Palace Casuals

Champions League Group E Round 2, away at Capon FC, in An Giang, Vietnam. Level 24, AQ +2.7
Palace Casuals went long distance today, first visiting Vietnam and losing a closely fought game by a single goal, 16 minutes from time.

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League Round 3, home vs Николай FC, of Белово, Bulgaria. Level 24, AQ -2.4
Back home for the day's League match, and the hosts left it even later to secure their first three-point result, Vincente Ndjengue converting a cross from MoM Anthony Petrovski for the only goal of the game. Goalkeeper Zoltan Bieder made his 100th appearance for the Casuals.

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Cup Qualifying Round 2nd Leg, away at Osmanli FC, in Izmir, Turkey. Level 24, AQ -0.7
Palace Casuals progressed to the Play-Off Round of the Cup with a 1-0 win, for a 5-2 aggregate score. Recent striker signing Liam Cashman opened his Casuals account with the only goal of the game four minutes from half-time. Goalkeeper Zoltan Bieder celebrated his century of appearances one match late as he claimed the Man-of-the-Match award.

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League Round 4, away at Klavs FC, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Level 24, AQ -7.1
The league whipping boys were visited by Palace Casuals, and were soundly thrashed 5-0. Left-winger Omar Hansen has recovered from his recent injury, and was an unused substitute in the earlier Cup match, so came into the game fresh and fully recharged, and it showed. All five goals fell to the rampant winger, the first a header from a Johan Shaqiri corner, the second a penalty after striker Liam Cashman had been barged over in the area, the third a direct free-kick after the perpetrator of the first foul transgressed again and was dismissed, and that was all in the first 30 minutes. In the second half, Hansen added two solo goals to the tally and was duly awarded Man-of-the-Match.

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Champions League Group E Round 3, away at ДяДя FC in Cherkassy, Ukraine. Level 24, AQ +1.6
Palace Casuals travelled to the Ukraine for the next instalment in the Champions League journey, and were sent home with a narrow 1-2 defeat. The home side were 2-0 up in the first 35 minutes, but gradually the Casuals came back into the game, and were given hope by a 55th minute penalty conversion by Omar Hansen. Despite all their best efforts, the visitors couldn't find another goal, and were dealt another blow by an injury to striker Anthony Petrovski (Calf strain, 4 days).

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League Round 5, away at Cahit FC of Yozgat, Turkey. Level 24, AQ +1.2
Palace Casuals continued their Awayday in Turkey, where they fought out a 0-0 draw.

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League Round 6, home vs FC Res, of Rome, Italy. Level 24, AQ +0.4
Palace Casuals fought out a second successive 0-0 draw in this game of evenly-matched teams. MoM was Casuals defender Juan Sebastian Garcia.

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Player news: The Management happened to take a look at the Transfer Market and saw this Goalkeeper unwanted, so spend 1T/$98.3M on him.

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Reserve 'keeper Tran Cong Vinh has been offered to the market.

Cup Play-off Round 1st Leg, home vs FC Matrix, of Lima, Peru. Level 24, AQ +0.7
Faced with an opponent with a heavily attacking squad, and who had in previous rounds beaten superior opponents, Casuals loaded the defence and countered their way to a 2-1 win. Midfielder Emre Topalan and striker Liam Cashman scored within the first five minutes after the break, but five minutes later, the visitors pulled one back, and threatened more, but the home defence was solid and 'keeper Bieder made two fine saves.

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Player news (part 2) Tran Cong Vinh was successfully auctioned to PASA FC for $109M.

Palace Casuals are in 6th place in the table after Round 6:

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Champions League Group E Round 4, home vs ДяДя FC of Cherkassy, Ukraine. Level 24, AQ +1.9
Palace Casuals had high hopes of a quick revenge on their visitors for a 2-1 defeat two days ago in the reverse fixture in this Champions League Group, and did not disappoint, securing a 2-1 win. A first half goal by Liam Cashman, heading in a Johan Shaqiri corner in the 31st minute, gave the home side the lead at half-time. The visitors made all their substitutions during the second-half, and this eventually told, an equaliser forced home in the 82nd minute. Cashman is really settling into the Casuals squad, and his confidence is building fast - this became apparent three minutes from time when he had the foresight and composure to hit the target from 25 yards out to secure the win.

