Winland — Scandi Domination FM24

Such a terrible pun, but in simple terms, we are running it back in Finland with Inter Turku.

As I said earlier, this is meant to be a save were we dominate Scandinavian football. Which should mean winning everything, but we’re not going to stay in the lower ranked countries just to win a cup.

However, winning the league gives us a chance to play in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers.

What sealed the deal?

Thierry Henry, Ryan Felipe and Riquelmy all agreeing to return on loan. The boys are back, so let’s give it one more season to not only win the domestic cups, but make a splash in Europe.

FIREPOWER

Welsh striker, Iwan Morgan, arrives on loan from Brentford. We are allowed five loan signings, so a striker was a huge target to strengthen our assault on the domestic competitions.

Venezuelan centre-back, Lawrence Lonsdale, was the other huge signing. Arriving from Angostura for £14k, the big 6 foot 4 monster was exactly what we were missing at the back.

This was backed up when we romped to the Liigacup final and smacked VPA to finally lift the preseason tournament.

After some inconsistencies, we got on the right path five games into the season, dispatching HJK with a thumping victory. They didn’t stand a chance.

Form had beeninconsistent, and there were worries we’d done the wrong thing by staying.

However, it sparked a run of 10 unbeaten, with nine wins, only ended by a 4–1 defeat to HJK. OK, didn’t want to win the league anyway, the cup was our main focus, which was going well, until we drew HJK in the quarter-finals

It didn’t help that big Henry had left his shooting boots in Brazil. With 10 games played, he’d only found the net once, compared to the 24 in 27 he’d managed on the way to the title.

Against HJK, it was a proper back and forth scrap. Darren Smith put us ahead twice, but as we tried to hold on, Anosike Ementa smashed home to level the game with just three minutes to go.

Penalties.

And you know how this ends…

You don’t recover from missing two of your first three.

The Finnish Cup would evade us, but nevermind, look over there! It’s the Champions League.

Budućnost Podgorica would fall 7–1, then Dinamo Batumi 6–4

Doesn’t it look lovely in the sunshine. The pitch flag and the music will never get old. Love it at this level.

Ah balls.

Looks like our time in Finland was coming to a close.

Or so we thought.

We destroyed them, played the Serbians off the park and Henry’s 79th minute header gave us hope that we might just pull off a miracle and reach the playoff round — which would guarantee a Europa League Group spot.

The plan was clear. Keep it tight for the first 20 minutes and hope to grab an away goal.

Away in Belgrade, the Stadion Rajko Mitic errupted when strikes from Osman Bukari and Kings Kangwa leveled up the tie at 2–2 after just SIX MINUTES.

You’ve seen this story before, the home team are too strong and come good. Thierry Henry had other ideas.

Somehow we were going to go into the break ahead.

Ah no, Bukari added a third before the injury time was up.

Inspiring team talk given. Let’s start the second half better…oh ffs Cherif N’Diaye makes it 4–3 on the night nine minutes after the restart. Then the killer blow from Red Star was struck 15 minutes from time by Andrija Maksimović.

6–6 on aggregate and we were off to Extra-Time

Into the second half and our dreams were smashed by Kangwa. N’Diaye’s pass came off Lonsdale’s legs and straight into Kings’ path, the forward couldn’t miss.

With one last throw of the dice, we chucked everything we had at the home side

Rokman, off the bench, found Felipe unmarked inside the box and the Brazilian fired home with the last kick of the ball.

LIIIIMMMBBBSSS

Oh fuck. Penalties again.

This time, the boys were flawless, scoring every spot kick.

Kangwa and Stamenic couldn’t say the same for the home side and INTER TURKU would be 180 minutes from the Champions League Group Stage.

Standing in our way would be Sparta Prague. There’s no way we could handle another close two-legged dramafest.

So we smashed them instead. Iwan Morgan coming up trumps, destroying the Czech defence. We even won the away leg 2–0 in Prague. Madness.

I’ve never witnessed such a calm, enjoyable playoff round.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE BAY BAY

Inter Turku were in the league draw for the first time in their history, and only the second Finnish club to make it.

At this point, I should have probably handed in my resignation. Job done. Walk off into the sunset, but the league table had my looking at another title.

At this point, I still can’t understand what happened. We should have been flying on all cylinders. Winning our first CL group game against Club Brugge, but the league went weird.

Defeat to Mariehamn and Ekenas, then a late equaliser from FC Honka meant, once again we had to beat HJK on the final day. This time it didn’t go to plan.

Collapsing under the pressure, we dropped to third place. Four points from the final five games is shocked.

It should have been the perfect goodbye. Henry finished with 26 goals, Morgan added 25. Ryan Felipe provided 21 assists.

We had the most shots, the most goals, but the defence had it’s flaws, clearly. Failing to win the league hurt. Missing out on the cup was tough, but creating European history was worth staying for.

Bags packed, goodbyes said, our time here is up.

Iceland is calling.