[FM 20] Turtle Race Journeyman (COMPLETE)

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Slovenia (World Cup 2046 Qualifying Group 9)

There have been more convincing performances but we got the job done and that's all that matters. We take the win 2-0.

We are already under a bit of pressure in the group as Poland have started with 4 straight wins in the group, although we have yet to play each other.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Poland (World Cup 2046 Qualifying Group 9)

This was on paper the toughest match of qualification, and Polish were out to stifle us, unfortunately for them we got ahead early and then they lost discipline and had a man sent off, which meant we just kept the ball and they barely had a kick. We take the game in Chorzow 1-0.

We close the gap to Poland, and can overtake them by winning our game in hand. The game back in Lisbon could be the decider between us and Poland as to who tops this group. 

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Cyprus (World Cup 2046 Qualifiying Group 9)

A repeat of what happened in Lisbon, this time in Nicosia as we win comfortably 4-0 against Cyprus to take the lead in the group. It looks like already it will be a shootout between us and Poland for the top spot.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Ukraine (World Cup 2046 Qualifying Group 9)

We had to save our arses from the fire, and red card changed the complexion of this game especially when they got ahead. Despite that we dominated the game and it was looking like Ukraine would hang on but we got level in injury time to save some of our blushes. Not particularly impressed, that's four points dropped against the Ukraine in the group.

Poland won, so they leapfrog us. The game in Lisbon will be crucial now, when we face them. had we not beat them in Poland, we would be in real trouble now.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Slovenia (World Cup 2046 Qualifying Group 9)

We do love making things hard, we again fall behind against Slovenia, but fortunately we manage to pull the game out of the fire with two goal to win the game 2-1. 

We are set up for a clash at the top of the table as Poland lost away to Ukraine. We need a point in Lisbon, Poland need the win.

Edited August 5, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Poland (World Cup 2046 Qualifying Group 9)

What promised to be a tough encounter wasn't as the Poles floundered in Lisbon and we got a 3-0 win to comfortably book our plane tickets to Tokyo next summer.

In the end we won the group with 20 points, 5 points ahead of 2nd place Poland who will now need to go through the Playoffs.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (August, September, October, November 2045)

Put quite simply we have been pretty poor so far this season. We have been lack fluency at the moment, and perhaps it is because we are trying to integrate a number of younger players into the team. There is also a bit of a bad feeling from something that I didn't even mean to do, I was messing around with mentoring and ended up moving Ferreira into first team and back into the reserves momentarily and it sparked outrage amongst him and the rest of the team, which I thought I quelled yet about a month later it said that Ferreira had lost trust in me, with a blank message below it. Ferreira had been playing brilliantly up until then scoring goals every game, in replacing Arias up top, but from then on, with a permenant bad morale it has not been good. That is our problem we find it difficult to score goals and at the moment we also concede a few more than we normally do. Injuries have not been kind, both the starting and backup keepers are out meaning we are playing our young goalie Sharpe in goal. I mean he has been improving tonnes in the Reserves but Celtic away in Scottish Premiership is a bit of a baptism of fire. Anyway I hope we bounce back, we have before, but I feel like I can't see it. Often times we lose games but are the better side, but for example the last fixture against Celtic, we were utter ****. In the game against Falkirk just before that we had two sent off. It just seems we are not playing well and losing discipline and that is a dangerous combination.

In Europe we have actually been pretty decent having already booked out place in the Knockout Rounds which just seems common place for us nowadays. 

There is already a decent gap to Rangers who are playing very well this season so far. That gap cannot grow any further or we will likely not catch them.

Confirmation that with a game to go we are already confirmed as group winners.

 

[TerminalPortugal]

The draw for World Cup 2046 in Japan has been made and we get an interesting group.

[TerminalPortugal]

We decide on our friendlies for the World Cup, and decide to play teams that might have similar qualities to our group opponents.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (December, January & February 2046)

I completely forgot that I am meant to report back at the end of February, so there is the first game of March included. We have improved immensely since the last update, and have not lost a match over this period. We were forced to play a replay in the cup. I brought in some of the Reserves to play the game and we did get the job done, but we did in the replay. We are through the semi final of the Scottish Cup after beating Falkirk. In the league we have taken back control from Rangers. It is still tight at the top and certainly we may need to repeat the form we are currently showing. In Europe we got drawn with AS Roma and we look good value to make the Quarter Finals after an away 2-1 win in Rome.

