it is true. Even UEFA proclaimed on their official social media that this was the case. Olympiakos U19 achieved something incredible on the 22nd of April 2024. Champions of the UEFA Youth League. Champions of Europe and a great example of what can be achieved in Greek football when youth are allowed to develop and flourish.  Sotris Silaidopoulos and his players deserve huge credit for doing what no other Greek club side at any level has been able to achieve and they deserve every bit of praise. But how did the journey to the final in Nyom begin? The run to the final Due to the group stages mirroring the men's senior Champions League group stages, and the Olympiakos senior team not participating in that tournament, the U19s, as Greek champions, began in the Domestic Champions Path. This was their chance to ...

  Fenerbahce vs Olympiakos: UEFA Conference League Quarter-Finals Second Leg Preview By Stephen Kountourou UEFA Conference League Quarter-Final Second Leg: 16/04/24 Kick-off Time: 22:00 Greek Time Venue: Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium  Where to Watch: Cosmote Sport 4 HD The almost great victory in Piraeus Olympiakos ran out 3-2 winners in front of a raucous Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium. Kostas Fortounis opened the scoring with the goal of the round after a mistake from the Febahce defence, allowing the Thrylos captain to put the home side ahead. cruisingJovetic continued his rich vein of form with a second just after the half-hour mark. After Chiqunho made it 3-0 in the second half, Thrylos were cruising.  However, a poor mistake from Panagiotis Retsos gave the away side a lifeline penalty, which was slotted home by Dusan Tadic. With a way back into the tie, Fenerbahce took advantage of Olympiakos losing control of the match and lowered the deficit further through İrfan Kahveci'...

PAOK vs Club Brugge: UEFA Conference League Quarter-Final Preview By Konstantinos Massaras. Facing a two goal deficit in the second leg of their Round of 16 tie, nobody seems to understand how PAOK have managed to survive in this tournament for so long, especially since they began in the Conference League second qualifying round. That is because nobody outside of Greece has seen this team play for more than two matches. This season, PAOK have shown time and time again that they are as talented as they have ever been, but have not always been able to put it together. In Europe however, they have been practically perfect. Razvan Lucescu has made it clear, judging by his lineup selections, that he is going all in for Europe this season. This past weekend, in PAOK’s biggest domestic match of the season thus far, he did not start Taison, Despodov, or Ozdoev, in order to give them some rest for these next two matches against Club Brugge. PAOK is extremely healthy, and in good form. We know h...

  Olympiakos vs Fenerbahce:  UEFA Conference League Quarter-Finals Preview  By Stephen Kountourou UEFA Conference League Quarter-Final First Leg: 11/04/24 Kick-off Time: 19:45 Greek Time Venue: Georgios Karaiskakis  Where to Watch: Cosmote Sport 3 HD For the first time in 25 years, Olympiakos will compete in a major European quarter-final. Since that narrow defeat to Juventus in the 1998/99 edition of the UEFA Champions League, this moment is something Thrylos fans have been waiting for. The chance to finally see their team go on a European run and, as slim a prospect as it may be, of winning a major continental trophy.  In 14 matches, including qualifiers, famous wins, embarrassing defeats and quite possibly the greatest comebacks in the club's history, Jose Luis Mendilibar's men now face another very tough, but familiar opponent.   Thrylos knows all too well what comes with facing Fenerbahce as the match is deep-rooted and goes beyond football for so...

The Best Next Coach and Group of Players By Christian Leggas  If we can take any blessing in disguise from the heartbreaking loss to Georgia, Gus Poyet signalled that there was a good chance that he would not adhere to having a Plan B in multiple areas. I can partly understand why.  The Kazakhstan game was flawless, so he probably felt like he did not need to change much. But if he wasn't willing to use certain players in conjunction with using players that won't cut the mustard against teams of higher quality than recent C-League UEFA Nations League teams, then that could very well bite him on the backside and cost him his job, and it ultimately has. A new coach is necessary now and one who'll put both the best attitude and talent first. No Christos Tzolis for starters against Georgia, even on the bench, was something that I couldn't fathom. There wasn't a better player to bring on when we needed a goal or goals an hour into that match.  Bringing on Giannis Konstan...

The Ethniki needs a cultural shift to a build a winner By George Sots,   Now that the dust has settled from the Euro qualifiers and the playoffs, we’re once again left with nothing but the same repetitive questions…  Was it the manager?  Was it the player selections/lineups? Was it the tactics/formations?  Did we use our best possible XI? I don’t think it took us the entirety of the Euro 2024 campaign to unfold in order for us to see that the issues that have plagued this team over the previous two coaches continued here with Poyet.  Before we look at the most recent skew of questionable leadership, the previous two managers’ tenures fell way short of meeting expectations.  Angelos Anastasiadis’ time with the Ethniki was a shit show that ended with his walking papers, where the two best CB’s in Sokratis and Manolas spoke up over the nonsense they saw behind the scenes.  Here’s a guy who had players kissing  eikones  before games. Sokratis ask...