An Andorran Adventure

[zacram]

So as we enter into 2026, we welcome a new goalkeeper to F.C. Andorra, Rafinha. He's a young Brazilian prospect that has already been capped at U23 level following 2 successive seasons as first team goalkeeper for Flamengo.

He joins on a free transfer and a number of elite sides were showing interest, but fortunately we managed to secure the deal before any other offers were on the table.

Our first match of 2026 saw us get the better of bottom of the table, Leganés. I thought we were going to be held for a draw, but we kept the pressure on an secured all 3 points on the road.

I then rotated the side as our youth players shined in a 4-0 thrashing over lower league opposition, Ciudad Real. It was a really dominating performance in which a number of Andorran Nationals showed me what they could do.

The biggest win of my FM22 career came just a few days later as our rested starting XI pulled off a victory over Los Blancos. Selmani saved an early penalty as we then fought back from a goal down to upset the odds, with former Madrid man, Mariano stealing the headlines.

Back to the Cup and our youngsters secured us another comfortable victory.

Victory over Espanyol meant that we were now unbeaten in 8 across all competitions and even brought the unexpected headline that "F.C. Andorra enter Euro Cup II race". That was something I didn't think i'd hear this season, but we are in great form and playing some exciting football.

League leaders, Real Sociedad ended our unbeaten run with a very dominant performance. They missed numerous chances and certainly deserved a greater winning margin, but we are proving a difficult side to beat so far this season.

That brought up my 200th game in football management with F.C. Andorra.

It's been a good journey so far, securing 2 promotions and now starting to look like a competitive side in La Liga. Hopefully some European football will be on the horizon in the next couple of seasons.

It then went rather badly in the Cup, albeit the scoreline doing us a disservice. I did play a slightly stringer side as we went up against a higher level of opposition, but a spell of 5 minutes in the second half saw us concede 3 goals and lose out on any outside chance of securing silverware this season. On another day we could easily have been the side progressing to the Quarter-Finals

We did manage to bounce back in the League, getting the better of Oviedo, a side that are currently occupying the final European spot. Obviously a lot can still change between now and the end of the season but I can saw with certainty that we have already avoided relegation with 15 games left to play.

So it's already been a very successful season for us, but I'm now starting to dream a little that we could actually stay in the European hunt.

A very successful January sees me pick up my first ever Manager fo the Month award in La Liga and a chance to showcase that victory over Real Madrid once more.

With regards to transfers, Rafinha was the only player to join us.

Financially we are a little cash strapped after pumping money into facility upgrades, a new stadium and numerous instalments transfers over the Summer (now being repaid). So I cashed in on a few fringe players that were going to be leaving on a free in the Summer anyway. Also slashing our wage expenditure.

​

 

[zacram]

We didn't get off to the best of starts following the end of January, labouring to a draw against Real Hispalis before losing to Atlético Pamplona. Both of which are having poor seasons and still fighting for survival. So not the best results on the whole.

Fortunately we bounced back with a massive victory over Granada, who are another side that are fighting for a European position and this result keeps our noses just in front.

Our inconsistent form then continued as we picked up 4 points from a possible 12 in our next 4 games. Clearly we never really expected anything against Barcelona and they absolutely dominated us. Dropping 4 points at home against a couple of sides that are struggling a bit this season is the biggest disappointment - However, the dream of Europe is still alive!

So with 8 games left to play in the season we still clinging on to our European place. Realistically it looks like we are one of seven teams fighting for the last 2 places in Europe. I still don't think we are string enough yet to fend off our competitors, but stranger things have happened.

Here are our final 8 fixtures and we have some tough games still to come....

As we ended March the new youth intake came through to the academy and despite the glowing review we may only have 1 player that will get a shot at the first team in the future.

That man is Denis Sachy.

A young attacking midfielder with a lot of promise. Even if he fails to make an impact at F.C. Andorra I'm sure he'll be an Andorran National player in the next couple of seasons.

Interestingly one our youth prospects that came through the academy 2 seasons ago has been named 47th in the new list of wonderkids!

He is currently out on loan in the Second Division after making 6 senior appearances for us last season. I'm not entirely convinced he is one of the top 50 wonderkids in football at the moment but he does look a good prospect for us.

Going to be interesting to see how well he starts to develop now.

