The Circle of Fitness Activists

[noikeee]

UEFA European Championship Qualifiers

 

The match in Dublin feels like a huge missed opportunity. Ireland created zero all match, I felt confident enough to upgrade from my defensive 4-1-4-1 to the 4-3-3. We had a penalty. Milan Senic misses it. Ireland go upfront once and score from a cross. Sigh.

Then as we hosted Sweden, it looked like luck was instead swinging back to us. Sweden looked dangerous but we scored just before the break, switched to an even more defensive 5-4-1 to make sure 3 CBs would counter the runs of their 2 forwards in their 4-4-2, and then we scored again from a corner. And it stayed 2-0 until minute 90. I was already celebrating the win when Isak got a goal, no big deal, right? Only for veteran goalkeeper Peter Gulácsi to miscontrol an overhit backpass by Dávid Forgács, and hand Carlos Strandberg an empty goal. 2-2. Massive pie on the face.

 

Suddenly the league table doesn't look so good - we have gonna have to fight pretty damn hard for this now.

 

International debuts

 

Well it feels a little stupid to screenshot a player two posts in a row, but it's Fédor YP20A, he deserves it. Our finest Hungarian academy player finally makes it to the national team.

[noikeee]

At last! This is great news, although for this season we'll still have to travel through every single preliminary round, but for next year we can start from 3 rounds later!

However,

in terms of league rep we overtake Belarus, and, errm, that's it. Hooray! 

[noikeee]

After years building it, we finally move to the new stadium!!!

Which has an almost identical name to the old one, and a capacity barely any higher than the old one. Oh. At least it can be expanded to almost the double, that's good news. I asked for an expansion immediately and:

The stadium starts expansion the same day it's finished. 

[noikeee]

This feels familiar. We beat them 12-0 aggregate 2 years ago. I'm aiming at least at 15-0 now.

[noikeee]

UEFA Champions League First Qualifying Phase

 

Hooray! 16-0 aggregate win! 49-0 in shots attempted the 1st leg, 41-0 the 2nd leg. Slightly dominant. 

This is a surprisingly competent team to be facing next already. I've been poaching pretty much every single good Serbian player for years though - specially defenders - so I don't think they'll have the talent to beat us.

[john1]

Should be able to hammer Crvena  

[withnail316]

That's about as comprehensive a victory as it gets... boot meets ant, so to speak. 

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2023/2024

Transfers

 

A frustrating pre-season. According to my transfer restrictions (only U21 Eastern Europeans), I was unable to find a single player that would improve our starting 11. However, I did buy right about EVERY YOUNG PLAYER THAT EXISTS. 8 kids came in. Not a single one of them are ready to fight for a first team place. Maybe 1 or 2 of them in a couple of months.

Meanwhile, Hungarian international CB/DM Donát Horgosi was sold, and I also got rid of Slovenian MC Jan Sabol. Need to make some space for the kids to break through, eh.
 

 

The next Szilvási? This 17yo striker seems to be the leader of the next generation of youth Hungarian players. Not a great leader but a potentially tidy striker nonetheless.
 

 

A similar player, 17yo striker too, but Slovenian. A slightly more complete, nuanced player than Soltesz who's more of a physical brute.
 

 

I way overpaid for this slow 18yo Bosnian CB, but I don't know what to do with my money anymore. Loaned him to Alcorcón.
 

 

Yet another wonder from Serbia (18yo MC this time), and probably the best signing this pre-season. Near first team level (in fact I nominated him part of my "B" 11 which should play in the league), and with superb potential. Only problem is I have zillions of midfielders.
 

 

So why not hire YET MORE MCs? Slovenian, 18yo. Can also play DL. Loaned out immediately to Debrecen.
 

 

One more from Serbia - a 19yo keeper. I now have 4 promising keepers. Planning to page FIFA to ask for a rule change so I can play more than one at once.
 

 

Hey, another CB I overpaid for. 18yo, Bulgarian. Not much potential apparently - looked better on the scout report.
 

 

The guy I paid most money for - because even after all this I still have zillions in the bank, and because I'm struggling to find good DMs, so need to take anyone with potential that looks like he actually knows how to steal a ball. 18yo, Romanian.

 

 

I don't know if I'm happier at smashing Lincoln 16-0 agg, or beating Olympiacos 5-0 and Marseille 3-0 in the pre-season. It's pre-season, we always win every match, but still... unexpected.

[noikeee]

21 minutes ago, john1 said:

Should be able to hammer Crvena  

They should be a tiny wee bit better than that lot from Gibraltar, though.  

