Hellas Football

9 Days, 3 Games – Crucial Time for AEL By  Michael Eleven rounds of this Greek Super League have been completed and AEL find themselves in 7th position with 15 points, which this season has been claimed to be the club’s best start in 30 years. That is great and impressive from a fans perspective after 3 seasons battling at the bottom-half of the league surviving relegation. This Greek Super League has been very competitive and the goal for AEL is to keep up with the momentum and show some sort of consistency if they are to achieve a top 6 finish to participate in the Championship play-offs and aim for European football, as stated by eccentric owner Alexis Kougias. Currently the Crimsons have a tough period coming up starting this weekend, with 3 games within a 9 day period consisting of two league games, and a midweek second-leg Greek Cup game. Round 12: AEL vs N.P.S Volos (30/11/19): The first of the three matches coming up for AEL is at home and must put them...

Ethniki Best Moments In Mixed Decade Written by Nick As this decade draws to a close and the Ethniki has played its last game for the calendar year, it is a good time to reflect on the past 10 years. This past decade can be broken down in halves for the Ethniki - almost like the old cliche "a tale of two halves". The first half of the decade saw the team achieve some of the greatest feats in the history of Greek football, whereas the second half of the decade was an unmitigated disaster on all fronts. The only saving grace to end a horror stretch of poor results, is the fact that John van't Schip is building towards a brighter future. Despite this, the Ethniki had numerous great moments from 2010 until 2019. Here are the best wins. Greece 2-1 Nigeria (2010 FIFA World Cup) The tournament itself was not great from a Greek perspective, however, the team created history in a few ways in a famous come from behind win against Nigeria. After an atrocious opening match ...

The Right Connections Written by Greg Gavalas It’s been a long time since the FIFA World Cup of 2014, which was the last major tournament the Ethniki Omada took part in.  What followed has been a well-documented disaster, not only in results, but dire football worse than we have EVER seen. People often described the last 5 years as “back to the dark ages” but I don’t know if many people realise, we hit a low that was as low as it could get. 60th in the world, our worst ranking EVER, losing to minnows like Faroe Islands, Luxemburg,  Estonia, Armenia and drawing to Liechtenstein. L ows I don't know if we will ever hit again and myself and every other fan out there sure as hell does not want to see the likes of what we have in our last two campaigns. Amongst the lows and the nightmares, in August this year, the Greek Football Federation terminated Angelos Anastadiadis’ contract and brought in Dutchman, John Van Schip (JVS), and his team that included Aaron Winter, M...

Make that three wins in a row for Greece under John Van 't Schip as the Ethniki secured a come from behind victory over the already qualified Finland to end an overall disappointing Euro 2020 qualifying campaign on a high. Much like the last home match against Bosnia, and Friday's game against Armenia, Greece had the bulk of possession and attempts on goal, and while they did not take advantage of as many chances as they probably would have liked, they ultimately still came away with the win. Throughout the first twenty-one minutes of this match as Greece dominated possession, they didn't exactly carve out any clear cut chances despite doing most of the attacking. Some half chances fell to Vangelis Pavlidis, Kostas Galanopoulos and Petros Mantalos.  On twenty-two minutes, Vangelis Pavlidis had a curling effort from close range turned behind for a corner off the head of Finnish Defender Sauli Väisänen. Not long after that chance, Captain Kostas Stafylidis ha...

Many fans of the Ethniki would have been praying for the momentum and togetherness that was built in the last sequence of UEFA EURO 2020 Qualifying matches against Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina to continue today against Armenia, and that's exactly what happened.  Greece had Armenia on the back foot for the majority of the first half, and as seven minutes ticked over, the Visitors had their first two meaningful chances to score, with Anastasios Bakasetas and Petros Mantalos going close with long and close range efforts respectively, with the latter hitting the outside of the post.  At times during the first half, as Dimitris Giannoulis wanted to get forward down the left wing, Kostas Stafylidis would then shift from centre back to left back, with Kostas Galanopoulos covering for him in central defence. Which in hindsight was probably the reason for why Giannoulis was such a threat down the left hand side in the first half for Greece. And that's a big tick for the ma...

Has the Greek National Team finally found the man to take them forward? In the last two UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying games against Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina we have seen a team that seems united and that is executing the game plans of a flexible manager, which arguably for a large majority of time since the end of the 2014 FIFA World Cup has been non existent. The Italy Game: Prior to this fixture, and after the unacceptable draw with Liechtenstein, I had serious doubts once again about the man employed by the EPO for the Ethniki, and on paper it seemed like the Italians were going to make life only more miserable, but much to my surprise and delight a relatively inexperienced Greece put up a genuinely serious fight against a powerhouse of world football, there was an obvious game plan and the players bought into it.  Italy found it so difficult to break a stubborn Greece down that it took a needless handball by Andreas Bouchalakis inside the penalty area early in th...

Orestis Kiomourtzoglou is a 21 year old German-Greek footballer. At such a young age he already had amassed over 100 professional football matches firstly at his boyhood club in Germany, SpVgg Unterhaching and currently now in Holland for Eredivisie club Heracles Almelo.  He’s a tall commanding yet game controlling midfielder, with good vision that is making a name for himself and gaining the attention he deserves. He was kind enough to give us this one on one chat as a little get to know you.  Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into football? I was born and raised in Munich and as a lot of kids in Germany, we all loved watching and playing football. I always wanted to become a footballer so with a lot of hard work and dedication I have been lucky enough to be able to do the thing I love as a job. What part of Greece is your family from and have you visited it? My father was born in Thessaloniki and moved to Munich in Ge...

Jannis Nikolaou is a German born footballer with Greek roots through his father. At 26 his career is on the up and as a goal scoring #6 his blooming career bares similarities to another German born footballer with Greek roots in Jose Holebas. Jannis was kind enough to give us his time, and we gladly shine the spotlight on him in our latest 1 on 1. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into football? I‘m a 26 years old guy from a village close to the former German Capital Bonn. That‘s also where I joined my first football Club. As many guys from where I was born and raised, I have been playing football since I was able to run. Of course, it has been my dream to become a professional football player. What part of Greece is your family from and have you visited it? My father is Greek. He was born in Thessaloniki and moved over to Germany many years ago. My mother is German. Yes, I have been to Greece many times. I visit different spots in ne...