Post Match Reaction - Round 29

[Nick@ManCity]

Missing Sheets
Valencia - Random Request

Errors
Sevilla - L_Bender named twice

Error Points
Celtic - 1
Lazio - 1
Napoli - 2
Roma - 2
Valencia - 1

[Gary@Millwall]

Roma 0 Sporting Lisbon 2

In a top of the table clash Little Sporting Lisbon went to the home of the mighty Roma looking to shock the FFO world and claim top spot from Derek Hughes team of superstars.

Derek Hughes was so confident of a win that he "sent his players on holiday" it was a game where Derek Hughes was going to "put lucky Lisbon in their place".

Did he fuck!!!!

Expecting the usual Roma way of 5-0-0-1-4 attacking 2nd tier manager Gary Windebank set his little side up to play 5-2-3-0 Counter attacking and it worked a treat.

Roma players were full of energy following their two day break on the beach as they dominated the first sixteen minutes but could not find their way through a well drilled Sporting Lisbon defence.

But from then on the rested Roma players were blowing out their arse as Sporting Lisbon dominated the next thirteen minutes culminating it a a terrific move where Luke Shaw found the scoring machine that is Robert Lewandowski who hit a left foot snap shot that Martinez clawed off the line but the ball had gone over and Sporting Lisbon were in front.

The Olimpico stadium fell silent and Derek Hughes looked crest fallen, could Sporting Lisbon pull of an incredible result against the Transfer Kings Galacticos?

2nd Tier manager Windebank changed formation and tactics moving to a more controlled passing game and moving the three attacking midfielders to a front three.

The superior Roma manager kept faith in his Roma way.

Seeing the game slipping away from him, Derek Hughes moved to a 4 man defence on 43 minutes as he moved Nacho to a DM as he searched for a way back into the game.

The half time whistle went and the Roma players and Derek Hughes walked off the pitch to a crescendo of boos.

The second half started like the first with Roma huffing and puffing but Sporting Lisbon were like a team possessed.

Then the pivotal moment occurred when Windebank brought on star players Frenkie De Jong and Matteo Politano for Eden Hazard and Juan Mata respectively.

Roma were looking desperate and Derek Hughes was getting increasingly animated in the technical area.

In the 84th minute Luke Shaw showed a bit of deft skill as he played the ball out to Jerome Boateng on the left, Boateng burst into the box and Martinez produced a clumsy tackle bringing the Lisbon defender down in the box to earn a yellow card and concede a penalty.

Up stepped Robert Lewandowski who had already scored his 25th goal of the season. Robert took a deep breath and then BOOM!!! goal 26 of the season and 2-0 to Little Sporting Lisbon.

The away end went mental the home fans streamed out the stadium and Derek Hughes looked like he was about to cry.

The final whistle went with the away end going crazy as they had just seen their hero's win their 7th straight League game and their 20th of the season.

Derek Hughes looked crest fallen as he walked down the touchline with the Sporting Lisbon chants of WHO THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU ringing in his ears.

Sporting Lisbon went to Rome and had 56% possession Roma created 15 chances to Sporting Lisbon's 11 and both sides had 7 shots on target each.

Windebank's Post Match Comments

Sorry for laughing but that was fucking brilliant, we done a complete number on the mighty Roma as we complete the double over them. Not bad for a 2nd tier manager and side I must say.

We came to the home of the Transfer King's Galacticos and not only matched them but gave them one hell of a beating.

Derek is a great manager and has a great team but he really helped my players running his gums over the last few days and he looks a bit foolish now we have taught him a lesson on the pitch.

I am so proud of my boys today and we have 13 more cup finals to go and hopefully we can keep this form going for as long as possible. Seven straight wins and unbeaten in ten games where we have picked up 26 points is magnificent.

I am well chuffed.

Good game Derek always a pleasure playing ya even better when we do the double over ya

[Marshy@Atletico]

Dortmund 3 Atletico Madrid 5

Another great game for the neutrals as EFLs number 1 entertainers provided another 8 goal thriller. 153 goals in their 29 league games to date at an average of over 5 goals per game. New signing Dumfries purchased for his defending and promise to be less wasteful in front of goal than Lindeloff amazingly opening the scoring! Two goals for Vinicius and the much coveted Ansu Fati got Atletico back to winning ways and with Ac and Inter dropping points strengthened their hold on 06th place for now. The gap to 09th now 16 points with 13 games left.

Manager Simon Marsh commented "It was a great start for the two new signings who were both involved. The game itself was quite tight but clinical finishing from both sides produced a great game. We were expecting a really tough game so we are delighted to pick up the three points this evening".

GG Niall

[JasonH@Wolfsburg]

Lazio 2-1 Leverkusen

Another late goal sinks us outside the DPT places in a terrible run of form. The predictable C from drum sinks the useless E and leaves us scratching our heads wondering how do we play a tune from this old violin.

A big review of the Leverkusen team will be underway following this result to work out what could have been done differently. Well played drum

[Derek]

Roma 0 2 The Humble One

We are out of the 2 Cups because in key games we didn't come up with the goods.

And now our title challenge is on the rocks because when it mattered we were simply not good enough.

Calamity Martinez was back to his best here - giving away a penalty. But the real problem was our wayward shooting.

We knew we'd get the defensive C with a back 7 from Gaz. We've mixed it up with C & E recently but reverted back to A. Thought we'd have enough to break through the Lisbon Iron Curtain. But we didn't.

