Greece v Ivory Coast

shrewdness

Who woulda thought one of Costa Rica or Greece would be in the quarter finals? Really hope Costa Rica can keep their run going and knock them out.

Washington Irving

Billy86 wrote: »

Put money on Greece at 1-0 but absolutely despise them at the same time. I'm very torn here.

Double loss so. What's there to be torn about? Heap on the misery

efb

Thats what you get for insisting your country's name is in French!

Dolph Starbeam

Was impressed with Greece tonight, they really went for it from the beginning, a lot better than they were in their previous two games. Costa Rica or Greece will now make it to the quarters, did not see that coming.

murpho999

shrewdness wrote: »

Who woulda thought one of Costa Rica or Greece would be in the quarter finals? Really hope Costa Rica can keep their run going and knock them out.

Had to laugh at Danny Murphy on BBC saying " It makes it more frustrating for an Englishman as England v Greece would have been a good tie".
How if you only get 1 point from 9 do they think they would beat Greece?

Lando Griffin

Danny Murphy very uncomfortable looking with Robbies arm behind him.

Dozen Wicked Words

murpho999 wrote: »

Had to laugh at Danny Murphy on BBC saying " It makes it more frustrating for an Englishman as England v Greece would have been a good tie".
How if you only get 1 point from 9 do they think they would beat Greece?

Out of possible next round opponents he is absolutely right, Greece is a good tie for anyone to get, they are one of the worst teams left in it. His point is valid. They probably would have beaten England, as they would also have been one of the worst teams left had they scraped out of the group.

murpho999

Dozen Wicked Words wrote: »

Out of possible next round opponents he is absolutely right, Greece is a good tie for anyone to get. His point is valid.

No, it isn't as England did not come near getting there.

Dozen Wicked Words

murpho999 wrote: »

No, it isn't as England did not come near getting there.

No, and that's why he is frustrated.

La Mer

well that was a joke

i'v known Greece to be one of the luckiest teams in Europe since 2004. Nothing has changed

Skylinehead

La Mer wrote: »

well that was a joke

i'v known Greece to be one of the luckiest teams in Europe since 2004. Nothing has changed

It's not luck if you keep doing it :cool:

Say Your Number

Say Your Number wrote: »

Thank god for that, hope they hold on.

This is all my fault

Johnny Utah

I'm absolutely delighted to see Greece go through. There's a gulf in class between the European & South American teams and the rest of the World, and they had to achieve a far higher standard to qualify than that required by African teams for example.

Nuri Sahin

kryogen wrote: »

If the Ivory Coast players had a

Deep lying playmaker and not a fool like Tiote as DM? :pac:

trashcan

Well, there was just a horrible inevitability about that wasn't there? I don't care how dogged, resolute, etc,etc the Greeks are. I can't stand them. Yeah Ivory Coast can't have too many complaints, they were ropey at the back all game, but at least they tried to come out and play. I'll be supporting Ivory Coast in the next round.

Skylinehead

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Deep lying playmaker

That's the African teams problem at heart. Have they ever produced anyone with the ability to control a game?

hidinginthebush

Anyone know what happened to the Greek keeper? They glossed over it on the rte highlights. Must have been bad enough with ~5 mins stopped.

Dozen Wicked Words

hidinginthebush wrote: »

Anyone know what happened to the Greek keeper? They glossed over it on the rte highlights. Must have been bad enough with ~5 mins stopped.

Did his back in

Nuri Sahin

Skylinehead wrote: »

That's the African teams problem at heart. Have they ever produced anyone with the ability to control a game?

Bingo, and not that I can remember, nope.

Skylinehead

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Bingo, and not that I can remember, nope.

Not just deep-lying, but even behind the strikers. Not an ounce of creativity in them, Yaya Toure is probably the best they have even for passing the ball.

Zico

Skylinehead wrote: »

That's the African teams problem at heart. Have they ever produced anyone with the ability to control a game?

According to Channel 4 there's a few in the Ghanayan FA who can.:)

Nuri Sahin

Skylinehead wrote: »

Not just deep-lying, but even behind the strikers. Not an ounce of creativity in them, Yaya Toure is probably the best they have even for passing the ball.

Okacha for Nigeria is probably the most notable African name in the last 20 years really for the CAM spot, Yaya aside, outside of that, I'm really struggling.

hullaballoo

trashcan wrote: »

I'll be supporting Ivory Coast in the next round.

I hate to put a downer on your World Cup but Ivory Coast were knocked out by Greece tonight. Sorry about that, mate.

Skylinehead

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Okacha for Nigeria is probably the most notable African name in the last 20 years really for the CAM spot, Yaya aside, outside of that, I'm really struggling.

Even then Okocha was more of an individualist than passmaster supreme.

josh101st

Are Greece through now?

