When an important match comes up in my game I take my FMS Journal and write down the starting eleven, absences, considerations before the match and then the important events of the match itself. This time I didn’t bother simply because, as I already said, I thought that we had no chance of beating Marseille on aggregate. Well… I’m just going to write down the important events of the match and how I felt at the time.
5th minute — Rastislav Benko powers in a low shot, 1-0! That’s good, I thought, we might win this second leg and maybe give another boost to our coefficient.
11th minute — Georgica Dicu‘s corner kick header bounces off the crossbar! Damn, if this one would have gone in then maybe…
23rd minute — Benko scores his second of the game on a free kick! 2-0! Can we do it?
32nd minute — Manoel plays a great pass for Zezinho who wraps up the move with a cool finish, 3-0! Really?
38th minute — fine move rounded off by Manoel with a cool finish into the bottom corner, 4-0! All square on aggregate! Am I dreaming?
55th minute — Zezinho serves Manoel with a fine pass and it’s 5-0! It’s a frickin’ miracle!
64th minute — excellent counter attack move, Benko is clean through and slots it home! 6-0! I obviously don’t know anything about football!
68th minute — another huge chance on a counter but Yasen Zlatinski misses it…
73rd minute — huge gaffe in Marseille‘s defence, Zezinho says thanks and bags it. 7-0!
89th minute — Zezinho wraps up his hat-trick with a fine solo effort. 8-0!
Match highlights (goals and chances): click here to watch
As you can see from the stats we had totally outplayed Marseille in the second leg but I still don’t know how that happened. Was it a miracle? I guess so. Was it a bug in the game? Could be, but if it was then it’s the best bug I’ve ever encountered :)
And we were through to the final, where we were going to face Dortmund. The Germans had a fairly smooth ride to the final as they conceded just one goal in the last three ties.
Viitorul vs Dortmund (Europa League Final)
Starting Line Up: Hernan Prestia — Ali Amara, Juan Belencoso, Georgica Dicu, Danut Gongolea — Yasen Zlatinski, Hector Fernandez, Markus Winkler — Rastislav Benko, Manoel, Zezinho
We had two lads injured before the final, Mazzoni and left back Mory Kante. Dortmund‘s team seemed quite solid with Götze the undeniable star.
This time my notebook was prepared on my desk, here’s what I have wrote down during the match:
5th minute — fine move from my lads, right back Amara decides to shoot from 20 yards but it goes well wide.
7th minute — Dortmund right winger Orellana gets booked.
7th minute — Dortmund on the breakaway, decent chance but the finish is poor, high and wide.
8th minute — great pass from Zezinho for Benko, he’s clean through inside the area… but he fires just wide!
13th minute — Dortmund corner kick… header… over the bar.
27th minute — first shot on target, Manoel hit it from the edge of the area but the goalkeeper saved it easily.
30th minute — good move again from my lads, Manoel receives it inside the area… but he shoots straight at the keeper…
35th minute — Yasen Zlatinski is booked
39th minute — Dortmund left back Schmeltzer gets booked.
40th minute — great run from Manoel, he breaks into the area and powers a low shot… it’s in! 1-0 Viitorul, come on lads!
42nd minute — free kick cross from Dortmund, Amara heads it clear and it falls to Danut Gongolea inside our own half… He beats his opponent and starts running like crazy… Nobody can catch him… He’s one-on-one with the goalie… And scores! What a goal, unbelievable! Gongolea was like Gareth Bale for a few seconds!
44th minute — it seemed offside… but it wasn’t, Dortmund are back into the game. 2-1.
45 + 1 — great cross from Winkler finds Benko unmarked at the edge of the six yard box… What??? He fires wide… How did he miss that?
45 + 2 — Winkler does damage again, great pass for Manoel inside the penalty area… but his shot goes just wide…
Half time stats
We should have been at least two or three goals up at half time, that’s what I see from the stats… Anyway, I decided to take off Zlatinski at the break because he was booked and replace him with Joaozinho.
52nd minute — Dortmund have a good effort from the edge of the area, just wide.
54th minute — Hector Fernandez gets booked.
63rd minute — Lubomir Cerny for Gongolea, the left back seemed quite tired.
66th minute — good work from Zezinho, crosses inside for Benko but his header goes well over the bar.
