England! Spain! Italy! USA?

# RedArmy20 : maybe time to start a new save? you won everyhing well done btw. even though i don't like city....

My goal now is to basically use City as a training ground for England. I'm getting into the Euro Championships right now and I want to buy up all the top English talent.

Added 5 days later:


England update

My first major hurdle of my international coaching career has been cleared by participating in the 2012 Euro Championship. We were drawn into a group along with Italy, the Czech Republic, and Denmark. We began with an emphatic 2-0 victory over Italy and that confidence carried us through an undefeated run in group play (2-1 victories over both the Czech Republic and Denmark).

The quarterfinals matched us up against Romania and I think we severely underestimated them. We took the lead 19 minutes in on a Gabby Agbonlahor goal, only to have Gigel Bucur equalize 5 minutes later. Then in the 38th minute, Wayne Rooney slotted one home for a 2-1 lead at the break. We played cautiously with the lead and looked like sure bets to win in regulation. Then 2 minutes into extra time, Gigel Bucur grabbed a brace to tie the game. I felt gutted, the team played a half step slow in extra time, and we headed off into penalties. We picked things up, however, banging home all four of our shots while Romania missed their 3rd and 4th attempts.

This win put us into the semis against a much tougher Russian squad; one that is headlined by my City wonderkid at keeper - Igor Akinfeev. Akinfeev reminded me all game long why I splashed the cash to bring him to City. Ashley Young broke open a scoreless game in the 23rd minute and we were fortunate to get that. Akinfeev was on fire and stopped every other shot sent his way. It wasn't until the 72nd minute that another goal was scored - the second by Ashley Young - and that the game was put out of doubt.

The Russia game was an excellent warmup for our opponent in the finals - Italy. I felt good about our opponent because we handed them a 2-0 defeat during group play, but that was group play. This is the finals. Wayne Rooney was on a mission and he banged home the opening goal only 4 minutes into the match! That lead held going into the second half. Italy equalized in the 65th minute, however, on an Alberto Gilardino goal. The hero from the quarterfinals, Gabby Agbonlahor, gave us back the lead with his 74th minute goal. Gilardino was at it again in the 81st minute, however, and we were all square going into the home stretch. As we got into stoppage time it looked like extra time and penalties could be in the works. But in the 91st minute, Gabby Agbonlahor slotted home his second goal of the game and we escaped as champions!