​

 

[zacram]

I had hoped my final post before Xmas was going to bring some festive excitement as we battled for a place in Europe, but it was unfortunately quite the opposite. We won just 1 game and found ourselves quickly falling out of European contention, finishing the season in 12th.

At the start of the season I would have snapped your hand off for a 12th place finish, but having had Europe in our grasp with just a few games left to play I cant help but feel a little disappointed. Hopefully we can attract some higher calibre players this summer and give it better go next season... I mean we did still finish above Atletico Madrid and Villarreal.

Meanwhile Real Madrid won a 5th successive title, overtaking Real Sociedad with just a couple of games left.

We did at least manage to give a winning send off in our final ever match at Camp d'Esports Prada de Moles, setting a new low attendance record in the process as we were 44 tickets short of capacity.

Sponsorship has more than doubled on last season and will likely increase further with the New Stadium.

I honestly don't know where we would have been without the signing of Mariano. He finishes the season with an incredible 31 goals (the next best was 7). It's just a shame he is already 32 so will likely only get another couple of decent seasons out of him and desperately need to find him a competent strike partner and future predecessor.

Mariano finishes the season as the 3rd best player in La Liga and 5th in the goalscoring (albeit had the same tally as the 3 players ahead of him).

It's another very small budget to work with but hopefully enough to strengthen the side enough to beat last seasons points tally.

​

 

[zacram]

I had to act quickly to secure our first Summer signing, with a number of English teams all showing interest. However, with no other offers on the table we activated Jhon Guerrero's release clause of £5M (mostly in instalments) to bring the Colombian wonderkid to the club. He is already an international at 19 years old and can hopefully create a powerful partnership with Mariano up front this season.

Toni Vigon joins us on a free transfer from Braga. He's a young Swiss midfielder with lots of potential and can hopfully develop into a top class player at the club.

I had to spend £70k to bring in Theo from Real Madrid (B) side. I thought his attributes looked rather good despite his star rating being rather low. He adds some depth at the very least, but hoping he is to be a little better than that.

Jiri Pechachek was our next big money signing as I once again went for youth. He is a Czech international that has played nearly 100 games for Slavia Prague already and is only 19 years old. He is very tall with a big Jump Reach so should hopefully be a set piece weapon for us as well.

I then went a bit mad to bring in club record signing in Charles Cambier. He can play pretty much anywhere down the right wing and will be mostly used as a RWB in the formation I've been working on. He's already a Belgian International at 20 years old and has incredible physical attributes already.

Emre Demir was my final transfer, joining on loan from Barcelona. We have a number of young midfielders coming through but needed a player with a bit more current ability in the ranks to cover injuries etc.

So this is my Senior Squad going into the opening day of the season. We have a lot of youth and a lot of potential in this squad. It's definitely a much stronger squad than last season so the aim will be to beat last season's tally and hopefully get closer to Europe. Although realistically another mid-table finish is more likely.

Once again we have the youngest squad in La Liga.

Financially I have burnt through our cash on player transfer and various instalments are still to be paid on a number of players.

The good news is we have moved to our new Stadium, the Gerard Piqué Arena. It has an additional 15,000 seats to our last venue and that in itself can hopefully generate us substantially more revenue in ticket sales and sponsorship.

Although we have only sold an additional 250 season tickets on last season.....

We are still one of the least reputable clubs in La Liga, despite 2 successive seasons in it.

Our first game of the season was in our new stadium against last seasons runners up, Real Sociedad. We put up a string fight and denied them creating many decent chances but they had the quality to find a long range winner and an opening day defeat.

Despite the result, we smashed our attendance record and Gate Receipts to help us out financially moving forwards.

We did then stage a second half comeback against Espanyol to secure our first points of the season, as our new strike partnership both got on the scoreboard.

Despite beating Madrid last season, they were far too strong for us this time out. I don't think they wanted the embarrassment again and came out all guns blazing. This was another fixture we were unlikely to get anything from against the reigning 5 time Champs and good to get it out the way.

So that leaves us 11th after our opening 3 games, having played the 2 best sides in the division last season already,

As the transfer window closes it is confirmed that we once again have the lowest wage expenditure in the League.

Whilst the bookies believe we are good enough to stay up this season, with a 15th place finish.

​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Just caught up! Loving this one! Keep up the good work mate!

