ok the qualifying draw was drawn last night and the groups are as follows :

Group A
Portugal
Poland
Serbia & Mont
Belgium
Finland
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Kazakhstan

Group B
France
Italy
Ukraine
Scotland
Lithuania
Georgia
Faroe Islands

Group C
Greece
Turkey
Norway
Bosnia
Hungary
Moldova
Malta

Group D
Czech Republic
Germany
Slovakia
Rep Of Ireland
Wales
Cyprus
San Marino

Group E
England
Croatia
Russia
Israel
Estonia
Macedonia
Andorra

Group F
Sweden
Spain
Denmark
Latvia
Iceland
Northern Ireland
Liechtenstein

Group G
Holland
Romania
Bulgaria
Slovenia
Albania
Belarus
Luxembourg

:bigemo_harabe_net-192: :bigemo_harabe_net-192: Oleeeeeeeee time for national teams to move their ass

Group C
Greece
Turkey
Norway
Bosnia
Hungary
Moldova
Malta

WE HAVE AN ACCEPTIONALLY EASY DRAW WITH THE EXCEPTION OF TURKEY... THEN NORWAY I SUPPOSE...

BUT LET'S SEE HOW WE GO AND HOPEFULLY WE HAVE A YOUNGER SQUAD THIS TIME ROUND...

We can beat every team this time round, the squad will NOT be as good as our EURO2004 qualifying squad but it will be miles ahead of the WC2006 squad. Why do I think this? Let me tell you

A few things will help us qualify for EURO2008, these things are depth, new mentality (from Otto) and youth

DEPTH
The squad looks a bit shattered right now but I think that we can have a great deal of depth in our squad by the time the qualifiers are well and truly underway.

In centre backs we have an ageing yet very good group of players. By the time EURO 2008 comes around the back 4 (it will be 4 no doubt), will probably look something like this

Seitaridis........Kyrgiakos........Dellas/Tavlaridis...........Darlas/Fyssas

At CB we have much depth: Tavlaridis, Kyrgiakos, Kapsis (maybe too old by 2008), Dellas, Goumas, Alexopoulos and Vyntra (yes he can play CB, I beleive he is better CB then RB). A good mix of youth and experience, I have faith in this position

Our only worry here is depth at the wingback position

RB: Seitaridis, Vyntra, Patsazoglou
LB: Fyssas, Darlas, Lagos, Venetidis (I believe he can play LB as well as LM)

I believe by 2008 that Vyntra will be miles ahead of where he is now and that hopefully Seitaridis will have moved from hell and regained his touch.
Fyssas is the type of player who can steam ahead for years, he will be 36 or something but who knows.
Darlas is a shining light at PAO and showed experience beyong his years for us in a few games this year at a very tender age and with a shocking team around him. By 2008 he will be very good.
Patsa is a 50/50, he could stay out of injury trouble and become a great RB again (also he is very versatile player who can play a lot of positions, good for any squad)

In midfield we have a little bit of a worry but sufficient depth I believe. It may look like this by 2008

Lagos.....Basinas.....Tziolis/Karagounis.....Karagounis/Stelios

I think that is as solid a midfield as we can field, Zagorakis is past it and shouldnt be playing anymore I dont think, keep him as a sub
In depth we have Katsouranis, Lybe and Amanatidis who can play midfield, Kafes and a few players coming through like Kapetanos and Leontiou

In attack we are overloaded with potentially great and some very good strikers

Gekas, Lybe, Mantzios, Papadopoulos, Salpiggidis, Xaristeas and Samaras are all proven in one way or another

Gekas has been top scorer, Pap has been second top scorer and has shown some mighty form in the past, Xaristeas has proven it to the world at EURO and when he was at Aris that he is a quality scorer, Samaras has shown some intimidating potential which has to be harnessed by his new club Manchester City for him to become the superstar he could become, Salp has been foveri for PAOK and is a consistent big match performer, Mantzios has shown a huge amount of potential.

In goalkeepers, Sifakis, Nikopolidis, Kotsolis and up and comers like Abaris, Tzorvas and co. should make sure we have good depth but I think Clooney and Kotsolis are the likely candidates for number 1 and 12.

As usual, the coach just has to find a way of harnessing this power for international standard football. I believe that the relatively lower quality of opposition as well as the smaller amount of high tension games in this campaign will allow us to bleed in some good players and get them used to this kind of football. There is only one team in the group who can beat us off their crowd alone (Turkey), unlike last year when we had a bitter Ukraine and Albania in addition to Turkey. Hopefully this will allow the players to be let into the team without having to get scared shitless by 40,000 blood hungry barbarians wanting to kill them in their first game

MENTALITY
I think Otto is over the whole EURO2004 thing. I dont think he will continue the malakia he did in WC2006 qualifying where he will play any EURO04 star in any position to maintain their spot in the squad e.g. playing Basinas as a CB when he could easily have put in Kyrgiakos, Vyntra, Goumas etc. On top of this, I think that slowly but surely the changes have been coming in for the Ethniki, new and young players are coming in and replacing the outgoing EURO players which is a very good thing as we cant hold onto them forever. Also I think that Otto has shown a good deal of patience with the squad and he is doing the right thing by mixing them in with pre existing stars like Basinas, Karagounis, Stelios etc.

YOUTH
I think I just went overboard in the depth thing and already addressed this hehe

Anyway, just my thoughts

EDIT: SOME of my thoughts, im sure when I have some sense of organisation to my brain i'll have more to say

niko very good analysis

i think our group is not much of a worry to us, but we cant have the menality that we are champions of this comp therefor we can do it easy... it will take alot of hard work and theres nothing greeks do better then working hard for what they want...

ps. thanks for fixing my post niko i was to 'sleepy weepy' to do myself

all i have to say is GOOOOOO E/\/\ASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS LOL :bigemo_harabe_net-192:

I think the Greek team for Euro 2008 should be something like this:

Goalkeeper: 1.Antonios Nikopolidis ©
Central defenders: 4.Stathis Tavlaridis 5.Trianos Dellas
Right back: 2.Giourkas Seitaridis
Left back: 3.Sotirios Kyriakos
Central Midfielders: 8.Kostas Katsouranis 6.Angelos Basinas
Right Midfielder: 7.Stelios Giannakopoulos
Left Midfielder: 10.Georgios Karagounis
Forwards: 9.Angelos Charisteas 11.Giorgios Samaras

Backup Reserve Squad Members:
Goalkeeper: Sifakis
Central defenders: Mihalis Kapsis & Antzas
Right Back: Vyntra
Left Back: Darlas
Midfielders: Pandelis Kafes, Lagos & Stotidis
Forwards: Anamatidis, Papadopoulos & Lyberopoulos


If Theo Zagorakis & Takis Fyssas are fit & playing well, I would still pick them even at 37 & 36 years of age.

KyrGiakos is not a left back and has no chance in hell of playing LB

Stoltidis is not good enough and is past it