[AMOROSO!]

Today is the day. Something that always excites me... the U-21 national team!

At 21.00 (MEGA will be showing it on TV for those who are in Greece) the U-21 is starting its adventure in the European Championship held in Switzerland. Our first oponent is Belgium. Our team is of course hoping for something we've been chasing for 8 years now... the Cup! Needless to say it will be damn hard with powerhouses like Italy, France and Portugal around but we do know that unlike the senior team our U-21 can stand up against anyone. Unfortunately, the top scorer and leader of the team, Giorgos Vakouftsis, was injured in the last game of the championship and was ruled out of the tournament, Kazantzis of Aris replaced him.

Here is the roster:

Goalkeepers
Stefanos Kotsolis (Panathinaikos)
Nikos Anastasopoulos (Xanthi)
Giannis Liourdis (Paniliakos)

Defenders
Sotiris Kirgiakos (Panathinaikos)
Kostas Louboutis (Aris)
Vaggelis Nastos (PAOK)
Minas Pitsos (Panathinaikos)
Stathis Tavlaridis (Arsenal, England))
Spiros Valas (Xanthi)
Giourkas Seitaridis (Panathinaikos)
Giorgos Kiriazis (Iraklis)

Midfielders
Christos Patsatzoglou (Olympiakos)
Giannis Amanatidis (Greuter Furth, Germany)
Xenofodas Gittas (PAS Giannena)
Kostas Katsouranis (Panahaiki)
Giorgos Theodoridis (Aris)
Labros Vaggelis (Siena, Italy)

Forwards
Anestis Agritis (Egaleo)
Aggelos Charisteas (Werder Bremen, Germany)
Dimitris Papadopoulos (Burnley, England)
Dimitris Salpigidis (Kavala)
Giorgos Kazantzis (Aris)

I don't know guys, but in my opinion there is no striker like Charisteas in the whole tournament. And our defence with Tavlaridis and Kirgiakos looks damn strong. The midfield is not as strong but Michalopoulos usually uses Patsatzoglou and Kiriazis there and they have never let us down.

 

[AMOROSO!]

Here is an interview with midfielder Giannis Amanatidis about the Championship:

http://sportnews.flash.gr/articles/2002/5/15/17225/

And here are the press interview comments by our coach Giannis Michalopoulos and some players:

http://sportnews.flash.gr/articles/2002/5/15/17239/

 

[AMOROSO!]

Our starting line up against Belgium? Michalopoulos will go for the usual 4-3-3 with Patsatzoglou playing right back since Seitaridis has some stomach problems. Patsatzoglou's usual role, aka defencive midfielder, will be covered by Kostas Katsouranis. The rest of the defence will be the usual: Kotsolis as goalkeepers, Louboutis as left back, Kirgiakos and Tavlaridis the CBs. Captain Kiriazis and as said Katsouranis will be the two defencive midfielders. Theodoridis the #10 while Amanatidis will be operating in his usual free role at the right wing. Dimitris "Speedy Gonzalez " Papadopoulos as a forward operating mostly on the left, while Charisteas will be the area striker up front. There is the possibility of Patsatzoglou playing midfielder with Nastos at RB and Katsouranis going on the bench. Pitsos could also play instead of Louboutis while against the tall Belgians Michalopoulos might decide to launch two big strikers, so that will mean bench for Amanatidis or Papadopoulos and space for Agritis up front next to Charisteas. But this should be the line up:

____________________Kotsolis_______________

Patsatzoglou___Tavlaridis___Kirgiakos___Louboutis

______________Kiriazis_____Katsouranis_______

__________________Theodoridis______________

Amanatidis________________________________

__________Charisteas_____Papadopoulos______

 

[Panathinaikara]

I hope we take the cup...i have many hopes..it just won't be easy but we have done it again...against Spain..remember?
Elefthoropoulos just didn't help us...
i hope we take that f****n cup...

 

[LuisPedroCat]

I've noticed Charisteas hasn't played many matches in the qualifying period (not even benched). Why was that? He's a certain as starter?

 

[Panathinaikara]

Haristeas is sure for the starting line up..

 

[tigerTUFF]

Thats b/c he was called to the senior squad regularly towards the end of qualifiers.

I think we're a show, seitarides, Patsatzoglou and charisteas are pure class and will cause problems for anyone,

really excited abt this, b/c unlike the senior NT these kids go for broke and play to their capabilities

 

[Viola]

Charisteas has moved to Bremen?? Never heard of this transfer before. But clever move by Bremen...

 

[LuisPedroCat]

I've also read some good things about Amanatidis. Is he probable to start against Belgium?

 

[Viola]

Very likely. I've seen him quite often and he's great. He'll soon be a Bundesliga star.

 

[AMOROSO!]

