Photos: Panagiotis Tachtsidis man-marks Lionel Messi and crunches Luka Modric

Add as preferred source on Google

Nottingham Forest have completed a deal for Greek international midfielder Panagiotis Tachtsidis. The 27-year-old arrives from Olympiakos after having his contract in Greece terminated prior to the closing of the transfer window.

He may be something of an unknown quantity to the Nottingham Forest fanbase, but Tachtsidis is a player with heaps of experience at the top level.

Not only with his club experience with the likes of Roma and Olympiakos, but also with the national team, Forest’s newbie has faced some of the best in the world.

Last Halloween, Tachtsidis was given the horror and honour of man-marking Lionel Messi. It was a tough evening for the Nottingham Forest recruit. He did his best and, exhausted after the game he bowed to the Barcelona and Argentina great. His best proved enough on this occasion. Olympiakos held Barcelona to a 0-0 draw.

Last November, he also did battle with Croatia and Real Madrid star Luka Modric. Greece faced Croatia in the playoffs for the World Cup this summer, after Croatia finished second in their qualifying group behind Iceland.

Greece fought valiantly, with Tachtsidis playing in both games. Despite holding Croatia to a 0- draw in the second leg, a 4-1 demolition in Zagreb saw them dumped out. Croatia, of course, went on to play the World Cup final at England’s expense. The only comfort for Tachtsidis is that he did not start the first-leg.

In fact, when you look through a gallery of Tachtsidis’ playing career, you see him come up against tough opponents such as Sergio Busquets, Marouane Fellaini and Kevin Strootman. So hopefully, he has the pedigree to take Nottingham Forest to the next level.