[FM 13] The two manager brothers story...

We are the champions! Again! What a great result! I am really enthusiastic! I cannot believe that… We had a brilliant month, with a couple of difficult matches, but we ended lifting the trophy in front of our supporters after the match against Siena!

We didn’t start well… The first match of the month we played in La Spezia and we could obtain a draw only during the injury time with a penalty scored by Mario Balotelli, whose double avoid a bad defeat against a team fighting for relegation. I have my faults, I know: I adopted a very large turnover due to the match against PSV in the Champions League, but our advantage in the league allowed me doing that…

Next match in the league was the home one against Palermo. Here we dominated the scene, playing a good football and, despite Nigel de Jong being sent off by the ref, we obtained an important victory whose protagonist was undoubtedly Giampaolo Pazzini with his double that put an end to the match.

The most difficult match of the month, I knew that… And it showed to be! Only a great performance by Falcao let us obtain an important point in one of the most difficult pitch of the league. At the final whistle, we had a 24 points lead over Lazio: winning against Siena would have been enough to lift the Serie A trophy for the second year in a row!

We entered San Siro and we were all excited: we knew what that match represented! In the changing room all of us were focused, we wanted that victory, it meant that we could focus on the Champions League in the next months to try to lift even that trophy! But just the UCL was my worst problem: I had to trust the backups because in three days we had to face Lille in the first leg of the UCL quarter finals and I had to make many players rest before that match… But my trust was right! We obtained the lead after 6 mins thanks to a nice header by Mbaye Niang, but 30 mins later Ferdinando Sforzini sent in the net the first Siena’s chance to score. I was angry! More than angry! I shouted to my team during the halftime… And it worked! They came back to the pitch more angry, more starved of winning the match. When the match hour arrived, I sent Giampaolo Pazzini in place of Mario Balotelli and he changed the match! Two mins later he provided to Mbaye Niang the assist for his double… 2-1! Then he conquered the penalty that Mbaye shot into the net… 3-1! And finally, two minutes later he headed the ball into the net himself… 4-1! In ten minutes we won the match and Massimo Ambrosini could lift the trophy in front of our fans! He will not forget his last season here!


Lazio in the meantime had obtained a draw, so that we ended the month with a 26 points lead over them and Juventus: we were champions eight matches before the end of the season!


We went on the pitch only three days after the bad performance against Spezia, but the starting line-up was fresh as I let them rest in the previous match and they smashed PSV dominating the match and winning it 2-0, with a double of the usual, wonderful Falcao: I had a great idea when I decided to spend the most of my budget on him!


Two days after, the draw assigned us Lille: not bad if we think that we could have drawn sides like Man Utd, Real Madrid or Barcelona!



Despite the stunning performances by Falcao and Mbaye Niang, who let us win the league and go on in UCL, this month I want to give my award to Giampaolo Pazzini: “il Pazzo” didn’t play very much this season, but despite that he was decisive this month coming out from the bench, scoring 3 important goals, but mainly helping the team both in the attacking and in the defensive phases.



Now, all our focus will be devoted to the UCL, using the Serie A matches to let some young players have some time on the pitch. Dealing with youngsters, at the half of the month the youth candidates’ day took place. I was there and I got impressed by the skills of a 15yo defensive midfielder named Natale Visciglia: I will take care of him because I think he can become a really great player!

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I was scared when we began the month: march was the worst period of my career here in Oviedo and we had to come back on the right way… Fortunately, we definitely did! 5 matches, 4 victories and 1 draw!

A goal by Issa Yameogo was enough to get rid of Mirandes in a really tough match, where Dzikamai Sadomba, a center back, deserved the MVP award. This was not important: we obtained the victory and interrupted a period of 5 matches without any victory!

If you go to Valencia to play against Levante you can be happy if you exit the pitch with one point… You are really enthusiastic if you do with three! The guys performed wonderfully and our Captain, Diego Cervero, gifted us a stunning 2-0 away win against a very important opponent.

Another hard match against another important side like Almeria. This time we ended with a draw, but 4 points in these two matches were far more I had expected before them!

After those two great performances, going to Elche and win could have seemed a walk. But I needed to make some of the guys rest and I operated a large turnover sending many young guys on the pitch, then we fought more than we predicted to obtain our victory, that came after closing the first half losing 2-1. A fantastic free kick by Stefano Guberti, his first goal of the season, gave us the three points in a very tough match.

Finally, we faced Gimnastic, that was fighting hard in the relegation zone to avoid coming back to the third division. We easily won thanks to an hat-trick by Issa Yameogo and the first goal in the leagu by Juan Pablo Villalobos.

