Post Match Reaction - Round 1

[Nick@ManCity]

Missing Sheets
AC Milan & Rangers (Randoms)

Errors
byl
Error: Player L_Unnerstall wasn't found in the roster
int
Error: Player G_Mamardvil wasn't found in the roster
Error: Player L_Pellegrini wasn't found in the roster
Error in conditionals (line 9)!!
Reason: Illegal player position
laz
Error: can't open roster file - fio.txt
lyo
Error: Player V_van_Dijk is listed twice in the teamsheet

[Freddie]

PSG 3-1 Sociedad

Against one of the strongest, if not the strongest team in the division we didn't embarrass ourselves. Opted for the L because there was no way we were going to be able to compete with PSG's classy midfield.
This season will be incredibly tricky and it'll be about scraping the points where we can. Unfortunately we couldn't do that here but I was pleased with the performance as a whole.
Played Ed, good game.

[Derek]

Rangers 0 2 Roma

Faced a tricky D here which limited our opportunities - but with our extra firepower we got the goals we needed.

Our 3rd choice FW Neymar opened the scoring and showed he's still got it.

Lost a df for the next 2 games - but we'll just throw on another FW instead

This is the way.

gg Random

[Gary@Millwall]

Sporting Lisbon 3 Bayern Munich 0

Season 2 kicked off with the same fixture as Season 1 with EFL Cup winners and the 8th place finishers Bayern Munich visiting the
Estadio Jose Alvalade. Expectations were high in the German camp following a great close season and JB was expecting his chargers to beat the Mouth of the South for the first time in FFO 2.

Windebank himself had quietly gone about the close season adding four main players and two squad players as he tries to prove last season was not a fluke.

Windebank instructed his players to attack with JB putting faith into his high passing forwards instructing his side to pass the ball.

The passing strategy was working wonders as Bayern Munich dominated possession in the opening 30 minutes with Lopes equal to the shots thrown at him.

In the 30th minute however Lewandowski broke free of the Bayern Munich defence and Marc Ter Stegan rushed out and brought Lewandowski down in the area. As usual in Sporting Lisbon Bayern Munich games the referee was in the German sides pocket as he only brandished a yellow card for a sending off offence.

Up stepped Lewandowski and who sent the fortunate keeper the wrong way to give Sporting Lisbon the lead against the run of play.

Both sides continued with the same tactics and formation but with the Estadio Jose Alvalade buzzing the Lisbon players stepped up a gear and Bayern Munich were on the ropes.

In the 44th minute Mats Hummels drove the ball across the field and there was Sporting Lisbon's talisman Robert Lewandowski who hit it first time but saw his effort hit the post and despite being 34 years of age he beat the defender to the rebound to make it 2-0.

Sporting Lisbon changed formation and to the passing tactic and the first half ended 2-0 to the Lisbon Lions.

Sporting Lisbon were having fun and dominated the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half so there was no surprise in the 59th minute when Luke Shaw found Juan Mata who rounded the desperate Marc Ter Stegan and dispatched the ball via the post into the back of the net to wrap the game up at 3-0.

Bayern Munich huffed and puffed in a very even 2nd half but the final whistle went to wild scenes as the mighty EFL Cup winners were slapped silly in the opening game of the season.

Bayern Munich had 56% possession with Sporting Lisbon creating 17 shots to the German outfits 16 shots, with Sporting Lisbon having 9 shots on target to Bayern Munich's 6.

Windebank's Post Match Comments

What a way to start the season and I am very proud of my players today. There were some impressive performances out their today especially man of the match Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng who had JB's attacking line in their pockets for 90 minutes.

Robert Lewandowski also validated my decision to make him captain as he destroyed Bayern Munich today.

That was a great 3 points and beating JB is always a nice feeling as I love seeing him sulk down the touchline after his team of superstars are slapped silly on the pitch.

We have a really tough start in the first 9 games of the season so this was an important victory and we need to continue this form against AB's Juventus in the next game.

Pleasure as always JB and good game mate.

[Marshy@Atletico]

Marseille 1 Atletico Madrid 3

Hopes are high for all clubs starting the new season. For Atletico the challenge of catching the the champions league contenders appears to have been completed with three seasons of qualification. This season there appears to be 10/11 challengers for those top8 slots so again teams will be disappointed. Our wage budget has steadily improved from a lower mid-table side to currently 06th so there are no excuses this season from trying to repeat last seasons 06th place finish. The Atletico side surprisingly is changed.
Oblak is the new number one, Mancini came in to improve the goals conceded column, Paqueta adds further quality from the middle and much will be expected of new striker Sancho. The strength of the bench comes from new signings Dieng, Berghuis, Dabo.

Todays game was a close affair. Atletico won the shot count 13-10.
Castillejo gave Marseille the lead on 33 minutes after Atleticos 24th minute opener was disallowed for a contentious hand ball decision. The irony that Atleticos on-loan Zubimendi assisted the goal. For some time it looked like one goal would be enough but a purple patch of three goals in 11 minutes from Paqueta and Sancho (2) blasted the away side into a 1-3 lead that they successfully saw out.

Marsh commented "A really pleasing start to the season in the end as Marseille had us worried for 2/3s of the game. We are quite a changed line up from last season so as much as wages is a good indicator of the players at ones disposal you are never quite sure how the season will play out"

[Ed@PSG]

PSG 3 Real Sociedad 1
No idea what to expect from one of the leagues new boys, so tried a combo of 3 tactics, probing to try and get some success. Led long periods of the game by a solitary goal, which is always nervy, but we came out on top with a 2 goal cushion in the end, courtesy of a late penalty. Stats reflect the goal count, but it was disappointing to concede against once of the weaker front lines in the league.
The biggest challenge this season will be deciding who to rest for each game, with most our players needing to spend at least 10 games on the bench. This time we rested our 2 strongest DMs and played our most attacking combo possible. Pino got the shot to take him up to 22 rated, but still needs a few passes to get to 19-22 rated.

