Hi guys!

I am here to share my admirable success as Northern Ireland manager! We made it!!!!!!! Northern Ireland goes to Euro 2016! I am really happy to achieve this very tough goal. Let's take a look at the latest events regarding my team.

Final group results

Denmark managed to loose 4 games – so it wasn't too hard to overtake them in the 2nd position race. My home draw against Portugal helped perceptibly as well. Georgia was kind of equal team to Northern Ireland but my new great tactics proved its efficiency. Therefore I can say that the 2nd position was taken in a quite confident way. It allowed to pass through to the playoff round where rival Ireland awaited us!

Irish battle

Nothing can be better in football than match between rival teams. I still cannot forget tough games between Ukraine and Russia in 1999-2000 and fantastic mistake of Russian keeper that brought my national team to the playoff round:

So I was really looking forward to play two matches against Ireland!

Match #1. At home

Ireland had better players in all areas apart from defence (thanks to Cathcart and Evans). My players gave out ball possession and tried to act efficiently on a pitch. They didn't allowed opposition to make any clear cut chance. Instead our well coordinated attack scored twice:

I was feeling great - like Northern Ireland hade already made their way to Euro 2016. I didn't believe we would allow Ireland score a lot in the second match but…

Match #2. Dramatic one!

You see, ye? Away goals of Paterson and Davis played decisive role in this game. After the first half I was snatching my head because of 3:0 on a scoreboard. Then I used touchline shouts asking my players to hassle opposition and making hard tackles everywhere. Moreover I replaced Counter Attack strategy on Control. It was risky but I had nothing to loose.

Then we intercepted ball possession and started to make pressure on Irish defence and goalkeeper. And you see the result! It was truly dramatic match!

All match results of Northern Ireland

Here is the full list of matches in 2015:

Some words about my players and tactics

First of all here is the current squad of Northern Ireland in 2015. I think you will be able to estimate its strength (actually to see it's weakness):

How did I manage to cope with Denmark and Ireland having such a weak squad? The key is my 5-3-2 tactics:

It's even better than the tactics I use for Leeds. It allows to make miracles, especially using Control strategy. You may try to use it and say your opinion then.

Martin Paterson

I cannot be silent about Martin Paterson. He has been the best forward of Northern Ireland in these Euro-2016 qualification matches. Not Kyle Lafferty as you would expect. You see the values of his attributes on the screen shot above. Really nothing special, yes? Just good speed, agility and off the ball. In spite of this fact Paterson scored 9 goals and became one of the best Euro 2016 qualification strikers:

Hope he will continue his goal series on Euro 2016

Euro 2016. Group C

Regarding the championship… Northern Ireland have been drawn to a very interesting group as for me:

Russia and Ukraine – that's what I was talking earlier about. Of course, our chances are not high because both Russian and Ukrainian league are included in my game. Plus Czech Republic is always rather strong team. Currently they have Petr Cech, Tomas Necid and Jan Simunek as main stars (all having price value higher than $12M).

Anyway I will try to do my best and really looking forward to Euro 2016!

___________

Additionally I propose you to recall old good days and look at the encounter of Ireland and Northern Ireland in 1993:

True Football Manager