Fair play to Mr Windebank - fully deserved the win here and quite rightly they are starting to dream in Lisbon.

gg Gaz

[Drum@Villa]

Lazio 2 - 1 Bayer Leverkusen

Well we are finding little pockets of form probably at the right moments.

nothing changed here against the apparent no1 team in Germany.

with Aouar missing we set up with a strong back 5, but we totally bossed the game, 1 goal chalked off for no reason at all, but Pulisic rectified that,

moving the players round did nothing for the team, something to look at, but when we did allow leverkusen to play they proved they have the desire by equalising.

but in the 89th minute MOM Mbappe put in Memphis to score a much needed 3 points. Moves us closer to mid table, and in a European spot.

with 9 games to go though all scenarios happen.

gg mr Hopton

[Johnboy]

Inter Milan 1 - Monaco 1

Earlier in the season Inter beat us 2-0 at home so we were looking to avoid the double going into this game, we were also missing our star midfielder Arthur following his injury in the previous game against Lazio and with no ready-made replacement for him we changed it up a little (with Pepe away on loan, we have been giving more playing time to Cataldi but as yet he isn't showing me anything to suggest we should persist with this strategy!)

The first half was an even affair with goalkeepers Ter Stegen and Hradecky more than equal to anything that the forwards could throw at them but shortly after the break Inter changed things round a little and almost immediately Man of the Match Jovetic scored his sixth of the season with a stunning finish past Ter Stegen and I began to wonder if we could hold onto this for a famous, yet possibly undeserved, victory.

With 20 minutes remaining in the match we made our third change with Kokorin coming on to replace Aubameyang and in a repeat of the Monaco goal we saw Inter score immediately after the change to level the game up at 1-1.

Kokorin managed 3 shots on goal during his cameo, which is more than Wood managed in the previous 2 susbtitute appearances and only 1 fewer than Wood managed in 90 minutes of play today - I don't know what has happened since he moved to Madrid but his return on loan has been exceptionally disappointing.

Good game GS, good luck for the rest of the season.

[AB@Juventus]

Real Madrid 6 - 2 Juventus

With 2 defenders out for this game, this was always going to be a game that we lost. I was trying to avoid this kind of scoreline so opted for D, however Real Madrid did what I would have done and they came at us full force.

Elliott opened the scoring on 4 minutes, only for us to pull level 7 minutes later, but that's where our resistance ended, Elliott doubled his tally on 23 minutes and we went into half time just a goal down.

2 goals in 3 minutes to start the second half put the hosts in firm control and they added goals 5 & 6 as Luiz_Diaz notched his hat-trick either side of Y_Adli's 2nd of the game.

Statistically we were second best, but that was to be expected.

Good game Steve.

[Steve@Chelsea]

Real Madrid 6 - 2 Juventus

Juve had 2 defenders out so was a bit of a wounded animal. I can emphasise with that. I didn't expect a D though, as they didn't have enough defensive players for a D you'd think, so I was a bit surprised by that more expecting a C or a hopeful A. But they started D and I had flashbacks to the Arsenal CL game but my fears were soon put to one side as today the D was no problem for us to brush aside. I was surprised again though that they stuck with D throughout the match even when down multiple goals. I thought that might have been by accident rather than by design. I guess the thinking was to avoid a real cricket score but given their league positon where they are easily safe I'd have thought they'd have gone for it. On another day though it might have worked, and to be fair they did score 2 goals with D as well. GG Andy. I'm sure this season is just a blip and you will be back amongst the top 8 next season.

Elsewhere Roma did their bollock in at home to Lisbon who now lead the pack. It seems like there is a new leader every round at this point. Maybe it will be Barca's turn next as they steadily plug away somewhat under the radar?

[Livi@Liverpool]

Barcelona 4 Frankfurt 1

Mixed things up anticipating the counter attacking approach from our opponents and it paid off with an early goal. Thereafter it was back to our preferred passing style and overall it was a good performance and a deserved 3 points.

All the top 6 won other than Roma who were taught a lesson by those upstarts from Lisbon. With 13 games to go it looks impossible to predict who'll win the title but if pushed I'd go for Real.

We're right in the mix though and will be doing all we can to push them and the rest of the contenders all the way.

[Ed@PSG]

PSG 5 Marseille 2
"With 5 players one suspension away from a ban, we considered resting them all ahead of the more important CL semi final. However, contrary to what some managers claim, we are actually trying to win games, so we played 4 and rested Yeremy Pino. This was looking a bad call when we lost a player to injury, with no Pino on the bench and were 2 goals down at half time. Fortunately, up stepped Joao Felix and Vitinha, and suddenly everything was OK again. Felix came up to me after the game and said he wanted to dedicate his 40th goal of the season to Ian "Jimmy" Greaves, and thank him for letting him move on to a team that would let him play freely and become the best FW in FFO. I would also like to apologise to the Villa manager for daring to score 5 goals in 3 successive games whilst on a 5 game winning streak. I will try and not be so dominant in future"

[Guest]

Inter Milan 1 - Monaco 1

Another game, another draw, it seems to be the theme since i have returned, i disagree with John i felt the game was fairly even, yes we had more shots but we just did not do enough to deserve the win, we look towards next season where changes will be made, this seasons erractic form can be placed on me for not being here and returning to a side who are a little all over the place, we have pretty much Guarenteed Champions League football but that is not what we are about we want to finish as high in the table as we can and drawing every game wont help us go much higher. gg mate