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bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024 season preview
Short update this time and we start of with end of last season stuff first. First news is that Athletic Bilboa got relegated from La Liga, they’re a pretty big club really and I’ll be keeping an eye on how they do.
Player awards and no surprise as Dias gets player and signing of the season as well as goal of the season for his stike against Dinamo (I may upload when I get home tonight). Not going to argue as without Dias I doubt we’d have been as good as we had this season. He’s also in the team of the year as well
Season review, pretty happy with how it went despite being top for so long, definitely something to build on.
I’m named manager of the year which is a nice surprise. I’d have given it to the Hadjuk manager myself but I’m glad to have won it, nice little rep boost.
Possibly due to Dianmo not winning the league or cup, Croatia has gained an extra Champions league spot. This is good news for me as I think we’re going to be challenging at the top of the league again and that extra place may just go to us, fingers crossed.
Also confirmed was our team as over achievers this year.
As we won the cup we’re in the Europa league and we’re drawn against Lechia Gdansk in the second qualifying round. I’m going back to Poland, albeit for 1 game, just need to note that I've actually played against Lechia twice, and lost both times. Hopefully this time around I can get a victory.
Going into the new season we’re away to newly promoted team Sesvete first in a game I am expecting to win.
Couple of new signings arrived to complement the squad. First in is left back Lassana Faye who will be my first choice
Next up is winger Ariel Gimenez from Dinamo on a free. He’ll be a rotation option for me on the right
The other player was signed by my DOF, and he’s terrible. Not even bothering showing his stats he will not play at all this season
Pre season odds have us finishing 5th despite a good showing last year. With Dinamo looking to take back their crown the pressure is definitely on to improve on last years performance.
That brings us to our season opener, the supercup game against fierce rivals Hadjuk. A win here would set us up nicely for the season proper and add another trophy to our small collection. Can we get a win in our first competitive game of this season?
Going into my second season here I'm full of optimism. Despite the media predicting a 5th place finish I am aiming for at the very least another 3rd place finish. We do have the Europa league this time around and I really would love a good showing in that, if we get to the groups my aim would be to get out of the group, but we'll see.
Next update is going to be the supercup game, our first games in the Europa league as well as our first round of league games.
Thanks for reading!
Career progress:
2018 - 19 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 1st in Campeonato de Portugal, won the playoffs, promoted.
2019 - 20 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 10th in Liga Pro, the clubs highest ever finish
2020 - 21 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 11th in Liga Pro, resigned at end of season
2021 - 22 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 1st in Division 1, champions, promoted
2022 - 23 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 12th in Ekstraklaka. Nearly sacked a few times
2023 - 24 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 3rd in the league, cup winners. Manager of the year
2024 - 25 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – in progress
bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024 - 2025 season update
Short update just to get up to date. Competition expectations from the board and I’d like to aim for the group stages of the Europa league as well as having hopefully a good showing in the domestic cup.
Our first game of the new season sees us take on our big rivals Hadjuk in the supercup. With neither team winning this before now would be a good time to get a good result and early season form.
This is a pretty drab game as neither team seems confident on the ball. WE do get a free kick in a dangerous position. Up steps Humam Tariq
He takes a short run up
He hits the ball and it beats the wall…
As well as beating the keeper! 1 nil!!
Half time and apart from the goal it’s been a quiet game.
The second half was even less exciting with no real chances. That wasn’t a problem as we ran out 1-0 winners! The supercup is ours, and it feels that much better knowing we beat Hadjuk for this as well!
Before our first Europa league game we made 1 more, and possibly final singing of the window with experienced full back David Santon coming in on a free and a non contract basis, happy with this siging as we do lack cover at full back positions.
Our Europa league opener away to Lechia Gdansk now and I’m confident of a result however can’t shake the fact that I’ve lost both games I’ve played against this side.