 

[zacram]

Following our heavy defeat to Real Madrid we strung together a run of 7 games unbeaten in the League. Defensively we've looked much more assured and have looked more clinical in front of goal. Clearly it is still very early days in the season but early indication suggests this could be better than last season, should our players remain fit.

The board approached me with a new contract after our victory over Bilbao, locking me down on a 4 year deal.

I've now been in charge of 227 games for F.C Andorra with a win percentage of 47% that included 2 promotions. Not bad, all things considered.

Our 7 game unbeaten run came to an end when we hosted Barcelona. It was an extremely close game that could have gone either way, but a moment of magic from Alarcon proved to be the telling moment.

So 11 games down and we are sat 6th in the League. It's still incredibly tight and a couple of losses could easily see us slip into the bottom half of the table.

With the exception of A. Madrid and Valencia our next run of fixtures up until the Winter break don't look too bad. Hopefully we are still going to be in the European hunt come the New Year.

​

 

[zacram]

Despite losing to A. Madrid we then managed to put together a run of 4 consecutive victories that included a victory over Valencia who are having a very good season so far. Mariano is getting back to his scintillating best, scoring 6 goals in the 5 matches. He has become our talismanic striker at the club and tough to know where we'd be without him.

His performances clearly haven't gone unnoticed as Al-Jazira came in with a £9.5 Million offer for the 33 year old. Considering his age and the fact we bought him for £6.5 Million 18 months ago, making £3 Million profit on a striker that will soon be declining did give me a dilemma.

I did reject the offer in the end as he is joint top goalscorer in the League and may be the key man to getting F.C Andorra into Europe.

Financially the money would have been useful. Despite the new stadium we actually seem to be making a bigger loss each month than last season, as I guess upkeep costs have also risen. I still owe a large amount on some transfers so we may need to make a big sale this January even if it's not Mariano.

Whilst I juggle about with business behind the scenes, the players continue to do the business on the pitch, picking up another couple of victories to close out 2026. That's now 6 victories on the bounce as we finish the year in 2nd place behind Real Madrid, who have all but won the League already, miles out in front with a goal difference of +46 after just 18 games!

Our final game of 2026 was a dominant performance in the Cup. We only won 2-0 but had an xG of 5.41 - which may be the highest I've seen in any of my FM22 games! I rotated the side as much as possible but it was stringer than I'd anticipated due to various injuries etc.

 

[zacram]

Just before we closed off 2026, we did get a quick update on this year's youth intake.

We then kicked off 2027 the same way we ended 2026, by winning football matches! It almost seems like we have forgotten how to drop points as Mariano bagged us a last minute winner against Getafe curtesy of a penalty. Another win in the cup then set us a new club record of winning 9 games in a row across all competitions!

If you needed any further indication of the confidence currently flowing through this squad, we then smashed Real Sociedad 5-1 away from home! The scoreline may have been a little flattering but we have just demolished a Top 4 side with relative ease.

I did then decided to make a sale, letting Miguel Rubio join Basel for a record sale of £7.5 Million. We signed him for just £92k five years ago and he has been a terrific servant for the club. He'd fallen down the pecking order and whilst still a useful squad player I think we can cope without him and couldn't turn down such a big offer.

The winning streak continued as we notched up another couple victories. That now makes it 12 consecutive victories which stretches back to the 8th November!

A trip to the Bernabeu presented us with the ultimate test and we ultimately came up second best by quite a large margin. Madrid have dominated La Liga since I started this story and clearly have a far superior squad. It's a shame we couldn't pull off another shock result like we did on them last season, but if the win streak to end against anyone it was always going to be them

Confirmation of our 9 straight victories in the League (12 all competitions).....

Despite ending the streak we bounced hack with victories over Valencia and Sevilla to keep us in 2nd place in the League and book a place in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals. The victory over Sevilla means that we now have a 9 point gap over them down in 6th - Surely we will be making our European debut next season in this form.

On paper we have one of the "easiest" opponents for our quarter-final and have a great opportunity to make it into the Semis. What a season this could turn out to be.

On the International Stage Andorra finished bottom of their European League Division C and now appear to have a playoff to avoid relegation back to Division D (I believe).

Understandably they are still near the bottom of the World Rankings, down in 164th.

