Since the disappointing 3-0 defeat at Hampden against Greece, Steve Clarke's men have played four times, winning two, drawing one and losing to Iceland in June. Despite this unprecedented Greece barrage of goals and uptick in form, Greek football expert Stephen Kountourou spoke to The Scottish Football Podcast, and feels there are weaknesses in the side that Scotland can look to exploit on Thursday evening. "We have the opposite problem of Scotland whereby we do have some really great midfielders coming through like Christos Zafeiris and Christos Mouzakitis who were the midfield duo against Scotland at Hampden Park," he added.
Since the disappointing 3-0 defeat at Hampden against Greece, Steve Clarke's men have played four times, winning two, drawing one and losing to Iceland in June. In that time they scored seven and conceded just three, all of which came against the Icelanders.
Form that probably justifies a place in the World Cup in the summer, but certainly not anything out of this world.
The Greeks on the other hand, have won three of four scoring 13 goals in the process, with their only loss coming at home to a strong Denmark side last month.
Despite this unprecedented Greece barrage of goals and uptick in form, Greek football expert Stephen Kountourou spoke to The Scottish Football Podcast, and feels there are weaknesses in the side that Scotland can look to exploit on Thursday evening.
"We have the opposite problem of Scotland whereby we do have some really great midfielders coming through like Christos Zafeiris and Christos Mouzakitis who were the midfield duo against Scotland at Hampden Park," he added.
"But beyond that, there's no-one in the middle of the park that's at the peak of their powers right now because we've either got those two who are really young or we have Manolis Siopis, Dimitrios Kourbelis and Petros Mantalos, and even the captain Bakasetas who are all 30 plus.
"And so there's no-one in the middle that's at their absolute peak. And we obviously need to give the younger players time, but I think that there's still a bit of a lack of depth in that midfield area, which the Greek FA are trying to address.
"They have kind of gone to some Greek kind of diaspora players and said to them, 'look, would you like to come and play for Greece'?
"They said, 'we'll give you the opportunity'. And while they haven't come through yet, we know that there are a couple of players waiting in the wings who might address that.
"It depends on the level of those kind of players, though - and if they can take this starting spot in the national team."
Category: General Sports
