Unbelievable indeed, and what a week in the world of Football.
Firstly, Liverpool do the unthinkable and overturn a 3-0 deficit against Messi and co, to win 4-0 and reach their second successive UCL final, and the next day, not to be outdone, Spurs also overcome a 3-0 aggregate deficit to beat Ajax with a 96th minute winner to set up and all English Champions League final.
It’s not looking bad for an all English Europa League final either with Chelsea and Arsenal trying to book their places, England conquering Europe once again.
Add to that the climactic nail-biting Premier League final day this weekend and its been a pretty remarkable week, and within that, gaming mirrors reality….
To get side matters out of the way first, you may recall I chose to take over the England National team, alongside my Forest role, qualify for the Euros was the first objective, and having played 8 and won 7 of our group games so far, we are odds on to qualify as group winners, here are a few goals from the Euro qualifiers:
Now on to the serious stuff, the Premier League with Notts Forest.
Picking up from the last post we had 4 games left to play, 1 point behind leaders Liverpool in second, with Chelsea chasing us both closely in 3rd place, there was no room for error in the last four games, it was all in or nothing.
Our run of games was Home to Crustal palace, Home to Fulham and away to Arsenal, we managed to pull through each match with a 1-0 victory, scraping through to keep the pace, Foden was injured, again, in the Fulham match, he really is injury prone, and I will be looking to move him on and seek a replacement for next season.
Here are the goals in each of those 1-0’s:
So, on to the final day of the season, the league table looks like this:
2 points clear at the top, our last game is Home to ….. Chelsea !!!
The possible scenarios are:
- A win would guarantee the title
- A draw and a Liverpool win would see Liverpool win the title on GD (Them +18 and us +17)
- A draw and a Liverpool draw or defeat would give us the title
- A defeat and a Liverpool draw would give us the title
- A defeat and a Liverpool win would seal the title for them.
Basically…… win to guarantee the Premier League. This has been 10 seasons in the making, we cannot let this slip.
Brewster got injured against Arsenal, so he was out, with Urretaviscaya replacing him up front, below is the final league fixture against Chelsea, highly condensed highlights, this is how it all played out…
FIFAFX.com 
Paul – a great little highlights package that I watched as if a big match on MOTD, having avoided the results earlier. Even on highlights I could see that Chelsea goal coming, and then of course it’s all ‘up for grabs now’ as they say (sorry). What a culmination of 10 seasons.
Fantastic goal of yours btw. Thundering in off the post/bar is always the best.
Interested in Tyler’s commentary just before the match started. There’s no doubt at all that the designers of these modes script certain outcomes at all. It’s not unknown of course for league titles to be decided on the last day (what are the stats, league by league?), but it’s very common in footy games, isn’t it…
And coming just before Sunday – which by all reason and logic should be a ‘turn up to get the title’ job for Man City, but you really never do know – what eerie timing.
Is that the lot now, no CL campaign?
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NG – That condensed highlights package was just over 4 mins, I scaled it down from 11mins, if I had left in all the key moments of the game you would have seen that we largely controlled the match, had much more possession and chances, but FIFA dials up the intensity for key games pretty well, and at only 1-0 up, Chelsea could always score, and they did.
Would have been nice to finish with a win but in the end it didn’t matter.
To win the Prem after 10 seasons on World Class is a nice achievement.
There will be one more season for me in FIFA 19, I want to experience the Champions League in all its glory.
The blog going forward will only report on Champions League and England matches, there will be no day to day domestic league or cup posts, something a little different to finish the footy season off with.
I’m even toying with the idea of simming all league and cup matches to get them out of the way and just play England and Champs League games.
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Paul — that sounds like a great idea to me, you’ve got to try something different and experiment from time to time, and you never know what’ll emerge as your standard sort of blog post. It’s all about what level of detail you choose to cover, how far-in or zoomed-out. You don’t have to do it as I do, nor me you (you go into much more detail about squads and injuries than I ever do, for example). Sim-only league and see how you do in the Cups is a fine idea and one I might pinch off you at the end (the real end) of my ML, as a bit of fun to see where everything ends up in 2070 or whatever.
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NG – I’ve covered 10 seasons of FIFA 19 in the league, cups, europe etc.
We’ve detailed starting as a Mid-table Championship side, through 10 seasons to multiple time FA Cup winners, Multiple time Carabao Cup winners, and now Premier league champions.
Uefa Champions league and England International matches have never featured, so I think it will be interesting to focus on those and plot the journey, plus this next one being my farewell season, it will inject some fresh creativity into the blog I hope.
One last hurrah before hanging up the FIFA boots for this year.
Come September I will be back with another detailed career mode all encompassing approach.
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Paul – don’t forget the option of special one-off posts about the likes of FIFA Ultimate Team etc. No matter how much it’s dislikable, it’d offer interest to see your take on it coming from a career mode perspective.
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Congrats Paul, but wasn’t your maths wrong regarding the possible outcomes? If Chelsea had beaten you, and Liverpool drawn or lost then Chelsea would have won the title on goal difference.
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NG – My plan after this season is to take a complete rest from footy gaming, I have a few other games I want to play, Detroit, Division 2, Days Gone, World Snooker 19.
I may fill the ‘dead space’ on the blog by covering some of these games, possibly a Snooker 19 Career if it would be of interest.
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Yes Chris, I only realised after the match that Chelsea could have in fact nicked the title had they beat us, and Liverpool lost.
As it stood, Liverpool did lose 1-0 to Wolves, so another goal from Chelsea would have clinched it.
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I was going to ask what Liverpool did, I didn’t know if I’d missed the result in commentary.
