OMFG I ****ING HATE PORTO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm in season four of my game with Sporting Lisbon. We were in first place for almost all of last season and fell apart at the end and slid down to third place. So this year was going to be the year. There was a slow start but I went from October to April without a loss. During that period, there was one draw, with Porto (who wins the league every single year in my FM games). We were winning 3-2, and though there were supposed to be 3 minutes of stoppage time, Porto scores at 93:44 to tie it. Since we won every game after that for the next few months and Porto lost one (by the way during this period I advanced out of a Champions League group with Real Madrid and AC Milan with several points to spare), we were level with them on points but had a much better goal differential and more goals scored, putting us in first.
Then for the second Porto match, on the road. We looked to have held them off (of course all my players played terribly), and then in the 81st minute, they get a corner. Apparently you're supposed to leave the opposing team's best player (Hulk) completely unmarked in the box. He received the cross, took a few touches, and put it in from 3 yards out. So now we're 3 points out without the tie breaker with 3 games to go (Porto has a few bottom dwellers left to play), so we lost the title. I've never won one in FM, but it is absolutely impossible because I always play in the Portugese league. Porto literally wins every single game, it's ridiculous. I'm sure I'll win my next three, which would leave me with 77 points. In 30 games. How can you get 77 points in a thirty game season and not win the league? It's absolutely ridiculous.
And of course much of this is due to Hulk. HULK IS EASILY THE MOST OVERRATED PLAYER IN THE HISTORY OF FM. He's a good striker, but NOT THAT GOOD. In my game he's the fourth best striker in the world, behind Aguero, Higuain, and Pato. 4 and a half stars, and all his important ratings are 17 and above. This season, IN 25 GAMES HE HAD 26 GOALS AND 11 ASSISTS...****ING RIDICULOUS!
Edit: Porto actually drew one of the games. Their next two at home were against the worst team in the league (already relegated) and the third worst. That team clinched their spot in the top league the next season, so neither put up a fight. We lost the title by one point. Hulk, for the second year in a row, had an average rating in the league of 8.27.
We play Benfica in the Portugese Cup. We already beat them in the League Cup but according to the board, that's a meaningless competition. Benfica has been in horrible form of late. They finished 13 points behind us in the league, and only one in front of fourth placed Braga (who choked right at the end). In their second to last game they lost 3-0 to a team in the lower half of the table. But of course, in the 41st minute, my defenders let Deco (who's 35 at this point) walk into the back of the net. I put the setting on overload for the whole second half and made all of my offensive substitutions, thinking we'd at least pull level. I was only shut out three times the whole season in all competitions (the last being the Porto game, before that, a 0-0 draw to Real Madrid, and before that, the season opener), but we couldn't get a goal. Joao Moutinho of course picked a great day to have the worst match of his life. Sometimes, I hate this game.