The transfer have moved on a little bit since last time around. Lee Morrison perennial sub has moved on. He was now 31 and we offloaded him to Derby County. We have also picked up some new youngsters. Three of team came on a scouting trip to Tunisia that revealed some talent at ES Tunis and ES Sahel. Luis Castro also was spotted in Honduras. Rhys Austin and Mark Bridge, will never play a game for the club, but they were brought in to serve a higher purpose. We are trying to influence the young minds of the U18s and Reserves and we need some strong characters to do that. So Rhys Austin and Mark Bridge who were non-league footballers but with Model Citizen personalities are doing some mentoring in the Reserve team. We have another player joining soon from Sheffield United who again has no potential but a great character to work on our U18s. We made Rhys and Mark captain and vice captain to give them some clout in the backroom and have put them to work. So far, a few small positive changes in some of the youngsters with issues, but we will see if it has much impact. 

It is a 5 point lead over Rangers, who have a game in hand as we move towards the league split and the business end of the season.

[TerminalPortugal]

It is actually probably not our final game at Easter Round, but the final game of the regular season before the league split. We are due to move to the new stadium next year which will be imaginatively called the Hibernian Stadium (with Stadium Sponsortship to be sold).

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Japan (World Cup 2046 Preparation Friendly)

The first preparation game for the World Cup and we faced Japan, because we have China in our group and expect some similarities. We were very dominant but credit to World Cup hosts they frustrated us, and we only found the goal with 15 minutes to go. We got to look at the team and while I would have liked a few more goals we were by far the better team.

Edited August 6, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Ecuador (World Cup 2046 Preparatory Friendly)

Ecuador had asked us for a friendly before the World Cup and we obliged. In the end the game was again a dominant performance for us, we scored mid way through the 1st half and then with a few minutes to go, to make it a pretty standard victory for us.

[TerminalPortugal]

We sign a new deal at Hibernian that will keep us there until 2050.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (March, April & May 2046)

We had to struggle our way through the end of the season, we had problems with morale, the issues from right at the beginning of the season involving Ferreira permeating through the club. However we got on with it. Starting with the Champions League, Roma came to Edinburgh and got the win on the night 2-1, which forced penalties and in the end in a penalty shootout with more misses than conversions, we came through. We then faced a glamour tie against Barcelona, and while we did well at home to get a 1-1 draw and even took the lead at the Nou Camp, Barca came back and took the game 2-1. An admirable effort but we were out at the Quarter Final stage.

In the league we were battling against Rangers all the way. A home defeat to them before the league split, gave them the advantage going into the it, it was compounded with another loss to rivals Hearts a few weeks later. Our only chance would be if Rangers would drop points and they did against Aberdeen, but they were still ahead of us going into the crunch game between the two of us. The game did not resolve things, ending 1-1, and I had pretty much thought it was likely over, but a couple of weeks later in the Old Firm derby Rangers lost 4-0 to Celtic and we won to give us the leadership of the league again. We now had two games to negotiate, rivals Hearts at home and Celtic away. Rangers had Partick Thistle at home and finished on the final day with Hearts away. We beat Hearts and Rangers beat Partick Thistle, bringing it to the final day and a curious equation. We were both playing each others biggest rivals. Rangers were reliant on Celtic on doing them a favour. We knew that visiting Celtic Park was going to be difficult and that if we did not win, that we needed a favour from Hearts. Well our game was going horribly we were 1-0 down half way through the 1st half, but the news from Hearts was that they were 2-0 up against Rangers but had had a man sent off just before the break. It was now very evenly poised. Any ideas we had about getting anything out of Celtic soon evaporated when Celtic scored twice in a minute to make it 3-0, and we were on the ropes but nothing of note seemed to be happening at Hearts. We knew a draw in the current circumstances for Rangers would had been enough so I was eagerly awaiting news from Hearts Stadium. On the 83rd minute, Ferreira got one back for us to make it 3-1, but it was almost irrelevant, no news from Hearts, they were still 2-0 up but surely up against it. In the end I needn't of worried, Rangers never did get their two goals and our loss on the final day did not count for anything. We were champions of Scotland for the 5th time in a row. We did not play that well this season, we refreshed the team with some young faces, and yet we still found a way to win it.

