Chapter 57: End of the Champions League Group Stage (Part )
After this round of group matches, except for the final ranking of Group C of the Champions League group stage, the rankings of other groups have also been finalized.
The biggest upset was in Group D, where Manchester United was reversed 1-2 by Benfica away from home and ended up at the bottom of the group. This was the first time in 10 years that Manchester United failed to reach the round of 16.
Villarreal won the group first and both advanced with Benfica, while Lille ranked third and moved on to the UEFA Cup.
The situation in Group A is relatively simple. In the last round, Juventus defeated Rapid Vienna 3-1 away from home, accumulating 15 points and winning the top spot in the group to qualify.
Bayern was tied 1-1 by Bruges away from home and finished second in the group with 13 points; Bruges advanced to the UEFA Cup with 7 points.
Arsenal in Group B was tied 0-0 by Ajax at home in the last round and failed to create a record of undefeated group matches. In the end, they won the first place with 16 points.
Ajax, who drew with Arsenal, ranked second in the group with 11 points.
In another match in this group, Sparta Prague drew 0-0 with Thun at home, finishing last with 2 points, while Thun participated in the UEFA Cup with 4 points.
The competition in Group E is the most intense. Before this round of matches, except for Fenerbahce, the other three teams had the chance to qualify, among which AC Milan and Schalke 3 both had 04 points, followed by PSV Eindhoven with 8 points; and Fenerbahce, which has only 7 points in 5 games, also has the opportunity to win a UEFA Cup seat in the final round.
So in the last round of the game, whoever wins the match between AC Milan and Schalke 04 will advance to the next round. The loser may be surpassed by PSV Eindhoven; and Fenerbahce also has the hope of defeating PSV Eindhoven to compete for a place in the UEFA Cup...
Therefore, the direct dialogue between AC Milan and Schalke 04 can be said to be a collision between Mars and the Earth, which made the fans very excited!
In the last round of Group E, AC Milan only needed a 3-3 draw with fewer goals than the other teams to ensure their qualification; but head coach Ancelotti said before the game that winning and securing top spot was AC Milan's goal.
Schalke 04 had won two consecutive games before and tied with AC Milan in points. They also achieved an excellent record of 2 wins and 4 draw in the last 3 rounds of the Bundesliga. Head coach Rangnick claimed that this was one of the most important games in his coaching career.
AC Milan played with all their main players in this game. Stam and Nesta teamed up with Maldini to guard the defense, Gattuso and Seedorf teamed up with Pirlo to build the midfield, and Kaka and Shevchenko teamed up with Filip Inzaghi to form an offensive trident.
About 4.5 fans came to the San Siro Stadium to cheer. After the opening, the two teams switched quickly between offense and defense, but both sides had tight defenses in front of the penalty area and did not have many good opportunities.
The game did not suddenly reach its climax until the end of the first half.
In the 42nd minute, Kaka dribbled the ball straight into the midfield, but suddenly changed direction and was tripped 28 meters in front of the goal, resulting in a free kick in the frontcourt.
Pirlo was in charge of the free kick. The ball he kicked with his right foot had almost no rotation. The ball flew over the wall and the head of goalkeeper Rost like a hawk and flew straight into the near corner of the goal...
AC Milan led 1-0, but just 2 minutes later, Schalke 04 equalized the score.
It was also a free kick in the frontcourt. Schalke midfielder Lincoln kicked the free kick from the front left corner of the penalty area to the back of the goal. Paulsen jumped high 5 meters in front of the goal and headed the ball into the near corner!
Before the end of the first half, Schalke 04 had tied the score back to 1-1 and both sides went into halftime.
At halftime, PSV Eindhoven was leading Fenerbahce, and if the score had ended like this, Schalke 04 would have dropped to third in the group, and Schalke 04 would have been forced to fight a do-or-die battle.
But things soon became even worse for Schalke 04.
In the 52nd minute of the game, Shevchenko dribbled the ball and counterattacked to get rid of two defenders, and passed it to Kaka on the right in front of the penalty area.
After Kaka broke into the penalty area, he calmly shot with his right foot from 10 meters in front of the goal. The ball went through the small door of Rodriguez who came over to defend and hit the far corner.
AC Milan takes the lead again 2-1!
Then, less than 10 minutes later, AC Milan almost secured the victory: in the 60th minute, Schalke made a clearance error, Kaka passed the ball to the left rib, Inzaghi broke into the left side of the penalty area and passed the ball to the other side, Shevchenko shot with his left foot 7 meters in front of the goal...
But this time the Ukrainian nuclear warhead missed, but the ball hit his right heel and bounced to the back...
