2020-2021 Champions League Qualification + more!
We started our European campaign with a 2nd qualifying round tie against Moldovan side Sheriff, and easily beat them home and away. The first leg was away and we dominated them, winning 3-0 and not even letting them have a shot!
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With 3 away goals, the tie was already over and we finished the job with a 1-0 second leg victory. The surprise was we converted only 1 of our 32 shots! The next round drew us against Norwegians Molde.
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We once against dominated the first leg away from home, and won 3-0 effectively ending the tie.
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We finished the job with a 4-0 second leg victory. We went through to the play-offs 7-0 on aggregate, where we we face Finnish side RoPS.
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The draw was kinder than previous years, and despite absolutely dominating the first leg, we lost 2-1. It was at home as well so the 2 away goals are very damaging to our chances of going through.
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Luckily we turned on the style in the second leg, and got an early goal to build on. The game finished 4-0 with a couple of great solo goals from Henry and Law. We went through 5-2 on aggregate to the
Champions League group stages once again!
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We have narrowly edged our way into the
3rd seed from the group draw, meaning we aren't the weakest team anymore! Our group contains
Real Madrid, AC Milan and
Feyenoord however, meaning we will still do very well to qualify but I remain hopeful of a 3rd place finish if we can do well against Feyenoord!
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Here our the fixtures so far, and you can see we've already had a draw against Arsenal in a friendly, but also against Cliftonville in the league. Some other stomping wins in the league will hopefully see us break the goalscoring record this season!
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Finances are looking great, with our balance stood at ?17million following several big-money sales, a lower wage bill, Champions League qualification and no facility upgrades this season (for the first time since the start of the save). Hopefully we will have enough money for a fantastic new stadium in a few years time, if we can continue to slowly but surely grow the fanbase!
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Here's the club overview; Paul Henry and John Byrne are now of legendary status at Crusaders. Both came from the academy which is particularly pleasing! A few others are working their way towards that as well. The club is also nearly worth ?30million, a massive growth on last year.
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Our facilities are still Superb/Superb, and will hopefully both get an upgrade next summer given our large balance. Junior Coaching is still at its highest whilst I really don't know why Youth Recruitment is still "Average". I'm still unable to improve this feature, can anyone tell me why?
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My manager profile stands at 500 games now, and World Class Reputation. I don't seem to get many job offers of late though, although the occasional relegated Premier League side do come calling. Hopefully when the Northern Ireland manager leaves, I'll be first choice to take over.
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Finally, here is the final squad for this season ordered by position:
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Thanks for reading, and I'll be back with the Group Stages next!