Another entertaining final which had a crazy 7min spell when 4 goals were scored. Tbh the game sparked into life when I made a triple substitution on the hour mark and in the end both Vignato and Coman were key to the victory.
What a crazy, crazy game!!!! We were 3up and cruising and then Rodrigo Caio got sent-off and gave away a penalty which they duly missed but we still went on to score 4 more with 10 men. Coman scored after a goalkeeping howler and Zeca scored from a cross *** shot. Madness!!!
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Atalanta 2 (Barella 12, Coman 90) Bologna 0
Lineup - Gollini, Mattiello, Caldara, Mancini, Zeca, Pellegrini (Schmidt), Barella*, D'Amico, Richard (Lo Celso), Kean, Petagna (Coman)
Not bad. Coman once again made the most of a goalkeeping howler as he scored in stoppage time.
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SUMMARY
A decent start to the season as we won all 4 games and that enabled us to win 2 Super Cup victories. We defeated Everton in the European one and put 4 past Juventus in the domestic one and after that we hit Sampdoria for 7 and then beat Bologna.
So on the pitch all is good!!!
I did make another signing as I brought in Simone Scuffet from Udinese for £5m and he will be my new backup keeper. Scuffet is just as good as Gollini and will get some opportunities. View attachment 46028
Outgoing was Girolami and Gianetto on loan so that both players can get games and develop.
Off the field I am delighted to announce that Aberdeen have agreed to be an affiliated club as my choice. Hopefully we can get some decent Scottish youngsters from them. Also in the Champions League we have been given a tough draw against Real Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen and Everton.
SEPTEMBER v
Atalanta 3 (D'Amico 5, Barella 25, Coman 90) Genoa 1 (Piu 34) Lineup - Gollini, Conti, Caldara, Rodrigo Caio, Zeca, Pellegrini (Melegoni), Barella, D'Amico*, Richard (Lo Celso), Kean, Petagna (Coman)
Barella scored 3 goals last season and already has 4 plus 1 for Italy this season. I don't know what Coman does - maybe he shouts boo to the keeper or something - but once again he nicks the ball off the opposing keeper to score for the 3rd time this season.
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UEFA Champions League Group B v Everton 0 Atalanta 1 (Rodrigo Caio 7)
Lineup - Gollini, Conti, Caldara, Rodrigo Caio, Zeca, Pellegrini*, Barella (Melegoni), D'Amico (Vignato), Richard, Kean (Rodrygo), Petagna
A decent win but considering Everton are the weakest team in our group this could be tricky. They deserved a point tbh and also had a goal disallowed.
For the 2nd time this season we put 4 past Juventus. Coman came in from the start and scored again as Petagna dropped out and if it wasn't for the 2 late goals conceded it would have been one of our favourite wins. Barella scored again!!!!
A sterling performance from D'Amico wins us this match and Coman scores for the 5th domestic match running but this time he didn't scare the goalkeeper lol.
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Inter Milan 1 (Gagliardini 11) Atalanta 0
Lineup - Gollini, Conti (Mattiello), Caldara, Rodrigo Caio, Zeca, Pellegrini, Schmidt, D'Amico (Vignato), Lo Celso, Kean (Mauro), Coman
I can have no complaints - we were ****!!!! That said due to the team colours I thought we had actually taken the lead lol.
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UEFA Champions League Group B v
Atalanta 4 (Kean 38, 45, Coman 61, Rodrygo 88) Bayer Leverkusen 2 (Alario 70, Orban 82)
Nice and easy or at least it was until they pulled 2 goals back but thankfully Rodrygo netted for us to seal the win. Everton drew with Real Madrid so we take control of the group.
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SUMMARY
A decent month all told although our defeat to Inter Milan was a hammer blow as they go above us in Serie A but on the other side of the coin we did score 4 goals past Juventus for the 2nd time this season already. Florinel Coman has certainly impressed as he has edged Petagna out of the side for the moment while Felice D'Amico has also been magnificent and I have just called him up for next months national team fixtures.
Next month we have tough fixtures including games against Napoli, Real Madrid and Roma!!!
Lineup - Donnarumma, De Sciglio, Caldara, Bonucci (Rugani), Barreca, Pellegrini, Verratti, Bernardeschi (Chiesa), Insigne, Kean (Barella), Belotti
Not the best of starts but this was a tough opening fixture. As for my squad I don't have any natural AMCs which is a massive blow so will have to make do. I gave Federico Chiesa his Italy debut here and he just edges out our own D'Amico in the squad - Melegoni, Mancini and Petagna are the other capped Atalanta players not in the squad.
In the squad are Gollini, Conti, Caldara, Pellegrini, Barella and Kean.