Early on we win a free kick edge of the box inside right channel. Dias is over this and I'm thinking it’s going to be a cross into the box
He hits it and it clears the wall heading directly for goal
Their keeper makes an outstanding save low to his right
He can’t keep hold of it and there’s Tariq to bury home the rebound! 1-0!
Not long after and we’ve got another free kick out wide. Dias steps up again
This one is swung into the box
The ball finds it way onto the head of Duriska
Who buries it home, 2-0! Looking good!
First half is total dominance as we get the ball out wide and new signing Giminez drives forward
He’s brought down right on the edge of the box
Ref waves play on as Marin picks up the loose ball and drives into the box
He gets clipped from behind, PENALTY!
Up steps Mister reliable Poyet
Send the keeper the wrong way, 3-0 game over
Second half we stuck to a cautious approach to retain possession and kept the score at 3-0. A great result and 3 away goals is going to help
League action next as we took on newly promoted (and our own affiliate club) Sesevete. Standard performance as we ran out 2-0 winners.
Return leg of the Europa league now as we entertained Lechia going in with a 3 goal advantage. We took another 3 nil lead before letting 2 goals in but it didn’t matter as won the tie 6-2 on aggregate. We’re in the next round of the Europa league!
To finish this update off we have the draw for Europa league, and who did we get….
A tough draw but 1 we can go in confident.
Next update will the next round of league games and how we got on in our tough Europa league tie. Thanks for reading.
Career progress:
2018 - 19 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 1st in Campeonato de Portugal, won the playoffs, promoted.
2019 - 20 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 10th in Liga Pro, the clubs highest ever finish
2020 - 21 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 11th in Liga Pro, resigned at end of season
2021 - 22 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 1st in Division 1, champions, promoted
2022 - 23 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 12th in Ekstraklaka. Nearly sacked a few times
2023 - 24 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 3rd in the league, cup winners. Manager of the year
2024 - 25 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – in progress, super cup winners
Dan
bigmattb28
Cheers man. A tough looking draw against the big boys in Turkey.
I'll have an update up tomorrow hopefully, not been on here or FM much last few days.
bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024 - 2025 season update
August 2024
Kicking off this update is a league game at home to Varazdin which we dominated and came out 4-0 winners. Definitely a good showing going into our big Europa League game with Galatasaray.
So here we go then, away at Galatasaray in the first leg of the Europa League. We set up with our familiar 4-4-1-1.
The first half was a pretty drab affair with neither team gaining any sort of upper hand.
Late in the game we get the ball out wide to Marin
He plays in Duriska edge of the box and I thought he was going to hit it on the volley
However he plays in Diaz out wide on the left
He swings in a great cross
Miklic out jumps his marker and guides the ball in to the net, 1-0!
Absolute scenes! An away goal! Unbelievable result I’m absolutely buzzing at this!
Back to league action and we continued our wining form with a win over Osijek with Miklic getting another goal to make it 2 from 2 for him
Now the return leg in the Europa League. I’m expecting Galatasray to come at big in this game however we hold a priceless 1-0 away goal lead
Early on we’ve got the ball in our left full back position and Faye plays it long
Miklic controls it
He play Badiane in who darts forward
He plays a 1 touch pass out wide to Dias who beats his marker
He hits in and it’s never in doubt! 2-0 on aggregate!!
Shortly after Duriska is fouled by Emre who was already on a yellow and he gets a second! We’re looking like going through!
Late on in the first half Dias plays a lovely ball into Badiane, who again 1 touch passes it wide to Kwadwo who buries it home, 2-0 on the night and 3-0 on aggregate!
Second half we sat back and invited pressure that never came, the Turks had given up! Get in what a result, we’re through to the next round and we’re drawn against Grasshoppers of Switzerland. After our performance against Galatasaray I’m confident of progressing.