 

[zacram]

I had high hopes of progressing to the Semi-Finals, up against a Levante side that are down in the relegation zone... but things didn't quite go to plan. It wasn't a good performance and we deserved to lose, even though it was decided by th lottery of a shoot-out.

We did bounce back from the disappointment of the cup to record a further 5 victories from 6 in the League. I'm not sure how we have become such a formidable force in La Liga but i'm all about it. The loss to Celta Vigo was a bit of a shock to the system but all in all another very good run.

Our next big test was against Barca at the Camp Nou, and this time we did triumph. We battled back from a goal down to win and further cement our place as a potential Top 4 side.

So we now incredibly have an 8 point gap over A. Madrid in 3rd! European football must be on the cards next season now surely, but realistically it should be a Champions League place! This is not something I was anticipating at all at the start of the season.

The latest best 50 wonderkids list has been released and our Czech CB, Jiri Pechacek features at No. 2. He has been a formidable figure for us this season and I'm amazed that he isn't actually 1st on the list looking at his stats.

Here is our latest Youth Intake and we have a couple of decent prospects.

Killian Charpentier (with his strong monobrow) and Rubén Alarcón are the only 2 players that could make senior appearances for us I'd say.

I was then hit with a bit of a sucker punch as as Al-Hilal triggered our goalkeeper's release clause of £5.25 Million. Had this transfer gone through at the end of the season I wouldn't have really minded as it is a position I want to improve, but Selmani has been a regular between the sticks for us for 4 years now and has been a very reliable presence.

So now my only real option is Nico Ratti as I couldn't register Rafinha as you can only have 3 foreign players. Ratti has been at the club since I started the save, but really isn't cut out for this level, but I'm now praying he doesn't get injured across our last 8 games of the season.

We actually have a pretty good run-in and I'm really confident of securing a Top 4 finish - Who'd have thought it!

​

 

[leckuno]

A top 4 finish this season would be great and the champions league money would certainly help improve the club in the transfer market

 

[zacram]

A top 4 finish this season would be great and the champions league money would certainly help improve the club in the transfer market

I was expecting to perhaps scrape into the Europa Conference this season so getting some CL money is going to be a huge game changer I hope!

 

[zacram]

Despite our goalkeeper problems we managed to record another surprise victory over A.Madrid. We almost threw away a 2 goal lead but the ever present Mariano popped up yet again to find us an 88th minute winner and all but secure our place in next seasons Champions League.

Conformation then came in just a week later as we hammered Elche and saw other results go our way. So next season F.C. Andorra will be in the Champions League... and we still have 6 games left to play in the season!

Following that news the board have set some initial budgets for next season. The wage budget hasn't increased at all, but we will have £13 Million to play with.

We were basically guaranteed 2nd place with 6 games remaining and that's exactly where we ended up. We were never going to catch Real Madrid, nor were we going to be caught by Barcelona, so didn't have a huge amount to play for and could give some youth prospects a run out.

Our form dipped a little, but really cant complain all things considered. Although Levante appear to be a bogey team - knocking us out of the cup and being one of the few sides to beat us in the League!

So here is our best XI and is pretty spot on to my fully fit selection, although nit sure why Selmani only has 4 appearances in goal (played about 30). Our two strikers bagged an incredible 52 goals between them as well this season!

So plenty of records were broken this season and plenty of incredible performances from front to back as we recorded the best season in the club's history. That included me picking up the Manager of the Year award ahead of Ancelotti.

Mariano bagged himself the Golden boot award ahead of Mbappé with our new signing, Jhon Guerrero finishing off the top 3.

We signed Theo for just £70k last summer and although the scout reports weren't great, his attributes made me take a punt and the guy has notched up an incredible 20 assists in La Liga this season, as well as chipping in with 7 goals! He has been an absolute bargain for us and a key player in our midfield.

Sponsorship and Matchday revenue have gone up after our move to the new stadium, but our reputation remains unchanged. Hopefully we will be up to a 3.5* side next season after our Champions League debut.

So we were expected to avoid relegation and have instead ended up 2nd. Now we just need to cement our place as a Top 4 side ideally.

​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Great season and looking forward to seeing how you do in the Champions League next season, finishing 3rd in the group and dropping down into the Europa League wouldn't be a bad thing either! Also bet Theo is worth slightly more than £70,000 now...

