Revenge: The Story of the Shadow

That Taramasalata defeat must've hurt, but you came back stronger later on.

auwww what a blammage caused by your assistent against Galatasaray..
That being said, decent start of the season

2013-09-28 11:24#136178 AlexTHFC : That Taramasalata defeat must've hurt, but you came back stronger later on.

You got me at "Taramasalata"

@AlexTHFC I have no reply...
@Red Devil I was so mad when I saw it! Thanks, hope we can keep it up.
@Pixel Lol, same

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Champions League draw, here in Monaco. The greatest clubs in Europe will go head to head over the coming season, to find out who will have the honour of being the winners. It all begins here!




There we have it! Group B is surely the 'group of death', with Italian champions Juventus, English champions Manchester United, last years runners up Borussia Dortmund and Spanish side Athletico Madrid. Porto have had a fairly easy draw with only Marseille expected to trouble them for 1st spot in Group C. The other Portuguese side in the draw, Benfica, will have to play against Bayern and Galatasaray in Group F, and will realistically hope to get 3rd place, in order to go into the Europa League.

A very easy group, imo. You should get out of it without any problems.

Easiest group I've seen in a while, you should ease through (Hoping to not tempt fate)

That is a very easy group good luck

@Akash, Jack, wellsy1498 Thanks guys, hopefully I should be able to breeze through it!

http://e1.365dm.com/13/02/768x432/165012893_2133262662001_901868133-15538-1359709125891.jpg

The transfer market closes on another summer, as deals were closed left, right and center right up to the very end. Here we will review the window as a whole, and talk about all the big deals in Portugal and beyond.

This window began with a bang, as Wilfried Bony made a £28M transfer to French side Monaco from Vitesse. The press has put this down to Bony's want for money, rather than his aim to get trophies, but he has said specifically that he hopes to lead the club to bigger and better things in the near future. He joins Porto exes, Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho at the club. Also early deals were made for Tottenham midfielder Sandro, who completed a move to Manchester United for a fee expected to be around £18M. He is hoped to be the man who United so desperately require in the middle of the park. Finally that month, Liverpool showed early signs of ambition by spending £17.5M on English centre back, Ryan Shawcross. Shawcross was long on the radar of the English club, who reportedly spent 3 years tracking him.

July was the most filled with transfers, with some very big deals taking place. The two most expensive of these deals were both made by Manchester United, who continued their summer spending spree, with a £29.5M deal with Benfica for winger Nicolas Gaitan, and a £26.5M deal for another wide man, Jefferson Farfan. Both these deals were met with lots of support by United fans, who expressed their delight at the money being spent. Another big English club, Tottenham replied by making two moves of their own, signing Marouane Fellani from Everton, and Andriy Yarmelenko from Dynamo Kiev, for fees of approximately £22M and £18.5M respectively. The other main deals included the move of Seydou Doumbia to Athletico Mardid to replace Dortmund-bound Adrian, and the biggest move into Portugal, with Christian Benteke moving to Porto for £18M.

August saw lots of deals being completed, and also marked the biggest transfer of the window. This was the long anticipated transfer of Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski to Barcalona. Lewandowski impressed pundits and coaches alike, with his superb goal-scoring record last season, and his incredible 4 goal haul against Real Madrid in the semi-final of the Champions League. Everyone will be eager to see how he interacts with Lionel Messi, in Barca's attack. Dortmund used this money to sign Andre Ayew from Marseille for around £15.5M and Luis Gustavo from Bayern for £9.5M. They weren't done there, as on deadline day, another transfer was made, but this time out of the club. Neven Subotic was sold to Manchester City for a cutthroat price of £9.25M. The English giants were very happy with their dealings in general that month, after they had previously signed Jermaine Defoe for £10.5M, and Kaka on loan, to add to their already star studded team. The last big deal of the summer was the move of Porto midfielder Lucho Gonzalez to PSG, for a fee roughly estimated at £8.75M.

Authors Note

I would like to apologise for the lack of updates in the last few days. My computer has been acting very odd, and is failing to load most of the time. I am trying to grt it fixed, but for now, this means my updates won't be as regular as they should be. I was just able to get on it, so I might be able to get an update out tomorrow, but after that it may be nearly a week until it is fixed.

I am so sorry for this.

Edinho (pen 76)- Valentin Stocker(81), Jackson Martinez (86)

An absolutely crazy match, with some very late goals. Things started off bad for our opposition as we were pilling on the pressure in the first half, and almost scored when Benteke hit the post. The second half was total shambles. In the 75th minute Danilo fouled Edinho in the box, and gave away a penalty, and was also sent off. After Edinho stepped up to convert the penalty, our chances looked bleak. But, after two late goals from Martinez and Stocker, we managed to take all 3 points from a game we never looked liked winning.

Jackson Martinez (42)

Our first Champions League match saw us come up against the minnows of the group, in this Austrian outfit. I fully expected us to beat them by several clear goals, but this was not the case. It was generally a drab match, with very few chances for either side, as I tested out a new tactic. The deadlock was broken by Jackson Martinez, just before half time. The second half was just as boring, and we held on for the win.


N/A

If I thought the last match was drab, this was much, much worse. What should have been a routine win, turned into 2 lost points after we failed to convert the catalogue of chances that came our way. We dominated in most areas, but weren't able to put the ball into the back of the net.


Alex Sandro(33), Christian Benteke (77, 84)
Our final game of the month, which also happened to be our first home game of the month was a great example of what we can do when we are on form. Led by a great performance from front man Christian Benteke, we absolutely destroyed Olhanense. Alex Sandro opened the scoring after 33 minutes with a good finish, before in the second half, a Benteke double sealed the deal. It even could have been more with 22 shots for us, in comparison to our oppositions 2.

Month Review

A solid month where we picked up 3 wins and 1 draw. It saw our first outing in the Champions League, and despite some shaky performances, I feel like it was a successful month. Our results so far have put us in 3rd place, two points behind leaders Benfica.

Player of the Month

This month was all about our two frontmen who scored twice each, and it was a tough decision between them. In the end, I have decided to award it to Christian Benteke for the 2nd month running, as I feel he is really lighting up this league, and is on all the fans lips.
http://thinkfootball.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/benteke.jpg

Am just after finishing reading this what a great story best of luck with the rest of it ..

@Football_Manager Thanks mate, that means a lot to me!

Also I would like to take this moment to thank you guys for....drum roll please....2500 views! It really helps me to continue writing when I see that so many people take time out of their day to read my story. Thanks guys!

Well done on the 2.5k TV! It deserves much more, and I am sure they will come in the near future