CL Challenge 2022

[Mr_Grieves]

September & October

Champions League

A disappointing draw with Barcelona keeps us tied at the top. The rematch in game 6 for some reason will decide the group

Serie A

8 wins from 8. Juve are dominant​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 3 Winter


Champions League

We had an utter stinker in the 1st half and worryingly lost to Barcelona to end up 2nd in the group

Valencia is a very kind draw in the last 16

League

16 wins out of 16. Guess i need to rest players more in Serie A​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League last 16
Valencia 2-2 Juventus
Juve win 5-4 on Pens

We were poor in both legs but come away with a penalty win. This just feels like its going to end in disaster


QF Draw

What on earth is this selection of teams. No English teams in the final 8.


Domestic

We've lost a league game. Ironically the team with 8 changes comfortably beat Inter in the cup​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Q/F

1st Leg
Benfica 0-2 Juventus

We dropped Haaland back to AMC and played 5 in the middle to counter the 6 at the back Benfica used to knock out Man City and it worked

2nd leg
Juventus 6-0 Benfica
Juventus win 8-0 on aggrigate.

Porto awaits in the semi-final. Meanwhile, there's a El Classico going on

Serie A

Final update from here as we have secured the title. Records should fall even if i rest players​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Semi-Finals

1st Leg
Juventus 3-0 Porto

Simple enough result. felt like a Serie A game.


2nd Leg
Porto 1-1 Juventus
Juventus win 4-1 on Agg

We put an extra man at the back to control and protect our lead. couldn't care less about the draw. All that matter is we made the final where we are going to play with a Mbappe led Real Madrid.
​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Final 2024


Real Madrid vs Juventus
For the third time in champions league history, Italy & Spain's largest sides meet in the final. Real reach the final despite losing their 2nd leg to Barcelona 4-1 while Juve got so many breaks in the knockout phase they may as well be renamed, Liverpool


Real Madrid 0-2 Juventus

118 minutes of stress including a Benzema goal disallowed goal in the second half were required before Haaland's two goals in our final 4 minutes secured my second title and put Juve on the bedpost.


League

Jeez, that defeat to AC Milan makes me feel sick. Best season i have ever had, can't think of coming this close with an Aberdeen super team.


Italian Cup
Juventus 4-0 Roma

As if we could do one more dominant act in Italy. Treble complete.

​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 4 AC Milan
My contract at Juve ran out in July and i was sitting waiting for either Barcelona or Real Madrid to come up. Spain's national team job came up but they went for Jose because of course they did. Milan's former manager Erik Ten Hag goes off to Tottenham and after holding off applying then delayed accepting in hope one of the top 4 jobs "Chelsea, Liverpool, Real Madrid or Barcelona" but nothing was coming so here we are.


Transfers

The usual trick of buy now pays later allowed us to fill 5 hols in the starting 11 and will hopefully be enough for us to take on my former foe in Juventus. Barella is the stand out transfer i. Offered all of Juve's best players out to future champions league teams. De Ligt went to Liverpool for £37m but Haaland stayed the madman. Couto and Loizaou were signed before i joined. I may have only brought in £40m in transfers but we cleared up enough wage to bring in Carrasco at the end of the window.


Squad

Far too many 3*s to expect a Champions League challenge in season 1 but with money tight there's not much room to move. Van Dijk & Barella to carry us through


Champions League Draw

Bayern has spent on average over £100m every season. Arsenals squad has not changed too much. Well, they just started Danny Ings upfront so who knows what we're going to be against there.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September & October


Champions League

We pumped Sparta as expected then got far too cocky and went and got spanked by Arsenal, this would have been fine with my Juve team of last season but Milan needs to be smarter. We did this against Bayern but was 2-0 down before we were in our seats before coming back to win with a late goal to put us ahead of Munich before our return game in November


Fixtures

Like the old days, we have a perfect record in Serie A


Serie A

Plenty of teams in the mirror waiting for us to slip up.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

November & December

We thrashed Bayern and sneaked a 1-0 win over Arsenal to suddenly take control of the group. We needed to win our last game to make sure Arsenal wouldn't overtake us but the weirdest group phase I remember ended with Bayern thrashing Arsenal in London to secure the final knockout spot.

Last 16
RB Leipzig vs AC Milan

Middle of the road draw. Delighted to avoid City & Barcelona


Fixtures

We lost a couple of league games but we head towards 2025 with a 6 point lead.

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Last 16

1st Leg
Red Bull Leipzig 2-1 Milan

Leipzig were briliant at makign and taking there chances. One of our slackest defensive displays of the save

2nd Leg
Milan 6-0 Red Bull Lepizig
Milan win 7-2 on Agg

Much more like it there in the 2nd leg. We put on some performance to obliterate the Germans


Q/F Draw

There is a clear and obvious team you'd want to draw here and we got them. Leverkusen is the only 2nd rate team in the draw this season. Some change from last season's selection of awful teams. If we win it Juventus or Real in the Semi


Domestic

All going well here as usual. We lost one game to Inter but put out the weakest team i think I've done in the whole save.

​

 

[Santiago]

Mate, what tactic are you using? You have some amazing results!