In the league we struggled to overcome Sibenik and managed a 1 all draw
Despite our good form we lost to Grasshoppers in the first leg of the Europa League 4th round. We’ve got a little bot of work to do to get back into the tie
Another 0-0 draw in the league this time to Rijeka. Hopefully we can pick it up in the next game against Grasshopers to put a run to 3 games without a win.
Which we did, and turned out 2-0 winners in the Europa League to make it to the group stages! A great achievement I feel.
That brings August to an end and a really good month with 1 loss and passage to the group stages of the Europa League. Things are looking good for us.
Who did we draw in the groups?
Some tough teams there, we’re going to do well to not finish bottom of this group. Still it’s a good challenge.
Next update will be Septembers games. Thanks for reading!
Career progress:
2018 - 19 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 1st in Campeonato de Portugal, won the playoffs, promoted.
2019 - 20 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 10th in Liga Pro, the clubs highest ever finish
2020 - 21 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 11th in Liga Pro, resigned at end of season
2021 - 22 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 1st in Division 1, champions, promoted
2022 - 23 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 12th in Ekstraklaka. Nearly sacked a few times
2023 - 24 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 3rd in the league, cup winners. Manager of the year
2024 - 25 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – in progress, super cup winners
bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024 - 2025 season update
September 2024
September kicked off with a credible draw away to our rivals Hadjuk. We dominated this game and whilst it’s disappointing to concede late on we can’t complain as Santon gave away a free kickoutside the area which was crossed in and bundled home. We definitely let our guard down and got punished.
Next round of the cup is made and we’re drawn away to Medimurje who are a lower league side. A good draw and a game I am expecting to win comfortably to keep our hopes of retaining the cup alive
Before our first Europa League game we beat Gorica 3-0 to take us to the top of the league.
I’ll point out now that during my time in Poland with Wisla Plock, we played Legia Warsaw twice and lost both times.
Could be a tricky tie for us, and I’m hoping we can get some points on the board early on in my maiden Europa League campaign
The game itself for the most part was a by the numbers performance from us. We showed our opponents plenty of respect and ran out 2-0 winners. It was an end to end game and after the red card they came at us stronger, but we managed to get another goal late on. I’m very happy with the result.
We didn’t follow that victory over Frank De Boers current team against his former team however as we lost 3-0 away to Dinamo.
Next up was the cup game. Now this is the type of game that makes you want to tear your hair out (and has you thinking FM has it in for you!) as we absolutely battered Medimurje. Honestly we threw everything at them and just didn’t get the break through. Firstly they had a man sent off around the half hour mark and sat back from there which is to be expected. By half time we had a number of shots on target but just couldn’t score. Second half they went and had another man sent off, which you’d think would make it easier for us, but it didn’t. We had a penalty shortly after the second red and we missed it as the ball went straight at their keeper. I literally had 4 attackers on the pitch by the 90th minute! Extra time came and all our players were low on energy but up stepped mister reliable and our main man Tiago Dias to hit a long shot just outside the area that took a massive deflection that wrong footed the keeper to make it 1-0. It felt lucky and like we didn’t deserve that type of goal but whatever, it finally went in!
That 1-0 win was followed by another 1-0 in the league over Sesvete to take us back top of the league to close out September.
Next update will be Octobers round of games. Thanks for reading.
Career progress:
2018 - 19 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 1st in Campeonato de Portugal, won the playoffs, promoted.
2019 - 20 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 10th in Liga Pro, the clubs highest ever finish
2020 - 21 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 11th in Liga Pro, resigned at end of season
2021 - 22 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 1st in Division 1, champions, promoted
2022 - 23 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 12th in Ekstraklaka. Nearly sacked a few times
2023 - 24 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 3rd in the league, cup winners. Manager of the year
2024 - 25 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – in progress, super cup winners
bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024 - 2025 season update
October started off badly with a poor 4-1 home loss to Chelsea in the Europa League. Whilst we were expected to get beat by Chelsea I would’ve liked to see a bit more fight and the early red card certainly didn’t help
No messing around in our next game as we thumped Istra 7-0 in a complete performance. All 34 of our shots could’ve been goal on another day.
