The UEFA Champions League Challenge

[Klippybo]

MARCH

Copa del Rey Semi-Final 2nd Leg

Lineup - Courtois, Carvajal, Ramos*, Eder Militao, Reguilon, Casemiro, Ceballos, Bale (Odegaard), Reinier (Abel), Asensio, Jovic (Mayoral)

With a 3-0 1st leg lead, home advantage and as strong a backup side as you can get - I otok a chance with the backups to see the job through and get us to the final and they did just that. Atletico had a goal disallowed at 1-1 but almost immediately we went up the other end and scored the winner. 17y/o regen Abel made his debut here - wish I had noticed him before - he is going to be a star.

--

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin, Varane, Ramos*, Mendy, Camavinga, Kroos, Sterling (Bale), Isco, Hazard, Mbappe

My defenders just cant stop scoring!!!! They scored 4 in this match with the pick of the goals coming from Ferland Mendy. A great win but sad to thump Bilbao of course.

--

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin (Carvajal), Varane, Ramos, Mendy, Camavinga, Kroos*, Sterling (Bale), Isco, Hazard (Asensio), Mbappe

A great derby win at the home of our local rivals. It was a tight match up until we took the lead and after that it was plain sailing in truth. Isco hasn't scored many this season but all of his goals so far (9) have been our 1st goals of the match.

--

UEFA Champions League 1st Round 2nd Leg

Lineup - Courtois, Carvajal, Ramos, Eder Militao, Reguilon, Casemiro, Ceballos, Bale (Odegaard), Reinier (Abel), Asensio*, Jovic (Mayoral)

I had full faith in my backups to complete the job here - they didn't let me down.

--

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin, Varane, Laporte, Mendy, Camavinga (Casemiro), Kroos, Sterling (Bale), Isco, Hazard, Mbappe

Not a vintage performance by any means - they had a goal disallowed - but a win is a win at the end of the day.

--

SUMMARY

Into April we go and everything is fine. We are 8pts clear at the top of the table and that means the league is all but won and that goes for the Copa del Rey also as in the final we will play Real Valladolid - surely to **** we wont lose that game!!!

In the Champions League quarter-finals we have drawn against Chelsea - tricky but by no means an impossible feat, after all if I was Chelsea and had to play us I would be thinking I had no chance!!!!

The youth intake was pretty ****.

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
SERGIO RAMOS

--

LA LIGA

​

 

[Klippybo]

APRIL

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin, Varane, Laporte, Mendy, Camavinga, Kroos, Sterling, Isco, Hazard*, Mbappe

I forgot to mention in the last post that in the match against Valencia we reached 100 league goals - we are at a 105 now!!!

--

UEFA Champions League Quarter-Final 1st Leg

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin, Varane, Laporte, Mendy, Camavinga*, Casemiro (Ceballos), Sterling (Bale), Isco, Hazard (Asensio), Mbappe

Oh oh. To fail to win at home is a worry - especially since they kept a clean sheet but funnily enough I still fancy us to score an away goal. I will definitely be resting my players for the 2nd leg though - cant take any chances as although I am liking my time in Madrid I don't fancy having a 2nd season here which is the opposite of how I felt at Benfica funnily enough.

--

Lineup - Courtois, Carvajal, Ramos, Eder Militao, Reguilon, Casemiro, Ceballos*, Bale, Reinier (Abel), Asensio (Sterling), Jovic

I completely rested my 10 outfield players here for the upcoming Champions League match which meant that Varane and Camavinga missed their first league games of the season. Marco Asensio scored a stunning goal here as he volleyed in first time from the corner of the 18 yard box - think of Zidane's famous goal in the Champions League final.

--

UEFA Champions League Quarter-Final 2nd Leg

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin, Varane, Laporte, Mendy, Camavinga (Casemiro), Kroos, Sterling, Isco (Reinier), Hazard (Bale), Mbappe

Through but phew!!!! After the first leg and having seen Chelsea's first team with the likes of Gabriel Jesus, Haaland and Milinkovic-Savic I checked them out a bit more and due to my ignorance of being at Benfica last year I realised that Chelsea were the holders of the competition!!! We were disappointing in the 1st half but stole the lead with a scrappy goal and despite conceding we held on to go through on away goals.

