As you will recall I have been simming all domestic league and cup games, except key fixtures this season, at one point I was 8 points clear at the top of the league, good old rubber-banding has kicked in and the lead is now down to just 2 points with only 5 games left to play, I may well play the last 2 or 3 just to see the title race through properly.
We also have an FA Cup semi-final against Wolves coming up, I shall definitely be playing that, we are after all, on for a treble.
On to important matters, the Champions League Last 16, Inter Milan were the opponents, the first leg away at the San Siro, I will let the video highlights do the talking.
So a vital away goal in a hard earned 1-0 win at the San Siro, away goals are so vital in European matches, I have a feeling we will need this cushion come the second leg:
Another 1-0 win, that goal by Raćic in the 75th min killed the tie, we were riding our luck up until that point but with Inter pushing on looking for the goal, their defence left gaps and we exploited it well.
A tough match, but a well earned place in the UCL Quarter-finals, in our first season, not bad at all.
Our opponents in the quarters….
Back to the San Siro we go, may as well conquer all of Milan.
FIFAFX.com 
Paul – is there a way to have Derek ‘Son of Gubba’ Rae and Lee ‘marginally better than Alan Smith’ Dixon as the permanent commentary duo for all of FIFA19?
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Ng – No, they only do European (UCL & Europa) commentary
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That is a shame as they are far better than Tyler and Smith, as I think your vids above demonstrate. I find myself really enthused for a FIFA19 summer now – we’ll see if I haven’t spent myself on PES2019 of course.
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It is nice to have the differing commentary for European games, a fresh set of voices and phrases, makes euro nights feel different.
Well if you do FIFA 19, I hope you stick with it as there’s lots to take from this years game, plus I want you to see that FIFA 19 is far from empty or shallow.
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https://www.ea.com/games/fifa/fifa-19/news/pitch-notes-gameplay-beyond-fifa-19
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Paul – my emptiness critique of FIFA has always related to how matches tended to degenerate into constant midfield turnovers of possession, but I think I can already sense a different weight and substance to things on the pitch in the handful of matches played. I also had 4 AI fouls against me in my very first match, the Eng-Sco friendly, and a sprinkle in the couple I’ve played since. I know, a statistical cluster…
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NG – Confused by that statement, as real life football matches are played mainly in the midfield.
A high percentage of tackles, losses of possession, interceptions all occur in the midfield, so of course there is going to be a high % of turnovers in midfield, this isn’t an ’emptiness’ to the game, this is realism.
Its PES that allows you to pick the ball up on the edge of your own box and maraude down the centre of the pitch totally unchallenged on numerous unrealistic occasions. One could argue that is the emptiness you refer to, not the realism adopted by FIFA.
The reward of playing a tight match where the midfield is packed you cannot find space, there’s no room to dribble, the COM players are marking well and keeping their shape etc, and you manage to find a way through and score is much bigger than just L1 pass and go, 1-2 round a defender, or walk through midfield and score.
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you make PES sound so easy Paul!
enjoyed the highlights, especially the second leg which looked as though it was really tense to play, woodwork hit 3 times before the decisive goal. Always enjoy the sound of the woodwork being struck in FIFA. This going to be your last season no matter what? I suspect you have hit on the perfect formula for a late stage career – establish domestic dominance then sim the domestic games while playing the European and international fixtures, tempted to try that myself if I ever get that far
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Paul — too many FIFAs are mired in 1000mph midfield blizzards of constant tackles and turnovers. Like a demented twitch arcade mash-em-up. Since FIFA15 they’ve all degenerated into that for me, leading to my verdict of ’emptiness’, because that’s the dominant feeling that emerges.
abbeyhill — Paul is a proponent of the ‘you’ve only got to press the buttons in the right way and it’ll go in the net’ school of PES, especially free kicks, which he would score 10/10 of , every time 🙂
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That’s cause you haven’t ever invested enough time or patience into FIFa NG. Let’s see if you do with 19 because that game is so far from empty, especially when compared to PES.
And isn’t that the logic in any video game?! Press the buttons in the right way and you will succeed?!