 

[zacram]

Great season and looking forward to seeing how you do in the Champions League next season, finishing 3rd in the group and dropping down into the Europa League wouldn't be a bad thing either! Also bet Theo is worth slightly more than £70,000 now...

Realistically that's what I'll be aiming for in the Champions League, to finish 3rd in the group. Anything above that would be a massive bonus.

His value is now £1.7 - £3.7 Million, so a pretty big rise, although for a man that made 20 assists I still thought it would be higher - Hopefully not a one season wonder

 

[zacram]

I was informed of our involvement in the Spanish Super Cup for the new upcoming season. My knowledge of Spanish football isn't the best so am not entirely sure how the 4 teams are chosen. I thought maybe just the Top 4 from last season but Real Sociedad are in it and they finished 6th, so who knows.....Either way we will be facing Barcelona.

Our 2nd place finish has finally boosted our reputation to a 3.5* and now the 14th most reputable team in Spain.

My first signing of the Summer was Paul Onuachu, an experienced Nigerian striker. I'll be honest I just couldn't resist signing a 6ft6 striker with a 20 jump reach, it's insane, the guy could easily be playing in the NBA with those attributes. So am really looking forward to him dominating the aerial battles.

Robert Franke was my first attempt to solve our goalkeeping crisis and despite being a signing for the future, he is already the best keeper at the club at the age of just 19.

That didn't last long as I soon signed Emil Audero to be our Number 1. He does join on a massive salary of £90k per week, which is practically double our next highest earner, but after an extensive search he seemed to be the best option and looks very very good on paper. Hopefully he proves to be a big addition tot he club.

With little funds left I decided to bring an ageing Michael Keane to the club on a 1 year deal to offer some defensive cover. I play with 3 CBs and are a bit light in the position so felt it was necessary, especially on such a low salary.

So here is an overview of our squad for the upcoming season. Not too different to last year but a few decent additions to fill out the squad as we will be featuring in quite a few extra fixtures this season.

We no longer have the smallest wage expenditure in the League and have instead moved up to 17th - Largely down to our new goalkeeper.

Our opening 3 games was a mixed bunch. We conceded an extra time equaliser to Espanyol, before dominating Bilbao, only to then be robbed by Levante.

Levante are quickly becoming our bogey team, beating us in our past 3 meetings. It's been a consistent story as we usually dominate the game only to then end up losing, as you can see from the match stats below. So I now rather loathe Levante I must confess.

So 4 points from 3 games is an alright start to the season and could easily have been 9 points. So the performances haven't been bad, but at the end of the day it's the results that really matter and hopefully we can convert our performances into points in the upcoming games.

We are still only predicted to finish 11th, so I need to remember that we are still not a Top 4 side yet and finishing anywhere within the European places will still be a very good outcome for us at the end of the season.

We were a 4th seed for the Champions League draw and will be going up against both PSG and AC Milan in our debut European campaign. A very challenging group, but I believe we can at least finish above Olympiacos and maybe even compete with the big guys should we find last season's form.

The Champions League brings with it some very useful revenue, which I immediately spent on our facilities. So come mid May we should have State of the Art Training and Youth Facilities.

​

 

[zacram]

We just about managed to overcome Celta Vigo after conceding a couple of goals in the space of 2 minutes. Again, a far from convincing performance at home but 3 points non the less.

Our Champions League debut then saw us host French Champions, PSG. The game went pretty much how many had anticipated, with us getting completely outplayed. I had hoped we could put up a bit more of a fight but we haven't looked the same side as last season yet and need to rekindle our form.

One positive was the record gate receipts...

Our struggles continued in the League as last season's prolific strikers struggle to get firing. We just about managed to see of Valladolid before being completely outplayed by Villarreal and then scrambling to a last minute equaliser at home against Almeria. I think qualifying in the top 4 is going to be much more challenging this season.

Our wastefulness in front of goal was then clearly evident against Olympiacos as we only managed to score the one goal despite a completely dominant performance. Whilst it's hard to be unhappy with our first ever win in the Champions League, I am going to need to try tweak things to get us scoring freely again.

Unfortunately that wasn't to be the case against Barcelona as we had to play the majority of the game with just 10-men. We actually limited them to very few chances but Fati came to their rescue to squeeze in an effort to sink us in the 82nd minute.

So that puts Barcelona top of the table and drops us down to 7th. Real Madrid have had a shaky start so this could potentially be the year for someone to break their stranglehold... but I cant see it being us unfortunately.