--

Copa del Rey Final

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin, Varane, Laporte, Mendy, Camavinga (Casemiro), Kroos, Sterling*, Isco (Reinier), Hazard, Mbappe (Jovic)

This final was never going to be competitive and so it proved to be as we cruised it 4-0. Raheem Sterling shone with 2 goals and its my 10th trophy of my career.

--

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin (Eder Militao), Varane, Laporte, Mendy, Camavinga, Kroos, Sterling, Isco (Reinier), Hazard (Jovic), Mbappe

Pathetic - that's all.

--

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin, Varane, Laporte, Reguilon, Camavinga, Casemiro (Ceballos), Sterling (Odegaard), Isco, Hazard (Jovic), Mbappe*

At half-time I was raging and although we weren't that much better in the 2nd half at least we got the win. We better be better in our next match!

--

UEFA Champions League Semi-Final 1st Leg

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin (Eder Militao), Varane, Laporte, Mendy, Camavinga (Casemiro), Kroos, Sterling, Isco (Reinier), Hazard*, Mbappe

A fantastic result and a major surprise as I actually thought we drew 2-2 until we got to the post match press conference - I don't know why. Liverpool were marginally the better team though but our firepower won us the match.

--

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin, Varane*, Laporte (Ramos), Mendy, Camavinga, Kroos, Sterling, Isco (Reinier), Hazard, Mbappe

Varane scored his 10th goal of the season with a long range drive from 30 yards here. Mbappe wrapped it up. If we win our next league match we will be crowned champions.

--

SUMMARY

We go into the final month of the season just gunning for the Champions League as we won the Copa del Rey this month and have all but won the league. The Copa del Rey was a formality really as we beat Valladolid 4-0 in the final and they were never really likely to put up much of a fight.

In the Champions League however things were much more difficult. We sneaked past the holders, Chelsea, on away goals and then won 2-1 away to Liverpool in the 1st leg of our semi-final - its still to close to call but I have to be confident in playing the 2nd leg at home.

During the month 2 future destinations became available - Steaua Bucharest and Borussia Dortmund. Dortmund may have interested me but it has come along a month too early!!!

In other management news - Atletico Madrid sacked their manager at the beginning of March and appointed Marcelo Gallardo but then sacked him a month later!!!!!!

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
KYLIAN MBAPPE

--

LA LIGA

​

 

[Klippybo]

MAY

UEFA Champions League Semi-Final 2nd Leg

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin (Ramos), Varane (Asensio), Laporte, Reguilon, Camavinga (Ceballos), Casemiro, Sterling, Isco (Reinier), Hazard, Mbappe

We reach the final - just!!!!! We fell behind and tbh Liverpool throughout the game were the better side but we levelled through Hazard and we were just seeing the game out until Salah struck to send us into extra-time. Extra-time was a non event apart from them having a man sent-off in the last minute so we went to penalties and after Courtois saved from Dybala and Salah we were through to the final.

--

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin, Varane, Laporte, Mendy, Camavinga, Kroos (Casemiro), Sterling*, Isco, Hazard, Mbappe

CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!

We hammer Valladolid to seal the title victory and now I can rest my players for the Champions League final in our next 2 matches.

--

Lineup - Courtois, Carvajal, Ramos, Eder Militao (Gimenez), Reguilon, Casemiro, Ceballos, Odegaard, Reinier (Abel), Asensio, Jovic (Mayoral)

Sergio Ramos scored against his old club to get his 7th of the season and that was enough for the win. Although I had my backups out they totally dominated Sevilla. Very impressive.

--

Lineup - Courtois, Carvajal, Ramos, Eder Militao, Reguilon, Casemiro (Odegaard), Ceballos, Bale*, Reinier, Asensio, Jovic (Mayoral)

Gareth Bale's free-kick won us the match here and meant that we broke the 100pt mark for the season. I have set Bale to be released at the end of the season so this could be his last hurrah.

--

UEFA Champions League Final

Lineup - Courtois, Bellerin, Varane, Laporte (Ramos), Reguilon, Camavinga (Casemiro), Kroos, Sterling, Isco (Reinier), Hazard, Mbappe*

WE WIN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!!!!