We ended the month in the 3rd place, 6 points behind Las Palmas that has been overtook by Celta that is playing a stunning second part of the season. We have a 6 points advantage to Malaga and Recreativo, which are fighting for the last place in the playoffs… We have to keep it up!



Issa Yameogo is another time awarded as the best player of the month: he scored 5 times, 3 matches over the 4 he played. This guy is really having an amazing season!



Next month we have to face 4 matches: the first three can be good to us, against teams in the second half of the table. The last one will definitely be our hardest match, against Celta that is leading the league. But we are ready for anything and anyone!

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After the yesterday party for celebrating the winning of the Serie A league, A.C Milan convoked a press conference for 11a.m. this morning. The speakers were Adriano Galliani (G), CEO of the side, and Andrea Gagliardo (A), the manager (I - Interviewer). This is a sketch of that.

I - “Mr. Gagliardo, Mr. Galliani, yesterday you celebrated the second consecutive Scudetto. What are your feelings?”
A - “There’s a lot to be proud of. We have played wonderfully during all the season, dominating it and deserving the Scudetto. When we started, I knew that we could have done great things this year, but maybe I did not dream of winning 8 matches before the end! Yesterday I also received a call from one of the Milan’s legend who wanted to congratulate with me, Marco van Basten: to me, this is one of the most important awards I have achieved!”


G - “I am amazed! Yesterday I spoke with President Berlusconi and he told me he was proud of his team and the work we have done till now. All the staff has to be thanked for this great result: to win a league is a great result, to retain it is even greatest! Not so many teams could do it in Serie A history.”
A - “But now, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on the point of view, celebrations must end! We have another important title to think about: the Champions League! Our minds are clear from thinking about the Serie A, so we have to focus on trying to do our best in the UCL.”

I - “Are you aiming to win also that?”
A - “When one is the manager of a so important team like Milan is, he has to aim to win everything! I don’t know if we are already prepared to win also in Europe, but we showed great football all over the year and with a bit of lucky, who knows what we can do…”

I - “Everyone here, and in general everyone who follows Serie A matches, is amazed by the performance and the continuity of Radamel Falcao…”
A - “Mr. Galliani can confirm that he told me I was crazy to ask to spend so much money on a single player this summer. And also the press was surprised by my decision. But I knew that ‘El Tigre’ could have been the one who could increase very much the quality of the team. And I think that know I have the right to say I was right…”
G - “I confirm the words of our manager. When I decided to allow him offering such an amount to Atletico Madrid I told him: ‘If he doesn’t score at least 20 goals, you have to give me back half the money!’. Well, he has not to do that…”
A - “But I don’t want everybody focus only on the performance of Falcao! Evryone in the team played a wonderful season, from the ones who played more, to the ones who did less. Without the others, Radamel couldn’t have scored so much!”

I - “The last question: what are the plans for the next season now?”
G - “Next season is far! We have to focus on the matches against Lille now: we will plan the next season at the end of this one. Thanks to everybody!”

Six months are passed from the day my brother, Andrea, came to Oviedo to support me for the Copa del Rey match against Sabadell. It was the time to give him back the pleasure and the Champions League semifinal match against Celtic was the right moment! We were going to play against Lugo on the Sunday at 5 p.m., two days before the UCL match. I reserved a flight from Barcelona for Monday morning, so to be in Glasgow one day before the match and have some time to spent there as I had never seen it. My wife and daughter could not join me due to the working business of my wife (doctors are always busy), then I asked Diego (Cervero) to join me: he is a friend, not only one of my players, and a Champions League match was something great also to him. And to avoid one training session is not that tragedy for my captain!

We landed in Glasgow at 11:30, we left our luggage in the hotel I reserved and then we spent some time in the city, visiting things like the Saint Mungo’s Cathedral and the University.


We had an appointment with Andrea in a restaurant for dinner. We arrived there in time, at 7 p.m. and we found all the A.C. Milan team there! I have been a Milan’s fan since I was born and to have the possibility to meet those men was great for me! But also for Diego: those player are champions and to speak to them for a player like Diego is something great! “I thought of giving you a little surprise… I think you will be happy about that!” said Andrea smiling at us. We sat on a large table in a typical Scottish restaurant in a very relaxed mood, speaking about soccer and everything else came to our minds. Those guys were famous players, but they were also nice men and that dinner was a great moment…

We left at 9 p.m. and came back to our hotels, giving us appointment for the evening after, at the pitch. When we were walking to our hotel, Diego showed me proudly a piece of papers with all the autographs of the Milan’s players. He said smiling: “This is for you Stefano, I have mine too!” What a man my captain!

