EuroTrip | Part 46 | EURO 2068 – Football Manager Addict

Baník Ostrava became the first Czechia side to win the Champions League under the tutelage of veteran Zambian manager Trebor Mahtal in 2065. The 81-year-old saw this as the pinnacle of his career, leading the best squad he’d ever compiled, and stood down with his stock at an all-time high.

Mahtal decided this was the end of his domestic management career. He treated himself to an extended holiday while waiting for an opportunity to move into international management, which he expected to take a while and did, as he remained unemployed going into the 2066 World Cup.

But first, we need to highlight how bad the Football Manager AI is at squad management. Mahtal’s former club wasted no time selling their best players as Barbat went to Man UFC for £57m, Ríos went to Man City for just £27.5m and Van der Heyden went to Chelsea for £75m (and is now worth up to £224m). The next summer, they lost LaRoche to Panathinaikos and sold Hruska to Bayern for £28m and Amundsen to Liverpool for just £21.5m, and they’ve made £7.6m of signings in two seasons.

World Cup 2066 was held in Spain. There were no significant surprises in the group stage but in the second round holders Switzerland lost on penalties to Slovakia, Northern Ireland beat Portugal on penalties, Finland beat Serbia 1-0 and Turkey beat Belgium 1-0. Brazil (on penalties to Czechia) and Argentina (4-1 to Spain) both exited in the round of 16 before Turkey beat France 3-2 in the quarters. In the semis, Spain beat Turkey 2-1 and England beat Slovakia 2-1. Slovakia beat Turkey 1-0 after extra time to finish 3rd and Spain nicked a 2-1 win against England to lift their 4th World Cup.

The aftermath of the World Cup inevitably saw a mass of sackings for Mahtal to explore, but he remained committed to taking a role in the lesser-fancied European nations. He swiftly received offers from Morocco, Mexico, Colombia and Serbia, which left him with one option.

Moving Into International Management With Serbia

Becoming Serbia manager sees Mahtal return to a nation 32 years on from winning two titles and a Europa League with Crvena zvezda. 43 years in the future, no Serbian player has come close to Alexsander Mitrovic’s record of 85 goals and 137 caps.

Serbia qualified for every World Cup in this save until 2046, but never progressed beyond the last 16, then missed out on five in a row before the most recent event. It also reached every European Championship up to 2048, losing to France in the semi final in 2044 and Portugal in the quarter final in 2048. And Mahtal joins with Serbia 35th in the world rankings, just above Algeria and Germany and just below Scotland, Sweden and Wales. The Serbian FA hasn’t set any expectations but Mahtal wanted to take Serbia into the knockout stages of EURO 2068. To do that, he had a surprisingly strong squad, including a world-class midfielder, several wonderkids and six elite talents.

Mahtal was reunited with a few former players, including striker Ivan Josimovic, who he managed at BATE and Baník, young Baník midfielder Admir Music, centre back Nikola Cenic, who he managed at Rijeka, and veteran goalkeeper Milan Cirovic. But the best Serbian player is Partizan winger Stefan Matijevic along with Milan centre back Nenad Milosavljevic, 5ft 3in Partizan midfielder Stefan Cvetkovic, Arsenal midfielder Goran Nedeljkovic and Crvena zvezda winger Dusan Marinkovic. And there was plenty of potential including Crvena zvezda attacker Vasilije Lekovic, Partizan centre back Uros Jovanovic, Crvena zvezda goalkeeper Lazar Petkovic and Spartak attacker Milan Jakovljevic.

Mahtal created a variation on his preferred 4-2-4 approach, along with a 3-4-3 that played to Serbia’s strength at centre back and holding midfield.

Mahtal’s international career began with four Nations League Group B games in September 2066. They began with a 3-0 win at 10-man Germany with goals by Marinkovic, Cenic and Jakovljevic’s first for Serbia. They backed that up with Cvetkovic scoring the only goal at home to Bosnia, a 4-2 win at home to Slovakia led by Marinkovic’s brace in the first trial of the 3-4-3, and thrashing Bosnia 4-0 with Josimovic scoring twice, Lekovic becoming Serbia’s youngest ever goalscorer aged 17 years 344 days and Petkovic keeping a debut clean sheet. The group resumed in November with Marinkovic rescuing a 1-1 at home to Germany to confirm top spot, before concluding with plenty of youngsters getting gametime and wonderkid winger Josip Memic scored both in a 2-1 win at Slovakia.

European Championship Qualifying

The move to international management gave 82-year-old Mahtal freedom to enjoy life outside of football. But a EURO qualifying group alongside Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czechia and Slovenia, ranked 153, 76, 20 and 52 in the world, began in March 2067. The top two qualify for the EURO, so this should be easy, with only a strong Czechia side packed with Mahtal’s Baník youngsters offering a threat.

The group began with the easiest match at home to Azerbaijan. Marinkovic’s fine form under Mahtal continued as he scored inside 4 minutes and they won 5-0 with full back Vladan Vrga scoring his first senior goal to break Lekovic’s record aged 17 years 329 days. In June, Marinkovic and Music’s first Serbia goal earned a dominant 2-1 win at Slovenia and they hammered Bulgaria 4-2 led by a goal and assist from Nedeljkovic. That left Serbia 2nd on goal difference to Czechia, who they visited at the start of a September triple header. And Czechia showed their strength with a dominant 3-1 win. Serbia got back on track as Josimovic’s hat trick and Matijevic and Marinkovic’s assist trebles had them 7-0 up at halftime in Azerbaijan. And they went on to win by a new national record 11-0.

