Ryan9 - Comments

Start of the Champions League



September started with a 3-1 victory over Metalurg Zp. Roberts, Grechyshkin and a late Rakitskyi goal saw us take 3 points.
Next up, a visit to Stamford Bridge, unfortunately they led 3-0 by the break, but Bernard pulled one back for us, not that it changed the game. An expected defeat.
Rivals Dnipro couldn't prevent us from another win, with defender Rakitskyi on the scoresheet agian, aswell as German newboy Marin.
We were drawn to Karpaty in the Ukrainian Cup 3rd Round, however a bore draw in the first leg means it's all to play for in the seond leg!
Another draw followed, this one in the league. Matalurg D managed to come back from 1 down to draw 1-1, afetr Roberts gave us an early lead!
Back to Champions League football, and Ludogorets would be our next opponents. A goalless first half had me worried, although we came out firing in the second half. Ilsinho opened the scoring, before Benteke scored on his return from injury. Stepanenko also found the net, late in stopage time.



With 10 games gone I currently lead Dyanamo Kyiv and Chornomorets by 2 points, and Vorskla by 3 points. Still a lot of work to do yet!



A decent start to the Champions League having 1 win and 1 defeat this month in the Champions League, we currently sit 2nd in the group! Not a bad start!

Our First League Defeat



We started the month with a defeat. Kryvstov gave us the lead, soon to be cancelled out by Barannik. Costa put us back ahead, but again we couldn't hold it, conceding two more to eventually slump to a 3-2 defeat.
We bounced back well against Volyn though, 2 goals each for Bernard and Costa, and the other 2 shared between Ilsinho and Taison got us back to winning ways.
Newly promoted Desna were hard to break down, and our only goal was scored 6 minutes in, with Taison tucking away a penalty.
Ternopil gave us an early scare when they took a 12th minute lead against us in the cup, but we soon turned it over. 4 goals from Costa and one from Bernard lead us to a comfortable 5-1 victory, even with Stepanenko missng a penalty.
Our final game saw us pick up another 3 points. Costa and Roberts scored either side of the break to sink Karpaty.




It's still early days in the season, but we're joint top on points with Vorskla, the only team to prevent us from taking all 3 points so far this season. However, we're sitting on top due to our superior goal difference.



The Champions League groups have been drawn, and we'll face stern competition again, although if we fight hard enough I believe we can pip Porto to second place! Along with Porto, we face my favourite club Chelsea,and Ludogorets.



Again we made a bit of money in the transfer market, although not how I'd of liked to! Along with a load of free transfers and loans heading out, we sold Fred for £15.75 million, due to Dortmund activating his release clause. Kucher joined Leicester for £550k, and striker Gladkyi left for Metalist in a £4.8 million deal. Real Madrid made a late swoop for Douglas Costa, activating his £12 million release clause. It's a shame to see both him and Fred leave the club this summer!



In the second half of last season we started leaking goals, so to help prevent this, I've bought in a replacement for Pyatov. Fernando Muslera will now be our number 1 goalkeeper, costing £10.5 million. Also, after losing Fred we needed to replace him, and another £10.5 million deal saw us snap up Marko Marin!

Shalhtars Solid Start



Our first game of the season saw us take on Metalist, where we recorded a 2-0 victory. A goal just before the break from Grechyshkin put us ahead, before midfielder Stepanenko opened his account for the season.
Zorya were next in line, and our first away game of the season. An early goal from Bernard and a late goal from Marcio Azevedo confirmed that we'd have 6 points from 2 games.
Next up, the Super Cup, and once again we'd face Dynamo Kyiv. A side we faced 3 times last season, and won each time. So this was just a routine victory, though a better result than I had expected. Roberts started upfront due to Benteke being injured, and he certainly gave a great performance. 4 goals for him, 2 either side of the break, and an own goal by Rybka gave us an emphatic victory!
Returning to league action against Illichivets, we wrapped up our third consecutive league victory this season! Bernard, Azevedo and Patrick were the scorers on this occasion. Also, we ended the month without conceding a single goal!



