[FM11] Following in the footsteps of Maradona

[Northwood_dk]

ML/DL Martin Olsson (Sweden)

In the 2013/14 season Napoli made a loan deal with Man City (5) to bring inn Martin Olsson as a backup on the left side of the field where both Insúa and Martin Eriksen struggled to stay healthy.

Olsson was the year before picked by Man City from Blackburn for a massive £14.5mil transfer fee. Despite the lofty price he struggled to make it in to the first team and just played 13 games his first year in Manchester.

In Napoli he got 30 games and averaged a respectable 7.01 pr game. After the season Napoli wanted to tie Martin Olsson to the club permanently but City and Napoli didn’t manage to find a price acceptable for both teams and the Swede had to return to England. Back in City he once again found himself on the reserve team and only got to start 19 games during the 2014/15 season and just 1 game in the 2015/16 season.

His contract ran out after the 2015/16 season and both Aston Villa and several Italian clubs were ready to pay add him to there team. The price had now gone down and Martin Olsson decided to stay in England and sign a deal with Villa paying him £51.000 pr week.

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5) The Man City chairman from the UAE is not afraid to spend his money. Over the last six seasons the have spend £450mil on new players. The most expensive buy was Khouma Babacar who came to Manchester from Fiorentina for £41.5mil before the 2015/16 season.

[Northwood_dk]

DL Giorgos Tzavelas (Greece)

When Insúa had his fallout with management the Napoli front office wasted no time brining inn a new player. Napoli went to Germany and made a deal with Frankfurt for Giorgos Tzavelas. They properly overpaid for the 26-year old Greek when they decided to pay £7.5mil for him but with Insúa out they were desperate for a new left defender.

Before joining Napoli he had four seasons in Frankfurt all with an average rating over 7.00. He jumped right inn to the Napoli team and had a fine 2014/15 season (7.34 rating). The following year his rating went down a bit (still over 7.00 pr game) but he still played solid.

Giorgos Tzavelas have had a good run with the Greek national team playing 63 caps and scoring 4 goals. In 2012 he was part of a team that went all the way to the semifinals in the European Championship. In the 2014 in the World Cup Giorgos Tzavelas and the team made it out of the group stage but lost to Uruguay in the first knockout stage. They also made it to the 2016 European Championship but this time they only managed a single point in the group stage and were sent home early.

[Northwood_dk]

DL/DR Pilip Svec (Czech)

In an attempt to get younger, Napoli signed Pilip Svec from Everton before the 2015/16 season. The just 18-year old player came over for just £800K but have great potential. Several teams (Chelsea, Milan and At Madrid) is already trying to lurk him away from Napoli but to keep him happy he has already seen playing time in the Napoli first team in his first year with the team.

Pilip Svec is also part of the Czech U20 national team where he have played 14 games.

[Northwood_dk]

DC Marco Rossi (Italy)

Rossi was one of the players Napoli picked from Parma (6) during the 2012/13 season. Parma was relegated the year before and had to offload some expensive contracts to stay alive. In the first half of the season with Parma Rossi averaged 7.32 and during the January transfer window Napoli put £7.5mil on the table to get the player. A few days later Napoli also bought striker Alberto Paloschi from Parma for another £6mil, but more on that later.

In Napoli Rossi quickly became the ankerpoint in the defensive line and in his first season he won the “Seria A defender of the year” award with a 7.34 overall rating. The following year was not that impressive but he was still a solid defender with an average rating over 7.00. His 2014/15 season was mostly ruined due to several injuries that kept him sidelined for several weeks at a time.

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6) Parma was back in the top division the year after but the damage was done. 97 players were sold or left the club during the 2012/13 and 2013/14 season and most of them replaced with cheep backups. They fight in the bottom of the league each year and runs a team of 11 different nationalities on the field on a regular basis.

[Northwood_dk]

DCR Sergiy Kryvtsov (Ukraine)

Kryvtsov was picked up by manager Thomas Northwood before the start of the 2011/12 season. He was just 20-years old when Napoli paid Shakhtar Donetsk (7) £4.5mil for the promising prospect. The year before Shakhtar had bought him for just £350K from Metalurg ZP.

