green knight

Chapter 337: Knockout Draw

The UEFA Champions League group stage came to an end, and it was really joyful and sad for some.With the development of the Champions League to this day, it is no longer a matter of honor, but every extra round will have more bonuses and broadcasting shares. Even those wealthy clubs who are not short of money cannot deny that the Champions League is a huge cake.

But obviously, only those who walk farther can get enough cakes.

Going to the last few teams, UEFA's share bonus is tens of millions, not to mention other additional income and sponsorship fees.

32 teams from different European leagues were divided into eight groups, of which only half could advance to the next round.

In Group A, the Red Devils Manchester United won four wins, two draws and accumulated 1 points to qualify as No.1 in the group, followed by Bundesliga powerhouse Bayer Leverkusen with three wins, one draw, two losses and [-] points.Last season, they were divided into a group with Juventus and Chelsea to complete the dark horse. The Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk, who won the No.[-] group, failed this season. It is a pity that they will go to the UEFA Cup with eight points. In the camp, perhaps their financial oligarch boss sold too many players, which led to a sharp decline in their strength this season.Real Sociedad from the Spanish La Liga was at the bottom with one point and was unfortunately eliminated. Obviously, they still have more face than Marseille, at least they got one point.
In Group B, Real Madrid stood out from the group with [-] points. Twenty group goals made them stand out from the European heroes and established their irreplaceable dominance.Galasata, a giant in the Turkish Super League, stepped on the corpse of Li Zihan's former club by one point. Juventus, with six points, can only play in the UEFA Cup, and the Danish powerhouse Copenhagen is not in such a group. There is no extra thought, but if you can grab four points from these three teams, you can leave the European stage with your head held high.

In Group C, Paris has undoubtedly locked the No.1 position to qualify, and the data of 2 goals in the group also symbolizes their unfamiliar offensive firepower.The No.[-] qualifying team is quite surprising. Olympiacos, a giant from Greece, broke out from the siege of the other two European powerhouses.Although Olympiacos' status in the domestic league is a giant, but looking at the entire Champions League, they are actually only higher than the bottom few teams from the lesser-known leagues.The Portuguese powerhouse with the same ten points, last season's Europa League (Europa Cup) runner-up Benfica, has no choice but to continue to play the UEFA Cup, which they often and are good at, with a two goal difference disadvantage.The Belgian giant Anderlecht is at the bottom with one point. Belgian players are flourishing in the five major European leagues, but their club still lacks some status in Europe.

In Group D, last season's champions Bayern Munich and the Premier League's oil tycoon Manchester City joined forces to qualify. Both teams scored [-] points, but the goal difference of "Universe Ren" was four more than that of Blue Moon.It's just that Manchester City with [-] goals in the group is the team with the most goals besides Real Madrid, and Bayern with [-] goals is still behind them, but the [-] goals conceded rate is enough to make them the most powerful team in the Champions League. "Outstanding the crowd", and only those small league teams have conceded more goals than them.The Russian powerhouse CSKA is going to play in the UEFA Cup, and the fat Pilsen is unsurprisingly out of the bottom of the game.

In Group E, Chelsea and Bundesliga powerhouse Schalke [-] have qualified, Basel has been relegated to the UEFA Cup, and Stein Bugart is out.This result is not surprising, but the fact that Schalke was almost dismounted by Basel was the most surprising thing for everyone. Anyway, Schalke was upbeat in the end and reversed the situation by himself.

Group F, needless to say, is the group of death. The media and fans pay the most attention to this group, because it is the most frequent one among the eight groups.Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal successfully broke out of the encirclement of Naples. Naples, who scored [-] points in the history of the Champions League but failed to break the record line, went to the UEFA Cup in pain. Biggest joke in this group.

In Group G, Atletico Madrid scored 1 goals with full firepower, conceded [-] goals and grabbed [-] points to qualify for No.[-]. Zenit followed closely. Portuguese super giant Porto was robbed by St. Petersburg Zenit. Tickets for the Champions League can only go to the UEFA Cup.

In Group H, Barcelona also advanced without any suspense.Followed by AC Milan, the only remaining player in Serie A, and Ajax, the former champions of the Champions League and the Eredivisie, continued to fall and went to the UEFA Cup. The Scottish giants Celtic have sold a lot of strength this season. After the player finally failed to qualify, he could only be out.They were able to qualify with Barcelona last season, but this season they can only regret to go home.