Our 3 wins from 3 has been matched by Dnipro and Chornomorets, however, we sit top of the pile for now on goal difference! A terrible start for Dynamo Kyiv saw them not only lose the Super Cup, but only win 1 of their opening 3 league games, drawing 1 and losing 1! Great news for me! At the other end, Goverla and newly promoted Desna are yet to earn themselves a single point!

Pre-season Round-up!



We played just three friendlies before the start of this season, all away from home too! We managed to come out on top of each one.
Our first match was against lower league side Kremin. We breezed through the game an won 2-0.Next up, we went off to Belgium. Lokeren were our opponents here. Again we won by a 2 goal margin. This one ending 3-1. Finally, over to Romania, to play CFR Cluj. We fell behind, but two second half goals was enough to make it three wins from three games.

Our only downside to pre-season was that Benteke suffered a torn calf muscle, and will miss the first 2 to 3 months of the season!

The Final Push



Having hit the Ukrainian Cup Semi Final, we really wanted to push on and wrap up the trophy. Metalurg D didn't make this easy for us. We only managed a goalless draw away from home, and in the second leg we found ourselves trailing for the majority of it. Only 87th and 90t+2 minute goals from Teixeira and Benteke respectively carried us into the final. We made hard work of it, but we got there!
Next up we played the final. A double from Bernard, one either side of the break, put us in a comfortable position. Metalist grabbed one back, but it was to be no more than a consolation goal. We had won the Ukrainian Cup!
After waiting a month, we finally got to play our final league game of the season. Goverla were the opponents. Bernard settled any early nerves when he found the back of the net 5 minutes in. Costa gave us a 2 goal cushion with under half an hour played. Goverla got one back, which put us on edge considering what we've thrown away so far this season. We held out though, and with that, we were crowned the champions of Ukraine!



Here's the final league standings. We clinched the title by 3 points over fierce rivals Dynamo Kyiv, as they slipped to a final day defeat to Metalist. A great season that came right down to the final day, you can't beat that! Olimpic D are the team who are going down.



With three pieces of silverware to my name this season, I've entered into the Ukraine Hall Of Fame! This is just the start!



Glad to see the board are happy with my performance. They've offered me a contract to take me through until 2017. A nice little extension earned there!

Aprils Update



A much needed win against Illichivets gave us a perfect start to April, with new signing Benteke on the scoresheet 4 times! Costa and Ordets scored to complete the scoreline!
Next we faced Metalist, and followed up the 6-0 win with another 3 points. Bernard, Roberts, Kryvstov and Benteke getting the goals this time.
The Ukrainian Cup resumed, here in the Quarter Finals we faced a stern test from Chornomorets. They ran out 3-1 winners in the first leg. Early goals from Ordets and Bernard keeping our hopes alive in the competition.
We once again slipped up in the league, earning just a point against Metalurg D! A 1-1 draw saved by a Costa goal would have to do, although I can't say it was a good result! Especially after it was my goalkeeper with an own goal which made us end with 1 point not 3!
Finally, the second leg of the Quarter Final clash with Chornomorets. An 8th minute goal from Rakitskyi had us in good shape, but we couldn't find the winner. Onto penalties it went, where we won 5-4 after 6 penalties each.



We're still on top! We've got just 1 league game remaining, however, that's not until the end of May! A huge break between the final 2 league games. A pick of three teams can still win the title, us, who remain top on goal difference. Dynamo Kyiv, who will go above us if they win and we fail to win, or if they draw and we lose! Dnipro need a miracle. Trailing by three points, they'll need to win, with us and Dynamo Kyiv losing. They'll also need to make up 17 goal difference on the final day to stand any chance of winning the league!

