Basque-ing in Bilbao

Aitor Herrera deserves to be knighted lol.
i remember Del Cid,is he any good now?
 
Great story mate just read through the whole thing now!!!
 
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APRIL

Bilbao secure 5th league title in a row
After scoring in 71 league games straight Bilbao fire blanks against Atletico
Marseille defeated in Champions League semi - Sporting Lisbon await in the final!
Hercules and Rayo Vallecano are relegated

Well, all I can say is they should have just given us the Champions League trophy at the start as I have never seen an easier route up to and including the final! My backup players beat Sporting Lisbon home and away in the group stage so fairly confident there. Wrapped up the league title against Valladolid but was gutted in failing to score against Atletico Madrid as they had a man sent off early on!

Real Madrid 1-2 Athletic Bilbao
Javi Martinez, Aitor Herrera

UEFA Champions League QF 2nd Leg
Athletic Bilbao 2-1 PSV Eindhoven
Perez Villarroya, Vadillo

Athletic Bilbao 5-0 Villarreal
Garcia, Javi Martinez, San Jose, Aitor Herrera, Sanz

Atletico Madrid 1-0 Athletic Bilbao

Las Palmas 0-1 Athletic Bilbao
Sanz

UEFA Champions League SF 1st Leg
Marseille 2-2 Athletic Bilbao
Vadillo, Ander Herrera

Real Valladolid 1-2 Athletic Bilbao
Sanz 2

UEFA Champions League SF 2nd Leg
Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Marseille
Muniain, Ayechu

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
JAVI MARTINEZ
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View attachment 240108​
 
BWAAHAHAHAHAHA Océano Hondo N'Dongo. It's hard to find any name better than that XD.

As a curiosity, in my Torino game Guardiola has gone through the same as in yours: he left Barça to manage Spain, a season or two later Spain losses against some weak side and is sacked not a week after Barça's manager had been sacked, the next day he's back in Barcelona.
 

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MAY - END OF SEASON

Bilbao beat Sporting Lisbon to claim 5th Champions League
Barca beaten in Copa del Rey final
Sporting Gijon relegated - new manager is Raul Meireles
Montella sacked by Valencia

A successful month. Comfortable wins in both cup finals as expected! Particularly sweet in the Champions League because Llorente scored and Cidoncha got his long overdue 1st goal of the season. That win has made me top in the all time hall of fame list (steam achievement). I have also decided to manage Spain in the upcoming Olympics to see if I can add that on to my CV!

Athletic Bilbao 1-2 Valencia
Sanz

Copa del Rey Final
Athletic Bilbao 3-1 Barcelona
Garcia 2, Muniain

Athletic Bilbao 1-1 Real Zaragoza
Garcia

Athletic Bilbao 4-0 Sevilla
Perez Villarroya 2, Gomez, Llorente

Espanyol 1-4 Athletic Bilbao
Santano, Gomez, Perez Villarroya, Llorente

UEFA Champions League Final
Sporting Lisbon 0-4 Athletic Bilbao
Ayala (og), Vadillo, Llorente, Cidoncha

PLAYER OF THE SEASON
AITOR HERRERA
View attachment 240161
View attachment 240163View attachment 240164View attachment 240165View attachment 240166
(squad list not showing Griezmann who didnt contribute much)

END OF SEASON AWARDS
Spanish Player of the Year / Champions League Best Player - Aitor Herrera
Liga BBVA Player of the Year - Iker Muniain
Top Scorer/ Top Spanish Scorer - Fermin Garcia
Manager of the Year


​
 
Easy in the league, easy in the cups but who cares. Loving the story. Raul Merieles as a manager is pretty intresting, hopefully he has sorted his hair out for the new role lol.
 
