Berwick Rangers: An English Club in Scotland

Good to see the reward for beating Barca was an easier tie! 6 English sides in the 1/4 finals aint too bad mind!
 
neavie pops23 said:
Good to see the reward for beating Barca was an easier tie! 6 English sides in the 1/4 finals aint too bad mind!
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Haha only just an easier tie! And English teams are ridiculous in this save.. every year an English side has won the Europa League and there's always an English team that makes it to the final of the Champions League if not two
 
Champions League Quarter Final

In between the second leg against Barcelona and the first leg against Bayern Munich we got an important win over Rangers. It means that the title should be ours for the 5th​ year in a row.

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Star striker Vebjorn Aure had missed the last few games with injury but other than that we were well prepared for the clash with Bayern. The only slight negative was that we were at home in the first leg.

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We came face to face with Zinedine Zidane who has won the Champions League 5 times (twice with Real Madrid, twice with Chelsea and once with Bayern).

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But we got off to the best possible start with holding midfielder Jose Montero scoring after a bit of a scramble from a corner.

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We went into halftime 1-0 up. Then there was a moment of brilliance after the break.

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Vebjorn Aure took on 3 players and smashed home from a tight angle to put us 2-0 up. I thought things couldn’t get any better… but they did.

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I couldn’t believe it… 3-0 up!!!

And that was it, what an unbelievable result!

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We absolutely dominated them too, they didn’t have a shot on target and it should’ve been about 5-0.

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Hector De Anda grabbed 3 assists in the game and has been incredible for us this season in both scoring and creating goals.

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What could possibly go wrong from here?

Well for starters our first choice centre back Luiz was injured in the game and is out for 3 to 4 weeks. World Cup winner Sergio Paulo will deputise for him.

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Other than that, what could possibly go wrong from here? Surely a Champions League Semi Final beckons!
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This Year is the Year! Champions League Champions! Lol, i can remember an old Limerick save winning some big home ties in the Champions League then getting smashed in the return leg lol, not that that will happen to you
 
Knocked out Barca, look a like you'll knock out Bayern. Not being funny but you seriously deserve the Champions League this year!
 
coolmcool said:
This Year is the Year! Champions League Champions! Lol, i can remember an old Limerick save winning some big home ties in the Champions League then getting smashed in the return leg lol, not that that will happen to you
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TheNotSoSpecialOne said:
Knocked out Barca, look a like you'll knock out Bayern. Not being funny but you seriously deserve the Champions League this year!
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Ahhhhh I already can't handle the pressure!

It's funny what a few games do. At the start of the season I was thinking that if we didn't improve in the Champions League (i.e. get further than the first knockout round) then it'd probably be my last season of the save. Now after beating Barca and Bayern 3-0 I think we can beat anyone in Europe
 
Bayern Second Leg

A 3-0 lead from the first leg meant that it would take an almighty bottlejob to get knocked out by Bayern in the Champions League. However if we conceded an early goal at the Allianz Arena it’d mean squeaky *** time.

On the flip side if we got just one goal then surely it was game over.

And that’s exactly what happened.

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That was it. Bayern had to get 5 goals to go through and even with our history of dodgy defending, it was not happening here.

Then a sweeping counter attack 5 minutes into the second half made me realise I could be in love with Hector De Anda.

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Later on it was confirmed. I am in love with Hector de Anda.

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As soon as he got his hattrick he was off. He’s getting wrapped in cotton wool until the semi final.

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Berwick are into the Champions League Semi Final!

I can’t believe I’m writing this but we’ve beat Bayern Munich 6-0 on aggregate in the Champions League Quarter Final!

The other teams in the semi final draw were

Chelsea – 3rd​ in the Premier League
Man City – 4th​ in the Premier League
Arsenal – 8th​ in the Premier League

Arsenal were therefore obviously the team who we wanted to get in the draw.

And you’ll never guess what…

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Great results against Bayern! I know you shouldn't look ahead but any preference if you were to reach the final between Man City and Chelsea?
 
HECTOR!!! what a legend, hattrick of assists at home and then a hattrick away from home.
 
neavie pops23 said:
Great results against Bayern! I know you shouldn't look ahead but any preference if you were to reach the final between Man City and Chelsea?
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Think the perfect way to win it would be to bet Chelsea after they knocked us out in the 1st​ knockout round last season but they’re slightly stronger than Man City.


JT3197 said:
HECTOR!!! what a legend, hattrick of assists at home and then a hattrick away from home.
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Performing wonders as an Inside Forward on Attack, I originally signed him to be a striker when we played with no wingers! He’s also possibly becoming my favourite ever regen but then again I once had a regen called Hampus Silverholt who I was quite fond of…

JamesScott2908 said:
CL coming home to Berwick!!
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Hahaha don’t tempt fate. Something will go wrong at some point, it’s Berwick.
 
Arsenal Semi Final 1st Leg

So we’re into the Scottish Cup final.