A few days later we faced the same Celtic team for the Scottish Cup, this time Hampden Park. This time around however we were in the ascendency, taking the lead in the 1st half and bagging another late on. Celtic got a consolation to make things interesting a minute from time, but we hung on to make it a double!

This is how the final day ended in Scotland

In the end we take the league by a point from Rangers.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Nigeria (World Cup 2046 Preparatory Friendly)

We faced up against Nigeria, our match up for Senegal, drawn in our group, and we were excellent as we battered an underwhelming Nigerian side.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Ivory Coast (World Cup 2046 Preparatory Friendly)

More African opposition is swept aside, as we beat the Ivory Coast 2-0 in Coimbra for our final warm up game before we fly out to Japan.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team (World Cup 2046 Japan Group L)

We opened against the Chinese, and we get a pretty easy victory as we avoid any kind of upsets and take the game 3-0. It's a good start to the World Cup.

Senegal have yet to play in the group so the group reflects only the result above.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Senegal (World Cup 2046 Japan Group L)

Well if the rest of the world were unconcerned with us, they will be now, as we demolish Senegal 8-0 in Niigata. We were 6-0 up at half time, as we absolutely caught them shell shocked. Minic who is arguably the best player in the world at the moment, got himself a hat-trick from the wing to help his case with the Golden Boot.

Still only our games have been played in the World Cup. China vs Senegal is the final game of the group stage and Senegal now have to beat China by virtue of the goal difference. we are though to the next round with +11 goal difference in 2 games.

[TerminalPortugal]

Senegal are out of the World Cup as China get the draw.

[TerminalPortugal]

Our opponents for the Second Round will be Morocco. A tie that is split by the straights of Gibraltar.

[TerminalPortugal]

Away from the World Cup in Japan, back in Scotland, Hibernian have finally moved into their new stadium.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Morocco (World Cup 2046 Japan Second Round)

There were no mistakes from us as we took the lead early, and our job was made even easier when Eddarraj got himself sent off for Morocco. Minic made it 2-0, before Baltazar killed it off at 3-0. In the end the game ended 4-1 and we book our place in the next round of the World Cup.

[TerminalPortugal]

It will be an all European tie as we face off against Switzerland. We will be playing the game in Kobe, as we move away from the Niigata Big Swan Stadium. Hopefully it is not a bad omen for us.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Switzerland (World Cup 2046 Japan Third Round)

We found ourselves in a very tricky position after 4 minutes as Fontaine got in and scored for Switzerland, and they held on for a while, basically offering nothing going forward. But we unlocked their defence in 64th minute through Andre Silva from the wing, quite a goal as well. The game was headed to extra time, when we got a corner, and it was played short and worked into the box, a square ball fell to Baltazar the centre back and he rifled home and rifled us into a World Cup Quarter Final.

[TerminalPortugal]

The World Cup Quarter Final draw is a special one for me, as we get Colombia, we will be facing some of our Hibernian players in Arias and Conchilla potentially in the Quarter Final.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Colombia (World Cup 2046 Quarter Final)

We were in Saitama this time out for the World Cup Quarter Final, and there were some familiar faces playing against us this time around like Omar Canchilla. There were no surprises here though, we took a two goal lead in the first half, and we shut the Colombian attack down. Nelson Pimentel made our progression safe with a third goal in the second half to book our place in the semi finals.