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PRE TOURNAMENT FRIENDLIES & SQUAD
(tournament being held in Belgium)

Spain 3-1 Belgium
Bravo, Courtois (og), Thiago

Spain 3-0 Poland
Fabregas, Muniain, Vadillo

Spain 3-0 Croatia
Muniain, Zlatar (og), Bojan

SQUAD

Goalkeepers
David De Gea (Manchester United)
Sergio Asenjo (Atletico Madrid)
David (Athletic Bilbao)

Defenders
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Cesar Azpilicueta (Athletic Bilbao)
Jose Angel (Roma)
Angel De la Torre (Athletic Bilbao)
Mikel San Jose (Athletic Bilbao)
Ekain Barandiaran (Athletic Bilbao)
Gerard Pique (Barcelona)
Alvaro Dominguez (Atletico Madrid)

Midfielders
Cesc Fabregas (Barcelona)
Ander Herrera (Athletic Bilbao)
Javi Martinez (Athletic Bilbao)
Aitor Herrera (Athletic Bilbao)
Iker Muniain (Athletic Bilbao)
Alvaro Vadillo (Athletic Bilbao)
Thiago (Barcelona)
Pedro Jose Cidoncha (Athletic Bilbao)
Sergio Busquets (Barcelona)

Forwards
Fermin Garcia (Athletic Bilbao)
Jose Carlos Sanz (Athletic Bilbao)
Bojan (Barcelona)

Missing out: Santano (Athletic Bilbao), Bravo (Deportivo), Cano (Sporting Gijon), Juan Carlos (Malaga), Fabio (Real Sociedad), Ekiza (Valencia), Pedro (Barcelona), Fernandez de Cordoba (Villarreal)​
 
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UEFA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP GROUP C

Spain 3-2 Slovenia
Aitor Herrera, Garcia, Cidoncha

Line Up: De Gea, Ramos, Pique, San Jose, Jose Angel, Ander Herrera (Cidoncha), Fabregas (Barandiaran), Vadillo, Aitor Herrera*, Muniain (Azpilicueta), Garcia

Phew! Was 1 up and cruising and then I had 2 men sent off but we battled away and got the victory!

Bulgaria 0-3 Norway
----------

Spain 4-1 Norway
Garcia, Aitor Herrera 2, Muniain

Line Up: De Gea, Azpilicueta (De la Torre), Pique, Dominguez, Jose Angel, Ander Herrera, Fabregas (Cidoncha), Vadillo (Bojan), Aitor Herrera*, Muniain, Garcia

Was actually a really tight game with the scoreline level until the last ten minutes. Fermin Garcia was named the European Golden Boot winner just before the game.

Slovenia 0-1 Bulgaria

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Spain 2-0 Bulgaria
Bojan, Thiago

Line Up: De Gea, Ramos, Pique, San Jose, De la Torre, Ander Herrera (Thiago), Cidoncha*, Bojan (Vadillo), Aitor Herrera, Muniain, Garcia (Sanz)

Comfortable win to top the group. Could and probably should have scored more though!

Norway 2-3 Slovenia

View attachment 240238​
 
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UEFA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
2ND ROUND

Spain 2-0 Croatia
Bojan, Garcia (pen)

Line Up: De Gea, Ramos, Pique, San Jose, Jose Angel (De la Torre), Ander Herrera (Fabregas), Cidoncha, Bojan, Aitor Herrera, Muniain, Garcia (Sanz)

Safely through but Jose Angel got taken off injured and Garcia and Ander Herrera picked up minor knocks. Jose Angel ended up damaging his spine and is out for 11 months!!! Portugal up next...

Scotland 0-2 France
England 2-1 Russia
Holland 2-0 Belarus
Serbia 3-1 Slovakia
Turkey 0-1 Portugal
Italy 1-2 Belgium
Germany 3-0 Norway



​
 
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UEFA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
QUARTER FINALS

Spain 4-1 Portugal
Miranda (og), Garcia, Silva (og), Aitor Herrera

Line Up: De Gea, Ramos, Pique (Javi Martinez), San Jose, De la Torre, Ander Herrera*, Cidoncha (Busquets), Bojan (Vadillo), Aitor Herrera, Muniain, Garcia

Fantastic victory! Stormed into a comfortable lead and remained in control until I made 3 substitutions. Both teams had a goal disallowed too. Holland are our semi final opponents.

France 3-0 England
Holland 6-0 Serbia
Belgium 2- 0 Germany​
 
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UEFA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
SEMI FINALS

Spain 2-0 Holland
Aitor Herrera, San Jose

Line Up: De Gea, Ramos (Azpilicueta), Pique, San Jose, De la Torre, Ander Herrera, Cidoncha, Bojan (Vadillo), Aitor Herrera*, Muniain, Garcia (Sanz)

Was surprised how comfortable a win this turned out to be to be honest. Got a goal in each half to send us into the final to play France.

