Chapter 183 Champions League draw, UEFA’s conspiracy!

At 17:45 in the evening on August 29, Monte Carlo in Monaco was ablaze with lights.

Countless stars and famous coaches gathered together to participate in the annual Champions League group stage draw ceremony.

The scene was covered with a red carpet, and countless reporters gathered on both sides of the red carpet. All kinds of long shots and short guns were aimed at the stars and coaches of major clubs who got off the expensive cars.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, the two giants of the Western Premier League, are still the most sought after by reporters.

The Welsh player Gareth Bale, who made a sensational world-record transfer in the summer, was also besieged by many reporters because of his extremely high topic and extremely high transfer fee.

Some attentive reporters noticed that Ronaldo did not come with Bale. Although the two belonged to the same club, there was no communication at all during the red carpet.

It seems that the rumors from the outside are true. Bell's transfer fee might really break the Portuguese's transfer fee record, making Ronaldo very unhappy.

When Messi, the other one of the two unparalleled heroes, came on the stage, he also had a serious expression on his face.

Barcelona's record in recent years has not been good, and the team has lost in the semi-finals twice in a row.

Last season, he was even beaten out by Bayern Munich in a humiliating 7-0 defeat!

This made Barcelona hold their breath and wanted to take revenge on their opponents.

This season, they bought Neymar early, and the team is working hard to prepare for a big effort.

As a result, Vilanova was unable to continue coaching the team due to the recurrence of cancer, and Barcelona experienced a coaching change in the summer.

As Guardiola and Enrique left one after another, Barcelona did not have a suitable candidate.

Russell finally chose the obedient Martino as Barcelona coach.

Martino's ability is mediocre, and the outside world is very unfavorable to him.

Everyone knows that this man is a transitional coach, otherwise, Barcelona would not only give him a short contract of 2 years.

Due to the superposition of multiple factors, before this season's Champions League competition has even started, there are already voices from the outside world that are badmouthing Barcelona.

As the core and top player of Barcelona, ​​most of the pressure from the outside world falls on Messi's shoulders. Naturally, Messi can't laugh.

"Messi is under a lot of pressure!"

When Lin Quan arrived at the scene, he happened to see the back of Messi entering the stadium.

Pellegrini, who coached in La Liga last season, said with emotion.

Lin Quan nodded. As the core of the team, they must bear greater responsibilities than other players.

Seeing the people from Manchester City coming, reporters on the scene rushed up one after another, and all kinds of long guns and short cannons were aimed at Lin Quan.

At the Golden Globe Awards last year, he was just a minor supporting actor who was not very famous.

But this year, as his fame and strength continue to increase, his status in European football has also improved a lot.

More and more people regard Lin Quan as the third person besides Melo.

And as long as he can perform further in major competitions such as the World Cup or Champions League, it is not impossible to play alongside Melo in the future.

For such a super new star, reporters naturally dare not neglect him.

After last year's experience, Lin Quan is no longer unfamiliar with dealing with this kind of scene.

He smiled and waved to the reporters and fans at the scene, satisfied some fans' requests for autographs and photos, and then walked into the venue with a calm pace.

Entering the venue, Lin Quan saw several familiar faces.

"Hey, here!"

Dortmund player Reus saw Lin Quan coming in and waved to him quickly.

Lin Quan took a look and saw that these seats were not marked with names, which meant that players could choose their own seats.

According to his seat, his seat must be near the front row, if not the first row, then the second row.

Royce's position is in the fifth row, which can be said to be very far back.

Sitting in the back, it is difficult to find them in live exposure shots.

However, Lin Quan didn't care much about this. He didn't care about the order of seniority and so on, and sat directly next to Isco.

"You're the only one here?"

Lin Quan looked around and didn't see Royce's teammates, so he asked curiously.

"Levan is injured, I'm here in his place!"

Royce explained, and then asked: "How is it? Is the Premier League fun?"

Royce looked Lin Quan up and down, as if he was checking whether he was missing any arms or legs.

"It's okay, but the defenders there are so enthusiastic. I often have close interactions with them!"

"Haha, is it the kind of interaction that makes people fall over on their backs?"

Royce gloated that although he had never played in the Premier League, he still heard about the Premier League's playing style.

"Would you know if you try it?"

Royce raised his hands in a gesture of surrender:

"Come on, please spare me. With my glassy physique, wouldn't I be courting death by going to the Premier League?"

This kid is quite self-aware. If he really comes to the Premier League, with the intensity of fouls committed by Premier League defenders, Royce's injury frequency will probably increase greatly.

"Are you still injured this season? Can't you discuss with your coach to reduce your playing time? According to his tactics, unless you are a Super Saiyan, you will definitely not be able to withstand it!"