19 minutes ago, withnail316 said:

That's about as comprehensive a victory as it gets... boot meets ant, so to speak. 

Yeah these matches against the likes of Gibraltar/Wales teams etc are just a waste of time, but I still watched the game (as opposed to instant result, which I do on the Hungarian league/cup fixtures) just for the amusement. 

[withnail316]

Just now, noikeee said:

Yeah these matches against the likes of Gibraltar/Wales teams etc are just a waste of time, but I still watched the game (as opposed to instant result, which I do on the Hungarian league/cup fixtures) just for the amusement. 

I've never been one for using an IR function even when I'm scything through a league, but I think that's because I always seem to be tweaking something. It's fun to watch your team run riot in any competitive game, too. 

[noikeee]

8 minutes ago, withnail316 said:

I've never been one for using an IR function even when I'm scything through a league, but I think that's because I always seem to be tweaking something. It's fun to watch your team run riot in any competitive game, too. 

I used to be kinda like that, but had to adapt otherwise it'd take forever to progress in such a long-term focused career like this (and with writing a career thread about it). Also I think it'd get boring by this stage in the Hungarian league, it's fun for a little while but then I'm now on 74 matches without losing in the league.   That would definitely get old.

Wouldn't be possible without a solid tactic that I can trust to just leave it, which I have since my league tactic is like 95% the settings of a tactic that's available online and which I tweaked to my liking slightly, during the first season or so.

[withnail316]

1 minute ago, noikeee said:

I used to be kinda like that, but had to adapt otherwise it'd take forever to progress in such a long-term focused career like this (and with writing a career thread about it). Also I think it'd get boring by this stage in the Hungarian league, it's fun for a little while but then I'm now on 74 matches without losing in the league.   That would definitely get old.

Wouldn't be possible without a solid tactic that I can trust to just leave it, which I have since my league tactic is like 95% the settings of a tactic that's available online and which I tweaked to my liking slightly, during the first season or so.

I had a run like that during my Norwegian save, but my take was "I built this team, I'm going to enjoy it!" 

Fair enough with the tactic, it's not for me, but I can totally understand why people do it. 

[noikeee]

Damn right!

I might sell him one year from now if he can't agree a contract until then (it expires in 2 years time), but so far he's been our best youth academy kid (now challenged by Fedor YP20A). Also the only player to get surprisingly decent offers, the best ones have been around 6M€ or so including clauses. Everyone else, I get TONS of offers but it's like 1M€ or 1.5M€. Hey, clubs around Europe, I've got 36.5M€ of transfer budget I haven't even bothered to use this Summer, it ain't gonna be one million or two that will convince me to sell my best players...

[noikeee]

UEFA Champions League Second Qualifying Phase

 

The Red Star of Belgrade came to Budapest to fade. 5-0 smashing. We were a bit **** in Belgrade though, and only just salvaged a 3-3 draw in a bit of a goalfest.

 

Off to Azerbaijan next.

[deltablue]

Seems easy so far. 

[noikeee]

8 hours ago, deltablue said:

Seems easy so far. 

Kind of expected, we've gone through all of these qualifiers for the last 3 years, so you'd think we can do it for a 4th time.

[turnip]

It is kind of frustrating when you can steamroll the league but Europe is a coin-toss.

Still, good progress!

[noikeee]

UEFA Champions League Third Qualifying Phase

 

In Azerbaijan the match was just a joke. They have a few recognisable internationals but they're ancient in their mid 30s, and with our game based on pace we just completely steamrolled them. 7-0!! I wasn't quite expecting that.

On the return everyone was complacent, nobody cared, and we kinda forgot to score. 0-0.

 

Paging @ManUtd1 for scouting tips.

[noikeee]

12 minutes ago, turnip said:

It is kind of frustrating when you can steamroll the league but Europe is a coin-toss.

Still, good progress!

Well yeah, but I already knew this is what would happen when I started the career - the plan all along was always to a few seasons in when this happened, shift focus to Europe and the national team if I got offered the job.  

[noikeee]

Nooooo our run is over. I was hoping to reach 100.  

[noikeee]

UEFA Champions League Playoff

 

In Sweden we were shocked by a resilient Malmo side, and although we were slightly superior, it was them who got the goal. 1-0 defeat, not even an away goal for us. We were in trouble.

Back home we scored in the very first minute though. And by half-time the tie was sorted as we were winning 3-0 - which would be the final result as well.