The next day we took another visit to the city center and, after a brief dinner, we went to the Celtic Park, the Celtic’s stadium. We entered there and the show was great: the stadium was crowded, completely full of fans!


We sat in the place that Andrea reserved to us, waiting for the match. When the Champions League theme ended, Diego told me: “It would be a dream to listen to that from the pitch before ending my career…” “Who knows mate? Maybe in 2-3 years we will be there!” I replied laughing. The match started and Celtic showed a very rude way of playing: in the first 30 mins, both Gonalons and De Sciglio had to leave the pitch cause of some injuries. Andrea was furious! The first half was ending without any goal, despite the Milan’s dominance. Seconds before the ending whistle, Abate entered the area and shot: the ball hit the post! We were all starting to complain when we saw the ball come back to Abate’s feet: he shot again and this time the ball was in! We jumped on our seats! 1-0! That man decided to score his first goal ever in this match… Not a bad choice!

The second half started with Celtic trying to level the score, but Milan controlled perfectly their attacks. When the clock marked 71 mins, a ball came from a corner kick and Falcao headed it into the net! 2-0! Celtic’s attacks didn’t allow the Scottish to score within the final whistle and the match ended with a great Milan’s victory. Andrea ran into the pitch to hug his players… Great job bro!

We waited for him outside the stadium. Diego compliments with him, I told him that I was really proud of what he has done and I promised I would have been to the final to see him lifting the trophy. Then, together with Diego I came back to the hotel: the day after we had the flight to come back to Oviedo. With happiness and proudness in our hearts… and the Champions League theme on our minds…

April was a great month! All our interests were focused on the Champions League as we had already won the league. Despite this, we got 3 victories and 1 draw in the Serie A matches. But far more important, we qualified for the UCL final!


We played against Roma between the two legs of the UCL quarterfinals against Lille, then I lined up many backups, even if the qualification to the semifinals was almost done. We got a good victory, starting bad taking a goal after 9 minutes, but finishing very well with the goals scored by Giampaolo Pazzini and Tarek Trabelsi.

A goal after 40 seconds put the match on the right way, that could have been ruined by the bad Boateng foul that cost him a red card. But Trabelsi scored an impressive double, his first ever, and let us obtain a great 3-0 victory.

The league was already ours, but the match against Juventus is always special for our supporters. So, despite the incoming UCL semifinals, we had to be focused and look for a win for them! And we did! After a boring first half, in the first chance of the second one Llorente headed the ball in our net. Unfortunately for him and his team, we have one of the strongest striker in the world: with a fantastic double Falcao gave us an important win, a large boost to our morale in view of the match against Celtic!

A boring match, partially justified by being in the middle of the two legs of the UCL semifinals. We didn’t perform well and I was sorry for our fans, but I think they were focused on the Champions as well as we were…


An impressive, large victory against the French, that we already met in the group. We played really well, closing the match in the first half with three goals, two of which scored by El Tigre in 90 seconds! In the second half, we closed any discussion about the qualification to the semifinals scoring twice again: what a performance!

Not as focused as we would have been, but the result of leg 1 gave us a wide margin. Nolan Roux played a great match for the French and smashed us with his double.


Three days later, UEFA drew Celtic as our opponents: with Bayern and Real Madrid being the other two teams to be drawn, well, we have been very lucky!

See my brother’s diary pages about this match.

We were completely focused on our objective: no distractions were allowed, it was the most important match of these two years for us… Till now… The goal scored by Boateng after 22 minutes was the one that destroyed all the trust of the Scottish who had attacked till that moment. They could equalize 30 minutes before the end of the match, but 7 mins later Balotelli completely ruined their plans and the match went on slowly to the final whistle… We were in the UEFA Champions League final!!!

The next day we were all together in front of the TV watching the other semifinal. Real Madrid won the first leg at their home thanks to a late goal by Cristiano Ronaldo, but this showed to be not enough for letting them go to the final: Bayern won 3-1 in Allianz Arena, becoming the last team between us and the cup…

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A great month for us! We started with two victories, ruined by the bad draw against Lugo, not a team at our level. But the next victory against Celta, the leaders of the league, completely cancelled it!


We started our month away, in Sabadell, where we got a good 2-1 victory. We played very well for an hour, going up 2-0 thanks to the goal of our strikers duo: Cervero-Yameogo. The goal by Aguilar scared us a bit, but we managed to get back home the three point.