Just to follow up our 7-0 win there were another mad result this weekend as Sibenik & Dinamo played out a 5 all draw.
We followed up that big win with a 0-0 draw with Varazdin in a pretty even game. Whilst another red card for us didn’t help, neither team did enough to win and really neither deserved to win so a draw is a fair result
Back to Europa League action and we even surprised me with this result, 3-0 at home to Frankfurt! 3 games in and we’ve won 2, we might just progress from the group stages!
Back to poor results time now as we lost 2-0 away to Osijek in the league.
We redeemed ourselves as we won 3-1 in the cup to keep our hopes of retaining the cup in tact to close out October
We kicked off November with a 2-0 league win over Sibenik to keep us at the right end of the league with 2 late goals
We followed up that win with a 0-0 away draw at Frankfurt in the Europa League. I’m not too disheartened at this result as we can take some positives from it.
Despite 2 good results to kick of November we got thumped 4-2 away to Rijeka in the league
This was followed up with a good home win over Dinamo. We dominated this game and could’ve been a bigger score line had we taken more of our chances. 1 thing of concern is that we got yet another red card, luckily it didn’t have an impact on the result
Our 4th game in the Europa league sees us beat Legia Warsaw again, this time 2-0 at home. Another game where we looked really good all game long.
That’s it for November. With the result over Legia it confirmed our passage to the next round of the Europa league with a game to spare, as we can’t finish any lower than second now.
Next update will be Decembers games before the winter break, if anything happens in the January transfer window and the next set of games after the break.
Thanks for reading, it is appreciated.
Career progress:
2018 - 19 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 1st in Campeonato de Portugal, won the playoffs, promoted.
2019 - 20 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 10th in Liga Pro, the clubs highest ever finish
2020 - 21 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 11th in Liga Pro, resigned at end of season
2021 - 22 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 1st in Division 1, champions, promoted
2022 - 23 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 12th in Ekstraklaka. Nearly sacked a few times
2023 - 24 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 3rd in the league, cup winners. Manager of the year
2024 - 25 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – in progress, super cup winners
TinakoFM
jameo_94
bigmattb28
I know right! Genuinely thought Legia would beat me again, and the Frankfurt results were definitely a surprise. Glad to have progressed, going to be tough keeping up.
Dan
bigmattb28
Cheers man!
bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024/2025 season update
Only a short month as there were 3 games in December leading into the winter break. The first saw us run out 2-0 winners at home to Varazdin in the cup whihc means we're into the next round.
Next up we played Dinamo off the park and battered them 3-1. Great result and a great performance.
Final game of this month saw us get beat by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Whilst a disappointing result it didn’t matter as we had qualified from the group.
Going into the winter break we’re sitting third in the league, and in the quarter finals of the cup.
The draw for the next round of the Europa league was next, who did we get
RB Liepzig of Germany. A good draw and 1 I’m happy with
Not a lot happened during this winter break, no players left however My DOF signed 2 young players from Africa as well that I hadn’t known about. However they look okay for this level and may get some game time.
During the winter break the Ballon D’or was annoucned and it went to Italian striker Lorenzo Mazzeo of Real Madrid
As I say only a short update but I will have another up shortly.
Career progress:
2018 - 19 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 1st in Campeonato de Portugal, won the playoffs, promoted.
2019 - 20 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 10th in Liga Pro, the clubs highest ever finish
2020 - 21 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 11th in Liga Pro, resigned at end of season
2021 - 22 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 1st in Division 1, champions, promoted
2022 - 23 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 12th in Ekstraklaka. Nearly sacked a few times
2023 - 24 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 3rd in the league, cup winners. Manager of the year
2024 - 25 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – in progress
bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024/2025 season update
February kicked off with a good result away to relegation fodder Sesvete
Back to back 0-0 draws next against Osijek & Varazdin as we struggle to find that cutting edge in both of these games. Not the best results heading into our Europa League game with Liepzig.
