Phlegmatic - Football Manager drama

My Manchester United team won the 2014-2015 Champions League last night, beating Manchester City (yes, an all-Manc final) on penalties.

Beat Ajax in the first knockout round, Barcelona in the quarter-final, Arsenal in the semi-final (on away goals).



My starting XI in the final (4321 formation)
Goal: Igor Akinfeev
Defence: Patrice Evra, Florian Susini, Nicholas N'Koulou, Miguel Torres
Midfield: Mascio, Joao Moutinho, Fabian Delph
Attack: Andrey Arshavin, Luca Vitale, Nordin Amrabaat

1-0 down to a goal from Eduardo after 30 minutes. Very close game with not that many chances. Fiercely contested in midfield. Nordin Amrabaat (playing as a striker instead of his normal position behind the striker because Federico Laurito was cup-tied, Falcao and Robin van Persie were both injured and Alex Teixeira suspended because of getting sent off against Arsenal) equalised not long after half-time.

Then City had star midfielder Marek Hamsik sent off for a second bookable offence on 70 minutes. After that, they just sat back to defend. We had almost all of the possession, a couple of good chances, but couldn't break them down. As the 90 minutes ticked into injury time, my fingernails reduced to stumps and my heartbeat racing, skordh sent me a message over Steam chat asking me exactly HOW much time I'd been playing FM. (Steam shows these statistics on your profile.) skordh, I would have replied but it wasn't a good time...

Still unable to score in extra time. City got bolder and had a couple of half-chances of their own. Arshavin and Evra had played brilliantly, but both were tiring (they're in their mid-thirties now), so they got taken off to be replaced by Eliveilton (a young Brazilian striker, and about the only striker I had left) and Danny Simpson respectively. Young Italian midfielder Mascio was also tiring, so he was subbed for Gokco Kacar (star player of the real Serbian under-21s side who got a good 0-0 draw against the Azzurrini last night).

City brought on the not fully-fit Robinho, but kept to their 4131 formation. We were able to contain him. A couple of last chances for Vitale and Joao Moutinho and that was that. Penalties.

Now I have a theory in penalty shootouts that goes like this: The bigger the game, the more likely it is that the person who misses the vital penalty will be the best or most skilful player. See for example:
Chris Waddle (1990 World Cup semi-final)
Roberto Donadoni (1990 World Cup semi-final)
Roberto Baggio (1994 World Cup final)
David Beckham (2004 European Championship quarter-final)
Didier Drogba (2006 African Cup of Nations final)
John Terry (2008 Champions League final)

My team heroically scored all five penalties - Joao Moutinho, Delph, Amrabaat, Eliveilton and N'Koulou. And City scored four of theirs - the player who missed was Robinho.

Cue much jubilation...