We suffered an injury blow heading into the game as both Ferland Mendy and Eder Militao were injured in training so Reguilon came into the starting XI. We actually conceded a goal from Marcus Rashford after 6min but fortunately it was disallowed. Mbappe put us in front with a scrambled effort and all was good but Rashford did get his goal and levelled to take us into half-time all square.

Then in the 2nd half we took the lead as Mbappe got his 2nd of the night and a 40th of the season as he volleyed home Sterling's cross and that proved to be enough for us to win the trophy. I put Sergio Ramos on near the end as I thought it would be fitting for him to lift the trophy yet again.

--

SUMMARY

We did it!!!! This month was all about the Champions League really as clinching the title was a mere formality and we got our ultimate goal by beating Man Utd in the Champions League final but only after scraping past Liverpool on penalties in the semis.

The final, staged at the Allianz Arena in Germany, wasn't a classic and tbh having seen Man Utds team I kinda expected a bigger winning margin but they dug their heels in and made it awkward for us but our superiority came through in the end.

End of season post to follow.

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
RAHEEM STERLING

​

 

[Klippybo]

END OF SEASON POST

Yet again I won every trophy available to me during the season and that's 3 times I have done that in 3 seasons with 3 different clubs - albeit 2 were expected. We won the league, cup, supercup and of course the Champions League as my team steamrollered all that came before us - apart from Chelsea, Real Sociedad and Liverpool lol.

In the league we ended up winning it by 11pts. We just blew everyone away (apart from Sociedad) and scored 120 goals in all. The highlights were the 3-0 win away to Barcelona and the 5-2 derby win over Atletico Madrid but in all we put in so many top notch performances as we ended the season on 101pts.

The Supercopa was won by defeating Valencia and then Barcelona while we were given an easy ride in the Copa del Rey as only Atletico Madrid seemed to be tricky opponents but we even beat them 5-1 on aggregate to reach the final where we played Real Valladolid and they were duly crushed 4-0.

My main focus of course was on the Champions League and in the group stage we were drawn alongside my old club Benfica but they were soundly beaten. Not as soundly as Viktoria Plzen as we beat them 10-2 in one match and we ended up finishing the group stage having scored 29 goals!! We cantered past Shakhtar Donetsk and then things got tricky. The holders Chelsea were beaten on away goals after 2 draws and then in the semis we beat Liverpool away but lost at home and ended up coming out on top after a penalty shoot-out.

Into the final we went and we managed to beat Man Utd 2-1 thanks to an Mbappe double - I would never have forgiven myself had we lost to them and I am dreading becoming their manager already!!!

All in all it was a perfect season but with Hazard, Mbappe, Sterling etc we were probably expected to win everything. I didn't have to do much with the squad and only brought in a RB, CM and 3rd choice striker so everything was in place from the start really. This Madrid side will be one tough nut to crack in the future that's for sure!

--

FINAL LA LIGA TABLE

--

SQUAD

Goalkeepers - Thibaut Courtois was my no1 and his time in the limelight came in the Champions League semi-final when he saved 2 penalties in the shoot-out. Ivan Martinez is a good young keeper and had a couple of games but he was in goal when we lost our only league match of the season.

Defenders - They are classed as defenders but with the amount of goals that they scored I am doubting that. Ferland Mendy (7 goals) was immense at left back while Raphael Varane (10) was the same in the middle. Laporte (3) was his partner and Ramos (7) was backup and despite being ancient was decent. I brought in Hector Bellerin (5) at RB and he too was excellent.

Midfielders - My big signing was that of teenager Eduardo Camavinga who I paid Rennes £72m to bring him to the club. He was ok but he failed to score a goal which is shocking in truth. Toni Kroos alongside him only managed 3 but he was out of this world and was the main creative hub of the side. To finish with an overall rating of 8.08 is astonishing. Casemiro and Ceballos were decent enough as backup when they were called upon.

In the attacking midfield areas we had an embarrassment of riches. At AMC Isco had a decent season and scored some important goals while Reinier developed nicely as his backup. On the LW we had Eden Hazard and he was immense and scored 28 times but he was outshone by Raheem Sterling who netted 29 times and claimed 21 assists too. Gareth Bale was brilliant when he was called upon and scored a few when he was fit while Marco Asensio is a top quality player who shone more in the Champions League this season.

