I had a tough matchup in the CL final. Here's the Group stage:


And the matchup:


Overall, he had a slight advantage. Here's his squad:

And mine:


He was set up in a 4-0-3-1-2, so i adjusted my usual formation from 3-6-1V and slid my wingers back to the 3-6-1Arrow you see above. he tried to counter my formation with a near mirror:


Thsi actually played to may advantage, i think, as he ended up fielding a weaker squad in his attempt to counter.

Both of us were present for the match, with no other spectators. It was mano-a-mano with two closely matched squads. I was worried. The match started with 2 shots on target by my Rangers, but possession was 54-46 in his favor. I didn't like that, so I strengthened the midfield by sliding my out-of-position ML (Venuti) back to MC. I had to slide my AMC (Ardiansayah AML/AMC) back outside to AML to stay legal, so I moved my out-of-position MR (Iliev AMC/AMR) back up to AMR. Thus, I was back to my usual 3-6-1V formation (3n-1-2n-2w-1-1). He immediately countered by subbing in his #2 striker for Ferreira (AMC). While we were making changes, he failed on two corners - one because of a foul, and one by a beautiful save by my keeper. I scored first blood on the counterattack on a Rodriguez solo run.

By halftime, possession was even and I held my 1 goal lead. Rodriguez was playing great, but he was by far the most weary player on the field, so I sent in fresh legs there, and at the so-important midfield as well.

I was fully expecting extra time and penalty kicks, so I adjusted my penalty kick lineup, then sent in my last sub, again putting a fresh body in at midfield - but with my DMC Lozano getting tired, and no other MCs eligible, I sent in DMC/DC Sanchez, and shifted to two DMCs with the MC directly midfield. Despite some near misses, I held onto my slim lead. With 5 minutes to go, I pulled everyone I could back on D. Another fine save by my keeper in a last minute flurry, and victory was ours!


You can see just how close this match was:

Our shots were a bit more precise, and my keeper came up with those 2 saves that made all the difference.
I'm sure this was a very disappointing loss for him. It was certainly the closest Champions League Final I've played. But he showed fine sportsmanship and added as friends after the match. looking forward to meeting up against him again.