Our Return to Competitive Action



In the Europa Leaugue First Knockout Round we'd been drawn against Inter Milan. After falling behind at home, and Vidic being sent off for the visitors, we struggled to find a way though, though Rakitskyi eventually managed to rescue a draw in the 88th minute. Onto the second leg. 8 minutes in and Douglas Costa got us that all important away goal, something to build on! We couldn't hold this result though, as Inter went and put 2 goals past us to send us out of the competition.
We faced an easier test when we came up against Chornomorets, we took an early lead through Bernard before Benteke turned in a first half hat-trick on his league debut! Ilsinho had our final goal, rounding off our scoring.
We also managed to brush Metalist aside as we continued our run. Benteke opened the scoring. Youngster Roberts scored a screamer to open his account for us, before defender Rakitskyi nodded in from a corner. Another three points.
We suffered a shock when Vorskla beat us 3-2. Kucher scored from the spot along with another Rakitskyi goal but it couldn't prevent a defeat!
Back to winning ways against Zorya though, a Benteke double with Bernard finding the net between the two goals saw us take a comfortable three points, as we looked to make up for our previous defeat!
Our month ended with a second domestic defeat in three games, as Karpaty got the better of us, as they held onto a 1 goal lead until the final whistle.




With just 4 league games remaining, both us and Dnipro have qualified for the Europa League next season. A poor month though has seen our advantage cut to just 3 points, possibly 2, depending on how Dynamo Kyiv get on in their game in hand! It's going to be a close end to the season, that's for sure!

January Transfer Update



We'll start by looking at who left the club this month, a few may come as a bit of a surprise! Three reserve players left on loan to gain some first team experience, but let's look at the big movers! First up, our big man upfront, Luiz Adriano. He came to me after hearing of interest in him, and asked if I could let him go if a bid occured. Obviously I pushed to get a decent fee for him, eventually selling him for £10 million to Benfica. Next up, Wellington Nem, a guy with lots of potential! However, being offered £15 million for him was enough to make me accept, so off he went to Athletico! Finally, Fernando. He was subject of a failed move to Arsenal in the summer for £17.5 million, and now he's left us. The move takes him to Real Madrid, and we gained £20 million for him! What a massive sum we've made off three players!

Now you must be thinking ... Who could possibly be in line to replace the gap left by top scorer Adriano? Well ...



Christian Benteke! I was surprised we could attract him to our club, however I wasn't going to turn down the chance to sign the powerful striker! A fee of £28.5 million was required to snap him up,which I was willing to pay! Now to hope he gives me the return I'm expecting!
Our other signing is 18 year old attacking midfielder Patrick Roberts of Fulham. A bid of £12 million, double his value, was needed to capture the youngster! I'm confident he'll turn into a fantastic player as his career progresses!







Finally, here's our friendly results from the winter break. Nothing major, just a few games to help keep our fitness up before heading back into competitive football!

December



Just one game took place for us in December, and the was the return visit of Roma. Unfortunatley, we slipped to another 1-0 defeat against them. Now we needed to hope that Anderlecht wouldn't upset Madrid!



A group we always knew would be a monumetal task to qualify from, however, I'm happy to take third place, though I thought it would be more comfortable than it was in the end. Off the the Europa League! Let's see what it throws at us!

A Red Month



November started off in fine form, as a brace from Fred saw us beat Voyln 2-1.
Our next match saw Real Madrid visit Ukraine! Adrianos 11th minute goal got us off to a dream start. Costa added one just after the break to double our advantage. A straight red card for Bernard 10 minutes later was the turning point though! Goals from Ronaldo and Rodriguez prevented an upset on this occassion.
We got off to a flyer against Metalurg Zp with Costa, Fernando and Adriano netting within 25 minutes, before the game took a huge twist. By the 75th minute we looked short on confidence and morale, finding ourselves 4-3 down. An 80th minute Bernard strike saved us here. What a poor showing after the first 25 minutes!
Back to winning ways against Olimpic D, despite going ahead twice we couldn't take more than a 1 goal lead, being pegged back twice! A penalty converted with 7 minutes to spare was our key to three points here.
High flying Dnipro proved a stern test, neither side could make anything of the chances created, as we played out a goalless draw.
Back to Champions League action, and another game ruined by a red card! Srna the offender this time, with only seconds played! We had to fight out the whole match against Anderlecht with 10 men. We put up a tough test, but couldn't prevent them beating us. 6-4 the final score.
We somehow pick ourselves up to bag our hat-trick of wins over Dynamo Kyiv for the season. A hat-trick from Adriano, a brace from Stepanenko helped with a goal from Costa ensured a highly convincing 6-2 victory!