Forwards - Kylian Mbappe had a great first season in Spain and he scored 40 goals in 44 appearances. He did have a dry spell though and some of his performances were shocking but you cant argue with those numbers. Luka Jovic was extremely disappointing as his backup while Borja Mayoral was just there to make up the numbers really.

My Player of the Season - Toni Kroos
My Young Player of the Season - Eduardo Camavinga (lack of competition for this award lol)
Must Improve - Eduardo Camavinga
Donkey of the Season - Luka Jovic

--

I RESIGN AS REAL MADRID MANAGER

I aint hanging around lol. Tbh I can speak basic Spanish so dont need to hang around to develop another language and with the Borussia Dortmund job available I may apply for that job although they aint in the Champions League next season. However I was thinking that if I quit and Real Madrid replace me with say Jurgen Klopp or Frank Lampard etc I could open doors at other clubs for me.

Also with Benfica having a Spanish manager in the shape of Luis Enrique he might get the job and I could go back there!!!!

Lets just see what becomes available and its fair to say I am ruling out the Steaua Bucharest job lol.
​

 

[Klippybo]

I AM APPOINTED BAYERN MUNICH MANAGER!!!!!

Upon my resignation at Real Madrid I went to the available jobs section and saw Bayern Munich's name there and I made them my No1. target. However just days later Barcelona sacked their manager so I went in for that job too as well as the Borussia Dortmund job. Red Star Belgrade and Steua Bucharest were of no interest to me lol.

Valencia and Napoli offered me job interviews but it was Borussia Dortmund who made their move first and I attended the interview and was offered the job but I had yet to hear from Barcelona or Bayern Munich so I delayed the job for 1 week. In that week Bayern Munich offered me an interview and then the job so I decided to take it as I am not sure how Barcelona will respond to the manager who just won the Champions League with their rivals applying for the job and as I write I haven't heard back from them.

I get to learn German now!! Incidentally I was on £150,000 a week at Real Madrid and I am only getting £53,000 a week at Bayern Munich.

--

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE HISTORY

Bayern have won the trophy 5 times and have been runners-up another 5 times. They won the trophy 3 times in a row between 1974-76 and also won it in 2001 and 2013.

--

CURRENT SITUATION

Bayern finished 2nd in the Bundesliga last season - 2pts behind David Wagner's Schalke and level on points with Leipzig and Leverkusen. Their squad is pretty strong and with over £200m being made available before transfers out I think I can make them have a decent chance at winning the Champions League.

The squad is as you would expect extremely strong and with the additions of Coutinho on a permanent deal, Sane, Hakimi and Tsygankov I have plenty of talent available too me.

 

[Klippybo]

PRE-SEASON

I arrived in Munich with a lot of money to spend and with the aim to strengthen the side to get the club back to winning ways. The board wanted me to sign German based players and also Germans themselves so that's what I did as I spent £236m on just 4 players!!!!!!

I was obviously pleased with the strentgh of the first team squad that I inherited but it did need improvements. Lewandowski was still the main striker and at 33y/o I just couldnt have that. I also thought I could upgrade my CBs and we only had 1 natural AMC so that needed adressed.

So here is what I did..........

(Barcelona did get back to me btw but didnt offer me an interview as I had just accepted the Bayern Munich job)

--

PLAYERS OUT

Benjamin Pavard was out on loan last season and came back so I immediately sold him to PSG for £42m. Olexandr Zinchenko was sold to Schalke for £26m and Simon Tibbling joined AC Milan for £24.5m.

The main departure though was that of Robert Lewandowski who after rejecting a move to Wolves agreed to join CSKA Moscow for an initial £12.5m which could rise to nearly £16m. I just didnt want a 33y/o striker leading the line and I thought I would take the chance to start a new era at the club.

Marlon left to join Borussia Monchengladbach for £14.25m and that was it!!!!!

