FM 2011 Portsmouth v Stoke League Cup Game 11

Portsmouth was going into this match with good confidence because we have been doing well in the nPower Championship league in the recent matches and we were hoping to secure a win against Stoke City, which is currently in Premier League. You can go to the home page of this blog to see our league standing at the moment, which is a widget I have written to showcase my FM 2011 game.

We were underdogs in this match but we had home advantage, which can be vital in any match ups. Stoke played a 4-4-2 formation against us, and as usual we were playing the same formation as well.

FM 2011 Portsmouth v Stoke League Cup Game 11

FM 2011 Portsmouth v Stoke League Cup Game 11

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RTRfootballmanager

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For team talks, I told my players that we can win tonight. Did not want to overpressure them by telling them I expect a win even when we are playing at home, and that is because we are underdogs for this match.

Portsmouth started very well and we had the lion’s share of possession for the first half. It is just a pity that we weren’t cutting edge in our finishing and we were not able to pull a goal against Stoke. On the other hand, Stoke was still dangerous on a few points even if they do not have much possession.

For second half team talks, I was confident that we could come out ahead in the game. So I told my players that we only need one goal to win, to try to encourage them even further.

It turns out that my players became too excited and could not dominate possession like in the first half. We were squandering shots, and trying to keep up with Stoke in possession but our passes are not cutting edge.

Stoke was finally ahead when Dean Whitehead set up Tuncay Sanli from a cross and the latter scored from close range. It was about 69 minutes into the game and we had 20 minutes to try to equalise.

Sadly, we could not and we were knocked out of the League Cup competition by Stoke City. It was a tight match that could go either way and just a pity that we could not come out with a win.