The big Europa League game at home to RB Liepzig was a hard fought game. At the half we more or less had dominated the game
It wasn’t until the 75th minute we made the breakthrough. Okoye picked it up edge of our area and played a long ball forward
Which Miklic chased down
A bizarre moment now as their keeper comes out to challenge Miklic, but the balls just goes straight passed him
Leaving Miklic with an open goal, 1-0!
Not long after we get the ball out wide on the right
Marin drives to the byline and crosses it in
The ball is cleared by their defence
Only as far as Ziljkic who hits it first time
Keeper = no chance. 2-0!!
Awesome result and performance! I couldn’t be happier with this!
This was followed up with another draw in the league away to Sibenik. I’m going to put this 1 down to fatigue.
Before the return leg in the Europa League we’ve been drawn in the cup away to Osijek. A game I am confident we can win
The retun leg against Liepzig came and we carried on where we left off, this time running out 3-0 winners! I actually cannot believe it we’re through to the next round, can the impossible dream continue?
The poor league form continued with yet another 0-0 draw this 1 at home to Rijeka. They absolutely dominated us in this game and I’m surprised we got away with a draw
Which was followed up by a terrible 3-0 away loss to our big rivals Hadjuk to close out the month of February.
My feeling is that we seem to be up for the big games, AKA as the Europa League but let our guard down in the league. Just as I leave the training ground a young reporter stops me in my tracks.
‘Manuel, can I get a quick word? I’m from the Voetbalzone football reporter’
‘Yes okay I’ve got a couple of minutes’
‘Thank you, can I ask, as a manager, what is your ultimate desire? Or your main goal?’
‘Well it’s no secret that I’m a Lisboeta, a native from Lisbon, and I’ve been a Sporting Lisbon fan all my life. My dream is to manage Sporting, to manage in Estadio Jose Alvalade would honestly be a dream come true’
‘But of course these desires and dreams may never come true. Would managing a team against Sporting whet your appetite do you think?’
‘Well of course nothing in life is certain, but a man can dream right. But to answer your question, managing a team against Sporting would be the next best thing, why do you ask that particular question?’
‘Well the draw for the next round of the Europa League has just been made……
Career progress:
2018 - 19 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 1st in Campeonato de Portugal, won the playoffs, promoted.
2019 - 20 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 10th in Liga Pro, the clubs highest ever finish
2020 - 21 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 11th in Liga Pro, resigned at end of season
2021 - 22 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 1st in Division 1, champions, promoted
2022 - 23 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 12th in Ekstraklaka. Nearly sacked a few times
2023 - 24 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 3rd in the league, cup winners. Manager of the year
2024 - 25 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – in progress
Dan
AdamRK
bigmattb28
Hahah thanks man. Don't worry,. you've not jinxed anything....yet
bigmattb28
Yeah for sure man. You'll see how it went shortly.
bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024/2025 season update
This update is split into 2 parts. Part 1:
To set us up for our big game against Sporting Lisbon (which I personally can’t wait for!) we saw out a poor 3-0 away loss to Dinamo. Not the best game going into the Europa League.
Also on this apparently we’re in a bad run of form and once again the fans are criticising my tactics.
So here we go then. The biggest game for me as a manager, against the Lions of Portugal, Sporting CP (or Sporting Lisbon in English speaking countries). A win here would do absolute wonders for us and for me personally. As a side note, we’ve played all of our home games in the Europa League at Dinamo’s stadium as our own stadium doesn’t meet the minimum capacity.
A nervy game for us but we held our own up until the 26th minute when Tariq makes a good run from midfield
Just outside the area he’s clearly fouled but the ref waves play on
The loose ball finds Dias
He plays Marin in out wide on the right
He looked to have scuffed it at first but he actually crosses with the outside of his boot
The ball lands perfectly at Gimenez at the far post
He vollies it but the keeper makes an excellent stop to give us a corner
From the resulting corner Dias whips it in
Which drops kindly to Salinovic
He stabs the ball home, 1-0!!!