With every month that passes the gap slowly gets bigger. We're looking rather comfortable at the top with a 5 point cushion over Kyiv. Lets just hope we can get the job done from here.



The two red cards in the Champions League games really ruined our chances of sneaking through to the knockout stages. We're still in with a chance of claiming 3rd place in the group though, aslong as Anderlecht don't upset the odds against Madrid!

Octobers Update



Just 4 matches took place in October, after we delayed our clash with Metalist due to having players called up to play for their countries. We eased past Metalurg D, Kryvtsov provided the opener before Nasonov turned the ball into his own net seconds from time.
A clash against Real Madrid was next, as we visited the Bernabeu. Modric and Kroos gave the giants a 2 goal lead before Ramos handed us a way back into the match, conceding a penalty. Volovyk calmly slotted it home to cut Madrids lead in half. It didn't last long though, Illarramendi and Pepe went on to score to confirm the result for the Spanish side.
Back to league actions and Adriano netted a hat-trick against Goverla, aswell as goals from Fernando and Teixeira as we sailed to a comfortable 5-1 victory.
The 2nd leg of the Ukrainian Cup 3rd Round was our final match of the month, and I rested a number of players due to holding a 4-1 advantage. I could have proved a costly error after Illichivets took a 2 goal lead, meaning they trailed by just 1 goal! Taison pegged them back with little time to go, before we escaped a defeat via a 91st minute own goal!



We've now increased our gap over Dynamo Kyiv to 3 points, whilst holding 5 points over Dnipro, as well as a game in hand as we approach the halfway mark.



Defeat to Real Madrid leaves us 4 points behind them, whilst Roma went and beat Anderlecht meaning they're level on points with Real at the top. We sit 3 points ahead of Anderlecht at the halfway stage.

A Strong September!



September started off with 'The Adriano Show'. when we played rock bottom Vorskla. Adriano opened the scoring with Ordets tapping in from close range a minute later. Barannick got one back for the visitors on 58 minutes. Adriano converted a penalty with just over 15 minutes to play, before we lost Rakitskyi to a second bookable offense. That didn't halt us though. Impressively, Adriano went on to bang in another 4 goals, completing his double hat-trick, and a 7-1 rout!
Another dominant performance followed when we smashed Zorya aside. Goals from Fred (1), Bernard (2), Stepanenko (1) and an own goal gave us a 5-0 lead, however, come the 90th minute we lost our clean sheet.
Kicking off in the Champions League, we faced Anderlecht, who gifted us a 5th minute penalty, which was dispatched by Kucher. Costa added one soon after, before an own goal took the lead to 3 goals in 13 minutes. Srna and Adriano continued to add 2 more goals. Again, we lost our clean sheet in the 89th minute, it just doesn't look like we can keep one!
Our Ukrainian Cup 3rd Round 1st Leg gave us no issues, as we cruised past a poor Illichivets side, with goals provided by Costa, Teixeira, Bernard and Wellington Nem.
After that victory we faced them in the league, however, we couldn't take our chance on this occasion and played out a goalless draw, disappointing to say the least!
Then we faced our toughest game to date, away to Roma! We changed our approach, and it was successful! No, we didn't win, but we only lost by 1 goal! For me at this stage, I'm happy with that! Pratto was the goalscorer!



After another successful domestic month, we still sit just 2 points clear of Dnipro and 3 clear of fierce rivals Dynamo Kyiv. However, only dropping points in 2 games from 10 shows we've had a great start to the season! Lets just hope this can continue!



After expected Champions League results, we sit in 3rd in the table, 1 point behind both Roma and Real Madrid. I'm now really fancying our chances of dropping into the Europa League, however, we're only 1/3 of the way through the group, so that could all change!