France 2-0 Belgium
​
 
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UEFA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
FINAL

Spain 2-0 France
Aitor Herrera 2

Line Up: De Gea, Ramos (Azpilicueta), Pique, San Jose, De la Torre (Dominguez), Ander Herrera (Fabregas), Cidoncha, Bojan, Aitor Herrera*, Muniain, Garcia

France: Lloris, Corchia, Varane, Sakho, Cissokho, Yaisien, Giraud, Pogba, Nangis, Benzia (Derrien), Mutunge

Good old Aitor Herrera!! We were 2nd best throughout the tie but Aitor came up with 2 free kicks to win us the cup!

Best Player - Aitor Herrera
Golden Boot - Aitor Herrera

DREAM TEAM
David De Gea (Spain)
Sebastien Corchia (France)
Karim Rekik (Holland)
Mamadou Sakho (France)
Aly Cissokho (France)
Bojan (Spain)
Panagiotis Mantziounis (England)
Aitor Herrera (Spain)
Jack Wilshere (England)
Amete Mutunge (France)
Yassine Benzia (France)

(Muniain, San Jose and Ander Herrera were named amongst the subs)
​
 
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2020 OLYMPICS

The squad of 18 has 12 Bilbao players: David, De la Torre, Barandiaran, Gomez, Santano, Aitor Herrera, Muniain, Vadillo, Remirez, Garcia, Perez Villarroya, Cidoncha

The 3 over 23 players are Muniain, Aitor Herrera and Vadillo

Group Stage

Senegal 1-9 Spain
Garcia 2(1pen), Barandiaran 2, Muniain 3, Gomez, Aitor Herrera

Spain 4-0 Argentina
Garcia, Aitor Herrera, Remirez, Barandiaran

Spain 5-0 Australia
De la Torre, Perez Villarroya, Muniain, Garcia 2

Quarter Finals
Spain 3-0 France
Remirez 2, Garcia

Semi Finals
Mexico 1-2 Spain
Vadillo 2

(Vadillo got injured so I called up Ander Herrera for the final lol)

Final
Spain 3-1 Italy
Aitor Herrera 2, Remirez

Well what can I say??? Another final and yet again Aitor Herrera comes up trumphs. Another trophy to my ever burgeoning list! lol

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​
 
How close are you to the top Hall of Fame spot (if your not there already).
 
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PRE-SEASON / AUGUST

Assistant manager Santi Denia leaves - Roberto Carlos gets promoted as his replacement
Griezmann sold and Remirez loaned out
Ordonez Lopez and Alfredo promoted to 1st team squad
Barcelona and AC Milan beaten in cup finals

AIMS
Unbeaten league campaign to mark my 10th year at the club!!!!!

PLAYERS IN
Just a few regens (one very promising) thats all
TOTAL SPENT:£6.25m

PLAYERS OUT
Antoine Griezmann left for Sevilla for £5.5m and Alain Remirez went there on loan. Moises joined Rayo Vallecano on a free
TOTAL INCOME: £6m

SUMMARY
With Griezmann gone I have promoted Isidro Jesus Ordonez Lopez to take his squad place as he has done well in the B team. Also Alfredo will be my back up striker along with Sanz as he is too good for the B team (my B team has finished in the promotion play-offs in last few seasons in 2nd division). Was considering selling Ayechu so I could promote Gomez Comas but will give it another season. Pedro Jose Cidoncha will be 1st choice in CM now as Javi Martinez is getting a bit too old now.

Santi Denia for some reason didnt want to sign a new contract so he left and I promoted Roberto Carlos as my new assistant manager. He has great stats! Incidentally Robbie Keane and Rino Gattuso are also employed by me and are excellent!!!
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Spanish Super Cup Final
1st Leg
Athletic Bilbao 3-1 Barcelona
Aitor Herrera, Muniain, Santano

2nd Leg
Barcelona 2-2 Athletic Bilbao
Gomez Comas, Llorente

Real Betis 1-4 Athletic Bilbao
Gomez Comas, Garcia 3

UEFA European Super Cup Final
Athletic Bilbao 3-1 AC Milan (aet)
Barandiaran, San Jose, Vadillo

Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Granada
San Jose, Garcia

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
FERMIN GARCIA
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