S.107 CL - Semi-Finals Preview (11/11/2013 17:18)

 

Well we're down to 4 teams. Only 2 will advance to the Grand FInal on Thursday, and one of them is sure to be English.
Preperations, interviews, statistics, all is here inside!

 

 

 

The Cinderella of the tournament against the rising star. The Italian Runner-Ups against the Romanian Cup holders. What a joy to see a game where you think the result is clear but when you think again the underdog might just win once more. 

FratiFrancescani (or in short I call FF) is not a newbie to the CL, but this is their first time in the Semis. Sastianello's goal is clear - be the first Italian team ever in the history of ML to contest the CL Final. He was pretty amazed that his team gone this far: "Craiova is a great team. I thought I didn't have much hope against him but luck has helped me". Not all glitter is gold though as a few hours later FF lost a vital match against Wassamea and now they're 4 points behind the leaders, but you won't hear Sastianello complains: "yes I lost my last league match, but it was worth too much because CL is the most important competition on this game".
With all due respect to Craiova, Real Manager looks almost ubeatable: "Real Manager is another important team on this game, I hope that my tactical changes will help me face him at the best".

Real Manager didn't have good time after the success at the QF either. A 1-3 home defeat to surprising leaders Nemesis have put ALEX22THEBEST team down to 5th place in the Romanian League.

Lucky for both teams, their opponents on the league before the match are not strong and I guess they will save some top players.

 

 

 

The English derby. The two times CL Champion, current English Champion and the English Cup holder against the second runner up.

For Lions of Darkness, this is the fourth participation in the CL and the first time they are in the Semis. Dunclido had some time to review his way to this stage: "My route to the Semi Finals was a tough one. I believe I had one of the toughest, if not the toughest, group. I also rested all of my players in the final group game which meant I drew and didn't top the group. My match with CzarneKoszule was good for me, He was great tactically, and..I didn't have a good idea of how he would play. The red card obviously helped me, and enabled me to score the winner and close the game out, but I do feel my [team's] fitness was slightly better". 
About Unique, Dunclido said: "Ah, Unique, Leo is a great manager, and has a great team. My league record against him is not very good".
In fact, Unique won 8 of their 21 official matches compared to only 4 wins by Lions of Darkness. However, Dunclido emerged winner the last time he met Leonidas on CL, "my record in knockout competitions [against Leo]  is unbeaten. It is unfortunate we play each other and I believe he has a slight advantage over me. I just hope I pick the right tactics and can get a win against one of the best in the game".
This season the teams met once and Unique went victorious with a tough 1-2 win away.

Unique FC is no stranger to the Semi-Finals, making it to the final in 3 of last 5 seasons, Unique is clearly looking for another final. However Leo is reducing expectations: "It feels good to be in the Semis again but there's still a long way to go!". He wasn't impressed by his team 4-1 win: "It was a good match up, I felt like I was the slightly better team in a close game, A couple of late goals flattered the scoreline it was much closer than the scoreline suggests", but if you look on the rating Unique controlled the match.
Leo had the time to flatter his rival: "I'm looking forward to it, he's a very good manager and has a great team, whoever makes the final deserves it".
Key players for Leo: defenders Luciano Pinto and Kelly Brook, the best defenders on CL, both with avg above 70 and in last 2 matches above 90! It will be a very hard deal to pass these two.
Zooey Deschanel - I think she's the best player on CL this season with an avg of 92 and 96 on the Knockout Stage. I think that only 3 players together can stop her.
Rosie Huntington-Whitele - avg of 89 on CL and 6 goals under her name, 2 of them in the QF, is highly favourite to score more goals.
These are the key players of Unique but Leo can handle also without those three as he got plenty of amazing footballers to play.

No luck as to the league cup and league matches draw before the SF game as Lions of Darkness got toguher opponents in both, with the peak 9 hours before the match as they face Kung-Fu United. Another interesting stat is that it will be the 7th final in the last 10 seasons that an English team will contest.