 

Bottom seeds again, insane group again. ****ing hell. It's almost identical to last year too, only swap Chelsea for Man Utd.

[noikeee]

UEFA European Championship qualifying

 

At the brilliantly named Wankdorf stadium, we were unable to shake off our status as underdogs. As always we struggle most against 4-4-2s and Switzerland's destroyed us no matter what we did. At the end a 4-2 scoreline wasn't too embarrasing but this wasn't a good day.

Against the Faroes we looked uninspiring, but did show good finishing and that ended a 4-0 win with a Szilvási hat-trick.

 

We're level on points with Ireland, but I'd rank our performance so far as fairly disappointing. We need to do much better on the return matches against Sweden, Ireland and Switzerland if we're to qualify through the groups - there's always the B plan of qualifying through the Nations League playoff but I'd rather not want to rely on that.

[noikeee]

UEFA European Championship qualifying

 

Against San Marino I decided to be bold and debut a brand new tactical system: I have been resisting the urge to play 3 strikers since the very beginning of FM18, on a kind of proud stubborness of wanting to make a tactic work in some other way. However with Hungary I simply had to cave in as it just suits my squad now, it means I can play Kitl - Szilvasi - Csoboth or Fedor YP20A all together. So against San Marino in comes a new 4-1-2-3 with the 3 being all strikers. It resulted in a 4-0 victory with, weirdly, a hat-trick by CB/DM Donát Horgosi who I had just sold last Summer at club level with MTK.

The test of fire was away against Sweden though... and the new tactic absolutely passed!! We were a little lucky here and there as the chances were divided, but we found ourselves winning by 3 goals(!) and although Sweden reduced at the very end, it was a brilliant win.

 

Beating Sweden suddenly opened up things - anything can happen now with the top 4 separated by just 2 points. We do have to play Ireland and Switzerland for the final 2 matches which is a tough calendar... but both are at home. If in those 2 matches we can get a win and a draw, we might just squeeze into the top 2 which should be enough for qualifying - but it will be difficult.

[noikeee]

UEFA Champions League group stage - rounds 1, 2 and 3

 

We kicked off in Madrid with a bit of an embarrassment - we suddenly found ourselves losing 3-0 by minute 14 and it's just impossible to come back from that. Ultimately it was a 5-1 defeat, which I believe is the heaviest since I started this career.

We improved a lot when hosting Inter, we trailed them for most of the match but finally got a deserved equaliser in the 88th minute.

In Manchester, Utd dominated the match but a 2-0 result and the shots attempted stat are highly misleading - we did manage to restrict them to very little danger, and the few times we went upfront we made them tremble. A performance I'm happy with despite the result.

 

This group's extreme difficulty is playing out as you'd expect, and I'm not optimistic we can salvage much from here. Nevertheless with 2 home matches yet to come there's still a little hope we could sneak in, to a Europa slot.

[noikeee]

UEFA European Championship qualifying

 

Against Ireland, the narrow 4-3-3 continue to work brilliantly as we opened a 2 goal lead (with Fedor YP20A's first international goal), watched Ireland reduce in the 2nd half, then we added our 3rd and final goal in the final minutes when Ireland had opened themselves up massively. With this we climbed to 2nd place ahead of the final match, but level on points with Sweden. It would all depend on Hungary-Switerzland and Ireland-Sweden, the 2 final fixtures.

As the match against Switzerland began we immediately got news of a Swedish goal in Dublin, which is the last thing we needed. It would end up a crazy 4-0 win for Sweden (!). But we soon were into serious trouble on our end as well as the Swiss got a 2 goal lead thanks to 2 penalties. We looked off our game specially due to having to field a lot of 2nd options, since the first 11 was very tired from the previous game. The Swiss at some point had a pretty embarrasing 4-1 lead, but as the match went on, we got better and took advantage of neverending openings (at both ends) to reduce to 2-4 then 3-4. This was still with 23 minutes to go, we needed the 4th and 5th goals but they never came. The Swiss and the Swedes beat us to a place in the Euros.

 

Disregard the single "Q" on the left, the Swedish are guaranteed of a place in the Euros as one of the best 2nd placed teams. That could've been us... We got very close to qualifying through this route, but unfortunately we missed this chance, and need to re-adjust to still take the chance through the Nations League route, which at least is still open to us.

[noikeee]

UEFA Champions League group stage - rounds 4 and 5

 

Against Man Utd we finally woke up and put a memorable performance. Looking superior than Utd on the pitch, Ilic and Dimov beat DDG twice in the first half for a straightforward 2-0 win. Simple!

