Hello! Apologies, It has been a little while since I wrote about my progress with F.C Europa however I’ve been plodding on with this save over the last few weeks and finally have something to write about. After winning a maiden Ligue 1 title last season I was keen to keep growing my young club as we embarked on our 8th season whilst still trying to complete my own challenge and the achievement hunter as well! It’s fair to say there is a lot I still want to achieve in this save.
Transfer Dealings
After a massive over achievement last season I was confident that our relatively young core would be capable of growing without making too many additions to my squad. Instead, my focus for new signings turned to one of my favourite aspects of the game; scouting obscure nations in order to find a hidden gem. This time it would have the added bonus of completing the side objectives of my save. That is, to have a player from each UEFA nation play a game, score a goal and get man of the match for Europa.
Although this wasn’t the most spectacular of transfer windows, my search turned up a few players that would be crucial in finishing my pre-set goals as well as providing one huge addition to my first team squad.
The big money transfer in this window was a familiar face. After being on loan with us since the start of the 2023 season I was delighted to be able to sign Fischer on a permanent deal. He shattered our previous record for a transfer, costing £8 million (the previous record was only £3 million) but I was happy to pay this fee. He’d already made nearly 70 appearances for us in all competitions and I was fully confident in his abilities to keep the defence together and as you can see from the screenshot, his value rocketed upwards after signing for us.
The other major signings of this window were all geared towards my challenge.
Unbelievably England was yet to be completed and Wood looked like he had every chance of doing this. He would also provide a much needed backup to my strikers whilst being young enough to improve if I could keep him for the long term. Joining in January to cover for injury he would be a great addition to our squad during the second half of the year. Cicekli would also provide a great backup but not for a few seasons. He was young, having only just turned 17 and would deny Monaco (one of my league rivals) one of their better youth prospects whilst his Turkish nationality would allow me to finish this nation as well (OK he’s since been capped for France U19 but he was Turkish when I signed him dammit). Costing only £1.5 million he was a very low risk signing with bags of potential.
The final two players were real diamonds in the rough. Jakup Thomsen is a player I’ve kept an eye on the entire way through this save as he is, by some margin, the best Faroese player in the game. He was always tantalisingly just out of reach of my budget over the years so I immediately pursued him this year despite him being short of what I would normally consider first team ability. Gusev was a good find as he was plying his trade for Sparta in the Netherlands. He was by no means guaranteed to start under normal circumstances but he was a very solid backup option who looked like he could do a job in the league or cup when called upon, something that would be crucial with us playing in the Champions League again this year.
The only major departure in this window was an emotional one as Saku Ylatupa left the club. He was one of only 5 original players in the squad but he just never featured in the first team anymore. Combine this with the fact that he was becoming more and more of an unsettled presence in the dressing room and after 151 league appearances it was time for him to be on his way. He would go on to join Willem II in the Eredevisie.
Onto the Season
After romping through pre-season winning every game and only conceding 2 goals in six games we were ready for our first ever appearance in the Trophee Des Champions where we would play the French Cup winners (and our perennial rivals) PSG.
Despite taking the lead early it was one way traffic after this as PSG beat us easily. We did manage to just about stay in the game until our late red card finished off our slim hope’s of an upset. They seemed practically unbeatable against us in important games, something we would have to overcome if we wanted to become the major team in France. Not the best start to the season hopefully it wasnt a sign of things to come!
We recovered from this early season set back by winning five of our opening six games in the league with only Monaco getting the better of us. Dadasov was the crucial player during this opening spell of the season as he got an extended run in the starting eleven for the first time in a few years. Sadly this was due to a catastrophic injury to Koffi who, in the opening 5 minutes of the game against Nantes, broke his lower leg in a tackle which would see him out of the season for a minimum of 6 months. So far Koffi was one of the few strikers who could be relied upon to score goals regularly and he had quickly become a fan favourite at the club as a result. Coming off the bench, Dadasov went on to have a blinding game as he scored 4 goals while Gusev added a 5th, quite a way to stamp his name into the team sheet whilst avenging his injured team mate.
He continued this form into September as he notched 10 goals in 5 appearances and long time readers of this series may remember a time where he struggled to score despite his fairly lofty potential. In fact, his form was so good that this spell of goal scoring was better than five of his last six full seasons and only the third time he reached double figures for goals in a season! Bizarre but pleasing.
The more eagle eyed of you may also have noticed that Thomsen scored a late winner in our season opener, a goal which also won him man of the match and thus completing the Faroe Islands in the very first competative match. Simply glorious. Off to the reserves with you!
Europe-a
With that terrible subheader out of the way it was time for our second ever Champions League campaign. We were seeded 3rd for the draw and ended up with a fairly mixed group being put with Barcelona, Hajduk Split and Zenit St. Petersburg.
