Forza Italia

Just a bit of background on Italy

(Where the hell is Fabio Cannavaro?!! )

Tactics
I plan to play a 4-1-2-2-1 with two wingers (El Shaarawy and Candreva normally)

This is my squad for the WC Qualifier against Czech Republic

Upcoming Fixtures

The team already played two friendlies against Armenia and Australia which were easy wins (obviously). 4 qualifiers ahead against the Czech, Denmark, Malta and Bulgaria. After the Bulgaria game, we have two friendlies against Turkey and Scotland. I will put on a young squad and mix it up a bit.

Good luck mate! Good start!

Good luck with Italy

Injuries


Big losses as they both play RB. Great news for De Scigilo as it gives him a start and I hope to be able to develop him into a world-class defender.

Thanks. I don't normally manage internationally but after hearing Prandelli being sacked, I thought I should have a crack of managing Italy. (Plus i'm Italian )

Bloody Hell.

Chiellini is a massive loss at the back as him and Barzagli are rocks at the back and don't concede many.


Terrible result. They outplayed us massively and it shows with the two goal margin. We had 15 shots on goal. 15 SHOTS ON GOAL AND ONLY THREE ON TARGET!. Candreva scored a good poachers goal from 10 yards but we were never going to win the game and was disappointed in the team. They acknowledged that they hadn't been good enough and vowed to work harder for the game against Denmark.


Changed the team up for the Denmark game


Balotelli had a great game and deserved the PoM. The first goal was outstanding after Marchetti launched a long ball forward. Balotelli out jumped Daniel Agger and on the volley, he struck it (from 30 yards) to leave Schmeichel no chance. The second was a corner whipped in by Pirlo and he was unmarked in the box to header it in. The addition of Veratti definitely helped the midfield as it gave De Rossi a well deserved break.

After these two games we sit three points ahead of the Czech who inflicted us with our first loss of the campaign. Next up Malta. I'll play a young squad with some old heads. It gives me a chance to blood some new players.

Other Groups
I thought I'd check out some of the other groups.



Damn! These groups are tight and could go right down to the last game. Even I could miss out (pffft not gonna happen )

Anyway this is the squad for the game against Malta

A mainly young squad apart from Pirlo, Barzagli, Chiellini and Buffon. Buffon returns from injury which forced him out of the last two qualifiers. I'm hoping the majority of this squad will be apart of the Euro's in 2016 and the 2018 World Cup.


Easy result as was expected however it took until the 50th minute to score when El Shaarawy latched onto Destro's chipped pass to blast it past the keeper. Destro got his first Italy goal on debut after he took on the defence and tucked it away from 15 yards. El Shaarawy finshed the rout in the 80th when he latched onto Insigne's free kick from the right hand side of the box and hit it on the half volley past the predictably crap Maltese keeper. El Shaarawy was MotM which he deserved, he carved opened Malta's defence and was everywhere in the final third. Look at the amount of shots we had! . We could have easily gotten 10. We need just a draw against Bulgaria to finish first and qualify for the World Cup. Bulgaria got smashed by the Czech 4-0 .

This is the squad for the Bulgaria game. I decided to giver Pirlo a rest since he has played every game for me since I took over. It also gives a chance for Verratti and Poli to shine and prove their worth. I've also given a start to Immobile and and a debut to Andrea Romagnoli who looks a great prospect in the future.


Bulgaria took the lead through some poor defending from Bonnuci, leaving his man who scored. Candreva equalized with a nice finesse shot passed the keeper. The second half was dull until Immobile scored an absolute bullet of a volley after Verratti crossed in. He absolutely smashed it. I thought that that would be it. So did the players and they lost concentration which allowed Bulgaria to score right at the death. I was livid but the draw meant we qualified top of the group which is a great achievement.



Great work from the lads. They worked hard and now they are in the World Cup.

This is great as I'm hoping for Verratti to become my new Pirlo or De Rossi and boss the game from midfield. I also have some other players coming through like Hachim Mastour who is only 15 but playing in the Under 19's and killing it. .