Shortly after they get a free kick which is put into the box
Our keeper Lomb decides to come for it and absolutely scuffs it
And their defender is able to poke it home, 1-1.
Half time and a pretty even game
Second half now and Poyet picks up the ball in midfield
He finds Gimenez out wide
He drives forward
He pulls it back looking for Miklic
Who’s pushed over
The ref hesitates but it’s given, PENALTY!!
Poyet is over it and steps up
The keeper guesses correct and keeps the ball out of the net!
We get a corner shortly after and it’s swung in
Straight to Miklic who doesn’t flinch and buries it home, 2-1!!
Can we hold on to this priceless lead?
They get a corner of tier own which is bundled home with just over 10 minutes to go however it’s ruled out for an infringement. I didn't see the foul but whatever, things are still looking good for us. Maybe just maybe this is going to be our day?
Maybe not as they come at us and get the ball from midfield to their winger on the inside right channel just inside the box
Their winger takes a shot which is deflected and wrong foots our keeper, 2-2! Disappointing to let a lead slip but a draw would a good outcome.
Or not. Poyet gets the ball in center midfield and plays Ziljkic in on the left
He in turn sends a floated cross towards Miklic
Who takes a touch and plays one the most sublime inside passes I've ever seen to the oncoming Dias….
First time shot straight passed the keeper to make it 3-2 in the 95th minute! Absolute scenes!!!
What a game. What a performance. What a result.
After that epic result midweek we’re back to league action and just about scrape a 0-0 draw with Gorica to continue our run of poor league results. Also to note another missed penalty for Poyet in this game to make matters worse.
Part 2 will be the return leg against Sporting and the final few games of February.
bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024/2025 season update
Part 2
Following from on that draw in the league we’re in my native Portugal taking on the team I support in their stadium. An awesome moment for me as I step into the dugout of the Estadio Jose Alvarade, albeit as the away manager. Still this feels pretty good!
I tell the team the pressure is all on Sporting and to go out and play their natural game which clearly pays off as Jakic is in the center of the park and plays a great ball to Dias who slots an inch perfect through ball that split’s the defence in half
The ball runs perfectly on to Miklic’s foot which the keeper somehow kept out
From there Sporting attacked us and we sat back and made it to half time. I tell the lads not to get complacent, a 1 goal lead is nice but they’ve got 2 away goals, anything could happen.
Second half carried on the way the first ended with Sporting bombing forward. Felipe out on their left gets tackled by Duriska who wins the ball cleanly and frees up Okoye to counter
He releases Dias on the inside left channel
Without looking he plays a first time pass on to Miklic
Once again a first time shot from him, however this time it leaves the keeper with no chance! Counter attacking football at it’s finest, 1-0!
Surely it’s damage limitations for Sporting now as we can’t be caught now. Anyway a corner from them with 10 minutes to go is swung in
It finds Silva at the far post who hits a thunderbolt of a header that takes a clip from Faye on it’s way in and goes down as an own goal to make it 1-1 on the night.
Final 5 minutes and we have a throw deep in their half which is played to Zijkic
He plays it back to Faye
Who finds Salinovic inside the area
Who plays it back to Zijkic
He plays in Jokic on the edge of the area
With 1 touch to set himself, he fires a shot at goal
2 keepers wouldn’t have saved that shot! 4 passes and 6 touches in total for that goal! Absolutely unreal!2-1 on the night and what an absolutely incredible performance!
We absolutely dominated my beloved Sporting over the 2 legs. Part of me is happy as my team are into the next round of the Europa league, and I also put myself directly in the eyes of the Sporting board should the opportunity ever arise, but I’m sad as I absolutely decimated this great club. Could the impossible dream of winning the Europa League come true?