Regardless of his young age he was trusted a spot in the starting lineup from day-one and delivered. His first year he averaged 7.27 pr game and in 2013 he was named runner-up “Seria A defender of the year” only behind Rossi. The next years he and Rossi were first choices in the center defense and in the 2014/15 season he finished the season with a career high 7.30 rating. Before the 2015/16 season Napoli decided to move him to the right defender spot. That didn’t stop him for putting up good performances and he kept being a constant danger on corner kicks.

At the end of the 2015/16 season he is still only 24-years old, but with 41 caps under his belt he got a lot of good years ahead of him in Napoli. In the end of 2015 he signed a new deal keeping him in Napoli until 2019.

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7) Shakhtar have used a mix of good young players from Ukraine and Argentinean imports. They have struggled in Europe only making the champions league twice without much success but have done well in the Europa League each year (quarter final in 2013). The biggest signing was Sergio Araujo from River for £13.5mil in 2016 and Paulo Henrique for £14mil from Botafogo after the 2016 season.

[Northwood_dk]

Fredrik Sørensen (Denmark)

When Napoli paid Danish club Lyngby £1.3mil for the young Dane he didn’t have to travel long as he was already in Italy due to a loan deal between Juventus and Lyngby (8) for the 2010/11 season.

In the first season with Napoli the just 20-year old player was used to rotate in for Rossi and Kryvtsov when they needed rest. That was a role he kept and preformed well in since averaging over 7.00 every year.

He has won both Danish U19 and U21 talent of the year and in 2015 he was one of four Napoli players named in the “Serie A team of the year” starting lineup with a 7.32 overall rating for the year (26 games started). His performance has even earned him 6 appearances for the Danish national team.

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8) Lyngby chocked the Danish football community when they won the Danish Superliga in 2014/15 and the Danish Cup, just two years after being promoted from the second best Danish league. The unlikely hero was Franc striker Raphaël Lecomte who was brought inn for just £130K the year before and Nenad Krsticic who could both score and assist.

The year after Lyngby finished second only behind FC København.

[Northwood_dk]

DL Andrea Dossena (Italy)

Napoli was the 5th club in the career of Andrea Dossena. Before he came to Napoli his play for Udinese had earned him a debut in the national team (10 games for his career) and a huge deal with Liverpool (sold for £7mil in 2008 from Udinese to Liverpool). In Liverpool he only got 18 games over two seasons and was shipped back to Italy for less then half the price.

In Napoli he got 75 games over four seasons without ever standing out. In the 2013/14 season he got another try at a career in England when he was bought by Tottenham (£500K) but again failed to make an impact. They year after he went back to Italy on a free transfer and joined Livorno is Serie B. In just 15 games he turned in a stunning performance with an 7,61 average rating and 4 MOM performances. That was enough for Parma who put up £2.9mil for the now 33-year old player. Back in Serie A with Parma he quickly turned back in to his old self and only got 13 games in the next two seasons.

[Northwood_dk]

DR Abdoulay Konko (France)

In an attempt to add some routine to a struggling defense Napoli rented Konko from Sevilla for the entire 2012/13 season. Abdoulay Konko had experience from Italian football where he played his youth football for Juventus, Genoa and Siena.

He did well the few (14 games in total) game he got to play for Napoli and had two assists in his just 4 league starts. The year after he was back in Sevilla (9) but again only starting 14 games all year. Konko was then sold to Sporting for £1mil where he got to continue his career and this time managed to win a spot in the starting lineup.

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9) Sevilla qualify for the Europa League every year but is never good enough for the Champions League. They have there best result in 2013 when they losses in the Europa League Semifinal to Werder Bremen on away goals (Bremen goes on to loss the final to Man City). The team also won the Spanish Cup in 2015.

