Post Match Reaction - Round 1

[Nick@ManCity]

Missing
Sevilla & Monaco

Errors
Napoli
Error: Player L_Tonelli wasn't found in the roster
Error: Player R_Pereyra wasn't found in the roster

Roma
Error: Illegal tactic specified - p
Error : Player L_Bonnuci wasn't found in the roster

[Ian]

Monaco 0-8 Real Madrid

The home team turned up for their first game without their new manager, this can create issues for the opposition but on this occasion it has to be said that we got lucky due to the tactics deployed by the home side. The game in the end proved to be a walk in the park for us, in fact no test at all. Our two front men had a field day, scoring seven of the eight goals between them as we overwhelmed the home side, although I remain under no illusions that much tougher games will come during the season ahead The only downside for us today was seeing new signing Nico Williams limp off after just 15 minutes of play and the playmaker now looks set to miss the next game as well. Obviously I am delighted with this result but don't see it as any sort of measure of what is to come.

[Tony@Blackburn]

Wasnt that easy if you lost 8-0 hahaha

[Ian]

Lol. Edited

[Ed@PSG]

PSG 7 - 2 Bayer Leverkusen

Relatively easy opener, with our 3 forwards all getting on the scored sheet. We opened up at 4 to try and give our defenders some tackling practice, but unfortunately, despite our opposition getting 41 chances we were only able to muster 4 tackles, rather than the customary 30-35%. Consequently, our keeper faced 24 shots, and expectedly conceded a couple of goals, but i will take a saves:goals ratio of 11 in any game.

With Roma, Barca, and Atletico all dropping points, its the big 2 at the summit. Real got a large slice of luck by not only facing a random, but one with only 4 defenders and tactical advantage, and benefitted from a massive 46 shots and crazy abs for their front 2.

[Ryan]

Lazio 0 - 0 Atletico Madrid


Well the first game of the season and we face a great side in Atletico Madrid and yes they were ahead in the stats at full time but we managed to hold own on are home turf and snatched a draw so to us this were a great start gaining a great point well done to the lads good performance.


Good game marshy.

[Neil@Fiorentina]

Fiorentina 2-2 Rangers

And so, the season begins at last. Fiorentina off to an ok start, but not a great start.
One game unbeaten I guess, though only Real Madrid away next!
This was a game I felt we could win, but Rangers played cautiously and had the tactical advantage at the start, and a draw was a fair result based on the stats and how the game swung back and forth.
It was nice to see debutants Diaz and Coutinho get on the score sheet, but the downside was Suso getting sent off for two yellows.
Good game Aaron.

[Marshy@Atletico]

Lazio 0 Atletico Madrid 0

A new season full of fresh optimism. New signings, new managers to battle and hopefully some new gods. Atletico would travel to one such new manager in Ryan Field the man that left Blackburn for Lazio. Lazio look a steely side on paper this season with three defensive midfielders. In fact 8/10 outfield starters would have 12+ tackling. Atletico were helped by a red card to Elliott after 66 minutes ensuring a 15-9 shot count but 24-rated Restes was on form with 8 saves.

Atletico manager Simon Marsh commented "This was a reasonable start for us. Lazio will take points from a lot of clubs this season so we take the point and move to the next fixture. It was disappointing to lose Vini after only 17 minutes and we have news that he misses 2 more games. Its a big early blow but we have players that can step up".

Elsewhere in the league there were ridiculous starts for PSG and Real Madrid. One manager didnt turn up and the other thought a 4-man defence with an average defensive midfielder would be a good idea to play away. The league feels like a 2-horse race after one game.

Good game Ryan

[AB@Juventus]

Juventus 3 - 2 Borussia Dortmund

A positive start to the season, despite being a very nervy game in which we looked like we might lose the game, win the game, draw the game and then eventually we won the game. A poor set of decisions from myself in terms of my sheet and we need to look to play differently moving forwards as we've not really improved since last season while most other clubs in EFL 1 have done.

We opted to give away TA by playing P, knowing we'd face a C tactic and it backfired on us after 25 minutes as the visitors took the lead in a fairly even game with a goal from their weakest player. We had it all to do and went on the attack.

The rest of the first half was a non event as we struggled to impose ourselves and we trailed at the break.

Into the second half and we still couldn't get a grip on the game and after we'd made our final substitution we still trailed but with less than 10 minutes to play, debutant Jordi_Alba scored on his Juventus debut to bring us level in the game.

We switched back to P and dominated the game until we'd turned the game on it's head 5 minutes later and with just 4 minutes remaining we thought we'd done enough to win the game but Dortmund had other ideas as they made it 2-2 two minutes later and it felt like we'd thrown the points away but 4 minutes into injury time, Joao_Felix won us the game and we get off to the perfect start.

Statistically we were the better team, creating more chances than Dortmund but yet again our GK isn't performing as he made just 2 saves from 4 shots and has dipped below 25 rated YET AGAIN

Good game Niall.

[Sam@Bilbao]

Barcelona 0-0 AC Milan

"Probably one of the ties of the round in terms of matchup and squad quality which very much cancelled out over the game, we had a lot of new faces in the door over the transfer period, they will take some time to gel, you could tell they werent all quite on the same page and on another day we could have lost the game, we could however have got that win with Milan not showing much either, this season is going to be a very interesting one, lots of manager changes, lots of transfer changes, so its going to be interesting to see how the season develops, there isnt much to say on this game as there was a distinct lack of quality throughout, we will be hoping for better in the first round of the cup which we were poorly dumped out of last time."