Greece VS Ireland

Greece welcome Ireland for this UEFA Nations League League B Group 2 round 4 clash at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, Athens, early Monday morning Beijing time. A match of mediocre quality by the Nations League B standards is expected here.  Ireland are in 62nd place in the FIFA Ranking which is definitely too high. 66-67th would be a more realistic place in the ranking for them.. Greece, on the other hand, are in the 48th place which is a bit too low. In their last game they beat England, the EURO 2024 finalists, 2-1 in London. They were priced around 12.00-14.00 to win by the bookies but played a terrific game! Indeed, both teams had 12 goal attempts. Greece even recorded one more shot on goal than England! I was impressed with the way Greece defended as a team, shutting down England's world-class offensive players such as Bellingham (Real Madrid), Saka (Arsenal) and Foden (Man City). Bellingham did score the 1-1 goal though but England were able to generate only 0.78 in xG! Greece's number was 0.76. Greece now top the standings with nine points from three games. Their score difference impressive -  is 7:1 to be precise. Ireland were extremely disappointing in the EURO 2024 Qualification, grabbing only six points! They were able to take points only from Gibraltar, a very poor team.. Gibraltar's goal difference was 0:41 and did not take any points. Ireland have won only two of their last nine games. They did, however, beat the disappointing Finland in Helsinki on Thursday local time. They were very lame in the first half and Finland were leading 1-0 at halftime. However, in the second half Finland, once again, became too passive and Ireland also improved their offensive game significantly. Ireland were priced around 2.40 to win at the time of kickoff and did generate a little more in xG – 1.33-1.17. However, Finland had two good scoring chances when the score was 1-1.. I was not impressed with Ireland's performance as a whole but Finland's disappointing performance – especially the mistakes (very poor defending) -  gave the visitors a chance to win – which they took advantage of.

Before defeating Finland Ireland lost Greece 0-2 at home after a poor performance. Indeed, Greece recorded more goal attempts, shots on goal (4-1), total passes, completed passes and attacks. Ireland generated an almost hilariously low 0.26 in expected goals (xG). Before this they faced England at home and lost 0-2. However, Ireland did not have a genuine chance to take even a draw. Ireland, boosted by their very loud fans,  started the game sharply – some 10 minutes. However, England, despite missing some important players – for example Manchester City's Phil Foden -  scored twice in the first half. Let's remember that  Foden was the Player of the Season in the English Premier League last season. The two quick goals seemed to depress the Irish players quite a bit, which is not a good sign for the future.. In the second half England lowered the tempo - aiming to prevent Ireland from scoring.. England had over 70% ball possession and generated 2.43 in xG. Ireland's number was only 0.33. England are, of course, a very strong team but I was still disappointed with Ireland's very toothless offense. Before this, in June, Ireland were crushed by Portugal. 3-0 was the final score and Ireland managed to record just one shot on target. Portugal's number was nine. The main rationale behind this pick is to oppose Ireland – as they are – once again – overrated on the betting market. Odds of around 1.80 on the home win are definitely too high and we will eagerly place a bet on the Greeks – once again!  No, they do not have the most enthusiastic fans but there is a positive "vibe" around the Greek national team at the moment – mainly thanks to fine recent results! In the opening round Greece very easily beat Finland 3-0 at home. The Finns did, however, play at a decent level for the first approximately 20 minutes but after that Greece were the better team on the pitch – by a wide margin -  playing a tactically very smart match. Finland generated only 0.23 in xG. Before this Greece easily beat Malta 2-0 at a neutral location. The Greeks had an impressive 20 goal attempts.

希腊VS爱尔兰

北京时间周一凌晨，在雅典比雷埃夫斯的卡拉斯卡基斯体育场举行的欧足联B组第4轮比赛中，希腊队将迎来爱尔兰队。按照国际乙级联赛的标准，这将是一场质量一般的比赛。爱尔兰在国际足联排名中排名第62位，这绝对太高了。对他们来说，排名第66-67位更现实。另一方面，希腊排在第48位，有点太低了。在上一场比赛中，他们在伦敦以2比1击败了2024年欧洲杯决赛选手英格兰队。他们的赌注在12.00-14.00之间，但他们打了一场精彩的比赛！事实上，两队都有12次进球尝试。希腊甚至比英格兰多射一球！希腊的防守方式给我留下了深刻的印象，他们压制了英格兰的世界级进攻球员，如贝灵汉（皇家马德里）、萨卡（阿森纳）和福登（曼城）。贝灵汉确实打进了1比1的进球，但英格兰队在xG比赛中只创造了0.78个进球！希腊的指数为0.76。希腊目前在三场比赛中积9分，排名第一。他们的比分差距令人印象深刻——准确地说，是7:1。爱尔兰队在2024年欧洲杯预选赛中表现非常令人失望，只拿到了6分！他们只能从一支很差的球队直布罗陀那里拿分。直布罗陀的净胜球是0:41，没有拿到任何分数。爱尔兰在过去的9场比赛中只赢了2场。然而，当地时间周四，他们在赫尔辛基击败了令人失望的芬兰队。他们在上半场踢得很差劲，半场结束时芬兰队以1-0领先。然而，在下半场，芬兰再次变得过于被动，爱尔兰也明显改善了他们的进攻。在开球时，爱尔兰队的胜率被定在2.40左右，而xG的胜率则高出了一点——1.33-1.17。然而，芬兰队在比分为1比1时获得了两次很好的得分机会。我对爱尔兰的整体表现并不满意，但芬兰队令人失望的表现——尤其是失误（非常糟糕的防守）——给了客队一个获胜的机会——他们利用了这个机会。

在击败芬兰之前，爱尔兰在主场0-2负于表现不佳的希腊。事实上，希腊的进球次数、射门次数（4比1）、总传球次数、完成传球次数和进攻次数都更多。爱尔兰队的预期进球数（xG）几乎低到了令人捧腹的0.26。在此之前，他们在主场面对英格兰，以0比2输掉了比赛。然而，爱尔兰甚至没有真正的机会取得平局。爱尔兰队在球迷的大力支持下，比赛一开始就很激烈——大约10分钟。然而，英格兰队，尽管失去了一些重要的球员——比如曼城的菲尔·福登——在上半场梅开二度。让我们记住，福登是上赛季英超联赛的最佳球员。这两个快速进球似乎让爱尔兰球员有些沮丧，这对未来来说不是一个好兆头。下半场英格兰放慢了节奏，目的是阻止爱尔兰进球。英格兰控球率超过70%，全场进球2.43。爱尔兰的数字只有0.33。当然，英格兰是一支非常强大的球队，但我仍然对爱尔兰软弱无力的进攻感到失望。在此之前的6月，爱尔兰被葡萄牙击败，最终比分是3比0，爱尔兰只射正了一球。葡萄牙的排名是9。这一选择背后的主要理由是反对爱尔兰——因为他们——再一次——在博彩市场上被高估了。主场获胜的赔率约为1.80，这绝对太高了，我们将热切地把赌注押在希腊人身上——再一次！不，他们没有最热情的球迷，但希腊国家队目前有一种积极的“氛围”——主要是由于最近的好成绩！在首场比赛中，希腊在主场3-0轻松击败芬兰。芬兰人确实在前20分钟踢得不错，但在那之后希腊队在球场上表现得更好——以很大的优势——踢了一场战术上非常聪明的比赛。芬兰在2009年仅为0.23。在此之前，希腊在一个中立的地点轻松地以2比0击败了马耳他。希腊人有令人印象深刻的20次射门。