[TerminalPortugal]

In the World Cup Semi Final we will face the Czech Republic in Yokohama for a place in the Final. The loser will be involved in the 3rd place playoff.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Czech Republic (World Cup 2046 Japan Semi Final)

We were in Yokohama for the semi final, a place in the final to play Germany was the prize at the end of the tunnel. Belgium would await the loser. The Czech's gave us a good game, and they took the lead when Grussman scored from the the box, after some confusion in the Portuguese ranks. The lead would only last for 3 minutes, as Venancio got us level with a header from a long throw into the box. Then it was a cagey affair, with the game seemingly heading to extra time, but the hero Venancio popped up again two minutes from time scoring an absolute scorcher from 25 yards after a cushioned header back to him. What a way to put us into the Final. We will play Germany to win that little heavy golden trophy.

[TerminalPortugal]

Confirmation that we will play Germany in the World Cup Final at the Yokohama Stadium.

[TerminalPortugal]

As we prepare for the World Cup Final, a loyal servant to Hibernian in Tony Elliot is about to have his testimonial as we will play Eintracht Frankfurt to honour him.

[TerminalPortugal]

On the eve of the World Cup Final, we are ready to announce a huge piece of transfer news for Hibernian fans. Luis Ferreira is leaving the club for £100m to Bayern Munich. The money is ridiculous and we just had to agree to the proposal. In my opinion he still has a ton of development to do, and this is a big risk for Bayern, but we will use that money to strengthen. I mean the new stadium cost us just under £40m, so we could we could buy another two stadium with that kind of money. Too good to turn down considering we bought him for £1m from Olimpia, meaning we make a £99m profit on him.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Germany (World Cup Final)

Heartbreak for us, as we lose to Germany in the final 2-0. We really were up against it when right back Jorge Carreira got himself sent off, yet we held out and even offered plenty going forward, we could have won it in normal time. But the game went to extra time and eventually time told for us as 10 men on the field. Felix Seguin, a quality player got Germany ahead in the 107th minute as we gave away a penalty and a few minutes later he added another to kill us off.

It has been an impressive performance from us, but ultimately we just fell short. I think I will continue with Portugal into the Euros and then we will assess out international career at that stage, whether we want another crack at the next World Cup or not.

[TerminalPortugal]

England offer us the job, but as we said we have decided to at least go on with Portugal until the next Euros and see how we do then. 

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (Pre-Season 2046)

It is our 7th season in with Hibernian, and we are and the goal is to pick up another league title. We have been pretty imperious in Scotland since we arrived and the domination of the Old Firm is well and truly dead. The World Cup got in the way of my pre-season with the club quite severely and for that reason we only played a few games and I wasn't really focussing too much on the pre-season. Hopefully it does not hold us back. In terms of results, three clean sheets but not many goals scored.

We are now 46 years old.

The big one was Ferreira who left for Bayern Munich for £100m in the summer. We could not stand in the way of a bid like that. We put the money to good use and signed an English wonderkid from Charlton for £31.5m. I expect him to be an England regular in the future and considering how good our facilities are I expect he will come on leaps and bounds with regular football at this level, and I believe he will do a good job for us. Drogba who has been in our reserves is promoted and Zurupovic exits. He is been a great servant to the club, but he was the wrong side of 30 now and we decided to cash in while he retained some value, he leaves for Bournemouth. Lee Leighton, a bit part player for us left on a free transfer to Motherwell and finally Ian Thomas a young goalie who I did not think would make the grade left for just under £50k to St Johnstone. The entrance into the club is Yaya N'Goran is the final thing to cover. We have a great presence with our scouts in the Ivory Coast and are able to get in these great players with great potential. So he will come into the Reserves for now and we will assess his progress.

The squad for the coming season is above. I expect we will rotate a fair bit and try and get everyone some game time.

 

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs France (Nations League A Group 3)

The Nations League is back and we started with a baptism of fire and probably our toughest game of the group, and we came through with flying colours as we come through 2-1 in Paris. That is a good platform to qualify from this group.

The other teams in the group, World Cup semi finalists Czech Republic faced off against our home country Sweden and battled out a draw, which gives us the leadership of the group.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team (Nations League A Group 3)

A few months after our epic World Cup semi final, this game was a little more one sided as we took the Czech's apart in the first half, winning in the end 4-1, with Nelson Pimentel getting himself a hat trick in the process.