August Roundup

First up, lets take a look at the months results ...



We faced Metalurg Zp in our second game of the season, the team a place above us in the table, sat second. We fell behind early on, but Adriano found the net again this season to bring us back level. Things would get harder before the break, when Srna earned himself a straight red card, leaving us over 45 minutes of football to play with 10 men! Early in the second half we were behind again, and chasing the game. However, Fred was the influential player in this game, and managed to bag himself 2 goals to secure us all 3 points.
Olimpic D also gave us problems too, despite us taking the lead through Adriano once again. A goal either side of the break for the made it 2-1, but then we turned on the power, with a trio of Brazilians firing us back ahead. Fernando, Wellington Nem and Douglas Costa saved us the match!
We were expecting a tough encounter at Dnipro, although the in the first half that's not what we got. Fred and Srna scoring in quick succession gave us a 2 goal lead at the break. Dnipro grabbed one back with 7 minutes remaining, but it was to be no more than a consolation goal!
Next up was 1st vs 2nd, as league leaders Dynamo Kyiv hosted Shakhtar. The second meeting of the big teams this season! We were gifted the lead by Bezus early on, and that set the mood for us for the rest of the match. Luiz Adriano once again getting on the scoresheet. In the 57th minutes Kyiv looked like making a game of it, as they bought it back to 2-1, however, Adriano netting his second a minute later, which ensured us of a massive victory!
The Ukrainian Cup 2nd round proved no problem for us, a game we dominated but only found the net once, though this was enough to send us through the the next round. Adriano opening his account in the cup!
Finally, we faced Chornomorets away from home, where defender Rakitskyi gave us the lead in the first half, however it was 1-1 just 2 minutes later. A strike from Sivakov 7 minutes from time saw the hosts send us to our first competitive defeat of the season!



Despite the loss, we sit top of the table after 6 games, having taken 15 points from a possible 18! We've got a small, 2 point gap over 2nd and 3rd placed Dnipro and Dynamo Kyiv, however, this isn't something to rest on, we'll need to push on and increase that gap as best we can! We've scored the joint most goals so far this season, however, our defence could do with tightening up, as we seem to be leaking goals at the moment!



Oh boy what a group! In the Champions League we'll have to battle European Elites Real Madrid and Roma, aswell as Anderlecht to be in with a chance of hitting the knockout stages of any of the competitions. 3rd is looking a likely spot for us, however, we'll see what happens!

In transfer news, we only let one player out on loan from our reserves. Despite being handed a huge £40 million to spend, I didn't spend a penny of it. We had a deal in place to take Fernando away to the Emirates, which was a fee of £17.5 million! However, at the last moment the Gunners said they couldn't free up the funds to complete the deal, so Fernando remains with us for now!

Starting in Competitive Action!



We got our competitive action underway in an eye-catching Super Cup match against fierce rivals Dynamo Kyiv. After a slow starting first half, we finally took the lead with 42 minutes on the clock, a striker well taken by Fred, only to be pegged back immediately. We were much quicker out of the blocks in the second half, with goals from Adriano and Nem, before Adriano scored his second to make it 4-1. Lens grabbed another goal for Kyiv as they looked to get back into the match, however Teixeira soon sunk their hopes, making the score 5-2. What a win! Silverware number 1!
Then we started the league against Volyn, who gave us an early scare. However, it was provided by our own striker, Luiz Adriano, who turned the ball into his own net! We bounced back well though, with Gladkyi and Rakitskyi both scoring in the first half to ensure we went into the break ahead. The other side of the break saw Gladkyi score his second of the match and make the result comfortable!

With only 1 league match played, I don't see any benefit of uploading the league table, so that'll come in on the next update!

Pre-season Friendlies



I'm not the sort of manager who worries about pre-season friendlies, so I let my assistant take charge of the matches. However, what I will say is that I'm impressed that we won most of the games, and we seems to have no problem finding the back of the net. Let's hope this can continue, and we can kick off our competitive games on the right foot!