[Northwood_dk]

DC Paolo Cannavaro (Italy)

When Napoli had a chance to “rent” Paolo Cannavaro for a season in 2014 they jumped on the opportunity. It was not popular when he was allowed to leave Napoli after five seasons to join rival Inter before the 2011/12 season. Already back then the Napoli front office feared that he was getting old and saw his lack of speed as a big concern.

His first season with Inter was very good. He played in 32 league games and 44 games overall with a 7.06 rating and helped Inter win both the Champions League and the European Super Cup that season. Before the 2012/13 season Inter spend £29mil on Mamadou Sakho and Bakary Sagna and Cannavaro was sent to the bench and only played 4 games all year. That opened for his return to Napoli.

He brought experience and leadership to the team but still only started 11 games for Napoli that year. He finished the year with at 7.12 overall rating and Napoli once again decided to let him go.

Paolo Cannavaro decided that his career was not over yet and made a surprising move by traveling to Red Star in Serbia for one season. He then moved to Vitoria Sport club in Portugal before the 2015/16 season where he won a spot in the starting lineup and helped them move up into the top Portuguese league.

Paolo Cannavaro is now 35 years old and has already told the press that he wants to be an assistant manager when his career is over and that his favorite club is Napoli.

The contract for Napoli’s Asst manager Stefano Ragnolli is running out after the 2015/16 season and it’s a well known secret that Napoli will try to bring Cannavaro in as assistant manager if he retires after the season.

[Northwood_dk]

DCR Fabiano Santacroce (Italy/Brazil)

Santacroce has been with Napoli since 2007/08 and when he joined the club as a hot prospect from Brescia the price tag was a lofty £4.8mil. At that time he had already played in 3 games for the Italian youth national team but with Napoli his career never took of. He always found himself just outside the starting lineup. He got a total of 116 league appearances for the team but never more then 27 in a single season.

Fabiano Santacroce is now 30 years old and has settled on a career in the Napoli reserves. His contract runs out after the 2017 season and it’s unlikely that he is part of Napoli’s future plans.

[Northwood_dk]

DC Ronaldo Hammoud (Brazil)

One of the first young defensive prospects Napoli brought when the new manager took over was Ronaldo from Corinthians (10) . When he came to Napoli in 2013/14 he had already won it all with Corinthians and the Brazilian youth national team. He was part of the Brazilian U20 team that won 2011 U20 World Cup and the South American U20 championship in 2013.

Napoli decided to make him available for loan and give him a chance to learn the flow of the Italian league instead of having him disappearing on the bench. In 2014 he played for Grosseto in Serie B and the next year he was with Lecce also in Serie B. In 2015 he had a terrible year and first broke his foot and when he came back after 4 months he blew out his knee (another 3-4 months) and his career stalled.

After 3 seasons under contract with Napoli he has still not played a first team game and is a long way from making the first team. His contract is running out after the 2016/17 season and the most likely scenario for 22-year old Ronaldo Hammoud is that he will once again be sent away on loan and then sold after the season.

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10) Corinthians won the Copa Libertadores in both 2012 and 2014 and also won the Club World Championship in 2012. The club is producing talents at a high rate and sells the off to Europa at a high rate. There biggest transfers have been Alex Sandro to Zenit (£15.75mil), Dentinho to Spartak Moscow (£17.5mil) and Guilherme to Ajax (£20.5mil).

[Northwood_dk]

Authors note: It’s not dead yet.

With the golf-season raining away, football starting up again all over Europe, and after reading this great story on Grantland, I once again found my way back to my old FM11 Napoli save.

The last writing project got a bit ambitious and most of it never got posted. But I still had a lot of writing done already and after revisiting it I have decided to post that as recaps of the seasons from 2014 unto 2018 with a more in-depth look at the 2016 European Championship and start of 2016/17 season.

What will happen after that is still unclear. It will not be the detailed write-ups from before, but I still enjoy looking thru player-history to find interesting storylines.

With the 2015/16 season turning out the way it did (1) I also decided that I needed a new challenge. But instead of moving away from Napoli and starting over with a new team in a lower division or starting a new save I went for a different twist.