Whilst Barcelona should be expected to win the group and Hajduk probably should finish bottom, it was on us to avoid any slip up’s against our Croatian and Russian opponents as we had some fairly long trips ahead of us. We would be starting with a home game against Barcelona, a game that I didn’t really expect us to win.
After falling behind early Europa produced a magnificent display as Joveljic scored twice and set up another to give us a huge win and get our campaign in Europe off to a stunning start. My young squad played with a belief that they could cope at the highest level in Europe off the back of winning the league last year.
We built on this display to go undefeated through to the end of October winning twice more in the Champions League and even avoiding defeat at home to PSG. Dadasov continued his impressive form by equalising in the 94th minute against the Parisians with his 12th goal of the season. Our great run meant that we had only dropped 7 points in our first dozen games which should give us a steady platform to challenge for a second consecutive title……unfortunately this was PSG we were up against and the draw they suffered against us were the first points they had dropped all season. Balls. It’s fair to say they were in the mood to avenge last season.
Undeterred, our great form continued into November as we found a way to keep on winning games, only dropping another two points as we entered the winter break (PSG were still unbeaten) to give us a slim chance of winning a second league title. No matter the outcome we couldn’t do much more to put pressure on PSG as they had only dropped four points so far.
Our impressive exploits in Europe continued as we emerged from the two toughest games in the group with a 100% record. Firstly, we went to Russia and hammered Zenit 5-0 before we played our return game against Barcelona. After (again) falling behind early we hit back hard with Joveljic again doing the damage against the Catalans to pull off a huge comeback win (again) and maintain our prefect European record so far. Incredibly this shock win gave us 6 wins from 6 in Europe to top the group!
The only blip in December came in a very underwhelming performance in the Coupe de la Ligue as we bowed out tamely against AS Saint Etienne. With our perfect Champions League record, the slight reduction in fixtures might be a good thing down the back end of the season if we managed to go far in the knockout rounds.
The winter break came at a welcome time as it gave my squad time to recover from a fairly intense first half of the season and, with the welcome addition of Wood on loan we were good to go for a tilt at both the Ligue 1 title and the Champions League knockout games for the first time. It’s fair to say this break did our team the world of good as, for the next three months we won every single game. I’ll let the schedule speak for itself.
Starting with a friendly win against Ajax, things only improved from there . We picked up an impressive win against Monaco followed by a first leg win away at Madrid in the Champions League to give us a huge advantage in the second leg. This clearly energised us as we then went on to beat PSG in a stunning away win to close the gap in the league to just 3 points! We played fantastically in this game as we found ourselves 4-1 up until the last 15 minutes where a late flurry of goals made things much tighter than they should have been. The league was suddenly within our reach but this would be a very congested fixture list in second half of the season.
We built up to the second leg of the Champions league in perfect fashion with a few more wins domestically ready to try and defend our narrow first leg lead. It’s fair to say we did this. After opening up a two goal lead Madrid completely capitulated as they attempted to attack us furiously. It’s fair to say this backfired. We were 4-0 up at half time before finishing the rout in the second half.
My striker Joveljic was becoming a significant big game player for us this season and his second goal in this game was his 150th for the club. What a legend he had become especially when you consider he was one of only two players to have scored more than 50 goals for us in his entire career! I’d seriously recommend anyone signing him as he is available from the Serbian League at the start of the game!
Youth Intake
One of the more consistent aspects of the club in my 8 seasons here so far has been the youth academy. We’ve had a number of quality players come through and currently have three graduates regularly playing in the first team as well as a number of promising youngsters in the under 19’s squad. This seasons intake was something of a mixed bag, with a few promising players coming through with the majority of the players not even being worth offering contracts to.
The pick of these players was undoubtedly Lambert who, despite his 5* potential was reported by my coaches to become a solid Ligue 1 player at best. His pace could be a devastating asset but he needs to improve on his finishing and mental attributes to flourish as a top striker.
The other player of note from this intake will provide a potentially good future option at LB if my current options don’t work out. He needs a lot of work but he may progress onto the first team squad in future. Other than these two players I only bothered signing a couple of 3* potential players and the rest were sent on their way.
The Run In
After our blistering run of form between January to March we really were getting towards the crunch time of the season. We had PSG in our sights domestically as well as having both the French Cup and Champions League quarter finals to play during April. It would push us towards our limits but this could be a massive month for the team.
It turned out we would kind of thrive under this pressure. This may sound like a weird thing to say but bear with me. We started the month with an awful performance at home to Caen as we lost 1-0 while also losing promising Romanian Baltariu to injury for three weeks. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time as our next game was kind of a big one; the Champions League Quarter Final first leg against Real Madrid. Then this happened.