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And have won our 5th​ league title in a row with 4 games to spare.

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But who cares about that. We’ve got a Champions League semi final to talk about.

If the star ratings of the Arsenal players were anything to go by then we’re probably considered favourites to win over the two legs.

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The match odds backed that up too.

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We have actually played Arsenal before... they knocked us out of the Europa League two seasons ago. But this was the 1st leg of the Champions League semi final at Berwick Stadium. It did not get much bigger than this!

I was buzzing for the game, I genuinely could not see us losing. So of course we went one nil down.

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That was not supposed to happen.

It was a lackluster first half from us and we deservedly went into halftime 1-0 down. Needing a major response after the break, I then said the 8 most important words of my managerial career.

Calm: Show me something else in the second half.

We got exactly what we needed.

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But the game fizzled out and with 70 minutes gone 1-1 wasn’t good enough. We needed a change. So on came Pavle Zoric and Piero Artega. They would go on to play a big part in the game.

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The changes gave us a fresh impetus and after 75 minutes striker Vebjorn Aure put us ahead with his second of the game.

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Then Zoric decided to get involved.

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At 3-1 I was tempted to make a time wasting substitution, but at this point Arsenal were on the ropes and we could sense blood.

Or, moreover, Piero Artega could sense blood.

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4-1. Oh my god. Two goals in two minutes from the two substitutes completely turned the tie on its head.

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What a monumental result! Being 1-0 down at half time and doing what we did was truly something special.

We deserved to win the game but were not as dominant against Arsenal as we were against both Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

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Also another thing that nearly went unnoticed was that Hector de Anda notched up all 4 assists in that game!

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That’s 6 goals and 12 assists in 11 Champions League games this season (and 3 goals and 7 assists in his last 3 Champions League games). What a man! Te amo Hector.

I can’t believe I’m saying this but we’re one game away from the Champions League final!
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Allez Allez Allez

Preparation for the return leg at the Emirates didn’t go well as Celtic beat our heavily rotated side 2-0. The result showed that we couldn’t afford to have more injuries to first team players with two already being out.

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We were then immediately greeted with the news that full back Alejandro Alaniz would be out for the second leg. Thankfully his injury was only for less than a week.

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However it was no such good news for Piero Artega. After scoring the 4th​ goal in the first leg of the semi final he picked up a nasty injury in training and will be out for the rest of the season.

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A 3-0 victory would’ve sent Arsenal into the Champions League final at our expense, so when they scored in the 34th​ minute in the second leg I began to get a little nervous.

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But advanced forward Vebjorn Aure made sure there was nothing to worry about.

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4 more goals were needed for Arsenal to go through. They didn’t even make things nervous for us as we eased to a draw.

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And so it is happening. It’s really happening.

Berwick are in the Champions League final!

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Our opponents in the final will be Manchester City.

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They’re only 3rd​ in the Premier League table but on paper their squad looks tasty with 12 players on £200,000 a week or more.

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Annoyingly they only have two games before they play us in the final.

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Whereas we have 4 more games to go before the final.

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Some astute squad rotation is going to have to happen if we want to keep our best players fit and available for the Champions League Final.

It’s also funny how after spending 13 seasons trying to win the Scottish Cup, this year I couldn’t give a toss about it because of the Champions League Final. Did I mention that Berwick are in the Champions League final?
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throw every game, wrap the players in cotton wool, send them all on holiday - just make sure they are all fit and firing for the Champs league
 
Yesssss!!!! Berwick with a CL trophy will probablies go down as one of the best FM achievements ever in the time you have done it in, I am assuming you will win it here however ha!! Good luck!
 
JT3197 said:
throw every game, wrap the players in cotton wool, send them all on holiday - just make sure they are all fit and firing for the Champs league
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I don't want to lose the cup final but I don't want to risk injury to players before the Champions League final... especially when the two games are only 3 days apart.

JamesScott2908 said:
Yesssss!!!! Berwick with a CL trophy will probablies go down as one of the best FM achievements ever in the time you have done it in, I am assuming you will win it here however ha!! Good luck!
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I'm actually feeling the pressure, could be a slight anti climax if we lose...

dporter8999 said:
I'm on edge waiting to see how you do in both finals, good luck mate!
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I'm on edge about the Champions League final, think I'm too scared to play it as I won't be able to handle the heartbreak if we lose
 
It's Here... Almost


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Well then. Berwick Rangers are in a Champions League Final.

Fridays post will look back on our Champions League run, update you on how we got on in the Scottish Cup final and also introduce you to our starting line up for the biggest game in Berwick's history (and also probably my FM history).

Then Saturday 23rd June is THE day. Expect a post around 19:00 GMT (ish) to find out if we've won it or bottled it.

I’ll take a 1-0 with our goal being the only key highlight please FM gods.​
 
Good luck mate! Fingers crossed you can lift two trophies that have caused you so much annoyance over the years in the same season
 
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