I don't understand how we have dropped a position? We qualified top of our group but Colombia somehow move above us into 6th. Spain overtook Argentina into top spot.
I have a friendly against Scotland coming up in a month after the game against Turkey was cancelled. I'll bring you that plus the groups for the WC in the next update.

Great work so far with Italy, they've just won the 2022 World Cup on my career, so hopefully you won't have to wait that long to win it yourself. Best of luck with the friendlies!

Good work in qualifying! Love the flare good luck at the world cup!

Thanks guys. It wasn't really that hard to qualify as they had already set themselves up before I arrived. I'm going to use the friendlies to blood some youngsters and then start to get my top squad prepared for the WC.

Here are the playoff fixtures for qualifying:

A few good match-ups here but pretty predictable really.

This is the squad to play Scotland. Pretty inexperienced but I want to blood these youngsters so they can get a taste and hopefully work harder so they can earn more caps for Italy. Siqueira is a great addition as he is part Italian and is a massive boost for our LB as we only have Santon as a full LB.

The game was headed for a bore draw until Balotelli hit a sweet free kick from the edge of the box at the death. Nothing much to report on except De Sciglio who had a good game and got MotM.

First Leg Results

Still in 7th place while Spain remain first.

Ballon d'Or votes. I chose Messi and Ronaldo because of their form in the last 3 months and Zlatan because it is Zlatan.

Second Leg Results. Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal go through. Hooray for Zlatan.

Group Draw:



A relatively easy group for me besides Portugal. I should qualify and maybe get to the final 8 which is my expectation with the team I've got.

Next friendly is in 80 something days against England. After that there is a two month break before we go to Brazil to play Santos, Corinthians and Brazil in our warm up games before the World Cup. It's gonna be a great next update.

Sorry for the delay in updates as I have had heaps of schoolwork to do so I haven't had time to play.
Awards:
Lionel Messi won both the Ballon d'Or and the World Soccer Player of the Year awards.


We have chosen our base for the World Cup:

Pretty average though but they are good considering there in the 3rd Division.
Rankings
We move up back to 6th while Spain are first.

Injuries



Massive losses, especially Buffon. This will probably cause his retirement from international duties as he is 35. Destro would have gone to the World Cup as my back up striker with Borini or Immobile. Abate is always injured
Euro 2016 Group Draw
I have a pretty easy group besides Sweden. Should qualify first.





Squad to face England:
This is my original squad:

But then:

De Rossi hurts especially with his experience in the midfield with Pirlo. Santon has potential and would have started against England. Poli deserves a call up and Criscito hasen't been in my squad for a while and so I have re-called him.

Still in sixth.
Game Day

Strong starting line up apart from Montilivo who replaces De Rossi. This is a strong team and I should win should have won.

Chamberlain tore us to shreds and De Sciglio didn't have the best of games. We didn't have any possession and passed up some pretty easy chances. To be fair the majority of the squad played 2 days before this game so were tired. Much inprovement is needed before we head off to Brazil in 80 days to verse Santos.

I have dropped down into seventh coming into the World Cup after that loss to England.
Injuries






Not having a great run injury wise...

This is a shocker seeing as they had a great squad. Shame really.

This is my final 23 man squad minus Santon. The strongest I have besides Buffon, and Barzagli.




Two friendly wins against Santos and Corinthians pretty easy as they were without most of there players cause of international duty.

Squad for Brazil game.

Abate cost us the game by getting sent off just before half time. We were going well then he brought down Sandro in the center with a two footer. I had to park the bus so we couldn't concede. Had a few opportunities in the first half but none in the second because of our tatctics First game against Ecuador in 10 days. Group Stage in next update

Lol for whatever reason all my old photos on imgur deleted so you might not see the old photos as I have deleted them of my computer. Sorry lads

After the Brazil game I had to get rid of Abate because of injury. I was allowed to replace him and I brought up Fabio Borini because he just missed out on the final cut. (Stupid me I should have brought a replacement for De Sciglio. I had to play Criscito in RB).