Before we find out who we get in the next round of the Europa League, we’re held yet again to another draw in the league, this one at home to Istra. We looked like a completely different team to the one that battered Sporting.
The semi final of the cup however saw us win 3-1 against Osijek to put us in the final for a second year running! Despite our league from not looking so good our form in the cups is going well.
Ending out March sees us fifth in the league however we do have 2 games in hand.
We’re drawn in the final of the cup against Rijeka. A decent enough team but if we play like we have in the Europa League I have no worries about winning the cup for a second year running.
Finally the draw for the Europa League was made, who did we get….
Thanks for reading. Next update will be Aprils round of games and the final stretch towards the end of the season.
Career progress:
2018 - 19 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 1st in Campeonato de Portugal, won the playoffs, promoted.
2019 - 20 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 10th in Liga Pro, the clubs highest ever finish
2020 - 21 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 11th in Liga Pro, resigned at end of season
2021 - 22 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 1st in Division 1, champions, promoted
2022 - 23 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 12th in Ekstraklaka. Nearly sacked a few times
2023 - 24 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 3rd in the league, cup winners. Manager of the year
2024 - 25 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – in progress
tongey
bigmattb28
Yeah man it's been a hell of a ride so far. The money will certainly help
bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024/2025 season update
A nice start to April as I am once again awarded the Portuguese best national manager award. A nice little boost to my rep I hope.
We’re in league action first off this month and ran out very confident 2-0 winners over Varazdin. Happy as we’re going into the Europa League game with Schalke on the back of a win
The game with Schalke wasn’t what I expected. I wanted a good defensive showing and what we got was both teams going all out for the win. The talking point for me was that at 1 point we were 3-1 up and I thought we’d see it through, however it wasn’t meant to be. They pulled one back and we held on to the 3-2 advantage right until the end of stoppage time when they took advantage of some sloppy defending from us. Before the game I’d have taken a score draw but to be 3-1 up and leaving the game with a 3-3 draw hurts a bit. It does look like we can beat this team and at home you never know what could happen. Still I’m happy.
In the league we managed a 1-1 draw at home to Sesvete. They were definitely the better team and we were lucky to snatch a draw late on.
Return leg of the Europa League and we went in looking to build on the 3-3 but early on they took the lead to make 3-4 on aggregate. As we pushed on for an equaliser they added another to make it 3-5 on aggregate and pretty much kill the tie. Right on half time they added another to finish this game off. We did manage to make it 4-2 by the end of the game but this is it, our Europa League dream is over.
We did brilliantly to get as far as we did. We were never expected to even make the group stages so there is definitely something to be proud of. Back to the league next and we definitely looked like we were fatigued from the Schalke game as we went down 2-1 away to Osijek. We dominated possession but couldn’t make it count.
The poor results continued as Sibenik put 3 passed us to take all 3 points in front of own fans. The game was effectively over after 28 minutes as they were 3 up and sat back and soaked up the pressure from there. We pulled 1 back shortly after their third but it didn’t matter.
To round out the month of April we were held to a 2-2 draw away to Rijeka. Despite being 1-0 up when they went down to 10 men and then going on to add a second, they pulled it back to 2 all and we even missed a penalty.
I’m glad April is over as 1 win. 3 draws and 3 losses isn’t good. We do have the cup final to look forward to at the end of the season however we’ve got the final 6 league games to go before then.
Next update will be May’s games, the cup final and end of season stuff. Thanks for reading.
Career progress:
2018 - 19 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 1st in Campeonato de Portugal, won the playoffs, promoted.
2019 - 20 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 10th in Liga Pro, the clubs highest ever finish
2020 - 21 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 11th in Liga Pro, resigned at end of season
2021 - 22 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 1st in Division 1, champions, promoted
2022 - 23 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 12th in Ekstraklaka. Nearly sacked a few times
2023 - 24 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 3rd in the league, cup winners. Manager of the year
2024 - 25 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – in progress
bigmattb28
Lokomotiva Zagreb 2024/2025 season update
We kicked off the final month of our season away to Gorica who we beat 2-0 in a good performance.