The French look out of sorts, as they lose in Sweden. We lead the group and Sweden are 2nd.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Sweden (Nations League A Group 3)

We travelled back to our native Sweden with our Portuguese side, and we did the job professionally, 2-0 winners on the night.

France finally recorded a win but it might be too little too late at this stage. We are top of the group with a perfect record.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs France (Nations League Group 3)

We cruised to a 2-0 win over the French as we got two first half goals to seal the game. The French are dead and buried in this group, they can only play to remain with the top Nations League groups now.

We look to be cruising to the the Finals Tournament. Sweden are the only ones that can catch us now.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Czech Republic (Nations League A Group 3)

It was a pretty rampant performance from us as we put World Cup semi finalists Czech Republic to the sword in their backyard 5-1. We may just be getting to the zenith of what this team is capable of.

We qualify for the Finals Tournament with that result. France beat Sweden to make sure that the Czechs will play Nations League B football next time around.

Edited August 6, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Sweden (Nations League A Group 3)

I am not sure they will let back into Sweden after this game. We absolutely obliterated the Swedish defences, reminiscent of the game against Senegal at the World Cup. We peppered them from minute 1 and they just could not handle it. It was 4-0 at half time and 8-0 at the end. An absolute humiliation for the homeland.

We finish the group stage with a perfect record. This little international break has seen us score 13 goals and concede one in two games. We look unbeatable at the moment, but time will tell whether we can carry the form into the Finals tournament which is a way away.

[TerminalPortugal]

The draw for Euro 2048 Qualifying which will take place in France has taken place. We have been drawn in Group A together with Albania, Lithuania, Poland and Serbia. It could be a tough group if we are not careful.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (August, September, October & November 2046)

I again accidentally played one game beyond the November, but no matter. Finally in what seems a little while we have a settle squad and we are in ridiculously good form. Our only loss came in the Champions League against Manchester City, which is nothing to be ashamed of. Elsewhere we have been brilliant, only two draws in the league and no defeats. We have made it to the League Cup Final with a thumping win against Kilmarnock. We will face Rangers in that incidentally. There is not much else to say, Petersen has been a revelation since he joined, he is banging in the goals. Kleyr is having his best season in a Hibernian shirt, he looks genuinely world class now. Young Drogba has come in and been a rock at the back and filled in at defensive midfield when he has had to without any issues. Belec looks like cut above on the other wing, and the midfield is outrunning the opposition most games. We look very good at the moment, long may it last.

Rangers have also been very good and despite how good we have been they are only 3 points behind. The goal difference is the telling thing here, we are free scoring and do not concede many, whereas Rangers have at times got the odd one goal win to keep in touch. Celtic already look like they are fighting a lonely race for 3rd this season.

The Champions League group shows that both us and Manchester City are through to the next round. In theory we could still win the group but we would need a 2-0 win at the Etihad for that to happen.

Edited August 6, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

We now know who we will face in about 6 months time for the Nations League Semi Final, and that team is Holland. We have beaten them before twice with myself at the helm, so I am confident but it will be a tough game. The other semi final should be a spicy affair as Germany play England. We would not mind revenge on Germany for the World Cup Final.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (December, January & February 2047)

The mid to late season update as usual and we had a wobble in December as we faced some tough games. In the Champions League Manchester City beat us in the final group game rather handsomely to take the group. This meant we got drawn against Liverpool, as of the current year the most succesful club in European football having overtaken Real Madrid's Champions League count. So we were in for a formidable opponent there. But in the final game before this update, we did a masterful job on them at home as we won out 2-0 winners. This was at the end of a great return to form for the team. As we put together an unbeaten February to take a narrow lead in the league. In Scottish Cup we made it through lower league opposition to set up a Quarter Final against Dundee United. We seem to have a jinx when it comes to League Cup, another final and another loss as Rangers got one over on us. Since we have been in charge we have made two finals and lost them both, not to mention the countless semi finals we bowed out of. The young guys making their debut season in the league are doing great. Petersen has been on fire, he already has 20 league goals and won the European Golden Boy as a result. Drogba in defence has been immense and we have brought up Yaya N'Goran, as it was causing me issues with him and the team keeping him in the reserves. This mean someone had to leave in the winter transfer window to make space for him due to the registration limitations we seem to constantly face no matter where we are.

