Good day and happy weekend! The journey reaches the end today as the 2022 CM Cup reaches a conclusion. Firstly we’ll have the 3rd place playoff and then it’s the main event: The final between Croatia and Argentina.

Well hello there. If you’re still with us, thank you and I hope you’re invested in the outcome of the world’s great cup competition based on a management simulator for 1997. Your 2022 CM Cup semi final line up:

Well hello there. 32 started, 8 remain. One of these 8 managers will lift the 2022 CM Cup. The reigning champion is joined by two former winners, three debutants and two veterans. It’s the business end alright, but who will advance to the last four?

Hello and good day to you. Yesterday we got our first four quarter finalists but such is the way these draws work, we now need to find four more. Here are the 8 hopefuls in the bottom half of the draw. We’ll say goodbye to four of them today.

Good day to you. We’ve got 8 last 16 ties for you, split across today and tomorrow. Today we’re dealing with these 4 at the top of the draw:

They’re all pretty interesting ties with plenty competitiveness in each. Can each back up their group stage form?

Hello! It’s the final day of group games as we finally see Group H in action. With two former CM Cup winners plus a debutant and a blog squad member, there’s narrative aplenty to get stuck into. Let’s meet the managers.

Rob Tait has the plum draw of Portugal in this group. They have the biggest and best pool of players available compared to their group rivals and are managed by a man who lead Spain to success in 2020. You’d be looking at long odds to bet on them not advancing today. Debutant Liam has the rather poorer draw of Ghana. It’s not great at all, I won’t lie to you. Another former champion, Dan Williamson, has Uruguay. Dan’s got an affiliation with South American football so I suspect he will be quite pleased. The final participant here and a third blog squad member is Philip, our Belgian friend. He’s got Wales, who have a few gems but lack depth and fundamentally talent.

Hello! What an intriguing group we have for you today. Any group containing Brazil will always cause a stir but throw in some underdogs, a CM favourite nation and four experienced managers and it’s a total melting pot. Let’s meet the gaffers.

It’s a match made in heaven as tactics guru Nikolai has landed Brazil. He is many people’s favourite to take home the coveted trophy. Meanwhile, former champion and Blog Squadder Ross Bell has the exciting prospect of Norway and all their unearthed gems. Dan Williams returns for another crack, Switzerland have some exciting players and they are very much in the scrap for second. Meanwhile, V2 guru CharleMagne has the unenviable draw of Cameroon, but if anybody can get blood out of that particular stone, it’s Charle.

Hello! Welcome to the most difficult group to call in my opinion. Belgium reap the rewards of being rather good in 2022 and are the seeded team despite being little more than average in 1997. Who are our managers guiding these teams through it all?

Veteran competitor Tom Reed has Belgium, which as mentioned in the intro isn’t the plumb draw it might have been but I still make them second favourites in this group. Blog Squad member Deano has Croatia’s talented pool of players at his disposal and they must have a chance of getting out of the group. Newcomer but experienced Youtuber KiotaGaming has drawn Australia. It’s a poor draw, Australia are more like their 2022 counterparts than the peak Australia side of the Viduka and Kewell days. Lastly, Paddy/90sFootball has Morocco. Chippo, Hadji and…the rest. It’s tough to call.

Hello! Day 5 of the 2022 CM Cup and we’ve got another wild group for you to feast on. Chile and Japan are charged with trying to upset either Spain or Germany – or both – and we have 4 experienced managers in the hot seats.

Mark Carruthers is one of very few who has played in every single CM Cup. He is yet to win one but he was runner up once. He has a plumb draw in Germany though and will fancy his chances of going far. Andrew Walker has also played a few CM Cups in his time and ironically represented Germany in 2020. Now he has Spain and a great chance of going far in this years event.

Representing the blog squad we have Nick Rowe, who is relishing a reunion with Rodrigo Barrera and Chile. They’re not a bad side of course but a bit erratic. Harry is back for his second CM Cup but he has the worst draw possible in Japan. They’re not well represented in the database, with a very small pool of players and many 0 ability and indeed 0 position players. They have one goalkeeper. Goodness me. Let’s football!

Hello Hello and what a group we welcome to the stage today. The group favourites would be France, managed by blog veteran Ross (Riddley82). We’ll come back to those in a second. Blog Squad member Nath has Romania, who can be brilliant on their day but does their day come often enough? We’ll find out. Making his CM Cup debut it’s Tom Robinson, he’s got Denmark with their vast pool of randomly good players. Rounding us off we have Michael Marden, once again representing Quickly Kevin. He’s got South Africa, which isn’t the great draw but you never know.

In an amazing turn of events, France have been disqualified and all opponents receive a 3-0 victory. A squad wasn’t submitted and there was a tournament to be played, so with apologies, we have a three team group on our hands. (In all seriousness, our best wishes to Ross who was poorly when we played out this group)