The new future goal for Napoli is to turn the team in to an All-Italian team while remaining a power house in the Seria A and still being able to compete in Europe. The plan is to fade out all international players over the next three seasons while loading up on Italian youngsters. Before the 2019/20 season the team must be All-Italian and with at least three or more players from the Napoli youth academy in the starting lineup.

First a short recap of the seasons from 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16.

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1) That’s the best I can do for a spoiler?

[Northwood_dk]

Napoli 2013/14 season

Serie A TIM

As the defending Italian champions, Napoli has a bad season in 2013/14.

In the Italian league Napoli finds themselves in first place with 4 games to play and is in control of their own destiny. They don’t manage a win in the last 4 games (2 losses and 2 draws) and finishes the year in a disappointing 4th place. Instead Roma won there first title since 2001 and there 4th title overall with Inter taking second place and Lazio 3rd.

Champions League:

Napoli qualified to the knockout stage after finishing second behind Real Madrid but way ahead of Schalke and Metalist in the group play. After winning the home game 3-0 after scoring three goals in the first 20 minutes of the game, they go on to loss 0-4 to Arsenal on the road in the first knockout round is out before the real fun begins. Arsenal did eventually end up in the final but lost to Benfica.

Italian Cup:

After winning the Cup the last two seasons this year’s team is knocked out in the first round of the Italian cup in a sorry display against Genoa. Inter takes advantage and win there 8th Cup-title.

Transfer inn:

Paulo Henrique from Santos, £37mil

Ramires from Chelsea, £5,25mil

Martin Olsson from Man City (loan), £7,25mil

Total: £58mil

Napoli breaks the bank and spend the most money overall and the most money on a single player since Tom Northwood took over as manager.

In the winter of 2014 Napoli was afraid that they were about to loss Hamšík. He openly said that he wanted to leave and several teams were looking to pick him up. Napoli panicked before the January transfer window closed and signed Paulo Henrique. The signing itself was not a mistake as Henrique was one of the best players in the world, dominating the Brazilian league for Santos. The mistake was the £37mil Napoli gave up to get him.

Transfer out:

F Kubik to Villarreal, Free

A Dossena to Tottenham, £500K

Total: £1,4mil

[Northwood_dk]

Napoli 2014/15 season

Serie A TIM

In 2014/15 Napoli once again find themselves back on top dominating the Italian league winning it by 10 points and with a +54 goal difference. They scored 93 goals with Edinson Cavani and Marek Hamšík combining for 33 goals and 30 assists.

Inter and Palermo finished in the spots behind with AC Milan having a disappointing season finishing in 5th place.

UEFA Champions League:

After winning there group easily, Napoli started out against French team Marseille in the knockout stage of the Champions League and got away with a hard fought 2-1 agg win. In the second round they played O Lyonnais and had two disappointing performances and lost both game with a combined 0-4 score.

This year competition was won by Real Madrid with an easy 4-1 win over Sporting CP from Portugal. The team from the Spanish capital took home there 10th Champions League title.

Coppa Italia TIM:

Napoli had close wins over Genoa and Sampdoria in the early rounds of the Coppa Italia TIM. In the semifinals they lost to bitter rivals Inter. After losing the first game on the road by 0-2, Napoli pressed from the start at home. But despite winning the shot-statics 13-3 they only managed to score a single goal and was out.

In the final Inter easily disposed of Lazio (3-0)

[SRL88]

Shame on the Arsenal result.

[Northwood_dk]

Shame on the Arsenal result.

That was a really bad game all-around.

It was 0-0 at halftime but in the second half it all came apart. The game went to overtime were Arsenal scored the winning goal a minute before it went to penalties.

[Northwood_dk]

Transfer inn:

Luis Suárez from Ajax, £26mil

Abdou Tagro from Ajax, £7.5mil

Stephane Ruffier from AS Monaco, £7.5mil

Total: £51mil

It was a surprise for many when Napoli paid Ajax (2) £26mil for Luis Suárez before the 2014/5 season. Napoli was mostly looking for an AMR when they got sucked in to talks with Ajax. Suárez came off two fantastic seasons with average rating over 7.5 both years but it was still a bit of a chock for both Ajax and Napoli fans when the deal was announced.