A match that turned to be more difficult than I was expecting. We were down at halftime, due to an unclear penalty given to our opponents and scored by Assulin. My shouts made clear to the guys that the result was unacceptable and our Captain’s double in the second half turned the result in our hands.

A match to be forgotten! We were up till ten minutes before the final whistle, playing 11 against 10 from the 57’ minute on. But we took a goal from Airam and got back home with an insufficient 1-1 draw… Just before facing the leaders!

The day before the match, Las Palmas won its match going 3 points above us, 3 less than Celta. We were fighting for being directly promoted to the Liga: I want to avoid the playoffs! The same day, Aitor Sanz decided to speak to me and make clear that he wanted to play more: he is not in my plans, nor for now, nor for the future, then I told him that he was going to leave the team at the end of the season.


Before the match, in the changing room, I made clear to my players’ minds that, even if we were underdogs, we had to fight for the victory. It was too important to us… As always happen, the person who is more linked to the shirt is the one who keeps your words. This was the 200th appearance of Diego with Los Carbayones shirt, a really important match for him and all of us.


He decided to start his personal celebrations heading the ball into the net 5 mins after the starting whistle: 1-0, the match became better for us. But there were still at least 90 minutes to play, the game was long… We gave them very few and unclear chances to score and 7 minutes before the end, Diego ended his celebrations conquering a penalty and scoring it himself: 2-0, match closed! We were once again with the same points as Las Palmas, fighting for the 2nd place that can make us avoid the playoffs. And we were even only 3 points less than Celta…

This can be “The Day”, the one every European manager dreams during his whole career. I am here, in Lisbon, in front of the Estadio Da Luz, and in three hours my team is going to play the Champions League final!


More than 65,000 people are supposed to be there watching the match against Bayern Munchen, but among them there are a few that conunts more to me: my wife, my son, my parents, my brothers, my best friends… They will be all there, praying for me raising the cup high to Lisbon sky. I am scared… Excited… Determined! I want to win! I want the cup!

And I am not the only one! I can see the guys wanting it as well. They trained hard these days, even if the season had been long and tough. But this is the match any player wants to play… and win.


The warm-up takes place in a silent atmosphere, we are all focused on the match. The starting line-up was not difficult to decide: I’m gonna play my usual 4-3-3 with the players that showed me to be the best this season.

We go back to the changing room, I only tell my players to make their dreams, and mine, come true, nothing more. There is nothing more to say…

Then we are back into the pitch, the UCL theme starts and I shiver… I am thrilled… The match starts! It is a really tough one: both the sides want to win, and both are scared to lose… We have a chance… Two minutes after they have one… The match goes on like this…

The halftime comes, I have no words to say. The guys are doing pretty well, but Neuer seems not to be beaten. I look at the clock: 81 minutes. I am pretty sure of the extra-time, I send some of the guys in the bench to warm-up. Stevan starts from the left, as usual, and converge to the center. He is two meters outside Bayern’s box and Badstuber trips him. Free kick. Stephan goes on the ball: he is 20 meters far from the goal, on the left side, he is prepared to kick the ball in the box. No, he is not! He has something different in his mind. He approaches the ball and I am starting to feel he wants to kick the ball to the goal… and he does! Wonderfully! Neuer jumps, but he cannot reach the ball… IT’S IN!!! We scored! I run into the pitch together with all the players on the bench to hug Stephan! What a shot!!!

But there are still 10 minutes… Incredibly Bayern’s players are completely on their legs, it seems they can do nothing! The clock goes on… 90… 91… 92… 93… THE FINAL WHISTLE!!! WE WON THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!

I start crying… Everybody is crying… Few seconds later we are all hugged to each other… Some minutes later, Prince is lifting the cup to the sky together with me… A moment I will never forget!


When I come back to the small apartment I rent in Lisbon with my family, late in the night after the long celebrations, my wife and son are already sleeping. I kissed their heads and go to the sofa. I switch on the TV. Fans are jubilant in Milan, Mr. Galliani expresses the surprise and the happiness of the board for the success.


I see Carlo Ancelotti’s face on the screen: he was a legendary Milan’s player and he is one of the best managers in the world, and he is complimenting with me for the win.


Then, my brother’s face comes on the screen. It has been interviewed after the match, his words have been: “Andrea today showed what everyone was aware of… What I was aware of… He is one of the greatest, he built a wonderful team and made it play the best football in Europe. He deserved the win. I am proud of my little bro!” Tears start to come down from my eyes… And then they close…