Can anyone win this match?

[SpeedKatMcNasty]

I have a nagging suspicion that this match is rigged by the engine for me to lose. This is the second game of a UEFA Europa league match, BvB (me) vs Lazio. I won the first match 2-0, which means that Lazio has to win this second match by at least 3 goals to advance, a seemingly daunting task. However, after rerolling this match about a dozen times, I have never done better than losing by 6 goals. I've used the original tactics I beat them 2-0 with, changed my tactics a bunch of times, tried different players, tried using supposedly broken tactics from the internet, but I've never lost by less than 6 goals. If anyone could lose this match by fewer than 6 goals I would be amazed, much less loose by fewer than 3 so I could actually advance.

 

Here is the save on my google drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KmTxqwlzTzIfWyg-3f7Ti7CMZNRzU-U2/view?usp=share_link

Edited December 20, 2022 by SpeedKatMcNasty

[andu1]

I tried but they beat me 5-2 after extra time. It was 4-2 after 90 minutes.

I suspect your issue lies in your first 11 pysical condition. They were all knackered after 50 minutes. All of Lazio's goals came after that minute. Basically i had to make 5 subs after 65 min due to your players being too tired.

You have to rotate your players more IMO. That's why you will probably lose this game every time since Lazio has a much fitter squad.

[andu1]

[BJT]

I was curious to give this a try. This was a screeny first attempt. I guess it was a little tricky as quite a few of your players were fatigued. So I freshened up the squad and went with a mindset of trying to contain the 2-0 advantage and playing on the break as they would have been pushing to try and get a goal back quickly.

They got a late equaliser, had a few chances during the 90 but they would have needed to be highly clinical to overturn this one. Also had a deservedly better xG. The early goal will have helped settle us I guess too. Did assume you meant winning, as in winning the tie rather than in 90 minutes.

 

[SpeedKatMcNasty]

Just now, andu1 said:

I tried but they beat me 5-2 after extra time. It was 4-2 after 90 minutes.

I suspect your issue lies in your first 11 pysical condition. They were all knackered after 50 minutes. All of Lazio's goals came after that minute. Basically i had to make 5 subs after 65 min due to your players being too tired.

You have to rotate your players more IMO. That's why you will probably lose this game every time since Lazio has a much fitter squad.

My last match was 2 days before this one, so my regular starters are all tired, but Lazio's schedule was no easier. Even so, Lazio often scores on me in the first 2 minutes, in fact the game I just ran they scored on my in the first 12 seconds...

[SpeedKatMcNasty]

2 minutes ago, BJT said:

I was curious to give this a try. This was a screeny first attempt. I guess it was a little tricky as quite a few of your players were fatigued. So I freshened up the squad and went with a mindset of trying to contain the 2-0 advantage and playing on the break as they would have been pushing to try and get a goal back quickly.

They got a late equaliser, had a few chances during the 90 but they would have needed to be highly clinical to overturn this one. Also had a deservedly better xG. The early goal will have helped settle us I guess too. Did assume you meant winning, as in winning the tie rather than in 90 minutes.

 

Wow, great job! Yes, holding them to 1-1 was quite the accomplishment. I will try that formation there and see if it works on my end.

[rp1966]

Didn't win the game, but did win the tie.  Started with your formation and assman team selection; only changed TIs initially.  After the first Lazio goal went in got an assman message about a player getting dragged out of position due to MM - that's when I realised you've got a bunch of PIs in place. So I might give it another go having looked at those - MM definitely causing you issues.  Also think you can be a bit braver with the wingbacks - I pushed one up to support to get the goal.

 

[Ferocious289]

I believe the game is scripted, pre-detterminded draws and pre-determinded results.

[andu1]

19 minutes ago, SpeedKatMcNasty said:

My last match was 2 days before this one, so my regular starters are all tired, but Lazio's schedule was no easier. Even so, Lazio often scores on me in the first 2 minutes, in fact the game I just ran they scored on my in the first 12 seconds...

You should rest all your players 1 day after a game if you have another one soon. Just select all starting 11 and click rest 1 day.

 

I Bjt was luckier , in his game Kobel had a 7.4 rating, in mine he was at 6.7. Overall i suspect Lazio has a better squad than Dortmund and it's not a tragedy if you lose this one

[BJT]

I played cautious - so the other team would likely have more shots at goal but hopefully lower quality shots where id need a reliable keeper to do a reasonable job, whilst we would create clearer chances on the counter - hence our better xG and less shots taken by my team.

[SpeedKatMcNasty]

3 minutes ago, andu1 said:

You should rest all your players 1 day after a game if you have another one soon. Just select all starting 11 and click rest 1 day.

 

I Bjt was luckier , in his game Kobel had a 7.4 rating, in mine he was at 6.7. Overall i suspect Lazio has a better squad than Dortmund and it's not a tragedy if you lose this one

Does putting them on rest recover condition faster than only having rests on the training schedule? I had 2 days of full rest before this match, without even a match preview on the training calendar.

[andu1]

2 minutes ago, SpeedKatMcNasty said:

Does putting them on rest recover condition faster than only having rests on the training schedule? I had 2 days of full rest before this match, without even a match preview on the training calendar.

Yeah they recover faster.