In Napoli Suárez got the most playing time as AML and AMR and struggled a bit with his new role but he still acted like a professional had produced goals whenever he got the chance up front.

Transfer out:

Jose Sosa to Ajax, £2.7mil

Luigi Vitale to Everton, £2.6 mil

Total: £7.75mil

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2) The once so proud club has struggled in recent years. They have only won the Dutch league once in the last six seasons (2012/13) and have been a seldom guest in Europe. Before the 2015/16 season they paid a franchise high £20.5mil for Brazilian striker Guilherme in the hope that he can change there fortune.

[SRL88]

Cracking signings there

[Northwood_dk]

Cracking signings there

Thanks SRL88.

Just too bad they are not Italian and will not be part of the team for long.

Suàrez has been sold to Arsenal before the start of the 2017/18 season for £5.5mil

With an 18 in dribbling and 19 in technique Abdou Tagro looks like the real deal. But as he is not Italian he was shipped to Fiorentina before the 2017/18 season for £5.75mil.

Stephane Ruffier was solid with 39 clean sheets in the 85 games he got to start. In the start of the 2017/18 season he is benched for a new Italian keeper and will most likely be sold to Benfica when the transfer window opens again in January.

[Northwood_dk]

Napoli 2015/16 season

Serie A TIM

For the first time in franchise history Napoli manages to win the Serie A in back to back years. That is something they not even managed with Maradona on the team. They closets they got back then, was when they finished second in 1988 after winning the league in 1987.

With a solid 28-5-5 record they for the second year have Inter and Palermo behind them, this time winning the league by 7 points.

Edinson Cavani scores and impressive 32 goals in 36 match that year and finish the season with a 7.71 overall raking.

Coppa Italia TIM:

Napoli also finds themselves back as winners of the Italian Cup after not winning it since they won back to back Cups in 2012 and 2013. They cruise thru Livorno (2-0), Juventus (3-1) and Palermo (4-1) in the early rounds before playing Roma in the final.

The final is completely dominated by backup striker Alberto Paloschi. He scores a hat-trick in the first 16 minutes of the game and a 4th two minutes after the break and Napoli celebrates there 6th Italian Cup with a 4-2 win.

UEFA Champions League:

Napoli went thru the group stage of the Champions League without a loss but with two draws against Aston Villa. Villa also provided the big upset of the first knockout round when they knocked out FC Barcelona with a 4-3 agg win. Napoli edged past Porto with a 3-2 win with Cavani scoring all the goals for the Partenopei.

In the second round Cavani scored two and Hamšík one in a 3-2 home win over mighty Real Madrid. In the return leg in Madrid, Napoli came out in a defensive 4-1-4-1 and still managed to control the game, dominating the time of possession. The game finished 0-0 and Napoli was thru. Aston Villa was not so lucky in the second round. They ran in to At. Madrid and lost 6-0 on the road.

At Madrid continued there dominant performance in the semi final with a 4-1 win over Roma. They made the final with a 15-3 overall scored in the three knockout games.

In the other semi final Napoli had to work a lot harder. Against Olympique Lyonnais whom Napoli had never beaten before they managed a lucky 3-1 win at home in the first leg. On the road Napoli was inn for a rough night. Before 20 minutes was played the home team had scored twice and was now in control.

2-0 to Olympique Lyonnais was also the scored with 20 minutes to play.

And then the game exploded.

In the next 20 minutes the two teams four times.

First Cavani scored after 72 minutes and Napoli was now in the final. That lead only lasted 4 minutes before Lucas scored for Olympique Lyonnais and the game was now going to extra time. But with just 6 minutes left on the clock, Napoli’s Hamšík made a penalty when he was back, trying to help defending. Miralem Pjanic made no mistakes and now Olympique Lyonnais was in the final.

Napoli pushed forward and when Hugo Lloris gave a return on an Abdou Tagro shot, who else then Cavani was there to finish it, and once again putting Napoli in the final, now with a 5-5 agg.