"Ahem!"

As soon as Lin Quan finished speaking, he heard a middle-aged man coughing from the side.

He looked sideways and found Dortmund coach Klopp sitting next to him at some point.

Lin Quan glared at Royce. This guy definitely saw Klopp coming, but he didn't tell him.

Royce was overjoyed, looking like his plot had succeeded.

"Lin, you seem to have a problem with me?"

Klopp asked Lin Quan curiously.

"No, no, I have great admiration for you, Coach Klopp, and the results you have achieved under your leadership."

"Really? But I just heard you criticizing my tactics, Marco, right?"

Royce nodded repeatedly: "Yes, I can testify that it was this kid who spoke ill of him!"

Royce decisively sold Lin Quan!

Lin Quan's face turned dark. This boy Royce was so despicable, he actually sowed dissension!

You have to take care of him later!

"Ahem, that's not what I meant, coach, please listen to my explanation!"

Lin Quan was unwilling to conflict with Klopp. He had no social relations with Klopp and could not offend others.

"Well, I'm listening to you!"

Klopp said, "I want to see what you kid can say."

"High pressing is the development trend of football in the future, and its emergence will replace many current defensive tactics."

Klopp's eyes lit up, and he felt like he had met a confidant.

I didn’t expect that this kid would have such a profound understanding of the development of modern football at such a young age.

There was some vague expectation in his heart, so he said: "Keep talking!"

“Just like Spain’s pass-and-control football, the high press is derived from the Dutch’s total attack and defense tactics.

The purpose of our high-pressure press is to shorten the time for the opponent's players to handle the ball.

Let them have to make decisions quickly, which will increase the opponent's turnover rate and give us the opportunity to steal the ball in the opponent's half and complete the offense.

The closer you are to the opponent's goal, the easier it is to complete the attack.

I observed the Dortmund game and many goals were scored after the opponent succeeded in counterattacking in the half. "

Klopp nodded repeatedly with a satisfied smile on his face. This kid had indeed seen through his tactics.

The Dortmund players pressed like a mad dog in order to force the opposing players to make forced errors and launch an attack on the spot.

If they organize an attack from their own backcourt, they need to penetrate the opponent's three lines of defense.

But if they can force turnovers from opposing players and win the ball in the opponent's half or even near the penalty area.

Then they only have to face one line of defense of the opponent, and the ball is still in the opponent's hands one second, and it falls into Dortmund's hands the next second.

This rapid transition between offense and defense will make it difficult for the opponent's players to react in a timely manner.

This greatly increases the success rate of their offense.

"However, this requires a lot of players, and they need to have the following characteristics:

Good technique, good physical fitness, impact, and strong execution!

If there were just a group of engineers on the field, they might be able to steal the ball, but their offense would be difficult to organize.

If the players on the field do not have speed and impact, the opponent will be positioned very quickly, and even if there is only one line of defense, it will be difficult for them to penetrate.

If the players do not have enough physical strength or insufficient tactical execution, they will not even be able to complete the task of pressing high.

Reus is a player who perfectly fits these requirements, so in your tactics, Reus may have a more prominent position than Lewandowski.

This also leads to Royce's attendance rate being very high. However, he is a glass man. The higher the attendance rate, the more severe the injury, and the worse the final result may be. "

Royce protested Lin Quan's statement that he was a glass man, but was ignored by the two.

Klopp thought seriously about Lin Quan's words.

Gotze's departure this season has made things worse for Dortmund, which directly led to increased offensive pressure on Lewandowski and Reus.

The two of them already have a lot of responsibilities. To further increase their burden is indeed not very friendly to them.

Since Royce joined the team, he has suffered a lot of major and minor injuries, and he does have a tendency to become a glass man.

If we continue to operate at such a high load, the team may really be destroyed by injuries.

Thinking of this, Klopp nodded: "I will seriously consider your suggestion. Thank you, Lin!"

This thank you was sincere, because no one had ever told him these things from an outsider's objective perspective before.

Lin Quan is the first!

"You're welcome. I'm just talking. The only one who can really solve the problem is you yourself!"

Lin Quan is not being self-effacing, he is really just a talker.

Ask him to replace Klopp and think of a solution to Dortmund's current predicament, but he really can't do it.

Guardiola arrived late and had just entered the venue.

After entering the venue, he hurriedly searched around and finally found Lin Quan at the back.

Why is this kid sitting here?

Just as he was about to go over to say hello to Lin Quan, he saw Lin Quan and Klopp having a happy conversation.