A 2-0 win over Slovenia left Serbia 4 points clear of 3rd-place Bulgaria with two games remaining. They secured qualification for EURO 2068 as Cvetkovic’s brace secured a 3-0 win in Bulgaria, then went and won the group as late memic and Josimovic goals edged a 2-1 win at home to Czechia.

EURO 2068

EURO 2068 was held in Scotland and Wales. Serbia got drawn into the Group of Death alongside France, Italy and Norway, ranked 11th, 20th, and 24th in the world. And they warmed up with a 1-1 against Northern Ireland and a 2-1 defeat to Sweden.

Mahtal went into his first international tournament with the 26-man squad of:

GK: Vladan Martinovic (Al-Nasr), Goran Marinkovic (Novi Sad), Lazar Petkovic (Crvena zvezda)
DEF: Dragan Bosancic (Milan), Nikola Cenic (Al-Ettifaq), Nikola Janicijevic (Spartak), Uros Jovanovic (Partizan), Miroslav Lucic (Spartak), Nenad Mirosavljevic (Milan), Dorde Pajovic (Dinamo), Vladan Vrga (Crvena zvezda)
MID: Branko Bogicevic (Benfica), Nikola Dordic (Olympiacos), Admir Music (Baník), Goran Nedeljkovic (Arsenal), Janko Nikolic (PSG), Filip Zivkovic (Tottenham)
ATT: Alexander Aleksic (Crvena zvezda), Stefan Cvetkovic (Chelsea), Milan Jakovljevic (Al-Tai), Ivan Josimovic (Al-Tai), Dusan Marinkovic (Al-Fateh), Stefan Matijevic (Partizan), Josip Memic (Crvena zvezda), Vladimir Stojanovic (Radnicki), Kodjo Tchadjobo (Juventus)

Game 1 – Italy: Serbia started the opening game brightly but came up against an Italy team intent on playing for a 0-0 and got one, which was probably a good result after Vrga’s late red card.

Game 2 – France: Mahtal made a few changes for the second game and they started well as Zivkovic’s cheeky backheel put Cvetkovic in to score. France had a chance to get back into it with a nonsense penalty call but Petkovic stepped up to deny world-class striker Ondo, who eventually did get them level from a strange freekick routine. It looked like a draw was inevitable until substitute Memic got down the right and his low cross found Cvetkovic to drill home his second and claim a huge victory.

Game 3 – Norway: That win probably guaranteed qualification but Mahtal still wanted to beat Norway. They should have wrapped the game up in the first half, having 10 shots to 3 but wasting them and conceding Norway’s first on target. Obviously. But Serbia’s domination finally told, as substitute strikers combined with Aleksic crossing for Jakovljevic to tap home. Elsewhere, France hammered Italy 3-0, so Serbia finished 2nd and Norway and Italy went home prematurely.

Second Round – Croatia: An Eastern European rival clash followed against Croatia, who were 1 place below Serbia in the world rankings. Mahtal brought in 6ft 6in striker Aleksic, which proved a good move in an unexpected manner as his cheeky short free kick found winger Tchadjobo to tee up Jovanovic for his first international goal. And that was just about enough to nick a 1-0 win. There was a big surprise elsewhere as Austria beat France 2-1 while Romania beat Czechia 3-2.

Quarter Final – England: Now things got really tough as Serbia faced World Cup finalists England. England had a couple of early chances but Serbia struck first from a free kick as Matijevic headed down to Music to volley home. Next to nothing happened until England whipped a ball across the box and striker Owusu somehow blasted over from six yards out. And Serbia held on for a huge 1-0 upset!

Semi Final – Spain: Serbia’s reward for beating the World Cup runners-up was world champions Spain. The nonsense of international management meant Mahtal was forced into rotating tired players. But Serbia struck first on 10 minutes as Petkovic’s long hoof landed on Josimovic’s chest, sending him clean through to coolly finish. And they were in dreamland 4 minutes later as Vrga’s floating cross was headed home by Tchadjobo. The ref tried to do his bit to give Spain a chance, only for Petkovbic to be the hero again as he saved from Spurs striker Vidal. Petkovic made another big save just after half time and his side went down the other end to make it 3-0 through Music. Spain got one back from a corner and Mahtal got a bit worried, but the team responded as Marinkovic’s shot rebounded off the post into the path of Cvetkovic 2 yards out. And Serbia secured a massive 4-1 victory to reach the EURO Final!

Final – Switzerland: An unlikely EURO Final saw Serbia take on 2062 world champions and 4th in the world rankings Switzerland, who have probably the best player in the world in Napoli striker Frane Rasic. Mahtal again had fitness concerns but lined up:

Petkovic; Jancijevic, Cenic, Milosavljevic, Pajovic; Music, Jovanovic; Marinkovic, Tchadjobo; Cvetkovic, Josimovic
Subs: Jakovljevic, Maribnkovic, Bosancic, Bogicevic, Matijevic, Memic, Vrga, Nikolic, Aleksic, Nedeljkovic, Zivkovic, Lukic

Switzerland came out flying, having 6 shots in the first 20 minutes and scoring one from a corner then swiftly doubled their lead. They scored again just after the break as Serbia’s shocking performance continued. But Mahtal made five changes and finally got a response as Milosavljevic and Zivkovic brought them back into the game with 16 minutes remaining. But, predictably, as he threw everything at it, nothing else happened. And Switzerland held on for a 3-2 win.

Serbia’s overperformance saw them surge to number 20 in the world rankings. And Petkovic’s superb performances saw him named the Best Young Player and included in the Dream Team alongside Milosavljevic with Cenic and Music on the bench.