October: PlanetCricket FM Monthly Challenge

I know what you mean Trev. I'm like 2/3 games away from announcing my Euro 2008 squad and we gave an effortless performance against Morocco and scraped a draw. Alou Diarra also got sent off.

However in the qualification games we dominated and won convincingly. Henry is scoring goals for fun atm(which isn't surprising) and has become France's all time top goal scorer.
 
Trezeguet is France's all-time top goalscorer in mine. Dumped Henry long ago. Trezeguet is just about the only man from midfield to forward that has played over about 20 games. Won my first three game of the 2010 WC qualifiers against Montenegro, Azerbaijan and Slovakia. Should be a cruise through with the other two teams in my group being Turkey and Northern Ireland.
 
After drawing 2-2 against Sweden in a friendly, I came back defeating Austria 3-0 in the first WCQ. It went bad for Austria as soon as Krenn was sent off for slide tackling Anelka in the 21st minute. He got injured in the tackle so I brought on Henry who was meant to be resting (N'Gog started) and by the 30th minute, we were leading 2-0 thanks to 2 goals from Henry within 9 minutes. Gallas gave us a 3-0 lead in first half stoppage time and it was all but over by then. No goals came in the second half but N'Gog nearly scored his first goal but a good save from Manninger denied him it.
 
Just had my first game, an away friendly to Slovenia. My squad was not exactly perfect, with injuries to Henry and Sagna, but we still managed to pull off a victory. Nasri and Trezeguet putting us 2-0 up before half time. We stupidly let them off the hook though, with a Gallas own goal and a Vittek strike. Luckily Nicolas Anelka was on hand to provide a winner late on.

My XI was:

Coupet

Reveillere
Evra
Gallas
Mexes

Makelele
Nasri
Ribery
Malouda

Trezeguet
Benzema

But I'm changing that for my first qualifier, away to Italy, going more conservative and going in with:

Coupet

Reveillere
Evra
Gallas
Mexes

Makelele
Vieira
Nasri
Ribery
Malouda

Trezeguet

Don't have a clue how it'll go, but all we need is a point to stay top of the group. Not going to be easy away to Italy though, just have to hope Makelele has a good game.

Edit: Oh great. Gallas and Nasri both out injured. Called up Kaboul and Gourcuff as back-ups but the team isn't looking anywhere near as strong. We're buggered.
 
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I started the game with Newcastle and France. It was pretty easy to qualify for the World Cup by winning 9 matches and drawing the remaining one. Here are my results.

Scotland 2-2 France - Friendly
Austria 0-1 France - WCQ
France 3-2 Serba - WCQ
Romania 0-2 France - WCQ
France 3-0 Tunisia - Friendly
France 1-0 Uruguay - Friendly
France 0-1 Argentina - Friendly
Lithuania 0-3 France - WCQ
France 2-0 Lithuania - WCQ
France 4-0 Nigeria - Friendly
Czech Republic 2-2 France - Friendly
France 2-0 Ivory Coast - Friendly
Faroe Islands 0-1 France - WCQ
France 3-0 Romania - WCQ
Serbia 2-2 France - WCQ
France 4-0 Faroe Islands - WCQ
France 3-0 Austria - WCQ

UEFA World Cup Qualifiers Group F Table
1. France ------> 10-9-1-0-24-4-+20-28
2. Romania -----> 10-6-2-2-21-11-+10-20
3. Serbia -------> 10-6-2-2-31-21-+10-20
4. Austria ------> 10-3-0-7-8-17--9-9
5. Faroe Islands -> 10-2-1-7-5-23--18-7
6. Lithuania -----> 10-0-2-8-5-25--20-2

PS: Table Format ----> Pd-Won-Drn-Lst-For-Ag-G.D-Pts
 
Here is my World Cup 2010 Journey...

Squad:-
Keepers: Hugo Lloris, Yohann Pele, Steve Mandanda. Defenders: Philippe Mexes, Sebastian Bassong, Mamadou Sakho, Mathieu Bodmer, Anthony Reveilliere, Lass Diarra, Gael Clichy, Patrice Evra. Midfielders: Jeremy Toulalan, Mathieu Flamini, Fabien Lemoine, Yoann Gourcuff, Hatem Ben Arfa, Franck Ribery, Samir Nasri. Forwards: Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema, Bafetimbi Gomis, Guillaume Hoararu.

