Cup and CL Leg 2 Strategy

[TropikThunder]

Well, as has happened to me several times before, I have won Leg 1 of both my Cup Semifinal and my CL Quarterfinal 2-1 at home to a somewhat inferior team (avQ 46.6 vs 44.0 in the cup, and 46.6 vs 42.7 in the CL). I play 4-3N-3W (DL/DC/DC/DR, MC/MC/MC, AML/ST/AMR) and both opponents were more or less also 4-3-3 (odd player placement here and there but pretty much 4-3-3). In both games, I dominated possession (~65/35 or so), I attended and they didn't, and I scored once early and once late but both times my opponent scored after the 80th minute to snag an away goal.

When this happened in the past (last 2-3 seasons), every time I have lost the second leg 1-0 to go out on away goals and I'm not having it this time! I have read somewhere on here that matching formations is a bad idea against weaker teams but is that still true? Anyone have suggestions for how I can avoid going out again, or is this pre-determined? Should I change formations, play hard defensive + counterattack, etc? I'm ahead in both ties but I've been burned before.

[samreo]

1 goal lead in a 2 leg match is a very narrow lead. I suggest you study the 1st leg and explore your opponent weakness. There are weaknesses in a weak team and pray Top Eleven don't team up with your opponent against you. There are lot of factors that will determine your victory.

[Ποσιδονας]

4-3-3 (odd player placement here and there but pretty much 4-3-3)

if he has AML -AMR, then use a DMC instead of two DCs.
Also check your GKs form.
Maybe you must use someone from the bench.

The scores are tight.
Stay in defense/counters

[TropikThunder]

1 goal lead in a 2 leg match is a very narrow lead. I suggest you study the 1st leg and explore your opponent weakness. There are weaknesses in a weak team and pray Top Eleven don't team up with your opponent against you. There are lot of factors that will determine your victory.

if he has AML -AMR, then use a DMC instead of two DCs.
Also check your GKs form.
Maybe you must use someone from the bench.

The scores are tight.
Stay in defense/counters

Thanks for the advice. For the Cup game, I decided to play the second leg more defensively like you suggested: defensive/mixed/short/on, switched to man-to-man, and pulled one of my MC as far back into the DMC space as I could without him showing out of position since I don't have a DMC on my roster (I don't know if moving him back actually makes any difference). Unfortunately, I forgot to set a timer so I didn't watch the game but still got 53/47 possession advantage with 92% passes completed (opponent didn't attend either). 17 shots each, 10 on goal each but I managed a 2-1 win again to go through to the final. Interestingly, my opponent scored in the 34' to go up 1-0 and if I had been watching I may well have panicked and made changes but my team scored twice at 39' and 58' to take the tie without me there to make any changes.

Now we'll see if the same strategy works in the CL quarterfinal in a couple hours. My CL opponent is slightly weaker than my Cup opponent was, so I'm a lot more optimistic than I was before.

Update: CL quarterfinal went even better, stayed with the same tactics as the Cup game and won 2-0. First goal was a classic TE counterattack off an opponent's corner, with a DC and AMR playing tika-taka down the field for the DC to finish it off. Took a lot of pressure off and I cruised to the win. I may find myself playing defensive/counter more often, especially against teams closer to my level.

[nikolgiorgos]

good, and get a DC-DMC

[TropikThunder]

good, and get a DC-DMC

I think I will, last season I had a really good MC that I had cross-trained as a DMC so I could move him back to be more defensive but he was old and I replaced him. Might be too late in the season to add another position to an existing player but I will look into it (skills are higher now so training would be slow).

[Yengdenss]

Guys dont play like mourinho parking the bus in CL! attack attack! attack!