67th minute — Zezinho does some great work again, squares it for Winkler but the shot is straight at the keeper.
78th minute — Roman Benes in for Manoel who had picked up a slight injury.
82nd minute — awesome shot from distance for Dortmund, it cannons off the crossbar! I think my heart stopped for a second there…
90th minute — no less than 5 minutes of added time indicated! Come on, ref…
90 + 3 — Zezinho gets booked. Come on lads, just keep that ball…
96 minutes and 1 second — it’s over!
Match highlights (goals and chances): click here to watch
Can you believe it? I honestly still can’t, especially after that amazing semi final. The final was ours though, we surely deserved to win that match.
Now let’s see what happened back home, first in the Liga 1. Well, we secured the title with four games to spare, that’s just before the Europa League final. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to remain unbeaten as we suffered a rather weird home defeat.
Anyway, we grabbed 87 points this time and that’s more than we ever had before.
The Romanian Cup was even easier as we faced Second Division teams both in the semi final and the final. Too easy.
Manoel was the man of the season this time, not only because he scored in the Europa League final. He scored 24 goals and provided no less than 23 assist, that’s by far his best record so far. And by the way, he has just received the Romanian citizenship :) A special note goes to Hernan Arangio, the young Argentinian midfielder, the lad has scored five goals in seven starts and I believe he will become a huge player for this club.
The financial report looks better than ever too, we have no less than 16 million in the bank! We might need every penny though because I want to extend the contracts of my most important players and they will probably want much bigger wages now that they are famous all over Europe :)
That’s how it was my friends, I still can’t believe it :) Can you?
Darren Smith
26 февраля, 2012 at 15:57
Incredible Johnny, that Europa League semi-final second leg was probably the biggest and most prolific turn around in the history of Football in any competition and country, incredible. And then to go on and beat Dortmund is just ridiculous. Only on FMS can you read about an American team doing the double in their first season, Scarborough reaching the FA Cup final and a Romania side winning the Europa League in fashion, all within 24 hours lol :)
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:37
Haha, you are right Darren: only on FMS! :)
Kevin
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:53
Have to agree there, but Vancouver is Canadian :)
Darren Smith
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:56
Whoops, sorry Kevin, I was thinking of the league and forgot the nationality of the club.
Kevin
26 февраля, 2012 at 18:06
No worries :) It’s been a flipping brilliant weekend!
Laxeyman
26 февраля, 2012 at 15:57
Incredible Johnny! Congratulations mate, what an amazing game in the Semi! You’ve built a really good team, and hopefully next year your lads can show just how good they are in the CL, and get into the knockout rounds :)
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:37
It was incredible, I still can’t believe it. The Champions League is much tougher to win but I hope we’ll get there eventually.
Malhar Bhadbhade
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:09
hey johnny,
NO FREAKING WAY!!!! ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!! Losing 4-0 in the second leg..and i thought you were down and out..and then you say ‘go to the next page to be totally shocked’ and i was thinking no way did he come back and win this….but you did!!! and then beat dortmund and won the europa league to boot!! unbelievable achievement and congratulations for that!! the league and the cup were never in doubt..but congrats on accumulating more points than you ever have before..anyway, keep up the good work! cheers!
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:39
I know mate, I thought we were down and out too. I just couldn’t believe my eyes :)
Lemuel Lim
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:09
Miracles coming fast in fms. Keep iit up!
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:40
Haha, you’re right. We might have had enough miracles though, maybe we’ll run out :)
vaibhavc
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:14
My jaw just dropped to the floor. My goodness Johnny, thats amazing! 8-0 against Marsielle, fantastic. 2-1 in the final, stunning. Its an unbelievable achievement. And you had a lack of strikers as well. Amazing.
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:40
Thanks Vaibhav, I was quite surprised too. I guess I was lucky that Manoel recovered in time for the second leg of the semi final :)
saltwater
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:15
Really fantastic cup win, but the Valencia second leg was just bizarre. I would be shocked if you don’t get to the knockout stages of the Champions League next year, and as far as im concerned, you’re closing down on Europe’s elite
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:41
If the Valencia second leg was bizarre then the Marseille second leg was totally out of this world! Anyway, I guess we might have a better chance in the CL group next season if I manage to bring in another two or three quality lads.