Beyond the considerable amount of loanees, most of them already seemingly at their maximum potential and just getting some first team football down the league. We also sold a few long term members of the first team squad. Manuele Fois, a long term substitute and cover player on the wing, left for Middlesbrough in £5.5m deal. Chris Goldsmith, whom we bought for £4m a few seasons back from Southampton, left the club for £1.5m to West Ham United, a £2.5m loss for us. Santiago Valencia one of key signings in the early days from Colombia leaves the club to make room for N'Goran, he leaves for Olympiakos for a deal rising to £12m. He has reached 30 years old and his value was not going to rise from this point, we at some points rejected £50m bids for him a few seasons back from China. He was a great servant to us and we thank him for his service. A couple of youngsters also left permanently having reached their potential. Jamie Berry left to Dundee for £145k and Allan Mikkelsen a Faroese international but way below our standards leaves for Bolton Wanderers. Only one player came in and that is Stephen McCourt. He has no quality or potential, but has a "Model Citizen" personality part of our experiment in the Reserves and Under 18's. But it has not really helped to much in changing other players personalities due to the low influence these model citizens have as part of the team. Therefore we will probably suspend that experiment. If we were to do it again we probably need to bring in some guys who have some previous pedigree and a lot of playing time and just force them into the Reserve squad for it to work I think.

We sit 3 points ahead of Rangers, it may as well be 4 points with the goal difference lead we have over them. It is still very tight and it could still go either way. They ran us all the way and probably should have won the title last season. Interestingly during a little recon on Rangers I found out that Marco Rose is their manager. He was Germany manager at the last World Cup, so beat us as Portugal manager in the final. Funny how paths cross...

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Albania (European Championship 2048 France Qualifying)

We were back in action with Portugal for our opening qualifier against Albania in Tirana and there were no surprises as we came through 3-0 winners.

In the other game Serbia beat Poland to put themselves just behind us in the group.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Serbia (European Championship 2048 France Qualifying)

We welcomed the Serbians to Portugal for a top of the table clash. It was an ill tempered affair as Serbia tried to foul us off the park and picked up an early red card. With the man advantage we scored twice before the game boiled over and we got a man sent off as well as it finished 10 vs 10 but we got the points winning 2-0 on the night.

We sit in top position. Poland beat Lithuania to drag themselves level on points with Serbia.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (March, April & May 2047)

Well let's get the biggest thing out of the way first. Hibernian are Champions of Europe!!! A quite incredible achievement from the boys and one that to be honest came with considerable luck, but also considerable skill. In the last update we had beaten Liverpool 2-0 at home, to give ourselves the advantage going into the 2nd leg. Well within 20 minutes at Kenny Dalglish Stadium, that lead had evaporated as Liverpool got level. The 17 times European Champions were smelling blood in the water, and we did well to hold out for the remainder of the game. However in extra time we found a second wind and got a crucial away goal. We then followed it up with another in the 2nd half of extra time to kill the game off and send the European Champions packing. Next up was more English opposition in the form of Tottenham Hotspur. In theory this would be an easier test but we knew it would be anything but that. The first leg involved us travelling to London and it did not go well as we lost the game 2-0 and it looked very much like Spurs had a foot in the semi finals of the competition. However early goals in the Hibernian Stadium got us back level and then it was Tottenham who were holding on and credit to them they did hold on, to force penalties. Young Garrett took the first one and scored, Valia took the first for Spurs, and scored as well. Rodriguez was next for us and he also found the net, but Ruiz de Galaretta made things level for Spurs with his penalty. 

So at 2-2, our boy wonder Petersen stepped up and Reimann saved for Spurs and it looked like that might be the dagger blow, but with next kick Sant for Spurs smashed it against the bar and over. Still 2-2 and we were still in it. This continued until all 5 regular penalties had been taken and the score stood at 4-4 on penalties. Then we went to sudden death and we had the advantage of taking ahead of Spurs. But the consistency was amazing from both sides, this was until Tony Elliot, possibly playing in last season stepped up for us and smashed it top corner to a roar from the fans to make it 8-7. Spurs needed to score to stay in it and Damian Parra did what his colleague had done and smashed it against the bar. We were through to the semi finals again.