Faced with Atlético, it was clear the side from Madrid could hurt us more, yet we found ourselves in much the same position and looking on course for a similar 2-0 win. But then... Griezmann scores on the 83rd and Tau on the 91st! Massive frustration moment! .... only for Tejic to score IMMEDIATELY for us again!!! In this hectic period of injury time, there was still time for Denkovic to make a marvelous triple save, and ensure our epic 3-2 win.

 

After the poor start we had, I did not expect to reach the final round in this position - anything can happen as we're 2 points from the top and currently on a Europa slot, but if we lose in Italy to Inter and Atlético beat Utd we're out of Europe altogether. Exciting times to be a MTK supporter.

[noikeee]

UEFA European Championship Qualifying Playoff draw (Nations League route)

Might be a little tricky but the match is at home so we should be favourites.

I'm amazed it's just one match instead of a two-legged playoff.  And I believe if we win we meet the winner of Estonia-Kazakhstan. So the odds for us to make it look nice all around. So glad now we were in Division D. 

[noikeee]

UEFA Champions League group stage - round 6

 

We held off Inter for 24 minutes in our routine defensive 4-1-4-1, until they scored after a few chances... and I realised there was little point trying to defend as it wasn't working. So we switched to the more normal control wide 4-3-3 and started getting chances... but Roland Szilvási missed 2 sitters just before half-time.

... only for Szilvási to SCORE 2 sitters in quick succession right after the break!! Suddenly this was all turned upside down and we climbed from 3rd to 1st in the group! It was a glorious moment, but only lasted 6 more minutes until Inter had a penalty and scored again, and we were back down to 3rd. We pressed the rest of the match, kept up with the score of Atlético-Man Utd as Utd scored the 1st then the 2nd, eventually winning 2-0 (good for us), and then watched substitute midfielder Tomislav Ilic miss two glorious chances at the very end of the match. Had either of them gone in, we'd have gone through. Instead, we're in the Europa League.

 

To come 3rd in this group is delightful. Absolutely no complaints to our players over that. It's the first time we finish 3rd and end up in the Europa (in the previous 3 years we gone past the groups and fell in the CL quarters twice, then crashed out in the CL groups in 4th place last year), so it will be very interesting to figure out what exactly can we do in this competition.

[noikeee]

FIFA World Cup qualifying draw

Other than Belgium this is great! The problem is how tricky it is to qualify now under this format, we need to either win the group outright or end up one of the best 2nd placed (but only the 3 best out of 10 groups qualify...).

[noikeee]

Europa League 1st knockout round draw

Could be far worse, think we're favourites for this Austrian-Hungarian derby.

[Tajerio]

6 hours ago, noikeee said:

Europa League 1st knockout round draw

Could be far worse, think we're favourites for this Austrian-Hungarian derby.

Bit surprising to see both Juventus and PSG in there.

[deltablue]

Good chance of getting through there.

[noikeee]

Mid-season update 2023/2024

 

 

I ended up doing one more signing after that pre-season update earlier on:

 

The club's most expensive signing ever at a 3M€ price, is a 17 year old Croatian DM from Dinamo. Maybe a slightly odd player to beat the record with as he doesn't have amazing potential (just 3 stars + 1 black star), but I really like his spread of attributes and I think he could hold down the DM position in a year or two.

 

It's truly frustrating that we've lost not just one, but two league matches. Boo. We're slacking off in the league. To compensate, we did win a match 10-0 in the cup so that was nice. Oh and 8-0 over Ferencváros in the league. Ouch. 9 points lead over Debrecen at the moment, at this stage of this career I barely even look at league tables anymore.

For the rest of the season I'm pretty excited at what we can do in the Europa League, this is a new situation we've in that, if we get a couple of good draws, we could use to boost Hungarian league rankings.

 

We turn now our attention to the January signings that are about to arrive, because I've gone mad and hired ALL OF EASTERN EUROPE. 10 signings are confirmed (!!!), whilst we're still trying to clinch a completely mad new record signing that I'm gonna restrain myself from posting just yet. Here's the 10 confirmed new faces, I expect 9 of them to be for the future and 1 to challenge for the first team:

 

Yay, yet more Serbian keepers. He's proper good though, I think a little better than Pervan who's our 2nd keeper at the moment, but still way below our starter Denkovic who is just amazing and probably the best player in the whole club at the moment. This kid Prebiracevic comes in a slightly expensive 1.6M€ deal.
 