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League Round 7, away at Mariusz FC, in Lisia Gora, Poland. Level 24, AQ +1.6
Palace Casuals had a visit to Eastern Europe for their League game and had the better of a tactical battle, winning 2-1. The home side sported a 4-1-1-2W-2 formation and after a certain amount of head-scratching, the Casuals Management plumped for 3N-2(DML/DMR)-3N-2 as a starting formation, and this held the score goal-less until half-time. Mariusz then substituted a striker for a central attacking midfielder and the tactical battle started in earnest. Having called for a substitution and change to 3W-5-2V, the Management was waiting for it to take effect when Casuals took the lead in the 66th minute, Liam Cashman finally finding his way through the defence and beat the home custodian with a low volley. After a couple of home attacks were barely fought off, the defence was hardened to 3N, which meant Aad Roemgens was playing DC instead of DR, but he coped admirably. The home side eventually equalised, but immediately Omar Hansen fired a shot off from 30 yards to restore the visitors' lead. The Management then replaced striker Reda Mourad with defender Anurak Arma in the 4-5-1V formation to hold the score as it was until the end of the game. Recent signing goalkeeper Khaled Mokhtari made his Casuals debut in this game and pulled of a couple of good saves in the first half, rating 8 at the end of the match.

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Player news: A little dabble in the Transfer Market overnight had secured the services of a new central defender, 1T/$99M:

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As a result, veteran defender Anurak Arma (age 29, 3*/129Q - 141 appearances, 15 goals, 5 assists) departed to Trung Vuong FC for $97.9M

League Round 8, home vs Red Devils, of Athens, Greece. Level 24, AQ -1.0
Palace Casuals rise to third in the table after a home 3-2 win over their visitors. Red Devils equalised home side goals by Liam Cashman (long-range shot) and Omar Hansen (free-kick), before Hansen netted the winning goal two minutes from time.

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Cup Play-off Round 2nd leg, away at FC Matrix, in Lima, Peru. Level 24, AQ +1.5
Palace Casuals progressed to the next round of the Cup with this 2-1 win, 4-2 on aggregate. Just before half-time, Omar Hansen crossed to Johan Shaqiri, and the latter made no mistake from close range. Within seven minutes of the restart, FC Matrix had equalised, but David Zhelev struck from long range to restore the visitors lead, which they kept to the end.

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Champions League Group E Round 5, away at GS FC, in Ankara, Turkey. Level 24, AQ -3.0
Palace Casuals left themselves needing only a point from their final Group match to ensure progression to the knockout stage of the Champions League with this 1-0 win, Emrah Topalan netting the only goal of the game in the 78th minute.

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League Round 9, away at Liverpool FC, in Liverpool, England (!). Level 24, AQ -1.0
The battle of the last two unbeaten sides in the League went to the home side, who inflicted a 1-2 defeat on the Casuals. Omar Hansen put the visitors in front in the first-half, netting a 20 yard shot past the dive of the home 'keeper. Despite a lot of pressure from the Casuals, the home side had two long range shots on target and scored from both of them to win the game.

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Player news: With the return to full fitness of striker Anthony Petrovski, the Casuals Management took the decision to release one of the other three strikers, and Catalin Neagu (age 28, 3*/129Q - 115 appearances, 52 goals, 27 assists) after a starting price of $95.3M was set, was snapped up, apparently after an extensive bidding war, for the excellent sum of $128M:

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League Round 10, home vs Chelsea FC, of London, England. Level 24, AQ -3.6
After yesterday's match away at the League leaders, home today against 2nd place, and a completely different result. Johan Shaqiri put in a Man-of-the-Match performance, with one goal and two assists, as the Casuals kept up at the top with a 4-1 win. Juan Sebastian Garcia was the recipient of the Shaqiri's first assist to open the scoring, and the right-winger scored himself from long-range shortly after. Omar Hansen fed a pass to Suhail Kamal early in the second-half, before the visitors got onto the score sheet themselves, but were denied a meaningful comeback by Shaqiri putting the ball into the path of defender Saieid Aghanavaz for his debut goal in the red-and-blue shirt.

