Cup and CL Leg 2 Strategy

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! :p 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. :(

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.

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

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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

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Originally Posted by 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.

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Originally Posted by Ποσιδονας

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

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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. :D

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.

good, and get a DC-DMC

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Originally Posted by nikolgiorgos

good, and get a DC-DMC

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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).

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