Baltariu’s replacement Roques got us off to a dream start which we built into a 2-0 lead only for Madrid to make things nervy with a late first half goal. The second half became very tense only for loanee Wood to score a massive, late goal to give us breathing room going into the crunch second leg. The semi finals were suddenly calling us!
We easily won the French Cup QF against third tier Chateauroux before jetting off to Madrid for the second leg. This could be huge, our third Quarter Final match in a row started off as tense as the first leg finished. Isco added to this tension by giving Madrid the lead on only 21 minutes, we had to find a way to hold on but we were looking very lacklustre in front of goal. This could be a long night.
Fortunately Isco’s proved to be the only goal as we sneaked through 3-2 on aggregate. Madrid ended up bowing out of the competition a little tamely as they never really put us under any sustained pressure. Thys and Fischer were proving to be a very reliable partnership in defence in even the most high pressured situations as we had now dumped both Madrid teams out of Europe in consecutive rounds.
Our reward for this giant killing was a semi final against Man City which would undoubtedly be a massive challenge but we have already beaten some of Europe’s biggest teams in our run to the Semi Finals so far. We would hold no fear!
The same couldn’t be said for our domestic form as we returned to league action with a whimper, losing 3-1 to Marseilles (OM) barely registering a major chance of our own as OM scored an own goal for us. In the following game we just about managed to sneak a win against bottom of the table Sochaux where we needed goals in the 95th and 97th minutes to get a 3-1 win. Inspiring stuff as next up were Man City…..who have Hector Bellerin at RB. Interesting.
Despite the poor domestic showing we flew out of the gates a team possessed. Our Albanian winger Morina scored in the very first minute of the game catching City totally off guard (this was actually the fastest goal in the clubs history) before the 20 minute mark we were an astounding 3 goals to the good. City had totaly underestimated us as we but through them time and time again with rapid counter attacks. They had no answer for us and just before half time it was 4-0.
Despite me pleading with the team at half time not to relax our second half performance was sloppy and we looked more like the side that was easily beaten by OM, despite this City couldn’t find a crucial away goal. Just as I thought we were going to get away with a sloppy second half performance Sane scored with only 5 minutes remaining to give them hope. In the 93rd minute Alli definitely made it game on with almost the last kick of the game as he converted a corner. We had very quickly slipped from 4-0 to 4-2 with two away goals against us. Once again this would be a very tense second leg. We were still favourites, but only just.
Its fair to say April was a total roller coaster. Despite some very impressive cup performances our league form was terrible as we lost three our of four games. This effectively handed the title to an unstoppable PSG leaving our hopes resting on both the French Cup and a very improbable Champions League run.
The Final Month
With the league (probably) beyond us we seemed to relax a little domestically as we easily beat Metz and Guingamp in back to back games. These were our first consecutive league wins since way back in March, showing just how poor our league form had been in recent weeks. Despite our upturn in form PSG actually secured the league title having only lost one game so far this season, an incredible achievement but I could still out do them in Europe and had a cup semi final against them to come.
Koffi also picked up his first league goal of the season after his nightmare injury and he was finally beginning to play like his old self again just in time for the second leg of the Champions League Semi Final.
At the Etihad, things would take a familiar twist as City took a 28th minute lead thanks to Sane to really make things tight. One more goal for City and we would have to find a goal of our own to progress. Fortunately this wasn’t to be. This early strike proved to be the only goal of the game as Fischer and Thys continued to prove to the world just how good of a pair they were at CB. Very little found its way through them and when it did, they were backed up by the superb young GK Geiger. We snuck through despite a 1-0 defeat, exactly as we did at Real Madrid. What a cup run, now only Chelsea stood in our way of a remarkable first trophy in Europe.
French Cup
Our next game was another big one, this time it was the French Cup semi against PSG. I was keen to get revenge for the league title they had taken back from us this year by denying them a domestic double and when Dybala gave them an early lead I feared the worse. These days however, we were made of sterner stuff when playing the Parisian giants and Mur equalised for us on the 20 minute mark. Game on!
The momentum continued in our favour as we created several chances during the first half before Thys scored a solid header from a free kick to give us the lead for the first time. We never looked back as we kept control of the game and didn’t look like surrendering our lead. Joveljic continued his run of scoring in important matches this season by sealing the win with a second half penalty. This was also one of the final games we would play at our home away from home before we moved into our brand new stadium at the end of this season and it was a great way to end our spell here.
This result put us through to the cup final against the leagues bottom side Nimes. I couldn’t have wished for a better draw. Not being one for romantic stories (unless we are the underdogs) we put on a professional display to win 2-0 at a canter. It was an awful game for a neutral to watch but I didn’t care. We had picked up our second consecutive French Cup. I was also delighted for Koffi who picked up a welcome goal in a big occasion. A nice boost after the season he had so far.
