Hello. My name is Woy Hodgson. I’m a PE teacher in South London who has had a career in non-league. This is my story into football management after a suspicious call from someone from Sweden. I hope you enjoy the story!
It’s the year 2024 and last time we managed to go on a bit of a European run reaching the Quarter Final of the European Conference Cup losing both legs to Villarreal. Being out the of the cup means we can concentrate on the league. So here goes!
Just like always, the league starts in April. I think the Villarreal matches cost us some moral as the first month wasn’t perfect. 3 wins, a draw and a loss meant midtable. This was followed by a fairly decent but busy May 2024 winning 4, drawing 2 and losing 1.
After two month of almost two matches a week, we find ourselves 3rd behind Hammarby IF and surprisingly Helsingborgs IF in first place. Up next was the Svenska Cupen Final!
The stage was set. Sweden’s Wembley FA Cup Final. Between Leicester, a team who have recently found a bit of success by winning the league and Arsenal, a team nobody has ever heard of accidently reaching the final.
The match itself was a dull affaire. I started wondering if I should go and find a pie to eat at half time like the chap from Sutton United did against Arsenal to give the TV camera something to film. That was until one of our defenders (I won’t name him as he is now in hiding due to the incident) played a back pass that was too short. Their striker Ondrejka pick it up and started running at the ‘keeper. The ‘keeper came running out to meet him! This could all end in tears!
The goalkeeper went to ground to try and smother the ball only to see the attack flying toward him, feet in the air, about to take his head off! The ‘keeper gets up and jumps out of the way, fearing for his own life! Ondrejka slide tackles the ‘keeper…
He watches as the ball slowly rolls towards the goal. It took an age! Both the defender and the ‘keeper run back to try and stop it. The close they got, the faster the ball seemed to go! It was too late! The ball was in the back of the net! 1-0 to the Elfs. They’d done it. The cup was theirs. We’d have to wait another year…
Forget the cup nonsense! Let’s get back to what’s important: the league! But before we can, there is a small matter of the Champions League to deal with.
The reputation of the Swedish leagues are growing. But still, we are invited to start right at the beginning of the Champions League in the qualifying rounds, several games away from the group stages. Several opportunities to be knocked out. But if we are knocked out later on, then we may still qualify for the Europa League group stages, which would still be something and a big opportunity to earn some big money!
Our first qualifying round would be against Siroki Brijeg. Someone from somewhere. But thanks to a 9-0 home win, we qualified comfortable. The 3-0 away win meant we were progressing after a 12-0 aggregate score.
The next round would be against Levski Sofia. Sofia was a place I’d heard of so we must be getting close to the bigger teams now. Each round comes with a decent bit of prize money and an increased crowd offering the chance for new supporters to purchase season tickets. We managed to beat Levski Sofia 9-4 on agg. to progress to the next round. Things were going well.
Things were going well until we hit a team that I’d certainly heard of! Zenit of St Peteresburg! They’re a big Russian team. The Hulk used to play for them and he was a bit of a machine. So it was a surprise to me that we managed to beat them 3-1 at home and draw 2-2 away to progress 5-3 on agg. We were starting to build some momentum!
The final playoff match was against APOEL from Cyprus. I knew we’d get a nice holiday out of going there and I was relaxed. Losing at this stage would mean entering the group stage of the Europa League. I was happy with that because the prize money would be enough. But no! We only went a won 5-1 on agg! Champions League Group stage here we come!
The Group Stage Draw
I was hoping to get a few weaker teams so we had a chance of winning a game or two for the prize money. We’d already earnt a shed-load from reaching this far but more would be nice! Then I remembered that we were the weaker team. So we’d probably have to play against some huge teams. And I was right!
Manchester City. RB Leipzig. Porto. No chance of getting close to those! I was a little upset that this really would be the end. Could we get anything against Porto or Leizpig to finish third and qualify for the Europa League Knockout round? I doubt it!
In the end we managed a narrow 1-0 win against Leipzig and a 3-3 draw with Porto. But that didn’t stop us finishing dead last in the group!
So that was our Champions League story. Some success in the qualifying rounds but ultimately we fell short against the teams who would go on to actually win the competition.
Now we can go and focus on the league! And my god, does it get good!
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