In the next six minutes Olympique Lyonnais threw everything but the kitchen sink at Napoli, but they held on and was ready for there first ever Champions League final.

At Madrid got to play the Champions League final in there home stadium but it was still Napoli who got off to the better start. After 22 minutes of play Cavani and Paulo Henrique combined there way thru the Madrid defends and Henrique had an easy job putting Napoli up 1-0.

At Madrid pressed for an equalizer but never became real dangerous and only managed two shots on goal all match (Napoli had 9 of 15 shots on goal).

The game was decided in the 69th minute when Christian Eriksen ripped thru the left side and crossed the ball to Edinson Cavani who once again found Paulo Henrique inside the box, and for the second time he made no mistakes. At this moment nobody remembered that Napoli hugely overpaid for Paulo Henrique (£37mil) a few years back.

Now he had just won Napoli the Champions League and completed the perfect season.

Transfer inn:

Amaral from Atletico Paranaense, £12,25mil

Total £22mil

Brazilian youngster Amaral is the biggest new addition to the team this season. With the new direction toward Italian players Napoli is to take in the near future this is of cause a worthless move, but at the time it was a brilliant move. The just 21 year old Thiago Amaral is destined to be a great player.

He plays both as a defender and at the midfield. He got speed and determination and is a sublime free kick taker (20).

Transfer out:

Jakob Frisk to Genoa, £5mil

Emiliano Insua to Fulham, £3.25mil

Total: £8.25mil

[Northwood_dk]

15/06/2016 Knockout stage European Championship

For many of the European Napoli players there were no time to celebrate their fantastic season. Just days after the final whistle in the Champions League Final many of them had to report to their national teams to prepare for the upcoming European Championship in France.

We restart the story after the group stage of the 2016 European Championship is completed and the 16 teams are getting ready for the first knockout stage.

[Northwood_dk]

18/06/2016 Knockout stage European Championship

1p - 1

In the first game in the knockout stage home nation France went up against Bulgaria infront of almost 55.000 people in Parc des Princes in Paris.

O-Lyonn player Jimmy Briand gave France a flying start scoring on a penalty after just 12 minutes of play. His next move was not as impressive as he was sent off with a direct red card after 39 minutes. France struggled to hold on to the lead and had to give up after 63 minutes when Branimir Kostadinov scored the equalizer.

No more goals were scored in the regular time or in overtime and the game went to penalties. It took six penalties from each team before it was decided that France moves on to the next round. The France hero was Moussa Sissoko (3) from Man City who scored the game winning penalty.

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3) Moussa Sissoko had a fantastic season with Man City and finished 3rd in the “English Footballer of the year” award in both 2015/16 and 2016/17.

[Northwood_dk]

18/06/2016 Knockout stage European Championship

1 - 2

In the second game of the day the two super powers in European football, Germany and England meet. Germany took the lead midway thru the first half, but goals just before and after the halftime by Wayne Rooney turned the picture around. England’s best player was Jack Rodwell (4) playing as a deep lying defensive midfielder.

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4) Jack Rodwell is another Man City player. He was picked up from Everton for £27mil before the 2014/15 season.

[Northwood_dk]

19/06/2016 Knockout stage European Championship

1 - 0

Sweden who lost the final of the last European Championship to Germany takes on an Italian team with a lot to prove after failing to make it out of the group stage in the last European Championship and World Cup.

The game is decided already after 21 minutes when Federico Machede (4) scores his 4th goal of the tournament after a huge mistake by the Swedish defends and keeper.

Italy has won all there four games this fare in the tournament with a single goal margin.

Sweden played without an injured Ibrahimovic (5) but still came out with three attackers. That didn’t make much of a difference as they didn’t manage to produce a single goal chance they entire game. Italy played a defensive 4-5-1 DM formation with Andrea Poli being the only Napoli player to see action.

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4) Napoli has been after Federico Machede for years now. The Italian striker is in the peak of a great career with Manchester United, averaging 7.25 every season.