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Cup 'Top 16' Round 1st Leg, away at Andrew FC, in Liverpool, England. Level 23, AQ -2.5
For the first time, Palace Casuals were in the position of playing lower Level opposition in the Cup, with this short away trip to Andrew FC, and were fully aware of the pitfalls of under-estimating the opposition. The match was only 10 minutes old when striker Anthony Petrovski was fouled outside the box, the perpetrator carded and the ball despatched into the net from the set-piece by Omar Hansen. Eight minutes later, same position, same player, different victim, another card, followed by a red one. This time Hansen must have been feeling the effects of the tackle as his free-kick was effortlessly saved by the home 'keeper. Despite being one man short, Andrew FC started to make a game of the match, and equalised against the run of play soon after the sending off, only for Man-of-the-Match Valentin Ndjengue to put Casuals back in front after a pass from Petrovski. The home side equalised again in the 64th minute, and it was left to Reda Mourad to finish off a Ndjengue run with a tap-in past the 'keeper seven minutes from time, securing a 3-2 win for the visitors. Michael Muscroft picked up his second booking of the Cup campaign and will miss the return Leg, and Midfielder David Zhelev finished the match with an injury, he is currently in assessment to see how serious it is.


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Champions League Group E Round 6, home vs Capon FC, of An Giang, Vietnam. Level 24, AQ +3.7.
Palace Casuals entertained the Group leaders knowing that they needed to not lose in order to progress to the Knockout stage of the Champions League. The match started out evenly, and it took until just before the half-hour before the home side took the lead. Anthony Petrovski made a run through the defence, and squared the ball at the last moment for Valentin Ndjengue to knock it home. Casuals upped the tempo in the second half, in order to release pressure on the defence, and Capon equalised very much against the run of play in the 70th minute. Despite the setback, the home side hung on to the 1-1 draw until the end of the match, only to find that the team in 3rd place had lost at home to the basement club. Central midfielder Emrah Topalan made his 50th appearance for Place Casuals in this match.

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League Round 11, away at FC Krummensee, in Berlin, Germany. Level 24, AQ -2.4
Palace Casuals maintained their reputation as the draw kings of this League with this 2-2 away draw. The visitors took the lead early on, Liam Cashman running down the wing and centring for Emrah Topalan to head past the diving 'keeper. In the second half, Krummensee equalised, then Michael Muscroft was injured, and while the team waited for the substitution to be made, the midfielder Muscroft should have been marking waltzed through the defence and put the home side ahead. Four minutes from time, Casuals got their fair share of the points when Cashman forced the 'keeper to make a save for a corner, then headed home the resulting corner from Johan Shaqiri.

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League Round 12, home vs FC Real, of Seoul, South Korea. Level 24, AQ -1.9
Palace Casuals dropped a couple of points in this 1-1 draw at home. Five minutes after the visitors took the lead in the second-half, Omar Hansen netted a direct free-kick to level the scores. Despite much huffing and puffing, the resulting deadlock wasn't broken.

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Cup 'Top 16' Round 2nd Leg, home vs Andrew FC, of Liverpool, England. Level 23, AQ -3.9
Carrying a 3-2 1st Leg advantage in to this game, Palace Casuals did just enough to progress to the next Round after this 1-1 draw, a 4-3 aggregate win. With all the action happening in the first 18 minutes, Suhail Kamal equalising after the visitors had taken the lead, the remaining 72 were a frustrating stalemate for the home team.

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