Good game Freddie, and good luck for the season

[JasonH@Wolfsburg]

Inter 2-2 Leverkusen

never easy going away to one of the top 8 teams in EFL but we had a game plan and should have come away with 3 points, if not for some poor goal keeping.

The new signings bedded in well and a good point away from home points to a sign of better things to come following a dismal start to FFO2

Good game snapping turtle

[Steve@Chelsea]

Real Madrid 5 - 2 Lyon

The reigning, defending, undisputed, EFL1 Heavyweight Champions of the World started the defence of their crown with an excellent performance putting five goals in the onion bag with 3 of them to our reshaped forwards. The much expected 'disgustingly open' formation and tactic was not there on display which was a surprise to some, but was certainly more "loosey-goosey" than last season and perhaps signals our intent to have a season of development over actually trying hard to defend the title.

In some brave calls from the gaffer pre season, the 2nd best striker in the world Luiz Diaz was sold to the one fingered typers and I have put full faith in Rodyygo and last seasons top scorer young Harvey Elliot. Hopefully Diaz being over in the prem will toughen that league up and create a contender, so small mercys and all that, that Diaz is not in EFL1 to haunt Madrid!

Goretzka was upgraded to Guimares via the auction, and young starlets Dest and Leao was brought in at great expense from Arsenal and Juventus as the club look to future proof their squad, taking one step back for two forward down the line. L_Pellegrini was also brought in from Inter to add more culture to the middle of the park and is certainly an upgrade on Olmo. Overall the club look more forward focussed this season with Locatelli also now plying his trade over in London at the Gunners so while we don't expect to win the title this season, we will still be a force and will have lots of fun, although ever the mind games master the rutheless one will have some tricks up his sleeve for sure along the way. GG Jason.

[AB@Juventus]

Barcelona 4 - 2 Juventus

Start as we mean to go on....

Up against a strong team who've had a good off season and their good transfer work has shown here as they've put 4 past us.

Our goalkeeper still can't do his job and it's now starting to become annoying...Onto the game

I wanted to stay away from 532C so I decided to match what I expected from them with P. We took the lead on 11 minutes and took TA, only to see the hosts pull level within 3 minutes.

Just after the half hour mark, Barcelona took the lead and we were chasing the game heading into the break.

After the restart, it took Barcelona just 8 minutes to stretch their lead to 3-1 and the game was beyond us.

We were gifted a lifeline on 79 minutes as we were awarded a penalty which we scored to make the score 3-2 and set up a tense last 11 minutes, however Barcelona sealed the win on 83 minutes with a 4th goal as we slump to defeat.

Statistically the only thing that was close was possession, Barcelona created so much more than us so deserved the win looking at that. It's just frustrating to take the lead playing P vs P, but they score when we have TA. Ah well, that's ESMS for you.

Good game Livi.

[Burrows@Rangers]

Rangers 0 2 Roma

Faced a tricky D here which limited our opportunities - but with our extra firepower we got the goals we needed.

Our 3rd choice FW Neymar opened the scoring and showed he's still got it.

Lost a df for the next 2 games - but we'll just throw on another FW instead

This is the way.

gg Random

My bad dude I completely forgot the season was starting back on Sunday

[Livi@Liverpool]

Barcelona 4 Juventus 2

A tough opening game against quality opposition so very pleased to come away with the 3 points especially after we conceded early on. Jesus was unstoppable with all 4 of our goals - fully expect him to now go on a 10 game barren run

Stats say we were well worth the win although I hear what AB is saying about us immediately equalising after they switched things up to gain tactical bonus. Think I said to you recently there's often very little rhyme or reason to how games go.

Anyway a good start but next up we have a massively difficult trip to face PSG in the cup so that's going to be a real test of our credentials.

Cheers AB

[Guest]

RB Leipzig 1 - 0 Sevilla

Disappointing start to the season and we continue where we left off .. playing ok but losing games where we dont deserve to ..

RG has been blasted by the fans for lack of transfer effort but he has promised he will be working on some deals this week ...

Solid debut by Fofana in the double pivot with Jorginho .. but disappointed we failed to score from 16 attempts on goal

Well played Macca!

[Drum@Villa]

lazio 2-0 Dortmund

never an easy ride v Niall,

but Pulisic managed to make the game an opener that was deserved, we went A in our first outing,,,

ok the stats were more even than i hoped but we reeled off 2 goals, didnt concede and no loss of any players,

Aouar and Fabinho both rated up so there stats will help the season, semedo is on the verge of 20 rated, so hoping we can extract some quality and play well against some of the big boys in the league,

up next,,,, the joys, away to juve in the cup

[Guest]

Inter 2-2 Leverkusen

a rusty start, we didnt deserve to win but with an early injury and a leverkusen manager who treats inter as his cup final we knew it would be a difficult game, we took control of the game after going one down but didnt do enough to deserve the victory, as i said to Ralph the season is long and its where you finish thats important, we go away to Lyon in a difficult cup tie as we face a caretaker we havnt played against before so potentially a bananna skin of a game. gg mate, we all seen your Inter application.

[ChrisS]

AC Milan 2 - 1 Schalke

A little disappointed here. Schalke played well after conceding a goal just 4 mins in. We managed to equalize around the hour mark but were not able to hold on. Sixty-Five percent possession should have been enough but the difference in quality was evident against against a random sheet.