Kaka followed up and dodged the two central defenders who rushed over with his right foot. He pushed the ball into the far corner with his right foot from 7 meters in front of the goal, 3-1! !
But AC Milan can’t be happy too soon, because they often lead by a large margin, and then… well…
In the 66th minute, Schalke's free kick from the front court entered the penalty area, but was headed out by AC Milan's defender, but it did not go out of the penalty area...
Lincoln grabbed the ball on the right side of the penalty area, then volleyed it with his right foot from 16 meters away from the goal. The ball hit Shevchenko's leg and changed direction, going directly into the far corner of the goal, 2 to 3!
If Schalke can score one more goal in the remaining time to tie the score, it will be AC Milan who will play against them in the UEFA Cup!
At the last moment, Rangnick made a desperate move, replaced a defender with a forward, and attacked with all his might!
After all, the opponent is AC Milan, which always makes people think of hope...
But it is obvious that AC Milan did not give Schalke 04 any chance or hope in the final period of the game...
It was given a little bit before...but there was clearly no script for this game.
In the end, AC Milan won the game with a score of 3:2 in this goal-scoring battle and sent Schalke 04 to play in the UEFA Cup.
Because in another match in this group, PSV Eindhoven defeated Fenerbahce 2-0 at home, and finally PSV Eindhoven rose to second place in the group and advanced together with AC Milan, the group leader.
In the last round of Group F, the only upset that could be considered was Real Madrid's 1-2 reversal by Olympiacos away from home.
Why can it only be considered an upset? Because the result of this game cannot change the overall situation, because two rounds ago, Real Madrid had already qualified together with Lyon, who had secured first place in the group.
Olympiacos, who won this game, is still at the bottom of the group, and Rosenborg will rank third in the group and play in the UEFA Cup.
In addition, Real Madrid's Brazilian coach Luxemburgo was sacked last weekend; Guti was absent due to suspension, and several main players including Zidane, Beckham, Casillas, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Helguera were arranged to rest.
Diego Lopez, Bravo, De La Red and Balboa all started in the Champions League for the first time this season, while the bench was filled with young players.
42-year-old former Real Madrid B team coach Ramon Lopez Caro played for the first time as acting coach.
而之前公认的死亡之组G组倒是没有起太多波澜，最后一轮切尔西主场0比0战平利物浦，安德莱赫特客场1比0小胜皇家贝蒂斯结束尴尬的12场连败。
Defending champions Liverpool beat Chelsea by one point to top the group; La Liga's Real Betis finished third in the group and will enter the UEFA Cup competition.
In the last group, Group H, what was surprising was that Porto, the 03/04 Champions League champions who were originally thought to have a sure qualification spot, was eliminated at the bottom of the group. This shows how quickly Porto fell after the departure of the Magic Bird.
The last round of Group H ended with two draws, with Inter Milan tied 1-1 with Glasgow Rangers away, and Porto tied 0-0 with Bratislava away. In the end, Inter Milan and Glasgow Rangers won the first and second place in the group respectively.
The teams that qualified for the 05/06 European Champions League round of 16 are as follows:
Group A is Juventus of Serie A and Bayern Munich of the Bundesliga;
Group B is Arsenal of the Premier League and Ajax of the Eredivisie;
Group C is Barcelona of La Liga and Werder Bremen of the Bundesliga;
Group D is La Liga's Villarreal and Portugal's Benfica;
Group E is AC Milan of Serie A and PSV Eindhoven of the Dutch Eredivisie;
Group F is Lyon of Ligue 1 and Real Madrid of La Liga;
Group G is the Premier League duo Liverpool and Chelsea;
Group H is Inter Milan from Serie A and Glasgow Rangers from the Scottish Premier League;
因此欧冠16强中，意甲有尤文图斯、AC米兰和国际米兰3强；英超有阿森纳、利物浦和切尔西3雄；西甲也有巴塞罗那、皇家马德里和比利亚雷亚尔3支球队；德甲有拜仁慕尼黑和云达不莱梅两支球队；荷甲也有阿贾克斯和埃因霍温2支老牌劲旅；剩下葡超、法甲和苏超各有一支代表球队出席。
The draw for the Champions League round of 16 will be held at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland at 12 noon on December 16.
Before the draw for the knockout stage came out, British bookmaker William Hill had already offered odds on the teams that advanced from the group stage to win this season's Champions League.
The biggest favorite to rank first is the La Liga defending champion Barcelona, whose odds are 5.0. Due to their easy qualification in the group stage and smooth sailing in the La Liga, Barcelona is currently considered to be one of the teams in the best form; of course, Barcelona also has Ronaldinho, who was elected European Footballer of the Year not long ago.
