Last year, we won our first Taca da Portugal, after having never even made it to the final before. Today, we are in the Finals of the League Cup, also something we’ve never done. Can we defeat Porto? They have never won either (but lost four times). Let’s find out! We are underdogs so I’ll come out firing. I want to start attacking, instead of the normal attitude. Who will win the Taca da Liga? I have made no changes to my squad, we are loaded and ready for bear. Porto score in the 4th minute. Alright fine. Lesson learned. I move to counter, hassle opponents, mark tightly. They push forward, and we have just a few attacks. Luis Martins gets a yellow card, and then, in the 28th minute, they drop a man as they foul Marc nastily and get a red. Manoel, a DC/DR guy they really value is out. I go to some of my normal stuff – standard, up tempo, wider on the pitch. I remove hassling. Maybe this is a sensitive ref. Can we turn this into a win? Or will it be like the last game we saw this happen down 0-1 and were unable to score. Half time. Nothing yet. I get aggressive - SHOW ME SOMETHING ELSE! What they showed me was allowing a counter attack to score in the 47th minute. But then Skolnik hits Francisco Castro for a score in the 51st and we still are begging for a blasted GOAL I pull Martins for Rodrigues. Candeais finds Franny for another goal in the 61st. It’s 2-2 officially. Let’s keep going! And That’s his hat trick, as Javi hits him for a goal in the 69th minute! Costa in for Strandberg, who has not played well (just a 6.1). They’ve have some great attacking shots, Perrata has pushed them aside. They get two more bookings. I remove our tempo and lower ourselves to counter. I’ll save my last sub until late, in case of a tie, for ET. I put in Agra for Rondon in Extra Time. We hold on and win 3-2. What a game! Franny is OBVIOUSLY the MOM. Congrats!!!
Ruiz was concerned with the lack of 1st team ball, and I told him he’ll feature in my First Team next second, and he accepted that. Apparently, Jorge Agra learned a lot from Rondon, while Costa learned a lot from Freire.
Juventus and Tottenham made it to the EURO Final.
