Israel vs Greece Preview

Israel is in all likelyhood taking its loss against Croatia, not very well. However some positives can be gained from the game, notably the amount of possession and pressure that Israel had versus the Croats. However this does not make up for the fact that Israel conceded more goals and scored less. The challenge will be even greater against the Greeks due to the fact that stalwart defender Tal Ben-Haim will be out due to an accumulation of yellows. Greece fields a formidable defence that will be hard to break down. Although Greece’s forwards are not world class, they may be able to exploit a very weak central pairing of Dekel Keinan and Tamir Cohen. Not exactly what Israel needs in a such a big game. Luis Fernandez will be opening in a slightly more offensive formation with Lior Rafaelov starting along with Dani Bondarv and Dedi Ben-Dayan. The player on the offensive side of the ball that Israel should fear the most is Sotiris Ninis. The Panathinaikos wonderkid has made a name for himself with some great performances over the last year, and will probably move to a bigger club in the future.  Greece’s key absences will be winger Vassilis Torosidis and midfielder Alexandros Tziolis. Both played in Greece’s last game, with Torosidis scoring the winning goal. Israel needs to score the first goal, to have any chance of winning this game. Overall I think our chances our slim, and we would do best in a shoot-out, but thats unlikely to happen. 2-0 to the Greeks.