Due to our Europa League exploits this next game against Gorica was a rearranged game meaning we played them twice in a row, and recorded back to back victories over them with the second definitely a better result than the first.
3 wins from 3 now as we managed a 1-0 win over rivals Hadjuk despite absolutely dominating the game. Better late than never as we managed to get a late goal and hold on for all 3 points.
Confirmation Dinamo have yet again won the league.
Back to back 0-0 draws now as we were the worse team against Istra in a game they could’ve scored at least 4, and Dinamo could count themselves lucky as we had the best chances against them, but it wasn’t meant to be as we drew.
Game number 100 for as Lokomotiva manager. Hopefully a good performance….
Oh well. We finish the season off with a loss and finish the season in 5th, 2 places lower than our finish of 3rd last year. We’ve got to pick ourselves up as we’ve got 1 final game to go, and it’s the cup final against Rijeka.
Man United beat our conquerors Schalke in the final of the Europa League, we were also confirmed as the over achievers in this years competition.
So here we go then, a second final for me and the club in a row, can we repeat and win it again?
At the half we just about edge it going in 2-1 up. A pretty even if nervy game it was definitely all the play for in the second half but wasn’t plain sailing by any means. They equalised early in the second and it was end to end from there. Luckily we had just enough in the tank to grab a late goal as Gimenez popped up in the right place at the right time to secure a monumental victory for us.
So that brings an end to my second season in Croatia. It’s been a good season, that was kicked off with the sueprcup win, we had a great Europa League run, alright so the 5th placed finish could be seen as a worse result than our 3rd place last season, however I’d counter that by saying the Europe League on it’s was worth the 2 places lower.
To close out this update I’ve signed a 1 year extension to my deal. I feel that I can stay here at least 1 more season, if for no other reason than to see if we can replicate the Europa League run.
Next update will be end of season stuff, our pre season preparations and the start of the new season. Thanks for reading.
Career progress:
2018 - 19 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 1st in Campeonato de Portugal, won the playoffs, promoted.
2019 - 20 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 10th in Liga Pro, the clubs highest ever finish
2020 - 21 | ARC Oleiros (Portugal) -- Finished 11th in Liga Pro, resigned at end of season
2021 - 22 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 1st in Division 1, champions, promoted
2022 - 23 | Wisla Plock (Poland) -- Finished 12th in Ekstraklaka. Nearly sacked a few times
2023 - 24 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 3rd in the league, cup winners. Manager of the year
2024 - 25 | Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – 5th in the league, supercup & cup winners, knocked out in the Quarter final of the Europa League
Dan
bigmattb28
I would say a decent season, the 5th place finish is where we were expected to finish anyway, but the cup win and good Europa run definitely makes up for it. Will see what the new season brings.
bigmattb28
I have logged this over at the SI bugs forum, I have updated windows, my Nvidia and graphics drivers, verified the game files and still the game crashes. They are looking into it but say it may not be sorted until the new year, they also said my issue is the only time that specific problem has been raised. As well as that they said the likelihood of this issue arising on a new save is very low, so with that being said I can't continue on this save in FM19 for the time being. I am however going to be starting a new career to keep me going until they sort out this error which I will post on here too.
Thanks for reading. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I am back on this save.
jameo_94
tongey
bigmattb28
Cheers mate.
Me too man!
To say I'm gutted would be an understatement, but generally I don't let things bother me too much so it is what it is, hopefully the SI guys and detect and fix the issues as I was really enjoying this ave, quite a lot actually.
I do have an idea in mind for another save which I'm having a play around with so hopefully I'll get the start of that up soon. Thanks again for the support guys, much appreciated!