--

PLAYERS IN

My main signing was to replace Robert Lewandowski and I did that by breaking both the club and German transfer fee to bring in Timo Werner from RB Leipzig for £90m. He obviously fills the brief of signing German and domestic based players and I look forward to working with him. Although I prefer to play with an advanced forward up front it will be interesting to see how a pressing forward gets on but he is rapid and can finish so I am confident.

I didnt stop there in my attempts to weaken Leipzig as I spent £55m to bring in Dani Olmo to the club. I know what he can do as he was a star player in my Newcastle save but he will be my backup AMC here.

£55m was also spent to sign Jonathan Tah from Bayer Leverkusen. He is a good CB and is one of Germany's best. It also weakens Bayer Leverkusen so it ticks all the boxes for me.

Finally I paid £35.5m to bring in another German international CB in the shape of Antonio Rudiger from Chelsea. He is far better than Marlon and is obviously German so he should fit in nicely. I wouldnt normally want to weaken a future destination but he was transfer listed so I snapped him up.

--

FIRST TEAM SQUAD

I certainly have a side that should be winning everything domestically but as for the Champions League we are not at Real Madrid's level yet although I would like to think that we will be there or thereabouts.

Tbh I have a lot of decisions to make as only Nubel in goal, Thiago and Goretzka at AMC, Tsygankov at AMR and Werner at ST are definite first choice picks. All the rest are up for grabs as I have a squad of players who are mostly at the same level.

I still have £50m to spend mind you!

​

 

[Klippybo]

AUGUST

DFB-Pokal 1st Round

Lineup - Nuber, Hakimi, Rudiger, Luiz Felipe, Hernandez, Fein, Amiri, Muller*, Olmo, Gnabry (Batista Meier), David

My first game in charge of Bayern saw me field my intended backups as I expected them to thrash this team who I have never heard of and they did just that. I find it quite fitting that Thomas Muller scored the first goal of my tenure here given that he has been at the club all his life. Antonio Rudiger got 2 goals on his debut which was unexpected!!!!

--

Lineup - Nubel, Kimmich, Tah, Rudiger, Hernandez, Goretzka, Amiri, Tsygankov*, Coutinho, Sane, Werner

Wow. To win 9-0 is fantastic and really puts a marker down to the rest of the league. When I saw us about to play Regensburg I actually thought it was a pre-season friendly but not so. I don't think they enjoyed their first game in the Bundesliga!

--

Lineup - Nubel, Kimmich, Tah, Rudiger, Hernandez, Goretzka, Thiago, Tsygankov (Muller), Coutinho (Olmo), Sane*, Werner (David)

Goals certainly aren't hard to come by at the minute as we get another 4 goals here with the pick of the bunch being Goretzka's goal as he powered in an effort from 25 yards.

--

Lineup - Nubel, Kimmich, Tah, Diallo, Hernandez, Goretzka (Fein), Thiago, Muller*, Coutinho (Olmo), Sane, Werner (David)

Add another 4 to the tally lol. Thomas Muller came in for the injured Tsygankov and he grabbed a hat-trick. We are on fire at the minute and now have 22 goals in 4 games in league and cup!!!!! My latest signing, Abdou Diallo made his debut here.

--

Lineup - Nubel, Kimmich, Tah, Diallo, Hernandez, Goretzka, Thiago, Muller (Tsygankov), Coutinho, Sane (Gnabry), Werner (David)

Not good enough. Leverkusen are sitting in the relegation zone and lost their 1st match 6-0 to Schalke but we laboured against them here. When David scored late on I thought we had nicked it but they levelled to deny us the win.

--

SUMMARY

Not a bad start to the season!!! We won 5-0 in the cup and then kicked off our league campaign with an astonishing 9-0 victory over Jahn Regensburg. Goals continued to flow as we put 4 goals past both Hamburg and Nurnberg but Bayer Leverkusen stopped us in our tracks with a 1-1 draw.

So its safe to say that we have had an encouraging start. There was also movement in the transfer market as Chelsea came in for my CB Luiz Felipe and bought him for £52m. He was backup for me and no better than anyone else in that position in my squad so I decided to take the money and spend it on a much better player and that player was Abdou Diallo.