Back to winning ways as Pellegrini starred. Both teams finished with 10 men as they had a man sent-off and we had Caldara injured after we had made 3 subs.
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v Napoli 2 (Zielinski 2, 88) Atalanta 2 (Kean 40, Petagna 90)
An acceptable result with Petagna scoring an injury time leveller to put him back in the frame for starting games. Unfortunately Kean got injured and is out for a month.
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UEFA Champions League Group B
v Real Madrid 2 (Cristiano Ronaldo 25, 73) Atalanta 2 (Petagna 31, Richard 43)
I am delighted with my players here as we went toe-to-toe with Real Madrid and could have won the match but a draw was a fair result. Its funny that we are Champions of Europe but still have an inferiority complex!
We were under par here and struggled to victory. We missed an early penalty and then they took the lead and it took up to the hour mark for us to equalise. They then had a man sent-off and we scored the winner when Barella finished from the edge of the area.
This months fixtures were tough and we came out on top in most of them with arguably our best performance coming in the 2-2 draw away to Real Madrid. Having said that we weren't firing on all cylinders towards the end of the month as we struggled past Sassuolo and Udinese.
Moise Kean has been out injured and Rodrygo has struggled to take his chance so far but Andrea Petagna has found himself back in amongst the goals and back in the team after Coman impressed so much at the start of the campaign.
This should be enough for us to win the group as Portugal have lost to Austria after they beat us. D'Amico followed up his excellent debut with another MoM performance here while Lorenzo Insigne has scored in all 4 games that I have been in charge for.
What a result and what a performance!!!!! Richard has done the square root of ****** all for us domestically in just over a year but he was immense here and has 3 goals against Real Madrid for the season.
Lineup - Gollini, Conti, Caldara, Rodrigo Caio, Zeca, Pellegrini (Melegoni), Barella, D'Amico, Richard (Lo Celso), Rodrygo (Mauro), Petagna
What a moment for Barella as he scored a last minute winner against his old team. Weirdly enough I have been playing him as a carrilero but he isn't a natural in that position any more yet he is scoring far more regularly so he will stay as that for now!!
Coman hadn't featured in the league - not even as a sub - for 4 games due to Petagna's return to form but he came off the bench here and scored a screamer.
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UEFA Champions League Group B v Atalanta 1 (Melegoni 16) Everton 1 (Cenk Tosun 50) Lineup - Scuffet, Mattiello (Agostinelli), Mancini (Antunes), Pierie, Costabile, Melegoni*, Schmidt, Vignato (Causero), Xadas, Mauro, Coman
My backups did OK here and this point puts Everton above Real Madrid with a game to go. Scuffet made his debut for us here.
A very good performance and a convincing victory. Special mention for Conti though as he was superb and got 2 assists.
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SUMMARY
November saw us begin to hit our stride as we opened up a 3pt gap at the top of Serie A and we scored 3 goals in every game pretty much so things are going great. The highlight of the month undoubtedly was our thumping of Real Madrid as we showed them who is boss by beating them 3-1.
My young players are developing nicely. Following on from D'Amico's debut for Italy, Rodrygo has been capped by Brazil and even Patrick Schmidt has been capped by Germany!!!!
We qualify for the next stage in fine style here as Nicolo Barella scored a hat-trick as he played in the AMC position due to injuries - food for thought!!!
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Friendly
v
Italy 3 (Immobile 70, 72, Bernardeschi 75) South Korea 0
My backups do me proud as we win this tough match. Coman also missed so many sitters before he scored the winner. Unfortunately my 16y/o wonderkid, Marco Mauro, got injured and is out for 5-6 weeks.
Lineup - Gollini, Conti*, Caldara, Rodrigo Caio, Zeca (Costabile), Pellegrini (Schmidt), Barella, D'Amico, Richard, Kean, Petagna (Coman)
This win moves us 7pts clear at the top of the table. It seems like the title race is all but over already!!!
Fantastic!!!! My backups did the job here and we even had a goal disallowed. Rodrygo was immense as was Xadas and Vignato except he picked up an injury.
This was a hard fought, ugly match which we struggled to win despite Lazio having a man sent-off early doors. As it was it took a thunderbolt from Richard near the end to give us the win and our 10th win on the trot in the league.
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SUMMARY
This month probably will be seen as the main one of the season as we opened up a big gap at the top of Serie A, won the FIFA Club World Cup and found out that we will play Bayern Munich in the next stage of the Champions League.
The FIFA Club World Cup was far too easy to win. LA Galaxy were hit for 6 by my backups and my first teamers put 4 past Boca Juniors - who have some decent regens - as we became the champions of the world lol.
Finally at the end of the year Moise Kean was voted as the European Golden Boy.
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