Yes, Charisteas agreed to move to Werder earlier this season. He costed something like 3 million euros. Charisteas and Patsatzoglou hardly played in the qualifiers cause they were called up in the senior team. So Papadopoulos and basically Vakouftsis had to do the job and they did damn good. Along with Amanatidis they formed a spectaculary fast attack.

Vakouftsis is a huge loss, he was by far our best player in the qualifiers, our top scorer, and the player the team was basically looking up to during the game. Charisteas is of course better, so he could take the role. We have no problem in attack cause Salpigidis and Agritis have scored few goals whenever they played, and they are both great subs.

Another observation is some tactical moves by Michalopoulos. Kiriazis, who is the captain and oldest player of the team, a pure defender for his club, has been playing defencive midfielder for the U-21 and he has been among the best players in every game. Also Nastos, also a defender for his club, has also played anchor with great success. Finally, the free role Amanatidis usually has wide on the right is one of the strong points of the team. Amanatidis came out of nowhere and had an excellent qualifing round, I still remember his goals against Germany, dribbled 3 defenders and the goalkeeper before netting it, among them, current starter for the German senior NT Metzelder...

 

[Kostas]

Well,if we want to take the cup then we must not afraid teams like Belgium.We have better team than them and the win is a must.

As you said,surely Vakouftsis is a big loss but we have vathos in the bench.Look at Salpiggidis...the short forward of Kavala finished as top scorer in the championship of Division 3.

As for the team we must look for in the first round is France,They have some quality players such as Cisse and Govu.

 

[LuisPedroCat]

Cissé is going to World Cup, there will be Luyundula.

Who's going to form the central defense agaisnt Belgium? Kirgiakos-Tavlaridis?

 

[Kostas]

Yes,it looks like a good and strong defense.Doesn't matter that Seitaridis as Amo said will not play.The problem is not at the right back as we have Patsatzoglou.The problem is at defensive midfield from where Patsatzoglou is leaving and someone else must take his place.

 

[AMOROSO!]

Great.

We lost 2-1 after some tragic defending according to the reports... Did anyone see the game so he could give us a match report?

Loosing from Belgium who was considered the worse team in the group is certainly not a good sign, the Czech Republic and especially France do not joke. Very subpar start and it will take a miracle to achieve something good now...

At the other game of our group, France beat the Czechs 2-0...

 

[Kostas]

Why Eurosport didn't have the game?It could be good for you that live abroad.

I saw tha game.We played very bad,especially in the first half.The match was of them that has no many good chances.We began the game trying to find the players with long balls but it was very difficult to do this in the tall Belgian defense.We should play with the ball down and to try to tryphsoume their defense.Belgium,then had two good chances and finally they scored.In the second half we were a bit better with Patsatzoglou taking some efforts and the entrance of Theodoridis gave us some more power in the midfield.But we earned a second goal and obviously we believed that we lost the match.It was a late goal as you know...The only thing we suceeded was to do the 1-2 with Xenofon Gittas.This goal may help us to possible isovathmies(same points with others).Kirgiakos got injured and was replaced.

 

[Panathinaikara]

We played very bad..our worst game in the diorganosi..

 

[Adriano]

France 2 - Sidney Govou 40, Olivier Sorlin 45
Czech Republic 0
Half time: 2-0
Stadium: Les Charmilles, Geneve
Attendance 5000
Referee : ERSOY Erol (Turkey)

France: Landreau, Escude, Boumsong, Brechet, Reveillere, Berson, Pedretti, Sorlin, Malbranque (Chapuis, 86), Luyindula, (Armand, 71), Govou, (Frau, 46)

Czech Republic: Cech, Rezehnal, Hubschman, Jiranek, Grygera, Vorisek, V. Drobny, Kobylik, Horak (Zelenka, 46), Baros, (Vachousek, 62), Prospisil
---------------------------------------
Belgium 2 - Koen Daerden 33, Tom Soetaers 83
Greece 1- Xenofon Gitas 90
Half time: 1-0
GRANAT Jacek (Poland)
Olympique de la Pontaise - Lausanne

Belgium: Gillet, Delorge, Maertens, De Roeck, Teelen, Dufer, Van Dessel, Reigel, Daerden, Chatelle (Soetaers, 70), Vandooren (Gregoire, 90)

Greece: Kotsolis, Patsatzoglou, Loumpoutis, Kyriazis, Kyrgiakos, Amanatidis (Theodoridis, 46) , Papadopoulos, Nastos (Salpingidis, 18), Katsouranis, Charisteas, Tavlaridis


Group 2: standings
France 1 1 0 0 2 0 3
Belgium 1 1 0 0 2 1 3
Greece 1 0 0 1 1 2 0
Czech Republic 1 0 0 1 0 2 0

 

[Panathinaikara]

Nothing to say but:i paraga tis uefa!
But except of this we played very badly!!!

 

[Kostas]

In the last day,France did what they must do...they won Belgium 2-0 but we were unable to win the strong Chech squad.Although the penalty was a big mistake...