The Napoli front office have him as the perfect replacement for Cavani and have at several occasions managed to negotiate a trade of the two players with Man U. But each time one of the players in the trade have been unable to agree of personal contracts or simply refused to move.

5) Ibrahimovic was paid £185.000 pr week last season by AC Milan. For that money he averaged 6.73 pr game and scored 2 goals all season!!

After the 2015/16 season he was let go by AC Milan on a free transfer and Ibrahimovic moved back home to Sweden to play for AIK for £2300 pr week. He helped the team win the title in both 2016 and 2017, scoring a total of 28 goals.

[Northwood_dk]

19/06/2016 Knockout stage European Championship

5 - 1

It was Denmark who held England out of the first place in the group stage with a 1-0 win on a goal by Man City defender Simon Kjær.

Denmark becomes the first team to score 5 goals in a match in this years European Championship, as they completely runs over chanceless Romania. The first goal comes already after 2 minutes with Liverpool defender Daniel Agger scoring after a corner. Three Danish players finish the game with a 9.0 rating and among them is Napoli star Christian Eriksen (6).

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6) The very young Christian Eriksen had spend both the 2010/11 and 2011/12 season away from Ajax on loan to Birmingham and Twente without much success. That didn’t stop Napoli from paying £7.5mil for the young Dane before the 2012/13 season.

Since then he has been a solid AML with an average rating never dropping below 7.25.

[Northwood_dk]

20/06/2016 Knockout stage European Championship

0p - 0

In a surprisingly even match Portugal struggles to produces chances against a defensive minded Serbian team. Serbia made the knockout stage finishing second behind Germany after a close 2-1 win over Belgium. Portugal also finished second in there group behind Bulgaria after only drawing 3-3 against Wales.

Cristiano Ronaldo had an off day and didn’t accomplice much and instead Portugal got good performances from Fernando in the defensive midfield and Fabio Coentrâo on the left side. Both the regular 90 minutes and the extra time failed to produce any goals and the teams go to penalties. After 9 penalties for each team Portugal moves on in the tournament after Vidic (7) and Tosic misses the last two for Serbia.

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7) Vidic played a total of 12 seasons for Man U before moving to AJ Auxerre on a free transfer before the 2017/18 season.

[Northwood_dk]

20/06/2016 Knockout stage European Championship

2 - 0

These two teams play each other for the second time in just a few days after also meeting in the group-stage. In the group game Russia came out on top with a 2-1 win. Still Russia only finished 3rd in the group after a loosing to Croatia and drawing with Holland (8).

Switzerland won the group after scoring after just 5 minutes against Holland and holding on for dear life and another surprise 2-1 win over Croatia.

In the rematch Russia did it again this time with a 2-0 win. Russia got a monster performance by GK Igor Akinfeev.

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8) The big loser in this year European Championship was Holland. They finished last in group C and traveled home before the real fun began. Frank Rijkaard was fired almost before the team got back home to Holland and Mario Been was hired as the new manager. He took the team undefeated thru the qualifier for the 2018 World Cup and will play Iran, Serbia and Colombia in the upcoming championship in Russia.

[Northwood_dk]

21/06/2016 Knockout stage European Championship

1 - 0

Even with Xavi and Iniesta no longer a part of the team, Spain still looks like an old team with several players on the wrong side of 30. The new general in the midfield for Spain is now 30-year old Cesc Fabregas. The 2017 “World Player of the Year” had a fantastic season for Arsenal (7.99 overall rating).

Spain completely dominated Ukraine but still only managed a 1-0 win. They got the goal from Bojan (9) in extra time in the first half. Spain will have to play the next game without Bojan as he was shown a red card just before full time. Spain is now down to just one active attacker (10) on the roster.

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9) Borjan never left Barcelona and have had an impressive career for the Catalans. On the national team he got 52 appearances scoring an impressive 43 goals.

10) David Villa was not available for Spain in this championship as he broke his ankle in a regular season game for Barcelona a few month back. The only striker left active on the Spanish roster for the Qtr Finals is Liverpool’s Fernando Torres. He has struggled in the later years of his career only managing to score double-digit goals once for Liverpool in the last six seasons.