La Mer

josh101st wrote: »

Are Greece through now?

yes .. they will play with costa rica.

Nuri Sahin

Skylinehead wrote: »

Even then Okocha was more of an individualist than passmaster supreme.

Yeah, I suppose, though I thought he was an underrated passer of the ball. His game was never really developed as much as it should have been. Had he had the chance to be coached by a top level coach for a decent chunk of his career early, he could have reached another level for sure.

764dak

frisbeeface wrote: »

Qualifying for the second round having only scored 2 goals and with a -2 goal difference. Must be the worst record to qualify for second round since Ireland in 94?

I think you mean Ireland in 1990. The Netherlands also had the same result as Ireland in 1990. Chile also drew 3 group games in 1998.

dfx-

Two goals in three games, one in the last minute \o/

Skylinehead wrote: »

It's not luck if you keep doing it :cool:

And they keep doing it..next up to put a pin in the Costa Rica bubble.:cool:

RedemptionZ

Skylinehead wrote: »

Not just deep-lying, but even behind the strikers. Not an ounce of creativity in them, Yaya Toure is probably the best they have even for passing the ball.

Don't know how to say this without sounding slightly prejudice, but I don't intend it to be, I believe it's a culture problem in Africa. All chiefs and no indians so to say, everyone wants to be the star so all the best players normally end up in the goal scoring positions. If they had better facilities and scouting systems I'm sure they'd produce better midfielders but alas the money isn't there.

dfx-

Dozen Wicked Words wrote: »

Out of possible next round opponents he is absolutely right, Greece is a good tie for anyone to get, they are one of the worst teams left in it. His point is valid. They probably would have beaten England, as they would also have been one of the worst teams left had they scraped out of the group.

I wouldn't say Greece is a good side to face if you're a team that struggles to create and score goals like England or a typical Hodgson set-up, particularly if Greece don't allow themselves to be counterattacked with pace.

AllGunsBlazing

The Pirate Ship sails on. Next victim - Costa Rica.

LuckyLloyd

Electric finish. Greece do this stuff tournament after tournament. They never say die.

Also those who were paying attention yesterday would have noticed that they fully deserved the win - had far more of the game and hit the woodwork a couple of times.

Dozen Wicked Words

dfx- wrote: »

I wouldn't say Greece is a good side to face if you're a team that struggles to create and score goals like England or a typical Hodgson set-up, particularly if Greece don't allow themselves to be counterattacked with pace.

Greece offer much less going forward than most though, so the ideal team to take to penalties. The spiritual home of England exits from world cups.

bgrove

If IC had played for their jersey and not purely for themselves they would have been home and hosed and not in the situation they find themselves in today. You can be fairly certain they're experts at blaming each other etc, a team of dullards. (The rant of a man who lost a few pound with that pen.)

The Greeks were nothing other than lucky, it was IC's to lose

Skylinehead

bgrove wrote: »

The Greeks were nothing other than lucky, it was IC's to lose

Aside from the little fact that Greece were the better team?

bgrove

Don't deserve to go through, one goal scored in 5 hrs plus prior to last night, it was IC's to lose, which they did through two f ups. Being 'the better team' is a matter of opinion by the way.

Speak Now

Well played Greece, well deserved on the night.

LuckyLloyd

bgrove wrote: »

Don't deserve to go through, one goal scored in 5 hrs plus prior to last night, it was IC's to lose, which they did through two f ups. Being 'the better team' is a matter of opinion by the way.

Sure, but if you take the opinion that the team who pushed the action for most of the match and hit the woodwork three times were the lessor team then I would suggest your opinion is flawed.

Greece deserved to win. Greece won.

peabutler

Anyone who doesn't respect the national pride and balls that this Greece team shows tournament after tournament doesn't understand what international football is all about, Karagounis is as important to the Greeks as Pirlo to the Italians. Legends

Soft Falling Rain

I really enjoyed this game last night and was willing the Greeks on. What a performance full of steel, mental resilience and a insatiable willingness to just ****ing go for it. Delighted for them.

bgrove

Of course they're going to 'go for it', fairly pointless if they didn't. My point is that it was ivorys to lose. Would the greeks be going for it if all they needed was a draw. They'd get the 0-0 and fair play.

bgrove

peabutler wrote: »

Anyone who doesn't respect the national pride and balls that this Greece team shows tournament after tournament doesn't understand what international football is all about, Karagounis is as important to the Greeks as Pirlo to the Italians. Legends

Nobody on here questioned the Greeks national pride or grit etc, Chalk and cheese in comparison to the Africans in terms of teamwork.

trashcan

hullaballoo wrote: »

I hate to put a downer on your World Cup but Ivory Coast were knocked out by Greece tonight. Sorry about that, mate.

Oooops:o It was late, that's my excuse. I meant Costa Rica of course.