 

Another keeper, more of a long term punt, cheap (45K€ deal) 16 year old Slovakian.
 

 

Yet more Serbian defenders, 650K€ is expensive for him but the potential is here for a pretty tidy fullback in a couple of seasons, the only issue is that he has 2 amazing RBs in front of him in the squad now, Antal Sáfár and Hungarian international Sándor Laczkó.
 

 

I'm very excited about the career prospects of this 16 year old Bulgarian CB, I think he could be immense, the only issue is very low jumping (7) as otherwise he's clearly a star in the making, recommended at the maximum potential of 4 stars + 1 black star. 800K€ deal.
 

 

Quite expensive at a 2.1M€ deal, this 17 year old Croatian LB has a while to develop yet to feature regularly, but should have the potential to do so.
 

 

Onto midfielders and a player with a slightly odd profile, usually I see loads of midfielders that are physically super imposing and lacking in the rest, this guy is the opposite. My scouts are not very convinced about him but for 135K€ I think it was well worth taking a chance on him.
 

 

375K€ for this 16 year old Czech midfielder, the potential could be great or just merely good it's still a little unclear, he's somewhat similar to the player above in terms of not having amazing physicals but seems to still need to develop the rest of his game a little bit more.
 

 

Yet more Serbians, 17 year old M/AMC, I'm not seeing a big player in the making here but my scouts are adamant there's big potential so it's well worth to invest 140K€.
 

 

Onto forwards, my scouts here aren't super impressed, I nevertheless thought a similar 140K€ fee was worth it, I don't quite use target men-type strikers but I thought his skills were pretty well developed for a 17 year old. Comes from Bulgaria.
 

 

And finally the most expensive player lined up so far of these 10 signings - I'm activating his 2.6M€ release clause because I feel this Serbian 19 year old striker is capable of immediately challenging Szilvási and Fedor YP20A for the striker position upfront - both our Hungarian forwards can play on the wings so should still get plenty of playing time, as we get a little upgrade here and also much needed added depth in the position as they're often injured. Only downside is this guy can't play in the Europa League this season.

[noikeee]

2 hours ago, Tajerio said:

Bit surprising to see both Juventus and PSG in there.

Juve got knocked out of the CL in a group with Chelsea and Dortmund, and PSG in a group with Bayern and Milan.

1 hour ago, deltablue said:

Good chance of getting through there.

With MTK or with the national team? Or both?  

[oriole01]

Sutulovic has got some crazy attributes, he can definitely be someone to take you to the next level if you can keep him. Hopefully with the sort of progress you've been making, you can get back to the latter stages of the CL soon.

[adamdfry]

Sutulovic looks crazy good! He will certainly fetch more than 2.6m€ in the future, seems like a perfect move.

[noikeee]

4 hours ago, oriole01 said:

Sutulovic has got some crazy attributes, he can definitely be someone to take you to the next level if you can keep him. Hopefully with the sort of progress you've been making, you can get back to the latter stages of the CL soon.

 

2 hours ago, adamdfry said:

Sutulovic looks crazy good! He will certainly fetch more than 2.6m€ in the future, seems like a perfect move.

 

Yeah Sutulovic looks class, the issue is that he'll be standing in the way of these 2 guys that I'm also developing for the national team (and I usually play a lone striker formation):

 

But I'm sure they'll all get playing time, as I always play a different side in Europe than in the league, as I adapt them to the wings (Fedor in particular I think will play more as ML/AML in the future), and as I start experimenting with a narrow 4-3-3 (3 strikers) as well.

[noikeee]

Time to do something batshit crazy...

22M€. That's an insane transfer fee for us - our record signing had been 3M€!!

He's an amazing player though, will be our first "wonderkid". And we comfortably have the cash. It's a shame we couldn't agree to a longer deal with him, but we should have a brilliant player for the next 3,5 years.

[withnail316]

How much?!? Crumbs...

[noikeee]

Youth intake 2024

 

 

 

A better intake but still not quite like I want it, the players that look the most interesting don't have much potential, whereas the player that has potential has a long way to go to become useful.

[noikeee]

UEFA Europa League First Knockout Round

 

Our performance in Vienna was simply one of the best the whole season - we were devastating and ran away a slightly bonkers 6-0 winners.

On the return everyone got complacent and it was a disappointing 0-0 draw, but, obviously, we progress.