[Northwood_dk]

21/06/2016 Knockout stage European Championship

3 - 2

In a fun game Turkey won 3-2 over Croatia to secure the last available spot among the top eight teams in Europe.

Turkey scored twice within the first 30 minutes of play but Croatia never gave up. In the end Croatia could not overcome a poor game by there goalkeeper Matej Delac.

Turkey will struggle to put a defends on the field in there next game. From the 23 man group they selected for the championship the have now lost three of there starting defenders to injuries.

[Northwood_dk]

22/06/2016 Knockout stage European Championship

That concludes the first knockout round of the 2016 European Championship and gives us the eight teams ready for the quarterfinals. The games look like this.

England – France

Denmark – Italy

Russia – Portugal

Turkey – Spain

[Northwood_dk]

23/06/2016 World football News

31-year old Elisa from Corinthians was selected the best player of the Copa Libertadores today with an overall rating of 7.66 for the tournament. Corinthians lost there second final in two years. This year they lost to São Paulo who won there first Copa Libertadores since 2005.

Chelsea made the biggest move yet of the news season today when they paid £19.5 mil for Blaise Matuidi from Saint-Etienne.

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24/06/2016 Quarterfinals European Championship

0 - 2

At the Stade Velodrome it took a great individual performance by Federico Macheda and a mistake by Danish defender Michael Lumb (Palermo) for Italy to dispose of Denmark. Napoli player Andrea Poli was sent off with two yellow cards and is out for the next match. Italy will also be without Daniele De Rossi (11) for the remaining of the tournament as he was diagnosed with a broken bone in his foot after the last game.

11) 32-year old De Rossi plays for Roma and has been a key player for the team the last few years. He is now out for 3-4 months and Roma might need to look in the transfer marked for a backup DMC for the start of the season.

[Northwood_dk]

24/06/2016 Quarterfinals European Championship

0 - 3

A huge mistake by Joe Hart gave France the lead just before halftime. In the second half England pressed on for the equalizer but struggled to produce chances (only one short on goal all game). When England(12) sent everything forward in the dying minutes France counterattacked twice and scored two in overtime.

12) England also out of the 2018 World Cup after finishing second in there group and loosing to Switzerland in the playoff game. The British fans will have to rout for Scotland instead. They made it after beating Denmark in two playoff games. Both England and Denmark are looking for a new manager.

[Northwood_dk]

25/06/2016 Quarterfinals European Championship

2 - 1

Turkey was awarded an early penalty (2 minutes) when they caught Spain on a counterattack. Spain needed help to get back in the match and got it from Turkish striker Yildirim after 74 minutes of play when he made an own goal when helping to defend on a corner. Just two minutes later the game was decided when Fabregas scored the game winner on a shot from just outside the box.

[Northwood_dk]

25/06/2016 Quarterfinals European Championship

0p - 0

Portugal had 21 shots to Russia just two but the score was still 0-0 after 90 and after 120 minutes of play. Russia scored on 4 of there five penalties and all the pressure was on Portugal’s Hugo Almeida. The player who had only tried one penalty in the last three seasons missed and the only surprise of the quarterfinals was a reality. Russia will go on to play Italy while France and Spain will play in the other semifinal.

[Northwood_dk]

27/06/2016 Napoli News

The Napoli board today announced that they are making £78mil available for new players this season. For that money they are expecting a team challenging for the title in Italy this season.

The wage budget will also be increased from £1.14mil last season to a little over £1.4mil pr week this year.

That increase in the transfer and salary budget was only possible because of a record profit of £34mil last season. The turnover was £197mil with £74mil of that money coming from the teams TV deals.

In other Napoli news some of the biggest Europe is looking at Napoli’s Filip Svec. Today Napoli got a £900K offer from Man U and its expected that real Madrid and Chelsea is also getting ready to make a bid. Napoli got the young player from Everton for £800K before the start of last season.