KAZAKHSTAN
Cultural Learnings of Football Manager for Make Benefit Glorious Nation
2019 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE.
What a group! Three strong opponents, including my own favorite JUVENTUS! I had hopes of advancing to the Knockout Round once again or even dropping to Europa League but after seeing this draw, I highly doubt that is possible. Tottenham is the richest club in the world currently and will probably remain such. Wolfsburg has been successfully challenging Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga for a few years and are closing the gap in terms of quality with Bayern. And Juventus has won 2 of the last 4 Champions League while running the table in Serie A. I think my road ends here.
And the odds aren't too kind in terms of my chances. I was more shocked to see JUVENTUS with such low odds. Tottenham, as you can see by their odds, is considered the 6th best club in this years Champions League, a second seed only due to Chelsea grabbing the Premier League and being higher rated. So 2 of the top 6 are in my group. Yay for me!
2019 GROUP STAGE MATCH ONE.
The only surprise here was how close the match seemed. To lose 2-0 against the champions of Italy is nothing to be ashamed about.
And, just looking at the score, you'd think it wasn't too much of a blowout. Well, let's look at the stats. 38 shots for JUVENTUS and 5 for my boys. Ouch. 64% pass completion for ASTANA compared to 83% for JUVENTUS. That awful inability to hold onto the ball leads directly to our poor possession of 36% to JUVENTUS' 64%. This match was a blowout in everything but the scoreline. Not too surprising.
2019 GROUP STAGE MATCH TWO.
I couldn't have been happier at this result, though it was at home and therefore our best chance at stopping Tottenham. The result in England won't be so kind no doubt. More interesting was the fact that we held the English giants scoreless for over an hour.
Digging deeper into the match statistics, the game was much closer than the previous one against JUVENTUS. We were outshot once again but this time Tottenham was woefully wasteful, managing only 6 shots on target of their 17 and, from those 6, only one clear cut chance. Our counter-attack game was executed to perfection, countering for a total of four shots and three clear chances, a 75% rate! Watching this match and seeing my counter-attacks hitting to perfection, my first thought was, "We should be winning this!" and I ended with the same thought. This had victory written all over it. Nevertheless, we were still wasteful in possession due to our poor passing game and that hurt us in the end.
Still, we stood tall at home and held the English giants to a draw and grabbed ourselves a point while Wolfsburg were destroyed by JUVENTUS and left without a point. We find ourselves third after two matches!
2019 GROUP STAGE MATCH THREE.
I left this match so utterly happy. We traveled to Volkswagen Arena and left with a point, standing strong against another barrage of shots for 90 minutes. This story was very different from last match as we clearly should've lost this. More possession, a few more shots but our defense was full of holes and Wolfsburg had maybe 6 clear cut chances though the game didn't record them as such. Wolfsburg was so wasteful in front of goal that they were no doubt kicking themselves for this failure. On a good note, our passing game improved and with it our possession which led to a few more shots on target.
Three matches, two points and still third place. I have hopes of perhaps qualifying for Europa and getting some of those sweet sweet coefficient points!
2019 GROUP STAGE MATCH FOUR.
OH MY GOODNESS! Poor, stupid Wolfsburg. Poor, stupid Gustavo! The midfielder truly doomed his club in this match as our midfield frustrated him from the start and pressed him often. He was utterly incapable of maintaining possession as Stanojevic and Maksimovic pressed him all match and he gave up possession for Wolfsburg constantly. This, in turn, led to him fouling in return to regain possession.
However the big story of this match was the ascendance of Aleksandr Garkusha and his immaculate substitution. Nearing the 60th minute and not making much headway into the Wolfsburg end, at the 56th minute I made the daring call to bring out Kazakh international and starting AMC Maksim Fedin for the youth academy starlet Garkusha. Thirteen minutes later, Garkusha repaid my trust in spades, blasting the ball into the goal and giving us the lead. His goal started in the midfield on a mistake by Gustavo and an assist by another youth product in Mataev.
But Garkusha wasn't finished. And neither was Gustavo. In the 72nd minute, seconds after losing possession AGAIN, the midfielder took out his frustration on Stanojevic and was shown his second yellow. Heading to the showers, Gustavo had to have known he gifted us this match. As time ticked away, we pushed further and further forwards, looking for that key second goal that would all but guarantee our victory. That guarantee would come in stoppage time as another substitute and academy product in Serbian midfielder Miroslav Stepanovic bagged a great goal off a deft throughball from none other than GARKUSHA!
The stands erupted, all 13,365 fan on their feet screaming and the players danced around, knowing these three points would be so key to any chance of continued European football this year.
2019 GROUP STAGE MATCH FIVE.
Fresh off our exhilirating victory at home against Wolfsburg earlier, the stars of JUVENTUS came into town and they brought with them their proficient attack and undefeated swagger.
Things went about as expected and the high from the Wolfsburg match quickly dissipated. JUVENTUS was ruthless, Dybala scoring early and mercilessly on a header off of a mistake from our midfield teacher and worthless one Tarantini.
From then on, JUVENTUS and I battled it out in the midfield, Grujic and Marrone (against his boyhood club, no less) fighting like maniacs against the likes of Claudio Marchisio and Paul Pogba. And the 1-0 deficit remained until exactly the hour mark when Serbian youngster Milos Vidic took a volley from 16 yards out and smashed it into the JUVENTUS goal. I won't lie. I had hopes in that moment of stayed close, bringing the game to a quiet draw, but JUVENTUS wasn't finished with us yet. Another mistake on defense, this time from Kazakh Mark Gurman gifted Malcom with the ball and the Brazilian wasted no time in banging it home. A typical Paul Pogba finish twelve minutes later made all our hard work look a little less sufficient.
But there were good things from this match. Between matches 1 and 5, JUVENTUS went from 38 shots to 17. Their possession dropped from 64% to 55%. Our passing game, growing since the start of European football, ended at a 78% compared to 64% the first time we crossed paths with the Italian champions.
We left this match saddened but with some happiness.
Second place! We have one more date with Tottenham and were praying for JUVENTUS to destroy Wolfsburg. A draw or win in England and we were through into the Group Stages!
From this group?! What a moment for our club. We have a massive 90 minutes ahead of us but with a strong defensive result, I knew we would see the fruits of our labor come to fruition.
2019 GROUP STAGE MATCH SIX.
WE DID IT! WE DID IT!
What a match! And, shockingly enough, we left the match saying "We should've won that!" Three clear cut chances that broke my heart! Sadly, we were a bit sloppy in terms of possession and that did us no favors but our defense were MASSIVE! 89% tackles won with 33 of 37! And a backline with ratings of 7.2, 7.0, 7.3, and 6.9 showed how those men stood up for us!
I couldn't be more happy with this result and advancing to the knockout stages.
Second place and Knockout Round Qualification while having a negative goal difference. That stand from our defense in matchday six will go down as one of the most nailbiting moments of my campaign to date. With a date in the Knockout Round, there will definitely be more to come, friends