 

The level of the teams in the Europa League this season seems fairly high, so I'm relatively happy to draw Shakhtar, obviously much tougher opponents than Rapid Wien, but one that we could/should beat, unlike other options in here like Juve, PSG and Liverpool.

[noikeee]

Breaking records with, uh, routine league matches:

[noikeee]

Nice, this is the highest we've ever been. The decisive Euro playoffs are coming very soon...

[noikeee]

UEFA Europa League Second Knockout Round

 

We outplayed Shakhtar in Budapest, but to our horror they scored first - an away goal. We immediately equalised on a corner, but would then witness an absolute shocking performance by Roland Szilvási, who missed sitter after sitter. I watched nervously until we finally broke them in the final 10 minutes, first through record signing Konstantin Gladyshev, then through an injury time penalty.

The pattern seemed to be repeating itself in the Ukraine, us superior to Shakhtar but missing chances. Later in the 2nd half Shakhtar started looking dangerous and with better finishing could've seriously gotten back into the tie, but they never scored, and in the 93rd Szilvási decided to redeem himself from a dismal 180 minutes of football by scoring a screamer from just outside the area.

 

We will face Espanyol in our 3rd European quarter-final in 4 years - facing a team from the big leagues will always be difficult, but again, given the alternatives like Juve and PSG, I'm happy with the draw...

[noikeee]

UEFA European Championship Qualifying Playoff - Semi-final

 

I watched the first 30 minutes with huge aprehension - we were rubbish, created nothing, and then Montenegro scored in a set piece. We were in trouble! Panicking, I reverted back to the wide 4-3-3 (having started with the narrow 4-3-3 with 3 strikers) and immediately we improved and scored. I then thought, actually, I can make the narrow 4-3-3 settings much more similar to this tactic and did just that... it worked. We scored another just before the break, and another after the break.

We looked on course for an easy victory now, even more so when we had a penalty kick, but Kitl missed. Then they scored from a wonderful freekick - and we finished the match dreading the prospect of a Montenegro equaliser. It never came and we're through.

 

We're playing away from home, but surely, surely we can't possibly screw this one up and miss  the Euros? Please?

[noikeee]

UEFA European Championship Qualifying Playoff - Final

 

We went off to Estonia to face a resilient side lined up on a 4-5-1 that would, to my dismay, successfully frustrate us for the whole of the 1st half. I gave my players a bollocking at half-time, and was about to switch tactics and give up on the narrow 4-3-3 when Csoboth combined with Kitl for the former MTK, 50M€ Hoffenheim striker to score on a quick counter. It would make the whole difference. We'd have a few more clear chances throughout the match, whilst aprehensively noting occasional timid advances from Estonia. At the end it's a meagre 1-0 result, hardly convincing, but what matters is that we're in the Euros!!

 

It's not a huge feat, since it had been done before in 2016, and we massively benefitted from an easy path through the Nations League Division D, but I'm delighted to finally have the chance to manage Hungary in a big competition - a nice reward for the work of the nearly 4 years I've been in charge.

[noikeee]

Uhhh... who exactly has he been hanging out with lately? This is ****. He's become "jovial".

[noikeee]

UEFA Euro 2024 draw

A great draw! I fancy us to beat Belarus, which should put us in contention for qualifying through best 3rd placed teams, and then although the Czechs are superior, they're a team we can take points out of. Interesting to get drawn here against my real nation Portugal, but I'm representing Hungary as a Bulgarian-Romanian character, so no time for misplaced sentimentality about them.  

[noikeee]

Continuing to rise here, first time we make the top 20. I guess we got a lot of points from beating Montenegro and Estonia? 

[noikeee]

UEFA Europa League Quarter-finals

 

The first leg in Budapest proved extraordinarily difficult. Although we scored right at the beginning, and again got back into the lead soon after Espanyol had equalised, the Spaniards looked very dangerous and we were struggling to play well. I was forced to revert to the defensive 4-1-4-1 from the wide 4-3-3 I was fielding at the beginning and it kind of worked, as later Szilvási added another for a good 3-1 win at the end.

Back in Barcelona we started with the defensive 4-1-4-1, and I've rarely seen it work so well. Our counters were absolutely venomous, and Espanyol did absolutely nothing all game long. Two early goals by Szilvási and Dimov killed the tie. We're through to an European semi-final!

 

To make things even better, Juve and PSG got knocked out so now things look wide open. We got a delightful draw in Braga for the semi-finals and even the winner from Everton-Stoke looks potentially beatable, although we are not favourites by any means. Can we have a word to say about this competition here?