Lierse 2016/17 Belgian First League
Fans & board: challenge for the title
It's been one hell of a season.
It's been a tough and very long season, with almost 60 matches played.
And although at a point it seemed we're falling apart, the team had the guts top turn everything around, and bring great success and pride to the club.
We started the pre-season with a tour in the Czech Reublic, with the aim of building the new guys into the team. I focused on strenghtening my quite weak left flank, bringing in good backup DC-s and get our new Ukrainian star striker signing on a goalscoring run. Done and done and done, and in the first competitive match we win the Belgian Super Cup with an away 1-0 win against Club Brugge.
We startout with extremely solid performances, and this remains throughout the year - we only suffer 3 defeats inthe championship and 4 in the international cups. The strenghtening of the second XI really shows, so I'm able to rotate more and in an extremely long season like this it pays off.
Liverpool knocks us out in the CL-qualifier 3rd round, and we 'luckily' draw Real Madrid for the UEFA Cup groups qualifying
(lucky, eh?)
We lose 2-0 away, but at home the team turns into a bunch of superheroes, and we kill Real off with 3-0 :thup: Sign of good things to come.
A sign of
bad things is that some butcher (officially defender) breaks my Ukrainian striker's leg. Out 6 months. That's the point I start to wave goodbye to my championship dreams.
Luckily the team proves me pessimistic, because the backups step up and keep me in the championship run. At Christmas we're 2nd but on even points with Mouscron.
Spring is a heavy three-front battle, with us standing in domestic and international cup competition and the title race. Strangely we really struggle at home (a whole lot of annoying draws), but awesome away results keep us up. Mid-March there is a slump of 5 unbeaten games, seeing us slipping down to 4th place. When we are 4-0 down after 25 minutes at Standard, the grin on my face is not happy at all. We come back 4-3, and in the next matches turn around the whole season.
First we beat legue leaders Club Brugge 2-1 coming back from one behind, reducing our deficit to a single point. Then we beat Anderlecht 2-0 away in the cup semis, thus going into the final. We win away at GBA 2-1, though they slaughter my forwards in the first 30 minutes, and when Brugge loses to Standard, we're 2 pts clear. We win our last two games 1-0, and celebrate Lierse's second league title ever!
:thup:
Last game of the season is the cup final, which we win with a really bizarre own goal 1-0, and here comes the double! :thup:
This year's performance was nothing short of heroic. Well done, guys!
Pos.: 1st (champions)
P: 34 W: 17 D: 14 L: 3 41-21 65 pts
Np players in Team of the year (WTF???
), I'm manager of the year, Norwegian free signing striker is transfer of the year.
Belgian Cup : Didn't suck arse :eek:
- Dessel 2-0 (H)
- Roeselare 0-0 (A), 9-8 on penalties - the first time ever I win a bloody shootout!
- Tubize 3-0 (A), 1-0 (H) QF
- Anderlecht 2-2 (H), 2-0 (A) SF
- Charleroi 1-0 (N) Final
Winners Champions' League/UEFA Cup
Nice run as well.
CL
Bohemians (CZE) 3-1 (A), 1-0 (H)
Liverpool (ENG) 0-0 (H), 1-2 (A)
UEFA
Real Madrid (ESP) 0-2 (A), 3-0 (H)
Group
Werder Bremen (GER) 3-4 (A)
Lens (FRA) 1-1 (H)
Málága (ESP) 3-0 (A)
IFK Göteborg (SWE) 3-0 (H)
Red Star (SER) 0-0 (H), 5-0 (A)
West Ham (ENG) 4-1 (H), 1-2 (A)
Sporting (POR) 2-1 (H), 0-1 (A) QF. We held 0-0 until the 86th min
Highlight: all of the season, really. But beating Real 3-0 and Red Star 5-0 really stand out.
Lowlight: home efficiency will haunt me. Next year we have to improve in this.
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