When we left things last time we had qualified for the Championship Group along with Brugge, Anderlecht and Genk to decide who would take the title, and qualify for the all important European places.

We started the group bottom of the four, and had a key double header against third placed Genk to start us off.

Having secured our spot in the Championship Group the board were content we had met our season's objective. It felt almost like a free hit for us, so I decided to change things up a little bit for the games ahead.  We moved from a 4-3-3 DM  to a 4-2-3-1.  Third spot would get us a place in the Europa League, and that was my realistic aim.

So six games to define an entire season, let's see how it went.

Championship Group

We lost a pretty dire game 1-0, away to Genk (0.83 xG v 0.48 xG) which wasn't unexpected really. I saw enough in the 4231 to continue with it, some of our link up play looked good and we only lost to set piece goal.

The home fixture against Genk was, once again, very tight. We broke the deadlock just before half time with a long range effort from veteran midfielder Faris Haroun. The game remained in the balance until a late second goal from former premier league winner Richie De Laet secured us the victory.

Our third game saw us up come against Vincent Kompany's Anderlecht.  Enter Guy Mbenza, a young Congolese striker on our books who our coaches really love (4.5 star potential). I had yet to see much from him, only three goals all season before the Championship Group. He really came alive in this game as a Pressing Forward. He scored a magnificent hat-trick to put Anderlecht to the sword 4-2, for the second time this season.

So at the half way point of the Championship Group the table looked like this.

We now had a double header against Brugge, who were on the brink of securing the title. We'd already played them twice this season and secured a win and a draw.  I really expect them to take a measure of revenge on us, as they attempted to secure the title.

We found ourselves 1-0 down after 6 minutes, with our backs firmly against the wall for the whole of the first half.  It wasn't until Clinton Mata was sent off in the 48th minute that we got a foothold in the game. The xG story of the game illustrates this pretty well, it is a feature I actually enjoy in this years edition of the game.

Centre Back Frank Boya got us level from a corner, before Guy Mbenza (again) secured the win on 63 minutes, I was starting to get the FM feels for him.

The return fixture was another chance for Brugge to get their hands on the title and they duly did.  We took the lead through Cristian Benavente, who had started to recover his form of earlier in the season. As the second half continued Brugge came on strong and they got the goals they needed. I even got to watch their trophy presentation; hurrah!

So, we had one game to go, and things could not be tighter.

In short, if we beat Anderlecht, for a third time this season, we would secure Champions League football. This would be huge for the club given our financial troubles, which have not improved in the slightest. If we drew, or lost, we could end up with nothing at all, everything was possible, even the Europa Conference League. I was hoping that Brugge would do us a favour and beat Genk leaving us with, at the very least, the Europa League regardless of our own result. If Genk were to win, then we would need a win to get anything out of the season.

Kick Off...

Wow thanks FM, it really is the hope that kills you with this fucking game.

So as it stands we either win, and qualify for the Champions League, draw or lose and we remain fourth and miss out on Europe completely.

Champions League or bust!

Then... after 31 minutes... the "Anderlecht assassin" steps up...

1-0 Antwerp and Champions League football has appeared on the horizon.

Things got even better after 54 minutes. Who says crosses don't work!

It is that man Mbenza again, what a specimen!

Just as I was pacing around my living room waiting for the final whistle, an absolute rocket flew into our net on 90+1 minutes.

Not like this FM, not like this, please no...

I immediately dialed back on the mentality, turned on 'play for set pieces' and maxed out the time wasting. What followed was a fabulous succession of throw ins deep in Anderlecht's half, each of which took 30 seconds or more to take.

After what seemed like an age the referee brought the action to a close, we did it!

Champions League baby!

In a little sneak preview I can tell you we will be travelling back to FM20 territory in our Third Qualifying Round game as we have been drawn against Dynamo Kiev, a massive game for the club.

Just a quick update from me to round off the season. It took far longer to play than I expected, but I have really enjoyed Belgium so far.

In my next post, which is already in draft, I will go through the summer recruitment process and introduce the first Antwerp intake of 'Euro rejects'. I also have some confessions to make...

As always if you have made it this far many thanks for reading. If you can't wait to find out what my confessions are you can follow along with my save on my slack channel or on Twitter.

Until next time,

Over and out

FMEadster!