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Quarter Final

1st Leg
Milan 5-1 Leverkusen

We waltzed to a 4 goal win to all but set up a semi-final

2nd Leg
Leverkusen 4-3 Milan

How can you screw up a 4 goal lead? Get someone sent off in the 15th minute. Leverkusen really had me frightened after an hour they had 3 of the 4 goals needed. Thankfully the subs saved us and 3 late goals didn't stop our defeat on the night but secured a semi-final date with Real Madrid

Serie A
Only a few games in the league we won them all and still just waiting to pick up the title officially

Liverpool Bayern gets the semi-final we somehow missed out on in real life.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Semi-Finals

1st Leg
Milan 4-1 Real Madrid

An utterly stunning and probably the best display any team of mine has put on in the save. We were all over Madrid from the 1st minute and somehow on their first proper attack, they got the most undeserved lead in history through Mbappe. That would be their last highlight of the night. It took half an hour to get on the scoresheet through January addition Osimhen. The goalscorer didn't last long going off injured before halftime and will not make the 2nd leg. Neither will sent off star CB Tomori, whose backup Romagnoli is already out injured for the 2nd leg. We have a big lead once again but this time with injury piling up and going to Mbappe's backyard. I am worried.


2nd Leg
Real Madrid 2-3 Milan
Milan win 7-3 on Agg

It felt like a copycat of the 1st leg. Milan took the lead then we scored 3 goals to easily reach the final. Casemiro's late strike did nothing but upset that narrative

Liverpool awaits in the final

Domestic

We beat Sassuolo and Juve join Liverpool in trying to deny my back to back treble bids with different teams


Serie A is settled however

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Final
Liverpool vs AC Milan
I rank Liverpool as the best team in the game, despite not winning the Premiership. Did not expect to get near the final in our first season in Milan but these free-scoring monsters have me dreaming

Liverpool 1-3 AC Milan

As with tradition we went behind after a solid start and i got that sinking feeling when Carrasco's equaliser was called back. I'd love to credit the halftime team talk but we were unlucky in the 1st half not to score but Eduard hit a double before the match was deliciously secured by a Virgil Van Dijk header. Mo Salah missed an 88th-minute penalty as Liverpool's fight spluttered and Milan win the race to win 8 Champions League titles.

Final League table

Italian Cup Final

One black and white mark against us this season.


World Club Cup

We did make up for this by winning the world club cup again beating Liverpool but even more comfortably than the last time.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 5
Chelsea
It took over a month but the day after the transfer deadline i finally get the Chelsea job.

So i'll make this as short as possible. After the world club cup victory, i resigned from Milan. Of all the jobs to come up was the Italy job as Rino Gatusso took over Milan. Almost a month had passed and finally, Italy hired someone. No, it wasn't the Chelsea manager but Spains Jose Mourinho made the strange move to the Italian national team.
That finally opened the window as Spain hired Ernesto Valverde from Chelsea. Sadly Italy didn't hire Real Madrid's Don Carlo or Spain Barcelona's Xavi but Chelsea would have been the 4th club after Liverpool that I'd have wanted to go with next.


Squad

I was almost sick in my mouth when i saw every one of Man City s star players transfer listed by request after they failed to qualify for the champions league. Again i remind you all that i got this job 1 day after the deadline due to Milan, Italy and Spain taking forever to appoint there, new managers

Still, this squad is far from bad and is possibly better than the Man Utd squad i got in season 1. Would be a player or two short in depth perhaps.


Champions League Group

Bayern will be a good barometer of where we are.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September/October


Champions League

We kick off with a disappointing defeat in Bayern who ran over us. It was my 2nd game in charge with these tactics a defeat wasn't impossible.


Premiership

We make a reasonable start with only Liverpool ahead of us and we play them next. Were out of the league cup after the u18s and couldn't get it done.


My replacement Rino Gattuso has already been sacked by Milan after 108 days in charge.

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Winter

Champions League

We had an utter stinker and drew in Brugge making what should have been the group decider with Munich a write off for the backups.


Last 16

Real Madrid is our "Reward" for being awful in the group stage.



Premiership

Our good run has us top by 5 points with Man Utd, Arsenal & Liverpool all tied for 2nd.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League last 16

1st Leg
Chelsea 4-0 Real Madrid

It's over already after a dominating 1st leg

2nd Leg
Real Madrid 2-1 Chelsea
Chelsea won 5-2 on Agg

Rested players after the big 1st leg win. Hope this is enough to get Don Carlo the sack. Karem the Dream still scoring for Madrid

Q/F Draw
Chelsea - Man Utd

3 German teams and 4 English are joined by Real Sociedad!! What a weird last 8


No treble this season after the backups lost in the FA Cup to a 93rd-minute winner

Premiership

Man Utd stays right on our tails. Arsenal revert to form and fall away after Christmas​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Q/F

1st Leg
Chelsea 1-0 Man Utd

Not content with fighting for the Premiership we take this battle into Europe too. How we only scored 1 is beyond me. i hope we don't live to regret it.

2nd Leg
Man Utd 1-2 Chelsea
Chelsea win 3-1 on Agg

Man Utd bossed the 1st half and it felt like a matter of time till the floodgates opened and they finally scored in the 54th minute but Varane put it in for us which was delightful. Belotti put the tie on a knife-edge before Lukaku secured our semi-final spot


Semi Draw

Might as well give us a bye to the final.


Premiership

Liverpool is right on our tails after we lost to managerless Manchester City. Man Utd is not far away with no European football in the way now.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Semi

1st Leg
Wolfsburg 2-8 Chelsea

Must be the club's biggest win in the champions league? it was amazingly 7-0 at halftime. Villareal looks difficult in this scenario

2nd Leg
Chelsea 5-1 Wolfsburg
Chelsea win 13-3 on Agg

The has to be the biggest aggregate win since the European cup days

We'll face Liverpool in the final after they beat Bayern on Pens


Premiership

Man Utd beat Liverpool to give us a big leg up in the title race. We have to play United. Beat them and we should win it from there.​