In second place is the defending Premier League champion Chelsea. In the past two tournaments, the Blues have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. This time they advanced as the second in the group, but no one can underestimate them.
William Hill has given them odds of 5.5 to win the championship, and the Blues are also one of the favorites, only half a body behind Barcelona.
In third place is the defending champion of Serie A, Juventus, with odds of 7.0. The Old Lady is in excellent form in the league and has just extended their lead to 8 points. They also qualified as the group leader in the Champions League, showing strong competitiveness.
The teams ranked after the three league champions are AC Milan (odds 9.0), Lyon (odds 10.0), Inter Milan (12.0), Arsenal (12.0) and other strong teams.
It is worth mentioning that the French Ligue 1 champions Lyon have already attracted people's attention, and the fact that their odds of winning the championship are ranked fifth is the best proof.
Last season's champions Liverpool are only ranked tenth in the round of 16 (odds 15.0). It seems that not many people are optimistic about whether the Reds can repeat their championship experience of last season.
Real Madrid's odds are the same as those of defending champions Liverpool. It seems that the change of head coach and the aging of the lineup have made bookmakers pessimistic about this best team in the history of the Champions League.
In addition, Bayern Munich ranks eighth with odds of 13.0; Glasgow Rangers ranks last with odds of 101.0.
Before the draw for the Champions League round of 16, Barcelona will face the 15th round of La Liga, where they will host Sevilla at home.
One of the highlights of this game is Saviola's first return to Camp Nou after his loan to face his parent club Barcelona.
Before the game, Rijkaard mentioned this: "Saviola is a great player. As we have said in the past, players like him should always be on the court. Saviola is very dangerous and can change the balance on the court at any time."
(Ricardo couldn't help curling his lips after hearing this news, saying he didn't believe you at all: "He should always be on the field? But you loaned him out? It's obvious that this is another commercial hype that is hypocritical...")
Javier Saviola, nicknamed the Rabbit, was born on December 1981, 12 in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Saviola, who plays as a striker, is only 11 meters tall and weighs only 1 kilograms. Although he is not tall, Saviola is very flexible, agile, fast and good at cooperating with his teammates.
Like Maradona, Saviola's first stop in Europe was Barcelona: in the summer of 2001, he joined for a sky-high price of 2500 million euros.
Under the then coach Louis van Gaal, Saviola played 105 league games in three years, scoring 47 goals, performing quite well.
However, when Rijkaard took charge of Barcelona, Saviola gradually faded out of the main lineup and was loaned to Monaco in the 04/05 season. This season, the Argentine was loaned to Sevilla in the same league.
Watching the media reporting on Saviola and his teammate Messi, Ricardo thought that Argentina was really rich in this type of agile and talented offensive players. Not to mention the previous king of football Maradona, the current Saviola and Messi, and the future will also include Aguero and Dybala, etc.
Another focus is Barcelona's personnel configuration. The good news is that coach Rijkaard has recovered from his illness and returned to the coaching bench; but the bad news is that the five major midfielders are collectively absent from this round of games: Marcos and Deco are both absent due to red and yellow card suspensions, Xavi, Motta and Van Bommel are all absent due to injuries...
Barcelona's midfielders are basically on the injury list. So Rijkaard naturally thought of Ricardo, who is good at playing multiple positions, and put him on the bench for emergency use. It is safer to let the more experienced Edmilson play as a defensive midfielder...
After Xavi was injured, Iniesta, who had started from the bench for two consecutive games, finally got the chance to start in this round of the league.
Barcelona fans were already very confused by the fact that Iniesta, who had performed well in the last round of the Champions League, was put on the bench. After all, based on his technical characteristics, Iniesta should be the most ideal substitute for Xavi.
However, some experts have given a seemingly reliable explanation for Ten Cate: "...I am very confused. The only explanation is...I want Iniesta to focus on the weekend league, because there are five confirmed absences and Barcelona's midfield will be very short of personnel...In the last round of the Champions League, Iniesta played for nearly 5 minutes to keep him in shape."
Iniesta, who has an easy-going personality, was not anxious at all. Facing the reporter's questioning, Iniesta said slowly in his thin voice: "Everyone wants to play more games, but I must respect all my teammates. Barcelona is a whole, and I fully obey the coach's arrangements. I will try my best to make use of my playing time and give full play to my role."
Ricardo couldn't help but give Iniesta a thumbs up: "Brother Xiaobai, you have a really good attitude! I can only be so detached because I have more than 40 years of life experience. I didn't expect that your dream now is also to win without doing anything! We are like-minded..."
……