This made Guardiola stunned for a moment. After hesitating, he did not choose to go forward and disturb the two of them, and sat in another row with mixed emotions.

…

After the conversation with Klopp, the on-site drawing ceremony began immediately.

The two hosts responsible for presiding over the lottery ceremony were Pedro Pinto, the host from CNN Sports Channel, and Melanie, the 1996 Miss Switzerland winner.

Before the draw ceremony officially began, the host announced the shortlist of the best players in Europe last season.

Lin Quan entered the final roster as the Bundesliga Golden Boot.

But obviously, he is just running with him. If nothing else happens, the best player award should be awarded to Robben or Ribery, Bayern's champions of the Champions League.

As expected, the winner was the scarred man Franck Ribery.

Between him and Robben, the judges chose Ribery.

Although Robben completed his redemption in the final and scored a crucial goal.

But in the eyes of professionals, Ribery is more important to the team.

After the awarding of the best players in Europe, the next step is the highlight, the draw ceremony for the group stage.

According to the rules of the Champions League draw, the 32 teams participating in the Champions League group stage will be divided into four levels.

Among them, the eight teams with the highest points will be drawn first as the first seed teams.

Then one team will be selected from the second, third and fourth pots to join each group.

According to the avoidance principle of the same division, if teams in the same division are drawn into the same group, they will automatically be postponed to the next group.

The eight seeded teams were drawn quickly:

The seed team in Group A is Manchester United, the seed team in Group B is Real Madrid, Group C is Benfica of the Portuguese Super League, Group D is defending champion Bayern, Group E is Chelsea, Group F is Arsenal, Barcelona was drawn into Group H, and Portugal Porto, another Super League team, was assigned to Group G.

Among the eight seeded teams, two are from La Liga, three from the Premier League, one from the Bundesliga and two from the Portuguese Super League.

Serie A and Ligue 1 do not have a single seeded team due to their poor Champions League record.

On the other hand, the Portuguese Super League, which is outside the five major leagues, actually has two seed teams, which is a bit surprising.

Among the eight seeded teams, the strongest ones are obviously Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Especially the defending champion Bayern, it is estimated that no one wants to be in the same group with them.

After drawing the teams in the first pot, Dutch legendary star Cruyff came on the stage, and he was responsible for drawing the teams in the second pot.

Those drawn into Group A are Shakhtar Donetsk, Group B is Juventus, Group C is Paris Saint-Germain, Group D is CSKA Moscow, Group E is Werder Bremen, Group F is Marseille, and Group H is AC Milan, Group G is Atletico Madrid.

Among them, what surprised Lin Quan was that Werder Bremen was actually classified as a second-tier team.

They actually have more European points than Manchester City, which makes him curious:

How bad was Manchester City's previous Champions League performance?

After the first two rounds of draws, the death group has emerged.

That is Group B and Group H, Real Madrid plus Juventus, Barcelona plus AC Milan.

Whoever joins these two groups as a third party will probably have a hard time qualifying.

It just so happens that there are no Premier League teams in these two groups. According to the principle of avoiding the same group, Manchester City can only go to five groups, and the probability of being drawn into these two groups reaches 40%!

People here at Manchester City have begun to worry a little. They won't be so unlucky that they happened to be drawn into these two groups, right?

The third star to appear was England star Owen, who first drew Leverkusen into Group A.

Later, Galatasaray of the Turkish Super League was drawn into Group B.

This result made Manchester City breathe a sigh of relief. There was one less death group and the probability was halved.

The people of Galatasaray were not afraid after seeing this result. What an old lady from Real Madrid, why should we, the devils of the Turkish Super League, be afraid at home?

On the other hand, the head coaches of Real Madrid and Juventus had serious expressions on their faces after seeing this result.

The Turkish Super League team is not that strong, but it is difficult to play at home in the Turkish Super League, and the fans there are particularly crazy. They are even willing to go to Eastern Europe to play in the ice and snow, but are not willing to go to the Turkish Super League, because when they get there, No one knows what accident will happen.

The draw continued, and Olympiacos of the Greek League was drawn into Group C.

Then, Irving drew another team. After taking a look, a smile appeared on his face:

"Manchester City!"

The host quickly put Manchester City's small ball into Group D. In the same group, the three teams that have appeared now are: Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, and Manchester City.

The camera at the scene was focused on Bayern's head coach Guardiola, but not on Manchester City's head coach Pellegrini. Instead, it gave Lin Quan a shot.

Lin Quan heard someone say that the Champions League group draw was arranged, and he was a little skeptical before.

But now, he really believes it!

A father-son duel was staged between Guardiola and Lin Quan. If he said that this stunt was not deliberately created by UEFA, he would not believe it to death!