For the third time in a row we faced English opposition as we drew Manchester City. The first leg was in Manchester, and after it was all said and done we trailled 1-0. I was not too disappointed, it could have been worse, but the damage was manageable after the first leg. Of course, I didn't actually think we would progress, just that at least we were not out of it. In the return leg Belec gave us an early led in the first half, but Man City's Aaron Hagg did what we dreaded and brought Man City level but crucially also now with the away goal. It stayed like this until the 2nd half and it was one of the biggest team talks of the career required here. It seemed to work when Kleyr put us ahead on the night and we led 2-1, but we still needed another goal to progress. Step up Malian midfielder destroyer Modibo Diabate to get the goal and it was now 3-1. Man City now had urgency to find the goal that would send them through and a couple of minutes later they lost possession and substitute Brayan Arias waltzed in to score the clincher and make it 4-1. That was how it ended and we were through the Champions League Final which would be played in the Nuevo Mestalla in Valencia.

In the other semi final Inter Milan had a 3-0 lead over Manchester United, and United could only manage a 1-0 win at home to send Inter Milan to the final to play us. This was the second most important game of my career after the World Cup Final and we had lost that, so I did not want to repeat that. The final could not have started any better as we got a penalty and Diabate converted to give us a 1-0 lead after just 2 minutes. In the 33rd minute we were in dreamland as Kleyr worked his magic and gave us a 2nd before Diabate, who was quickly making himself a Hibernian legend got another just before the break. We led 3-0 at half time and while notably I remembered stories of the Istanbul final when cross town rivals AC Milan had blown a lead exactly like ours to Liverpool, surely it could not happen again. We were looking good as we managed the minutes in the 2nd half as Inter chased for something to bring them back into it. John Wynne got himself sent off for a 2nd yellow card, on the 72nd minute and we were now fighting to not let them back into this. Credit to the lads we really restricted them in the last 18 minutes and eventually Inter were consigned to their fate. We had done it, we would be lifting the trophy, and club captain Brayan Arias did the honours in front of the Hibernian faithful in Valencia.

With that excitement out of the way, there was also plenty of excitement in the league. It really came down the the final two games of the league season. We had a three point lead and a huge margin on goal difference that effectively made it 4 points over Rangers. We welcomed our cross town rivals Hearts, and had the opportunity with a win the title against them. If we didn't and assuming Rangers won, then things got very complicated as they last fixture would be against them away. Well we would make things as exciting for the neutral as possible, despite leading we eventually succumbed to a 3-2 loss, and news that Rangers had beat Falkirk 1-0, meant it went down to the final day. Again we had made things difficult for ourselves. We ran out at Ibrox knowing we could not lose, a draw or win would be enough to secure the league title. Things started well for us as we got ahead via Kleyr to make it 1-0 and Rangers had it all to do, but things would take a turn for the worst as Yaya N'Goran got himself sent off on 30th minute, and we stumbled into half time a goal up but a man down. It would get worse when Arias fresh off the back of sealing our trip to Valencia got himself a straight red a minute into the 2nd half and suddenly we were down to 9 men, and 44 minutes of hell to endure. Rangers applied the pressure and the shots were raining down on us, but many were low percentage shots and they could not make the breakthrough, and we held out to secure the title at Ibrox.

In the Scottish Cup perhaps with other things on our minds, we lost to Partick Thistle, who would go on to lose the final to Dundee. But I will take the Champions League over the Scottish Cup any time.

So we won the league by 3 points courtesy of the final day win at Ibrox.

 

[TerminalPortugal]

With the Champions League success the board has decided to expand the stadium to over 40,000.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Holland (Nations League Semi Final)

A few days after our Champions League success we were back with Portugal, in Liverpool for the semi final against Holland. It was a game we dominated but in the end neither side could grab a goal. In the end it took penalties to book our place in the final where we will face the hosts England after they beat Germany 2-1 in extra time in their game.

Edited August 7, 2020 by TerminalPortugal