And the big day finally came, we had to defend the 2-1 advantage in front of a capacity crowd at Meadow Lane. I was counting on some support for the fans to make up for an important absence in our defense, Cristian Zapata was suspended. The game was evenly balanced in the first 20 minutes but then Cristiano Ronaldo struck again, a moment of magic an we were 1-0 down. We fought back well though and managed to get back level, Jonjo Shelvey played a fine through ball for Andrea Romano and the Italian striker coolly netted his 30th goal of the season. I was hoping to keep that score until half time but there was nothing we could have done as Cristiano Ronaldo scored again with another fabulous shot. Things were level on aggregate at half time, we had to do something. The team came out with a good attitude after the interval, we were pushing forward quite convincingly. Unfortunately just when I was hoping to score Real Madrid caught us on a lightning fast counter attack and they took the lead on aggregate, we had to score to goals to qualify! We had a few minutes of disarray after the goal, the players were looking like somebody just hit them in the head with a giant hammer. We managed to shake off those moments of panic and got back in attack but Sergio Aguero missed an important one on one chance, Casillas hypnotized him! Aguero got it right the second time around though, a superb pass behind the defense from playmaker Jonjo Shelvey and the Argentinian striker slotted it home. Real Madrid were under more and more pressure but were defending heroically. Seven minutes from time and we still needed to score another goal to qualify. The ball was on the right wing, Nicola Bonetti had Real’s left back in front of him. He decided to cut iniside, he was at the edge of the area and looking like preparing to shoot with his left foot. He didn’t, he touched the ball through the defense and Andrea Romano moved just in time to pick up the pass… He steadied himself quickly and rifled it past Casillas, get in! Real Madrid were shocked and we had nothing to worry about in the last minutes of the game, we were through to the final after a superb fightback!
Juventus defeated Barcelona in the other semi final so we will have a replay of last year’s final, I bet Juventus will be determined to get revenge.
The last game of the month was at home against 14th placed Wolves. It was an important game too: Chelsea were 8 points behind us with three games to play so a win would have given us our fourth consecutive title. We started the game well and could have scored a couple of goals in the first 15 minutes. Romano did score eventually but his effort was nullified by a huge error from Igor Akinfeev, he passed the ball to an opponent and wolves equalized. We were unable to react and replicate those first minutes of the game, Wolves were defending easily. The winning goal did come though, around 20 minutes from time: Andrea Romano whipped in a free kick cross and Havard Nordtveit placed a fine header right into the top corner! Sergio Aguero got injured in the last minutes of the game and will be out for two weeks, hopefully he will be fully fit just in time to play the Champions League final.
We could celebrate though, we raked in our fourth consecutive title!
That result pushed me all the way to the top of the Romanian Managers Hall of Fame ahead of legendary Mircea Lucescu, I’m quite proud of that :)
We’ll have four more league games next month but I don’t care about the results, I will use those games to prepare for the final against Juventus.
That’s how it was folks, thanks for reading. Our form showed evident signs of decline this month and I will look to push the players to their limits for the last games, it would be a shame to end the season with a defeat against Juventus.
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Laxeyman
4 мая, 2010 at 00:34
Hi Johnny, what a brilliant game against R.Madrid! That must have been great to watch as a neutral but pretty nail biting for you! Congratulations on the title win and good luck against Juventus!
Kevin
4 мая, 2010 at 02:13
Hi Johnny
Sensational nail biting stuff against Real Madrid. I chewed one of my own nails just reading the story. Fantastic achievement on reaching the final and I hope win it in style. Congratulations on winning the EPL for the 4th time and too bad about not reaching the FA Cup final.
Still, whatever happens from here on in these last few months reading about your Notts County exploits have been nothing short of brilliant!!
Johnny Karp
4 мая, 2010 at 02:33
@Laxeyman
Thanks, I was on the edge of my seat throughout that game.
@Kevin
Thanks for the very kind words, I’m happy that I was able to transmit some of the tension that I felt during that Real Madrid game. I didn’t write some of the words I said about Cristiano Ronaldo during the game though, he was a nightmare!
Lye
4 мая, 2010 at 08:46
Hi mate, what a game that was against Real Madrid. Your heart must be on the mouth when Romano hit the equalizer. Congratulations on the 4th title and progress to the finals. Too bad you are leaving, else you will catch Sir Alex in the all times Hall of Fame.
warren
4 мая, 2010 at 12:34
Hi Johnny
good comeback against madrid. I bet you went crazy when Romano got the equaliser.
good luck in your final month and hope you will do well when you start managing Dorchester
warren
Johnny Karp
4 мая, 2010 at 15:21
@Lye
Thanks mate, it was a roller coaster game indeed. It will take me years and years to catch Sir Alex, I might not even live that long :)
@Warren
Thanks for the good luck wish. I tried to keep my composure when Romano hit the net, I had to pay attention and counter any eventual tactical changes from Real. Fortunately they didn’t have enough energy left to cause us problems.
Ana Garcia
4 мая, 2010 at 15:42
Shame this is coming to an end!
But you have pretty much won everything and you are beginnning to dominate so a new challenge is what you need!
Good luck in the final, and with your new game.
Johnny Karp
4 мая, 2010 at 15:51
Thanks Ana, winning everything tends to get boring after a while. I don’t know how Sir Alex Ferguson can cope with that :)
markjulian
5 мая, 2010 at 09:47
i am a experienced player at football manager, and it has always been my hope to blog on a site. Could i do a story on your site?
I would be playing as Fulham on Fm10
Johnny Karp
5 мая, 2010 at 10:29
@markjulian
Thank you for wanting to publish here on the site. Unfortunately I won’t be accepting any new authors at the moment but we can keep in touch and evaluate your application again in a month or two.