Results:-
Honduras 0-3 France - Group F Matches - Pic
France 1-2 Chile - Group F Matches - Pic
Czech Republic 1-1 France - Group F Matches - Pic

Group Standings:-
Chile ----> 9pts
France ---> 4pts

Czech Republic ---> 4pts
Honduras ---> 0pts

Results Contd:-
Spain 3-4e France - 2nd Round - Pic
France 1-0 Netherlands - Quarter Finals - Pic
Argentina 0-1 France - Semi Finals - Pic
Brazil 0-1 France - Finals - Pic

Player of the Tournament:- Mathieu Flamini
Golden Boot:- Robin van Persie

Note:- Qualified for the World Cup easily but the group matches were tricky and tough, but since we made it to the second round we played really well. The game against Spain was the best I have ever seen, coming back from 3-0 down to win in extra time was great show of character by the team and surely that was the match which probably deserved to be the final but really happy we got the results against Brazil who were the favourites to win the World Cup.
Anyways delighted to win the World Cup and France jump from 12th to 4th in the Rankings with England being the number 1 team in the Wolrd even though they were knocked out by Argentina in the Quarters Finals as usual :).

So my points after the World Cup are 131, correct me if wrong.
 
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Shan, you are miles out with your points!

Win World Cup: 125 points
Every goal scored: 12 points
Every goal conceded: -6 points
Total: 131 points

Great achievement though!
 
Shan, you are miles out with your points!

Win World Cup: 125 points
Every goal scored: 12 points
Every goal conceded: -6 points
Total: 131 points

Great achievement though!

There's even win every game in the 2010 World Cup worth 50 pts...
 
Ok guys as this is the last day of vacations, I have completed the challenge and finished the EURO 2012.

Euro 2012 Qualification Results:-
France 3-0 Liechestein - EQ
Norway 0-3 France - EQ
France 2-0 Belarus - EQ
Iceland 0-1 France - EQ
Ghana 1-2 France - Friendly
France 1-0 Denmark - EQ
Serbia 1-3 France - EQ
Liechtenstein 0-2 France - EQ
France 0-0 Norway - EQ
Belarus 0-3 France - EQ
France 2-1 Iceland - EQ
Denmark 1-0 France - EQ
France 1-0 Serbia - EQ
India 1-4 France - Friendly
Bangladesh 0-6 France - Friendly

UEFA EURO Qualifiers Group C Table
France ------> 12-10-1-1-21-3-+18-31
Denamrk -----> 12-6-4-2-13-6-+7-22

Serbia ------> 12-4-4-4-22-15-+7-16
Iceland -----> 12-4-4-4-14-10-+4-16
Norway ------> 12-4-4-4-13-16--3-16
Belarus -----> 12-2-3-7-13-20--7-9
Liechtenstein -> 12-2-0-10-5-31--26-6

PS: Table Format ----> Pd-Won-Drn-Lst-For-Ag-G.D-Pts


EURO 2012 Squad:- Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda, Stephane Ruffier. Defenders: Philippe Mexes(C), Etienne Capoue, Mamadou sakho, Bacary Sagna, Lassana Diarra, Gael Clichy, Patrice Evra. Midfielders: Mathieu Flamini, Biaise Matuidi, Moussa Sissoko, Jeremy Toulalan, Clement Chantome, Hatem Ben Arfa, Yoann Gourcuff, Franck Ribery, Dimitri Payet, Samir Nasri. Forwards: Jimmy Briand, Karim Benzema, Bafetimbi Gomis.

Results:-
France 3-0 Sweden - Group D Results - Pic
Greece 0-1 France - Group D Results - Pic
France 1-2 Portugal - Group D Results - Sorry forgot to take the Screenshot.

Group Standings:-
Portugal----> 7pts
France----> 6pts

Sweden-----> 4pts
Greece-----> 1pt

Results Contd:-
Spain 1-1(4-5 pens) France - Quarter Finals - Pic
Germany 0-1 France - Semi Finals - Pic
England 1-2e France - Finals - Pic

Note:- Qualifications and the first two group matches were very easy but after the Portugal game things became difficult. Karim Benzema became injured again Germany and missed the whole tournament while Gael Clichy my first choice left back injured his knee against Portugal and so after Portugal game we never played our best football yet we won the tournament. Anyways with this win I move to the top of the World in the rankings.

Rankings

So I think my challenge is over, total points = 131 + 106 = 237
 
I reckon we should start this back up again. Would anyone else be interested in doing this again?
 
I would. Me and Blake had a whole list of challenges for each continent of the world. I'd actually like to finish this game off, but it's on my comp and I don't have FM08 on my laptop. I enjoyed winning Euro 2008 :)

How about all who are interested put a challenge idea forward and then we'll have a vote (can't vote for your own to make it fair)?
 

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