Angelos Anastasiadis was sacked from his post as manager of the Greek national team.
After a short meeting with the head of the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO), Evangelos Grammenos, early on Monday morning (Greek time), it was decided that his services would no longer be required. Anastasiadis was at the helm of the Greek squad for only a short period (he took the reigns on October 2018, following the removal of then-manager, Michael Skibbe), yet the results he produced were mostly disappointing.
The 66-year-old attempted to uplift the mentality inside the Greek locker room after a series of poor performances and lack of appearances at big tournaments and seemed focused on the psychological state of his own players but showed a lack of interest for the opposition, with strategies that created confusion inside the squad.
RELATED ARTICLE: Greek teams face stiff test in NPL Rd 17
The lowest point of Anastasiadis’ career as national team coach came last June, when he lost back-to-back games against Italy and Armenia. The two consecutive losses (and most importantly the second one by the Armenians) were quite costly for the Greek team, as they have now fallen eight points behind Euro 2020 qualifying Group J leaders Italy and five behind second-placed Finland, with only five games to go.
Greece still have a chance to advance to the final round of the competition as the top two teams of each group will make it through, yet the way they were playing left little hope to cling on to, which was the main reason behind Anastasiadis’ removal.
RELATED ARTICLE: Italy sweep aside Greece with 0-3 in Athens
Yet it seems the people at the Hellenic Federation had been laying the ground for the change of guard at the Greek bench, as there’s been a lot of speculation in regards to who would be called in as Anastasiadis’ replacement for a while now, with biggest favourites for the position being former AEK manager Marinos Ouzounidis and former APOEL coach Giorgos Donis.
At the same time, there are also rumours in Greece regarding conversations between EPO and several foreign managers, most notable among them being former Braga and Sporting Lisbon coach, Domingos Paciencia.