Kevin
26 февраля, 2012 at 16:57
Having known you for over two years now I’ve come to expect the unexpected but nothing like 8-0 over OM. Simply stunning my friend and I’m delighted that you’ve managed to finally get your hands on a European trophy. Brilliant update too!!!
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2012 at 17:05
Thanks Kevin. I guess unexpected isn’t the word that describes what happened in that game, it was totally shocking.
TheZiggy
26 февраля, 2012 at 17:00
Wow. Congratulations on winning the Europa League, a brilliant achievement. Quite an astonishing result in the semi-final, with an insane 8-0 in the second leg. Can understand your total shock over that one. I’m not sure how or why results like that happen, but it’s always welcome.
Only one surprise domestically, and that was the odd loss at home to U Cluj. None of the other Romanian teams can touch you these days. With all that money in the bank, your domination should only get better.
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2012 at 17:07
You are right Ziggy, that’s exactly what I thought: «this is insane and highly unlikely but I’m glad it happened» :) I hope that some of the other Romanian teams will benefit from our European results and maybe become a bit stronger themselves.
Mark
26 февраля, 2012 at 17:33
Hey Johhny, Great Season as Usual :D And Congrats on the Europa League win! I was just wondering if I could enquire about posting on this site as I have followed everyone since you started your Vauxhall save? Cheers :D
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2012 at 17:57
Thanks Mark. If you want to post a story you can do so in the forum: https://footballmanagerstory.com/forum/
I’m not taking in any new writers on the main site at the moment but when I will they will be selected from the forum writers.
silva
2 марта, 2012 at 20:17
i have registerd on https://footballmanagerstory.com/forum/
can you approve my registration.
Johnny Karp
2 марта, 2012 at 21:22
I’ve just approved it, check your email for activation.
Woody
26 февраля, 2012 at 19:52
Wow a great euro cup win and a crazy 8-0 win over marseille
Still good domestically and should continue to dominate in that sector
Next season should see you into the last 16 of the champions league
You’ve also got the euro super cup to look forward to
Anyway well done and good luck
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2012 at 21:13
Thanks a lot for the comment Woody, I didn’t think about the Super Cup. We’ll be playing AC Milan as they won the Champions League.
Alex
26 февраля, 2012 at 22:26
Firstly congratulations on winning the Europa League, massive achievement. The domestic season is a foregone conclusion which further highlights how far the club has come, Hagi must be proud. As for that amazing 8-0 result, I’ve experienced similar European heroics in the Champions League in my story with The Police Service of Northern Ireland, beating PSV 5-0 and A.C. Milan 5-1. I’m not sure if it is a bug but it’s certainly odd…
Johnny Karp
27 февраля, 2012 at 06:59
Thanks Alex. I guess our teams are pretty good if we manage to beat Europe’s giants like that ;)
Alex
27 февраля, 2012 at 21:37
* Villarreal, not PSV, my mistake.
Johnny Karp
28 февраля, 2012 at 07:20
Just as good :P
Tegar Triemanudigdo
26 февраля, 2012 at 22:32
Wow! Totally nuts! Losing 4-0 against Marseille in first leg then trashed them 8-0 in second leg! I still can’t believe what just happened there! If it was real life, it will be a headline for all around the world there.
Anyway, congratulations for winning the Europa League and I have feeling you will get more amazing player from the money you got there. Again, can’t wait for your next adventure.
Johnny Karp
27 февраля, 2012 at 07:00
Thanks mate, I’m sure it would have been quite a headline.
Adam D
26 февраля, 2012 at 23:28
It’s the 2022/23 season and I just drew Viitorul in my group in the Champions League. At first I was like «Oh cool that’s Karp’s team on FMS.»
Then I read this post. My youth team is going to be getting their run out against another team.
Johnny Karp
27 февраля, 2012 at 07:01
Really? That’s great news for me, it means that Viitorul does have a solid future regardless of the manager ;)
Calin
27 февраля, 2012 at 07:07
What an amazing season! Congratulations, Johnny on winning the Europa League, the semi final matches were simply amazing and it doesn’t even matter if it was a miracle or a bug or simply the lads wanted to perform better: it happened and you won the Europa League, which is an incredible feature. Now you have to build up and prepare for the Champions League!
