i want to be king

Chapter 413 Goal: Triple Crown
After Barcelona defeated Real Betis and won the Spanish Super Cup, the mouthpiece of Real Madrid, Aspen, sarcastically said that the Spanish Super Cup has a curse, and all teams that win the Super Cup will lose in defending the title.

The Catalan media scoffed at this, saying that Aspen was saying that the grapes were sour.

It was in this atmosphere where the two major media camps fired on each other that the entire Barcelona team set off to Monaco.

Every year at the end of August, the eyes of fans all over the world will focus on Monaco.

After three rounds of qualifiers, the top 32 of the Champions League are freshly released, and the draw in Monaco will determine the future trend of these 32 teams.

As early as after the qualifiers were played, major media have reported on the points ranking of the UEFA Champions League seeded teams this season.

Thanks to their title win last season, Barcelona are at the top of the seeding table, followed by Real Madrid.

This makes many people feel the strength of La Liga.

In the early years of the century, Real Madrid won the Champions League twice in three years. Their momentum was unmatched in the entire European arena.

Today's Real Madrid has shown fatigue, Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo, and even Beckham and other superstars have shown their old age, and their condition is not at their peak, but Barcelona has risen with the trend and took over the banner of La Liga in the hands of Real Madrid.

Although Barcelona did not invest even a penny in the transfer market this summer, no one can deny that the overall strength of this team is better than last season.

Marcos Senna can finally play in the Champions League on behalf of the team, and Van Bommel's joining has also strengthened the midfield. In addition, young players such as Su Dong, Messi and Iniesta have matured for another year, which has improved Barcelona's overall strength.

As a result, after the top 32 list has just been decided, the three major European gaming companies have offered odds for winning the championship.

Barcelona is a veritable favorite, second only to blues Chelsea at the top of the list.

The main reason why Chelsea can surpass Barcelona is because this team spent huge sums of money this summer, introducing many powerful stars including Essien, and their overall strength has been greatly improved.

And Barcelona's problem still exists, that is defense, especially when the opponent defends and counterattacks.

……

The draw was still held at the Grimaldi Conference Center in Monaco, interspersed with the awards ceremony.

The overall situation of this year's Champions League group stage has changed a lot from last year, which can be seen from the second-tier teams.

As a La Liga team, Barcelona avoids Villarreal, the same country team in the second tier. The real strong opponents are Juventus and Chelsea. The Bianconeri's European performance in recent years has not been satisfactory, so that the points are not high, but they are very stable in the league.

With the joining of Vieira this season, Juventus has formed a Vieira and Emerson double midfielder combination, which can be called the most extravagant top double midfielder in world football today. Coupled with that extravagant line of defense, Capello's team is also a favorite in this year's Champions League.

Fortunately, Barcelona was lucky this time, avoiding Juventus and Chelsea, and drew Porto in the Portuguese Super League.

It's not bad, it's not bad, and overall it's okay.

Due to the participation in the UEFA Super Cup, the entire Barcelona team was invited to participate in this grand event. Everyone couldn't help laughing when they saw Porto, who was drawn in the Chinese and Portuguese Super League. They were obviously relieved.

After all, no one wants to encounter strong opponents in the group stage too early, which is not a good thing.

But the luck of the draw for the third-tier team was even worse. The strongest team was drawn, Werder Bremen from Germany.

Among the teams in the fourth tier, they avoided Real Betis from the same country and drew Udinese from Serie A.

As a result, the group where Barcelona is in is embarrassing again.

In terms of strength, Barcelona must be the only one, there is nothing to doubt about this.

Even Porto has long lost its glory in the past two years. After all, after Mourinho left, he poached most of the team's team, causing Porto's current overall strength to return to Europe's second-rate.

But Werder Bremen and Udinese are both teams in the four major leagues. Their ability to enter the Champions League proves that the strength of these two teams is extraordinary. Even if they are not as good as Barcelona, ​​they still have the ability to disrupt the game.

Therefore, the signing of Barcelona this season can only be regarded as quite satisfactory, neither good nor bad.

On the contrary, like Real Madrid, luck is much better. Although Lyon in Ligue [-] is drawn in the second tier, Olympiacos and Rosenborg are in the third and fourth tiers. Neither of these two teams can pose a threat to Real Madrid and Lyon.

Relatively speaking, the signing of the Galaxy Battleship is obviously better.

……

With the process of drawing lots, the major awards of the Champions League last season were also released one after another.

The champion coach award went to Rijkaard and Gazaev. The former is the head coach of Barcelona and led the team to win the Champions League. The latter is the head coach of CSKA Moscow and led the team to win the UEFA Cup.