But funny you should say that because secretly on the side, I have been having sly matches on PES19 in my abandoned ML and just Thursday night I got a FK, finally and guess what ,,,,,, first one in 8 months. Taken with a default defender and ,,,,, boom. Round the wall into the net all because I pressed the buttons correctly. Video evidence if needed.
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Weight and substance v form and essence….
My fm Stranraer game continues to be the active single player effort at the moment, I’m about to start some data analysis for a few months as well so I’ll be regularly dipping into it to relieve the boredom. Might have been a poor choice to opt for a weak team in the same division as the returning rangers. They are beatable but overall they won’t drop the points I do. In January they are already 17 points ahead of everyone else. I’ve only made England and Scotland playable to stop the temptations of an excessive journeyman career but in my previous experience fm is a struggle to get jobs anyway. Every player is part time and out of contract after this season so all I can do is line up another group and try and build a reputation. If anyone ever takes a part time team to the cl trophy they must surely have discovered free transfer wonderkids. I’m deliberately avoiding such forums.
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Paul – I have a feeling in my water that this is the summer for FIFA19. Just the, ah, form and essence of the game in my few warm-ups. Something is definitely different about this one.
I don’t think you’ve ever seen what I’ve said about free kicks in PES2019. If you get 10 free kicks in shooting range, a good player might score 8 or 9 or even 10 out of 10 of them (I don’t think the scripting in PES would permit 10/10, but let’s say it would for illustration’s sake). *I’m not a good player* and I can only rely on scoring 5/10 at best, often less. Am I imagining that? Is Uncle Turf imagining his 1 free kick out of 100?
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Well I have told.you all along that FIFA19 IS VASTLY different from other Fifa games and probably the most pes like Fifa to date.
Rw free kicks. Again its subjective. All I know is that I am an average at best gamer and an average pes player, yet I manage to.score 9 out of every 10 FK’s on pes. I’ve yet to score a single FK in 11 seasons on Fifa, when I do vwt them.on target by pressing the buttons in the optimal way, it has hit the post or been saved.
In pes, every single time I press the optimal buttons, its a goal, everytime. Never once had one saved.
I can spend 8 months away from the game, come.back, first free kick I get. Goal.
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Paul – that’s you, though, isn’t it? You’re not me, nor I you. Even if you got 100 free kicks and scored all 100, it won’t affect anything I have thought or felt about PES2019, or its free kicks. I remember people used to say the same of PES5’s free kicks, and my experience there was just the same: they were great goal-scoring chances all right, but my success rate was a lot less than the near-100% some claimed to have. PES2019, greatest football game ever, 40/10, no returns.
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And I’m amazed you even had a free kick in 11 seasons of FIFA19. Zing…
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NG – it is me, I’ve never once said otherwise, I can only base my opinions on what happens in my game, and from my experience with my time playing PES I am of the opinion that FK’s are far too easy to score.
From what I have experienced, a FK on target with the optimal power results in a goal 99% of the time.
Never once have I got the power and aiming right, had a FK on target but had the keeper make a save.
and FK mechanics are the same in every single copy of PES 19, even your golden copy, and to have 8 months away, having played a different game with different mechanics and controls, and to still be able to pull off a FK goal first attempt just shows how easy they are.
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Paul – I think your opinion on PES2019 FK’s would undergo a change if you gave the game a good run and took the fabled 100 free kicks. I see plenty of them saved. A suspiciously high number have hit the post/bar over the past few months. I’m almost done with the game anyway, for reals this time. Definitely when I get one I feel excited and think ‘scoring chance’ – PES2019 on Superstar has a knack of not letting you score by other means in some matches – but the proportion I score/miss is about 50/50.
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Abbeyhill – Not at all, PES 19 isn’t easy, FK’s in PES 19 are.
Coming back to PES even for just a few ML games after conquering FIFA 19, I thought it would be easy, but its not, I am rok bottom of the Championship in my ML, I am not giving it the attention, time or focus it deserves because im not actively playing PES, was just a ‘look-in’ , but its definitely not easy.
And I was playing on Top Player.
So for the likes of NG that are doing well and winning things on Superstar, thats a great achievement, I wasn’t downplaying that at all, simply commenting that based on the facts from the game I play, PES FK’s are too overpowered and too easy.
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