The next European Giant to rock up in Andorra were 7 time winners, AC Milan. I didn't have high hopes following some of recent performances but the lads dug deep to put on a terrific performance in front of a bumper crowd. We only won by the one goal, but they barely had a sniff as we controlled proceedings.

So that now puts us in a really strong position to reach the knockout stages. I expect us to get 3 points at home against Olympiacos and if we can get a point in Italy then I think we may well be heading through to the next round and if not the Europa League wouldn't be the end of the World.

 

[zacram]

We recorded a big win over Atletico before stumbling our way to a couple of draws in the League. I think my expectations have become extremely high after last season even when a draw against Sociedad would have been deemed a miracle just a couple of seasons ago.

We then battled it out with AC Milan at the San Siro, twice coming from behind only to be thwarted by a winner from Abel Ruiz. They controlled the game but we had the better chances and was a real shame that we couldn't quite hang on for a point that would have put us in a commanding position to finish 2nd in the Group.

However, we responded with another couple of victories in the League to keep our tally ticking over.

Our chance of qualifying to the knockout stages of the Champions League was then dealt a crushing blow as Olympiacos scored a 93rd minute equaliser! Once again we failed to take our chances recording 35 shots in total as their goalkeeper unsurprisingly picked up the MOTM award

Despite our Champions League setback, we continued to pick up maximum points in the League, recording a further 3 victories as we look to stay in the Title Race. Not the most convincing at times but we managed to get the job done.

I started to believe we were going to pull off a famous Champions League upset when we went in to halftime 1-0 up against PSG at the Parc des Princes. However, we couldn't withstand the barrage and eventually conceded 3 second half goals.

So that result means that we drop down into the Europa League for the knockout stages. That was really the aim when the groups were drawn and to be fair we were very close to qualifying for the Champions League knockouts and really not a bad debut season in European football. Still we have a shot at continental silverware.

So our opponents will be PSV and I'd say we have a very good shot at progressing.

Our final game of 2027 was a draw with Real Hispalis to leave us 3rd in La Liga as we essentially reach the halfway stage of the Season. Real Madrid haven't been so dominant this season and so we are very much in a title race still. Realistically we want a Top 4 finish but hopefully we can keep ourselves in the title race come the end of the season.

Our Youth Intake this season looks set to be our worst group of players to date. Hopefully we get a couple of surprise stars but it's not looking likely.

The Andorran National side have had a slightly better year and managed to finish above Moldova in their Euro Qualifying Group. Granted they were along way off qualifying but still a quiet sign of improvement.

Although it is not reflected in the World Rankings

​

 

[zacram]

We very nearly kicked off 2028 with a bang, but were denied a landmark victory at the Bernabeu with an 85th minute strike. Mariano always seems to find a goal against his former employers and helped earn us a decent point.

We returned to the Bernabeu just a few days later, but this time found ourselves playing Barcelona in the Super Cup Semi Final. Once again we left feeling a little disappointed, only this time we were denied getting to a Cup Final.

Fortunately we bounced back with a very late winner over Bilbao in the League before our rotated side scraped past Marbella in the Copa del Rey.

I then made our only January transfer, bringing in a Cape Verdean superstar for an absolute bargain. On paper Semedo looks like a quality addition, especially at just 20 years of age. He failed to break into the Porto side and they allowed us to sign him for just £2.2 Million and will likely slot into the AMC role for us, although is equally adept as a striker and central midfielder. A very exciting addition.

With the exception of the defeat to Espanyol we finished January off strongly, cruising into the Spanish Cup quarter-final and maintaining our 3rd place in the League. We have an 8 point gap over Espanyol in 5th and are only 2 behind Real Madrid as things are looking set to be a close title race at the top.

​

 

[zacram]

We kick started February with a thrilling Quarter-Final tie with Bilbao. It did get a little nervy as Bilbao scored 2 goals in 2 minutes to fight back from 4-1 down. Fortunately we just about managed to see the game out and reach our first ever Copa del Rey semi-final.

Back to the league and we put in a sub-par performance at home to Villarreal as we dropped points.

We then managed to narrowly edge past Granada in the first leg of our Copa del Rey semi-final, with Barcelona looking the very likely opponents in the Final if we were to reach it.