On the second day after the qualifying list of all groups came out, that is, around 09:30 on December [-]th, Beijing time, UEFA broadcast live the draw ceremony of the UEFA Champions League knockout round for the new season at its headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

Because of the regular schedule, the head coaches of many teams did not go in person, but the general manager or other important staff of the club went to attend.

Considering the recent pressing competition, there will be a lottery draw again today, so the Arsenal club did not train as usual, but had a half-day holiday in the morning. After lunch, I went to the team conference room to watch the live broadcast of the lottery. After the lottery was drawn, the holiday continued. Training officially resumed the next day.

Before the lottery, the head coaches and core players of each team will naturally be interviewed by the media. When the reporter asked Li Zihan who he hoped to meet in the first knockout round, Li Zihan originally wanted to say that as long as he does not meet "" "Western Super Duo", "Bundesliga Giants" and "French Ligue [-] Paris" and others are all good, it is best to meet a team like Olympiacos.

But this is impossible. According to UEFA's rules, Arsenal is the second in the group and can only touch No.1 in other groups and not the English team.

But if you think about it carefully, the eight groups except Arsenal's own group, other than the Premier League teams are the teams mentioned by Li Zihan's appeal. The only exception is Atletico Madrid, but this Atletico Madrid this season is an unconventional Atletico Madrid. This season, Atletico Madrid's performance is no different from that of the Western Super League duo, and even has the title of the Western Super League Three Heroes.

Li Zihan frowned, and said with a straight heart: "No matter who we meet, we are very confident. Our ultimate goal is to move forward step by step, no matter who is in front of us. And since we have We can all come out of such a group, I think we should go further, there is a proverb in our country, bitterness comes first!"

But at this moment, Li Zihan was still a little nervous watching the live TV.

But when he saw the famous Portuguese star Figo pulling out the note with Arsenal's name on it, he almost smashed the quilt in his hand to pieces.

On the other side of the TV, Figo smiled and took out a small ball from the many small balls in the transparent container, and then said to the camera: "Let's see, the defending champion Bayern Munich will meet in the quarterfinals. Who, oh, who should be so unlucky, will encounter the defending champion as soon as he comes out."

The reporters in the audience and the staff of the major clubs let out friendly and somewhat cunning laughter. Only the No. 2 group other than the Bundesliga League had a bad face. Of course, the second group that had been drawn by lottery was With a gloating mentality.

Opening the small black and white football in his hand, Figo took out a white note inside. He glanced at the note first, then inspected the staff of the major clubs sitting opposite him, and finally set his sights on On the table with the name "Arsenal" written on it.

Ivan Gazidis, the general manager of the club who attended on behalf of Arsenal, felt a little bit in his heart, thinking that he might be the unlucky ghost, right?

Obviously, no one wants to provoke Bayern Munich at this time when they are in the limelight.Bayern won the Treble last season, and although striker Mario Gomez is gone in the new season, Bayern's strength has not declined because of this, but under the guidance of the new head coach, the legendary Pep Guardiola, it has become more and more powerful. Even more domineering, just look at their statistics so far, otherwise why do people call them "Universe Ren"?
Figo smiled, pointed the front of the note at the camera and all the guests at the scene and said, "A-Senna."

Ivan Gazidis tried his best to calm his "excited" mood and make himself look normal, but how could those helpless eyes escape the camera's capture.

"Crab!!" Wilshere saw this scene in the team conference room and couldn't help but cursed.

Wenger on the rostrum frowned and glanced at him.

The 'little threat' immediately stopped the 'threat', and he lowered his head and said sorry in a low voice.

Wenger didn't look at the rest of the draw, but turned his head to look at the dejected disciples.

"It's not a good signing, obviously. But we can't give up early just because it's Bayern Munich. It's not the Arsenal tradition. The Arsenal tradition is to show your quality no matter who the opponent is. With fighting spirit, go and win all the champions who have not been eliminated!" After saying a lot of encouraging words, after a pause, Wenger continued: "I think there is nothing better than qualifying from this group and then defeating the powerful I'm happy that Bayern finally qualified for the next round."

As soon as Wenger finished speaking, Vermaelen, the captain, also stood up to encourage his teammates: "The professor is right, think about it, everyone is not optimistic about us, but I suddenly killed the powerful universe team, I think Those son-of-a-bitch expressions must be wonderful."

Following what Wenger and Vermaelen said, the players made up their minds and felt that this is indeed a very elated and exciting thing.