Congratulations. It always feels like a long slog with FIFA, not because of the type of matches but just the sheer number due to the real life setup.
RDR2? You’ve got to be keen on lots of backwards and forwards across the map. I now play it very sparingly.
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Turf – The commentator did give an update on the Liverpool score in the video, saying they had gone a goal down, but the first few secs was cut off in the edit.
The half time zoom in on the screlines showed the Liverpool score.
I will definitely revisit RDR2 at some point, too good a storyline not to persevere.
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Paul – great going! and well deserved. FIFA indeed amps up the fuckery when the stakes are high. I just knew Chelsea was going to score one as soon as the RW slipped into space.
Oh btw – IF you go the simming route – I’ve noticed that you get a LOT more injuries and bookings that way. So be prepared for that going into those CL games. At least – it’s been that way for me, you might have more luck. (seeing as I started my Career mode on an earlier version of the game if I’m not mistaken)
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Thanks for the heads up #1 – will bare that in mind. Probably will sim as i don’t want the grind of the full league schedule again. Just want to experience the champions league and play different teams.
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Paul – cheers and I’m going that route now as well. I can’t stand the winter AI-fuckery anymore, it’s gone up to full speed as expected. So CL only and then it’s curtains. Real Madrid up next!
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#1 Good Stuff !!
Keep us posted how you get on. I Should have played a few CL group games by the next post.
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Paul – will do! Already liking the atmosphere and the simple touch of having a different commentary team for the CL. Just with the new team commentary is already miles better than pes, lol. Put together in one year (or so I imagine) and already pes’ commentary already pales in comparison.
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Pes commentary is just abysmal in every sense. Bad enough the lines being delivered as scripted with no passion but to often be wrong and reference things not actually happening on screen is just schoolboy.
If some of the rumours about Fifa 20 are true it could be a special package.
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Paul – Just reading your post now after a busy weekend so please accept my belated congratulations. Although I will say you did well to win the league having lost 9 games.
As for other games I have had a huge game clearout to give me focus. The only two games I have now are both mentioned in your comments and they are RDR2 and Snooker 19.
Taking RDR2 first I did have some initial concerns as the game seemed a bit boring at first and too linear, when there is such a beautiful game too explore. However, I have got past that now and am starting to appreciiate what they are trying to do here. Visually the game is as good as anything I have seen on a video game.
As for Snooker 19 that will be a wise choice. Ignore some of the critism of the game as that is mainly from an on-line perspective as that is all that seems to matter to folk now. It is a bloody hard game with a steep learning curve but practice brings its rewards as the more you play the better it gets. They have built a solid foundation here as the ball physics are spot on and really replicate the game perfectly. I started out not being able to pot anything but am now playing some lovely stuns and kisses on the reds etc. My safety and position play needs to improve but am learning every aspect of the game. My best break so far is 58 which doesn’t seem a lot but feel like I am improving every day. Very addictive.
Both of these games are complimenting each other quite nicely.
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Darryl – Cheers.
I’ve been playing a career in Snooker ’19 for the last 2 weeks, dipping in and out in between FIFA sessions, like you I started off not winning a single frame but am steadily getting better.
I got to the International Masters Semi Final but lost 5-3 against DIng Junhui, currently in the 4th round of the English open, after beating Ken Doherty in the qualifiers, then Mark Allen, and Mark Davis.
My initial observations on the game were that COM players were way too aggressive, trying pots from all kinds of distances and usually potting them, and didn’t play safeties nearly enough, also I find the balls roll maybe a tad bit longer than they realistically should.
But with the recent 1.03 update the COM aggressiveness and safety play has been improved, pretty impressive for Riptide to get a patch out so soon after release and address player concerns.
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Darryl – that’s what I had to do to stop me from hopping around like a blackbird digging for worms. All the long winded games I wasn’t playing went to trade, I’ll simply buy them back one at a time when rdr2 ends.
On the pc my Colchester fm2014 game continues in highly unusual fashion. No doubt because of my insane goal numbers I’ve already been offereda new two year contract, in November of year one. Never have I even been offer d a new deal before the old oneis about to expire.
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Turf – sounds like your FM14 install may be a bit screwy. was it a ‘hooky’ copy ?
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No, it’s genuine, as bought in 2014, installed in steam, etc etc. I hadn’t played more than the odd match before quitting for years because I knew I’d never get my thesis written so this is the first time since presumably a few patches that I’ve gone on a run with it. I can’t find any comments on line to the effect that its goal heavy but I seem to have hit a big lump of them. I’m in 8th with 41 for and 39 against in 17 games. So not ridiculous but the number of 5-3s and 4-4 type of results I’ve had is. From memory CM could often throw up the ridiculous striker scoring 50 goals a season. I’m hoping it will settle down.
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FM being famed for its realism Turf, that does seem a screwy set of results.
I have FM18 installed on the mac, just never get any time to play it unfortunately.
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Paul – what difficulty settings are you playing on and what player have you gone with. I am currently playing with Lewoski (Ranked 15) on normal mode and Amatuer assistance. I did want to play as one of the rising stars but you always play a qualifier against a top 8 pro, which made it tough. I think it is a good foundation here and I believe the game is going to be an annual release. They don’t need to do much with the basics, so can see the game going from strength to strength.
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Darryl, Im playing with Harvey Chandler in the Rising stars mode, so starting at the bottom, 128th in the Rankings.
It is difficult beating the high ranked pro’s to qualify, but its a good challenge. I’m on amateur aiming at the moment, but considering changing to pro as my long distance potting % is about 90%
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