Ecuador Squad:

A weakened squad for a weak team


Easy win scoring two in the first 20 of the game. Osvaldo latched onto a great through ball by Insigne and whipped into the top corner. Osvaldo repaid the favor and layed on Insigne for our second from similar range. The only down point was Bocchetti getting sent off for a needless off-the-ball foul especially with the time left in the game. This leaves us a defender short for the game against Portugal.

Squad for Portugal. I have gone all out and put on my best team available.

OH YEAH! We held them out for most of the game and then El Shaarawy controlled Balotelli's wide ball and struck it for outside the box on the left and it flew into the top right hand corner. Look at the stats. 1 shot. None on target. Great effort by our defense. Next up New Zealand in which we need just a draw to qualify for the Round of 16.


Squad for New Zealand:

Exactly like the first game in which we put on a weakened squad for a weaker squad.

Pretty simple win. Borini capitalized on a mistake in the defense to tap in from 10 yards. Verratti hit a screamer of a free kick from 25 yards in the top corner. Amazing. Astori scored the final goal after heading in Verrati's corner. We go through the group undefeated and without conceding a goal. We face England in the next round.
Group Results



These are the results from the other groups. Pretty predictable for most.
I will post the results for my game against England later today (Australian Time). Guess the result.

Squad for England:

Same squad as Portugal.
Now when you think of England and World Cup knockout stages, what do you think of? That's right, penalties. Results below:
Italy First
1-0: Balotelli scores (obviously)
1-1: Baines scores
2-1: Pirlo scores
2-2: Jagielka scores
3-2: El Shaarawy scores
3-3: Gerrard scores
4-3: Siquiera scores
4-4: Rooney scores
5-4: De Rossi scores
5-5: Wilshire scores
Sudden Death
6-5: Marchisio scores
6-5: Oxlaide-Chamberlain misses (Sirigu saves)
We beat England on a shootout. I was literally shaking. I was providing commentary after every kick to my brother.
We now face Netherlands after they upset Germany in their match.

Squad for Netherlands. The majority of my squad is tired from the last game

It showed. We were completely outplayed and deserved to lose. Martins Indi tapped in from 2 yards after Balotelli left his marker
Huntelaar scored the second when he broke the offside trap and headed in from the penalty spot. Robben finished us off with a nice shot from the edge of the box. We lived up to expectations and qualified for the Quater Final but I'm disappointed we didn't progress. We have a 2 month break before we start Euro 2016 qualification matches. I have a friendly against Romania in the next update.

This is a sad, sad day in the history of Football Manager:

He retired after the World Cup, despite me trying to re-convincing. He was 2 games away from breaking Cannavaro's record for most caps. I wish he was at the World Cup
Semi Finals


Two 2-1's. Netherlands win was no surprise but the Belgium game was a real shock. I expected a re-match of the 2010 final but it was not to be. Netherlands vs Belgium. Game on.
Third Place Playoff

No contest.
Final

Close affair with Netherlands winning their first WC with two goals from RvP. Witsel equalized but they were never going to beat the Oranje. Congratulations to them.
Aguero got the Golden Boot but I forgot to take a snapshot

World Rankings

I'm still fourth because I haven't done anything since the World Cup.
Injuries



All three are big losses. Verratti is basically my back-up CM. Chiellini is my rock at the back and I had high hopes for Destro but he is always injured. I don't want him to turn into Michael Owen
Friendly Squad

Trying a new formation with an AMC. Best squad possible apart from Chiellini (Injured) and Criscito (dropped due to poor form).

Went behind after 2 minutes through poor defense. Candreva equalized after volleying in Abate's cross. Insigne scored what proved to be the winner after latching onto Florenzi's through ball 2 minutes later. The game slowed down and became boring after the second goal while we missed some chances. We have our first qualifier against Iceland in 5 days which I'll post this afternoon (AEST)

Squad for Iceland

Result

What a shit result. We should have won. Not even going to discuss this game. Everyone was shit.
Next qualifier in a month. Looking for a win.

How the hell did you lose to Iceland

I have no clue. We had that many oppotunities and Balotelli missed an open goal. Might drop him. Been in pretty bad form since I've been in charge