So here is the final part of my season as we enter 2025 trying to build on the success we have already achieved, so lets begin.
La Liga And Final League Table
Our good form continued as we comfortably beat Barcelona at home with goals from Cesar and Marcao who are currently in my Brazil squad.
Away defeat at Zaragoza despite being a goal up was dissapointing but we bounced back with two wins beating both Valencia and Sporting. Then another defeat this time away at Real Madrid, and we were very comfortably beaten.
We finished the season with Julio Cesar scoring the winner against his former club and concluding a really great finish for my Brazilian.
The League Table
We celebrate again by dominating la liga 10 points over Barcelona and 18 from Real Madrid. We struck 110 goals in 38 averaging around 2.8 goals a games and we conceeded only 25.
La liga is now almost a formality as we just seem to too strong, my team however were once the youngest in the league are now one of the oldest so I will need to bring in some younger players if our dominace is to keep going.
The Champions League
So the quarter final game ended 0-0 at home but we dominated the game, we easily should have won by 3 or 4 but their keeper played very well. I was dissapointed not to take some sort of lead to the Bernabeu as we always have trouble playing their.
It proved that way for the first 60 minutes as Madrid had all the play and my side were lucky to be in the game at half time. Der Plas scored a great goal for them and they could and probably should have had a couple more. My team looked really poor so I made three changes on 55 minutes to hopefully bring some fight and too try and get us back into the game.
My gamble worked, however although we dominated the play for the last 30 minutes we left scoring until the 82nd minuted when subsitute Peter Lowe curled in a fantastic long range freekick. Late on David hit the bar but we held on to go into the semi final on away goals.
We were brilliant in Italy and deserved to be 2-0 up. We were creating chances and dominating the ball totally outclassing Roma in every department.
Then a mad 10 minutes saw us throw away the lead and gift them a way back into the match. First Gauchino with a terrible pass let the Roma forward (Antonio Patti) in and he made no mistake but it really was a gift.
Then David off all people hauled down the Roma striker (Patti again) from a corner to give them a very dubious penalty. French midfielder (Loic Fauvre) made no mistake and our comfortable lead had gone.
The home game was a nervy affair but we held the Roma forwards to very little chances, even if we didnt create too much ourselves however the 2-2 was good enough to put is into the champions league final against Juventus.
The Champions League Final
Champions!!
Was really pleased with my team second half but for some reason we really struggled in the opening 45 minutes and we behind after 20 minutes when English midfielder Dean Shaw scored from a good Juventus move.
However after some encouraging half time words we turned the game around in a blistering 8 minutes which saw us go from 1-0 down to 3-1 up.
David led the fightback after a fine pass from Zhandanovich my leading Spaniard made no mistake as he slotted yet another goal this season.
He then showed his team ethic when both David and Lowe broke throught the Juventus defense, and very unselfishly he passed the ball into Peter Lowe who tapped the ball into the open net.
Then from a corner Lowe whipped the ball into the near post where Mazza our centre back thumped his header straight onto the bar, but the alive David turned in the rebound to seal the win and that prized trophy.
A terrific fight back from my team.
Final Player Ratings
Well David what can you say? Scoring 51 times in 54 games with a rating of 7.49, his strike partner Cesar hit 30 in 43 games so between them a combined 81 goals!
Zhandanovich again hampered by injury scored 12 in 28 games and Lowe scored 10 goals from midfield.
Ratings were all really good and my defence was excellent alongside my lethal attack, it seems we have the perfect balance at the moment and my formation continues to reap the benefits of good attacking football.
Will post up the start of my new season when I get a chance, and again thanks for reading.