The Big One
This left us with just the final game of the season to play. The Champions League Final. We were on the verge of doing the unthinkable and winning this competition in only our second season playing at this level. The game would be played at the Luzhniki Stadium, the site of John Terry’s famous penalty slip back in 2008. Hopefully these bad memories would come back to haunt Chelsea!
We took an impressive 22000 fans to Russia who would be sure to provide us with boisterous support despite being out numbered by the Chelsea faithful. Their loyalty was rewarded on 23 minutes. After a tense opening period with very few chances we won a throw in on the right of the Chelsea area. After the initial cross was cleared to the edge of the box it fell to Jerkovic who didn’t hesitate and lashed the ball into the net on the half volley! A great goal on a huge stage as we seized the initiative.
After this goal, the game really settled down with Chelsea marginally on top but doing little with their control of the ball. Whisper it but we were drifting towards an improbable Champions League title with very little incidents of note in the game. This pattern remained into the second half as the hour mark came and went with little of note happening. This seemed like it was going to be a fairly dour final. Then the last ten minutes happened.
In the 83rd minute we managed to get our second goal as Koffi played in Joveljic who applied the finish one on one past Kepa. We were in dream land as we were two goals to the good with only minutes remaining against a so far ineffective Chelsea. We couldn’t have wished for a better situation, the trophy was all but ours as the engraver prepared to write our name kn the trophy. Then, we were brought back down to earth. Chelsea suddenly sprung to life by our second goal as they suddenly looked a totally different team. In the 88th minute Barella converted a free kick from the edge of the box to really ramp up the tension. My young team looked rocked but they just had to hold on for a few more minutes and we would have a famous victory. It wasn’t to be. Chelsea swung a cross into the box and despite two good chances, we couldn’t clear our lines. The ball broke to, of all players, Lewis Cook who put a powerful low effort past Geiger into the net from the edge of the box. Shit. We were going into extra time looking like a shadow of ourselves.
We were so close and threw away a two goal lead in the single biggest match of the season. The final whistle blew. We had to find a way to pick ourselves up or the biggest prize would slip through our fingers in extra time. As we started extra time it became clear that the huge effort Chelsea needed to get level had taken a lot out of them as we started by far the better team. Just four minutes into extra time Jovlejic found space in a congested box to slot home a low cross! Improbably we were back in the driving seat.
After the madness of the previous ten minutes or so suddenly the game slowed down again as Chelsea were spent and we were happy just to control the pace of the game. We wound down the clock masterfully after failing to do so in normal time and we eventually held on to win 3-2!!!! It was the second time Chelsea had their hearts broken in this stadium but I didn’t care. WE HAD DONE IT!
This was the crowning glory on a very good season for us as we had won the Champions League and the French Cup for a second time with the only slight blot coming form the league as we failed to defend our title. That being said we still had over 90 points for only the second time ever and were beaten by a magnificent PSG side. What a year!
In terms of individual awards we managed to scoop a few as Baltariu won foreign player of the year, and Joveljic (he scored 36 goals) won the golden boot for the third consecutive year whilst Guardiola (the PSG manager) broke my streak of manager of the year awards for leading his phenomenal side to the league title.
The final thing of note to happen this season was definitely a first ever for me whilst playing FM. You may remember that our new stadium was nearing completion and after our Champions League win, I had become a Legend of F.C Europa. When our new stadium was completed I was delighted to see it was named after me! Ok the capacity was only 20291 but this was still incredible! It also ticked off another goal in the Achievement Hunter Challenge!
I also managed to gain the following achievements this season:
- Youth player gets international debut. Maxim Geiger finally made his debut for France against Israel in a friendly but so far it seems like international games might be few and far between for some reason.
- New Ground Built
- Ground in my Name
- Club Legend
This took my total achievements up to a grand total of 15 after a productive year!
F.C Europa Challenge
Finally onto the main objective of this save! Can I get a player from each UEFA nation to play a game, score a goal and get Man of the Match for the team? Well I had already completed the first stage of having a player play a game for us but we were almost over the line for the other two categories as well.
In terms of goal scorers we were very close and only needed players from the following countries to score:
- Austria
- Kosovo
- Hungary
- Montenegro
- Russia
Man of the Match awards was also close as we needed the above nations to get MOTM as well as:
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Georgia
- Greece
- Iceland
- Northern Ireland
- Poland
This means that we have completed over 85% of all countries in only 8 seasons and makes the completion map look like this:
Lovely stuff.
Thanks again for reading! I should hopefuly be back to regular posting again now I have internet!
StratMan Gaming 
On some of the screenshots of match results. Some players have (Y) or (O) next to them. What do they mean?
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So I put the (Y) at the end of players names so youth intake players stand out. The (O) I’m not quite sure that’s not something I’ve intentionally done haha
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Oh I’ve just realised, (O) stands for original player!
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