These two teams are also participating teams in the UEFA Super Cup tomorrow.

The best goalkeeper of the year is not too controversial, mainly because the goalkeepers of the two teams participating in the Champions League final are not good.

Needless to say, Barcelona's Valdes, AC Milan's Dida is also not very reliable.

The three goalkeepers who actually participated in the competition were Liverpool's Dudek, Juventus' Buffon and Chelsea's Petr Cech.

In the end, Cech of the Blues won the award.

This Czech goalkeeper is indeed the best and most stable goalkeeper in European football last season. Whether it is height or various statistics, Cech is a well-deserved number one goalkeeper.

With Petr Cech's age and his current stability, I believe it won't take long for him to surpass his predecessors such as Buffon and Iker Casillas and become a new generation of top goalkeeper in Europe.

The best defender was awarded to Maldini of AC Milan.

This is a more controversial award, because Chelsea's captain Terry and Barcelona's Puyol are competing with Maldini. Needless to say, the former is the best central defender last season.

But in the end, Maldini, the oldest scorer in the history of the Champions League final, won the award.

The best midfielder of the year is also controversial, but the source of the controversy is not the winner, but Ronaldinho's position.

Kaka won the best midfielder of the year, but many people think that Ronaldinho is the most suitable candidate, but in UEFA's classification, Ronaldinho is classified as a striker.

In other words, it is impossible for Ronaldinho to participate in the competition for the best midfielder.

So Kaka beat Deco and Harvey to win this award.

Among the best forwards of the year, Ronaldinho lost to his teammate Su Dong, which is not in dispute.

Not to mention anything else, let's just say that by winning five dollars in the Champions League final, Su Dong can basically win all the major awards of last season.

In the end, the player of the year was also awarded to Su Dong.

When Su Dong took over the MVP award representing the best player from the hands of UEFA President Johansson, the entire Grimaldi Conference Center burst into applause, and all Barcelona players cheered and applauded for him.

In his speech, Su Dong also expressed his gratitude to the Barcelona players and coaching staff.

He said that without the support of his teammates and coaches, it would be impossible for him to stand on this podium and win this award.

"Here, I want to tell my teammates that although this award is for me, it also belongs to everyone. I hope we can continue to make persistent efforts in the new season. I believe that we will definitely have the opportunity to compete for more and higher honors!"

Su Dong's remarks are undoubtedly in response to the club's strategic goal this season, the Triple Crown!
In the history of La Liga, no team has ever won the Triple Crown, even if it is at its peak like Real Madrid.

With the current strength of Barcelona, ​​they are really capable of competing for this honor.

The premise is that the club creates a better game environment for the team, and the locker room remains stable and harmonious.

……

Su Dong's speech after winning the award quickly aroused heated discussions all over the world.

Barcelona's current strength is indeed very strong, but not so strong that they can ignore other competitors, such as Real Madrid.

As the mouthpiece of Real Madrid, Aspen took the lead to stand up, thinking that it would be difficult for Barcelona to achieve the goal of the triple crown, because their defense is still fragile, and Rijkaard's on-the-spot command and formation gradually revealed shortcomings.

"When Su Dong is imprisoned by the opponent, Barcelona has almost nothing to do!"

The British media also believe that Barcelona is unlikely to defend the Champions League.

"It is not difficult to see from the odds of the bookmakers that the real number one favorite is Chelsea. Mourinho's team is already very strong after introducing many strong players in a row."

"If we really meet in the Champions League, the team that has the last laugh will definitely be Chelsea!"

The British media must also be on Chelsea's side.

Cruyff, the godfather of Barcelona, ​​​​supports Su Dong and Rijkaard, and believes that Barcelona is fully capable of achieving this goal.

"I want to remind everyone, especially Barcelona's management, that from ancient times to the present, Barcelona's problems have never come from the locker room, but from outside the locker room!"

Cruyff reminded the management that if you want to achieve the great goal of the Triple Crown, you must ensure a stable game and training environment in the locker room, and minimize those unnecessary showy operations.

"So far, the management's approach is commendable."

"Renewing the contracts of Su Dong, Ronaldinho and Rijkaard has stabilized the morale of the team. Renewing the contracts of rookies such as Iniesta and Messi will provide a guarantee for the thickness of the team lineup. The current Barcelona first team is full of talents, and there is definitely hope for results."

Finally, Cruyff also euphemistically reminded Rijkaard that the team should increase their efforts in rotation to ensure the game status of some core players in key battles.

"I'm looking forward to seeing Rijkaard's dream team create their own great era!"

(End of this chapter)