 

 

[GIMN]

Like others, a win only on aggregate:

A few observations:

- It's not just about resting players when there is fixture congestion.  One of the biggest challenges is that your rotational/back up players are quite short on fitness, meaning that you can't rely on them when you need them.

- Sarri likes to press more often.  With just two defenders, you're putting yourself under a lot of pressure by stipulating to Play Out of Defence and to Distribute to Full Backs/Centre Backs.

- They also have full-backs that actively join in the attacking phase.  With such a narrow formation your wing-backs were completely isolated.

- Hummels might have once been an elite defender, but he doesn't have the pace or stamina to keep up with Immobile.

- 2-0 is a dangerous scorline, whether that is at half time or after a first leg.  AI teams treat both situations the same.  They need to attack to salvage the game.  Similarly, your players treat it the same, and complacency is a real issue.

[Neil Brock]

55 minutes ago, Ferocious289 said:

I believe the game is scripted, pre-detterminded draws and pre-determinded results.

That frankly is absolute nonsense. One which has already been proven by different approaches taken by managers in this thread. 

[fc.cadoni]

1 hour ago, Ferocious289 said:

I believe the game is scripted, pre-detterminded draws and pre-determinded results.

If it was scripted, then all users which tried the match should have the same results with same stats. Guess what, not happened; so game is not scripted.

[GIMN]

Come on guys, let's admit it - not only is it scripted, but SI pays people to linger on these forums to respond to threads like this with evidence to the contrary.  We can only do it because we've got a special version of the game which is fine tuned enough to give us a win on aggregate but not in the fixture.

Sarcasm aside, the OP had got themselves into a pretty difficult situation.  Conditioning, game state and tactical familiarity all being in narrow shapes meant that this was always going to be a very tough fixture.  Replaying the game doesn't help because a lot of the issues can't be solved in the minutes immediately before the game, and the mental fatigue it puts a player through going up against the same (nearly) no-win scenario can be very tough.  It's hard to let it go, but often the best course of action is to learn to live with the defeat and move on.

[Ngoc]

I save the game sometimes before a match and if I replay it 10 times I wins some I lose some and some are even how it be scripted if I get every time a different result?

and that using the same exact team and instant match so I really can't control anything of during the game let me make some screenshots

I run exact same team with instant result and the same tactic 4 times and got 4 different result if anything I think this game is too random you could save before each match and win them all just reloading and trying again

it should be a little bit more scripted as if your team is really weaker you should have only 1o r 2% chance of winning (that is probably the case of that saved match I guess it never happened to me)

Edited December 20, 2022 by Ngoc

[enigmatic]

I like to think that somewhere, there's an AI complaining this game was scripted in my favour.  

In all seriousness though, at no point of the game did I feel at any risk of losing by two goals and I couldn't even be bothered to crank up timewasting or play for set pieces when they started spamming attacks at the end. The offsides were pretty clear (they were constantly being caught offside) and the other stats flatter Lazio whose chances really weren't all that apart from a goal from the same kind of long ball I scored from, and at the other end Adeyemi had a one-on-one where his touch was so bad he didn't even take a shot! The biggest change I made was dropping Hummels and pushing the defensive line up. (I subbed Hummels on as a DM but I think that was a bad idea too. It didn't work, and I'd have been a lot better throwing someone like Guerreiro on and being more aggressive on the counter)

I imagine I could pull off an actual win with a couple more attempts

Pretty good example of why people think the game's scripted though

A tired team against a slightly better team, and you appear to have played a two man defence involving the slowest elite defender in the game against Immobile, who has probably the best attacking movement attributes in the game. Of course you're going to lose big more often than not when they start really going for it and your players' legs turn to jelly, no matter what happened in the first leg

[SpeedKatMcNasty]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! Super useful!

[XaW]

1 hour ago, SpeedKatMcNasty said:

Thanks for all the advice everyone! Super useful!

I just want to applaud you for this comment. As it seems you came into here a bit angry or annoyed about how things had happened for you, got some good feedback from other users and instead of doubling down and argue with them, you took the advise to heart and thanked people. Not everyone is capable of that, so I tip my hat to you.  

[rp1966]

So, in the end. I gave it two more goes.  First with your tactic with all the PIs removed and the same TI changes I made with my first attempt. Went 1-0 up, but that came from a penalty and a Lazio red card, so I abandoned that as the red card made it a null and void test whichever way it turned out.  Then decided to plug in my tactic from my West Ham save which is a pretty ordinary 4-2-3-1 - result was much the same as my first attempt - I lost the game by a goal and so won the tie by 1 goal based on the 2-0 lead from your first leg.

Fun game, though. And has made me think I'd rather be in  the EPL facing Haaland than Immobile in your game!

[Caketiger]

6 hours ago, Neil Brock said:

That frankly is absolute nonsense. One which has already been proven by different approaches taken by managers in this thread. 

Exactly what I would expect someone who writes the scripts to say...

[samrnpage]

Yeah your team is all fatigued and low on fitness - I managed a 1-1 draw playing cautious 

[phnompenhandy]

1 hour ago, samrnpage said:

Yeah your team is all fatigued and low on fitness - I managed a 1-1 draw playing cautious 

As a control, I'd use the in game editor to max out condition and see how much difference the fatigue factor makes.

[alian62]

Cant download it though 

[santy001]

If anyone can win that game when the OP is playing, its apparently the opposition.