JANUARY
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Lineup - Simon, Capa (Aguirregabiria), Yeray, Martinez, Yuri, Dani Garcia, Moriba, Williams (Ibarrondo),
Unai Lopez*, Muniain, Fati (Villalibre)
We kick off the new year with yet another victory but it wasn't all plain sailing as we fell behind which meant it ended our run of keeping clean sheets and the run ended at 6.
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Spanish Super Cup Semi-Final
View attachment 489721
Lineup - Simon, Capa,
Yeray*, Martinez, Yuri, Dani Garcia, Moriba, Williams (Ibarrondo), Unai Lopez, Muniain (Cordoba), Fati (Villalibre)
This new fandango of the Super Cup is weird but we have reached the final anyway. Yeray had a goal disallowed in our last match but got the only goal of the game here early doors.
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Spanish Super Cup Final
Lineup - Simon,
Capa*, Yeray, Martinez, Yuri, Dani Garcia, Sancet, Williams (Alvarez), Unai Lopez, Muniain, Villalibre (Cordoba)
Meh - no Super Cup for us. We matched Barcelona but they got the goal in extra-time to win it. We missed Moriba and Fati a lot here due to them being on loan from Barcelona.
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Lineup - Simon, Aguirregabiria, Yeray, Martinez, Rodrigues, Dani Garcia,
Moriba*, Williams (Alvarez), Ibarrondo, Muniain, Fati (Villalibre)
Yeray scores again! We sneak past Gijon here to keep up our winning streak.
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Lineup - Simon, Aguirregabiria, Yeray, Nunez, Yuri, Dani Garcia (Vesga), Sancet, Williams (Alvarez), Unai Lopez (Ibarrondo), Cordoba, Villalibre
After 12 straight wins in the league we lose here to Barcelona. It was always going to be a tough ask as I was without several players and Williams went off injured early on also so that didnt help. At least Real Madrid dropped points and we have the better head to head record over Barcelona.
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Copa del Rey 3rd Round
Lineup - Simon, Odriozola, Nunez, David Garcia, Rodrigues, Vesga, Nolaskoain (Vencedor), Alvarez, Ibarrondo (Larrazabal),
Vicente*, Villalibre (Galan)
I expected a bigger winning margin but hey ho. Odriozola made his debut here as did Vencedor, David Garcia, Galan and Vicente and it was the latter who starred with his 2 goals. Back to the B team he goes though lol.
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Lineup - Simon, Odriozola, Yeray, Nunez,
Yuri*, Dani Garcia (Nolaskoain), Moriba, Unai Lopez, Ibarrondo, Muniain, Fati
Deportivo are stranded at the bottom of the league with only 1 win and we thumped them here. Yuri scored with 2 stunning free-kicks while Deportivo have Joe Hart in goal.
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Copa del Rey 4th Round
Lineup - Simon, Aguirregabiria, Nunez, David Garcia, Rodrigues, Vesga,
Nolaskoain*, Alvarez (Larrazabal), Ibarrondo, Cordoba (Vicente), Villalibre (Galan)
Never would I have imagined that Peru Nolaskoain would have scored a hat-trick but he did here. Rayo ran us close tbh but our superior quality came out on top in the end.
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Lineup - Simon, Odriozola, Yeray, Martinez, Yuri, Dani Garcia, Moriba (Nolaskoain), Alvarez,
Unai Lopez*, Muniain (Cordoba), Fati (Villalibre)
We gain revenge over Atletico as they beat us earlier in the season so we beat them here despite falling behind early doors. Fati missed a penalty too so we could have been further in front.
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SUMMARYT
We had a hectic start to the calendar year with games coming on 3 fronts. The league took care of itself largely although we did lose to Barcelona and we finish the month 1pt off the top behind Real Madrid. In the Copa del Rey my backups got us through but Valencia await in the quarter-finals. As for the Super Cup we edged out Atletico Madrid before losing to Barcelona in extra-time in the final which was disappointing.
There were 2 departures and 2 signings during the month. Unai Bustinza was sold to Osasuna for £800,000 as he wasn't a natural CB and in return I signed a CB from Osasuna in the shape and form of David Garcia who came in for £1.5m.
Then I noticed that Real Madrid had transfer listed Alvaro Odriozola but I couldn't afford him so I sold Ander Capa to Leicester City for a very good fee of £29.5m and brought in Odriozola in his place for a paltry £22m which is a great piece of business as Odriozola is a definite upgrade and he is 4 years younger so it was a no brainer really.
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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
UNAI LOPEZ
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LIGA BBVA