Just a few days later and it was another La Liga fixture, as we thrashed Celta Vigo away from home.

As the games are coming thick and fast we only had a short turn around before a flight to the Netherlands to play against PSV in the Europa League first knockout round.

The players looked very leggy as the fixture congestion appears to be getting the better of our small squad and it wasn't a good performance. The only positive was that we managed to get ourselves an away goal, but will now need to beat PSV in Andorra if we are to qualify for the next round.

Mariano then bagged himself a brace to get us another 3 points in La Liga as we tried to rest players for our second leg of the Europa League.

Those preparations certainly payed off as we put in our best performance of the season to demolish PSV and progress to the second knockout stage. We were buoyed on by a raucous sell-out stadium, which was actually only our first ever sell-out since we moved to our new stadium 18-months ago. Hopefully that performance will encourage some fans to quickly return.

Our reward is a meeting with Roma, who still have Jose Mourinho at the helm.

We followed up our best performance of the season with a bore draw with Sevilla.

A game that took me to my 300 landmark with F.C. Andorra. A win percentage of 51% and 2 promotions is a pretty good record, but I'm getting very hungry for some new silverware and this season may finally be the year.

Especially as we are now going to be facing Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final! They have already beaten us twice in all competitions this season so I'm not overly confident but hopefully we can do ourselves proud at the very least.

Another 3 points in the League means we are just 2 points behind Real Madrid with 10 games left in the season. It's really starting to look like a 3 horse race for the title and we still have to play both Barca and Madrid in the League - The Madrid fixture is actually the last game of the season....

Up next we will be hosting Roma in the Europa League....

​

 

[zacram]

Somehow we managed to blow a 3 goal lead over Roma in the space of just 7 minutes! We ripped them apart in the first half as I was anticipating us to take a healthy lead with us to Rome, only to be pegged back and now in a position where we will realistically have to win the return fixture to progress.

News of our new training facilities did help lift the spirits a little as we now boast some of the best facilities in the world.

That didn't last long as Barcelona hammered us in the League to deal us a sucker blow in our title challenge. They leapfrog us into 2nd and we now find ourselves 5 points behind Real Madrid with 9 left to play. This result also doesn't bode well for our upcoming Copa del Rey final.

So just a few days after our title hopes are all but over, we find ourselves exiting the Europa League. We really needed to bring a lead into this game and that collapse in the second half at home has really come back to bite us. It's still been a good first venture into European football for us and hopefully some experience for the years to come.

This season's poor youth intake was then confirmed, to which I highly doubt anyone will make a senior appearance for the club.

Some better news is that one of last seasons graduates is apparently the 33rd best wonderkid on the NxGn 2028 list. I have been trying to give Alarcon some game time this season but is still a way off being a first team regular.

In the build up to our cup final we managed to build up a bit of momentum, recording a couple of convincing results over both Granada and Cadiz.

Momentum that we are certainly going to need as we go up against Barcelona for the 4th time this season, having already lost all 3 fixtures. I have only managed to beat them once in my career, losing the other 8. So I'd say we are definitely heavy underdogs going into this.

I was able to select a full strength side, but a very poor first half proved to be our undoing. We found ourselves 3-0 down after 35 minutes and I was really starting to feel that this could get embarrassing. Fortunately we did manage to stage a comeback to make the last few minutes very exciting, but it was too little too late. We are getting closer and closer to picking up some silverware.

A stalemate with Valencia leaves us 4 points behind Real Madrid going into the final 5 fixtures of the season. We will need to win every single game to stand any chance and with a home fixture against Madrid on the Final day of the season it could potentially be another cup final for us.

We did everything we could to take the season down to the final day, picking up 4 wins from 4, but unfortunately Real Madrid managed to match us - That means that they have won La Liga for 7 seasons in a row! Could you just imagine if we had the chance to steal it off Madrid in the final day of the season....

....because that is exactly what would have happened!

I mean it's difficult to say if the result would have been the same had they not secured the title already. I imagine they had lost some focus knowing the game was a dead rubber, but we really did put in a **** of a performance!

So we finish the season an agonising 1 point behind Madrid. The win on the final day of the season did at least secure us 2nd place once again and hopefully a platform to strengthen the squad for a potential title challenge next season.

Another frustrating fact is that our points tally last season would have won us the title this year!

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