Johnny Karp
27 февраля, 2012 at 10:01
Thanks Calin, it was amazing indeed and I still can’t really believe it :)
Martin - F.M.J.S
27 февраля, 2012 at 08:41
Congrats Johnny on winning the Europa League but what a way to come back in the semi finals. This was a great read. Next to win the Champions League. Also congrats on another League title. :D.
Johnny Karp
27 февраля, 2012 at 10:01
Thanks Martin, I lost count of the league titles :)
Neil Birkitt
27 февраля, 2012 at 12:46
unbelievable johnny,
next up the champions league
Johnny Karp
27 февраля, 2012 at 18:58
Thanks mate, the CL is the next target but we might have a longer road until we get to the final.
Ana Garcia
27 февраля, 2012 at 18:27
Wow, congratulations!!
Having read the first leg result I never thought you would come back to win 8-0, I too have seen some really weird results so if I were you I would take it also!
Maybe the game is rewarding your patience after all those horrible champions league groups you have been handed!
Well done on winning the league even if you knew you would its always nice to finally make it official, hopefully you can keep your progress up and get to through those group stages.
Best of luck! :)
Johnny Karp
27 февраля, 2012 at 18:59
Haha, thanks Ana! You might have a point there, maybe SI tried to reward addicts like me at some point :)
David Faithfull
27 февраля, 2012 at 22:09
After reading this all i can say is oh my god!! 4-0 down and then coming back to win 8-0 in the next leg is simply amazing!! congratulations on getting the Europa win. Now you will have many great players coming to your team for European glory!! You pretty much have the romanian league wrapped up seeing as you thrash it every season so this is the year of making the steps towards champions league glory!!
Johnny Karp
28 февраля, 2012 at 07:21
Thanks David, it was quite an achievement indeed and I hope we’ll manage to make another step forward next season.
conoryeah
27 февраля, 2012 at 23:12
Well done on winning the Europa League final! I had a weird knockout stage in my game against Marseille too. Vitesse (who I play as) lost 4-0 in the first leg, yet somehow won 7-2 in the home fixture. Unfortunately we drew Barcelona in the next round….
But overall, this is a really impressive game. I may not have commented, but I have certainly followed these for a while, and just looking back at a newly promoted team to Liga 2 to Europa league champions in a few seasons is phemoninal!
Johnny Karp
28 февраля, 2012 at 07:22
Thanks mate, I’m happy to hear that I’m not the only one to have had a miraculous experience against Marseille :)
CsAtlantis
28 февраля, 2012 at 07:38
What were Marseille doing in Romania anyway? Maybe they all got bitten by Count Dracula or something, but nonetheless Manoel is getting better and better (a far cry from his first few seasons of being stuck in the treatment table)
Congratulations on winning the Europa League and also the league plus cup as usual (surely this means a huge boost in European coefficients!)
Great finances too, good luck for next season, with a bit of luck in the group draw you could go into the Champions League knockout stages
Johnny Karp
28 февраля, 2012 at 07:59
Haha, they might have gotten bit by something far more dangerous than Dracula: the beautiful girls of Bucharest :) You are right about Manoel, he’s become one of the leaders of the team and I’m very happy I didn’t sell him after the first couple of seasons. We should be seeded 3rd in the CL group stage, this season or the next one I reckon.
Federico
28 февраля, 2012 at 18:51
Wow! When you said go to the next page to be really shocke I expected 5-0, but never 8-0!!!
I believe FM has this type of matches. I had a Gainsborough save, in english League 1 and met Man U in the FA cup. Expecting a defeat y ended winning 5-1.
Also I remember a playoff in my boston utd save (I believe in Bet Square Premier). I was directly promoted, but in playoff first leg a team won 5-0 and 2nd leg was 0-6.
The probabilities are extremly low, but when it happens, it really happens!!!
Johnny Karp
28 февраля, 2012 at 19:35
Yeah, it was shocking indeed. I remember that I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I was watching the game. I couldn’t even celebrate properly, I was just too surprised :)
Sears
29 февраля, 2012 at 17:23
That was an amazing turnaround against Marseille Johnny, shame you’re boys couldn’t hit double figures lol. Congrats on the treble, but that Europa league was massive. Hopefully in the next few years you can make huge improvements in the Champions league. Are you considered as a legend at Viitorul now?
Johnny Karp
29 февраля, 2012 at 19:42
Thanks Sears. I have just checked and it seems that I’m the only club legend at the moment :)