I paid Paris Saint-Germain £80m to take him back to Germany and that deal takes my total spending this summer up to a whopping £316m!!!! On deadline day Liverpool bid £89m for Sane and £52m for Hakimi but I told them where to go. I am going to stop updating you on Benfica as they have basically sold off my side as in this window sold Rony Lopes and Kaio Jorge (he went to Leipzig) but they did sign Marco Asensio!!

Finally in the Champions League we have been drawn alongside Krasnodar, AC Milan and Monaco so we should progress easily from that group.

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
LEROY SANE

--

BUNDESLIGA

​

 

[Klippybo]

SEPTEMBER

DFB-Pokal 2nd Round

Lineup - Nubel, Hakimi, Sule, Diallo, Hernandez, Fein, Amiri, Muller*, Olmo, Gnabry (Batista Meier), Arp (Zacharakis)

I took a bit of a risk here as I am still a bit unsure of the landscape in Germany but I fielded largely a backup side against a fellow Bundesliga team and they won it easily. Zacharakis is a regen striker who looks like the real deal and became the clubs youngest ever player and he marked his debut with a goal.

--

Lineup - Nubel, Kimmich, Tah, Diallo, Hakimi, Goretzka, Thiago, Tsygankov (Muller), Coutinho (Olmo), Sane*, Werner (Arp)

Schalke have won the league 2 of the past 3 seasons and are the current holders of the Bundesliga so this could prove to be a huge victory for us. Leroy Sane got the winning goal as he continues his impressive form.

--

UEFA Champions League Group F

Lineup - Nubel, Dehler, Rudiger, Sule, Hakimi, Fein, Amiri, Muller (Batista Meier), Olmo, Gnabry, David*

My backups got a run out here and they won out thanks to a marvellous hat-trick from Jonathan David. My Canadian striker was subject of a £45m bid from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer but I kept him on board and thankfully so after this performance!!

--

Lineup - Nubel, Kimmich, Tah (Sule), Diallo, Hakimi, Goretzka (Fein), Amiri, Tsygankov, Coutinho (Olmo), Sane*, Werner

WTF HAPPENED HERE?? After being 4-1 up after 20min we ended up throwing it away and we dropped 2pts here. There is absolutely nothing wrong with us going forward at the minute but defensively we still have work to do it seems.

--

UEFA Champions League Group F

Lineup - Nubel, Kimmich*, Tah, Diallo, Hakimi, Goretzka, Thiago, Tsygankov, Coutinho (Olmo), Sane (Gnabry), Werner (David)

This win puts us in the driving seat in the group. Kimmich got his 2nd goal in as many games while Timo Werner had a penalty saved unfortunately. Pleasing to get a clean sheet too after the last match!

In another group Borussia MGB thrashed Real Madrid 8-1!!!!!!!!!!!

--

Lineup - Nubel, Kimmich, Tah, Diallo, Hakimi*, Goretzka, Thiago, Tsygankov, Coutinho (Olmo), Sane (Gnabry), Werner (David)

We drop more points in the league with this draw here. I suppose I should be happy that we came back from 2-0 down to get a point but once again our defensive fragility cost us.

--

UEFA Champions League Group F

Lineup - Nubel, Kimmich, Tah, Diallo, Hakimi, Goretzka, Thiago, Tsygankov (Muller), Coutinho (Olmo), Sane, Werner (David)

Another draw but I suppose we can afford to draw a game or two in the group stage since we won our opening 2 games.

--

SUMMARY

September was a tricky month. Sure we were unbeaten but we drew far too many games for my liking. In the league we beat Schalke but threw away a 4-1 lead to draw with Borussia Monchengladbach and then came back from 2 down to draw with Werder Bremen. We progressed in the cup and beat AC Milan in the Champions League but ended the month with yet another draw away to Monaco.

Some of my players are just not performing. Philippe Coutinho has been useless while my huge summer signing, Timo Werner, hasn't been much better in all honesty. We need to pick things up smartly and hopefully get back to the form we showed in August.

--

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
JOSHUA KIMMICH

--

BUNDESLIGA

​

 

[Khalaf]

loving this man, cant wait to see how the rest of your seasons go. want you to take over a club that is not the best in the counrty but still in CL, like Dortmund, Atletico or the milan teams.