I Want to Be the King of Football

Every year at the end of August, Monaco becomes the focus of attention of fans all over the world.

The annual UEFA Champions League group stage draw and UEFA awards ceremony will be held at the Grimaldi Conference Centre in Monaco.

Su Dong received an invitation from UEFA very early. Later, for fear that he would not participate, he successively called through the management of Manchester City, Messi, Xavi, and even Platini himself to invite him to attend. this event.

The loss of Sudong in the Champions League last season is obviously eclipsed by a lot. Now that Sudong is making a comeback, it is naturally the focus of the Champions League hype, and it is also the focus of the world's media and fans.

This is the first time Manchester City has participated in the Champions League.

The newly-promoted horse wins the championship, which has always been a myth that is talked about in the world football.

The most praised is Kaiserslautern of the Bundesliga. This is mainly because of the distance. In the late 1990s, under the leadership of head coach Rehhagel, Kaiserslautern created the myth of newly promoted horses winning the championship. .

There is no such precedent in the Premier League so far, but the League One before the birth of the Premier League has appeared, and it has appeared twice.

In 1961, under the leadership of the legendary coach Alav Ramsey, Ipswich was promoted to the League One, and miraculously won the League One championship in 1962, creating a For the first time in the history of the English top flight, a newly promoted horse won the championship.

Fifteen years later, Nottingham Forest, led by Brian Clough, repeated this myth, but this time Clough did it more thoroughly. After winning the League One Championship, he represented League One in the Champions League, and In the case of participating in the Champions League for the first time, he won the Champions League title historically.

That's it?

No, Clough's team successfully defended their second season after winning the Champions League!

Although the current Nottingham Forest has always sunk in the lower leagues and lost the promotion right in the Super League play-off this summer, the glory of this team more than 30 years ago is still exciting.

In the history of the Champions League, Nottingham Forest is not the first team to win the championship in its first competition.

In the 1950s, when the Champions League was first created, there were only 12 teams, and Real Madrid, which won the first Champions League, became the first team in history to win the Champions League for the first time.

In 1964, Inter Milan participated in the UEFA Champions League for the first time. After all the way, they defeated Real Madrid in the final and became the second team to win the Champions League for the first time.

Just three years later, the Celtics from the Suzhou Super League made their debut and became the third team.

So, strictly speaking, Clough's Nottingham Forest is the fourth team in the history of the Champions League to win the Champions League in its first appearance.

In 1982, Aston Villa participated in the Champions League for the first time after winning the League One championship, and defeated Bayern Munich in the final to win the Champions League and became the fifth legendary team.

In the 55-year history of the Champions League, there have been five legendary teams that won the championship in their first competition.

But the most recent one was in 1982, twenty-nine years ago.

So why in the first 26 years, a total of five teams that won the championship for the first time emerged, but in the next 29 years, they did not appear again?

The team newspaper said in its analysis that this is because the threshold for winning the Champions League has become higher and higher.

In the past, the Champions League was a cup competition. There were not many participating teams. Only the teams that won the championship in the league were allowed to participate. There were fewer matches, and the possibility of upsets would be higher, and the requirements for teams were relatively lower.

This is just like the FA Cup in England. The single-game knockout format makes the FA Cup known as a hotbed of unpopularity.

But with the reform of the Champions League, especially in recent years, the continuous expansion of the Champions League, in addition to the champion team, including the top teams in the league can participate in the competition, it seems that there are more participating teams, and many teams can participate. Playing the Champions League, but in fact, it is precisely because there are more participating teams and more games.

All teams want to win, not only need more strength, but also have a good form throughout the season.

The group stage is more of a test of the overall strength of the team. Only the top two with outstanding strength and better condition can advance to the knockout rounds, and the subsequent knockout rounds are basically strong dialogues. Without sufficient strength and status, it is difficult to level up. level promotion.

Moreover, since the Boseman Act, the flow of players has become more and more convenient, and high-level players have begun to gather towards the giant teams, which makes the threshold for winning the Champions League higher and higher.

There are some mid- and lower-level teams in the leagues of various countries. After an accidental outbreak, they played an amazing state, achieved good rankings in the league, and even won the championship. However, in the subsequent summer transfers, it is difficult for them to have enough. Financial resources to retain their own star, the loss of personnel has become very serious.

Therefore, in the next Champions League, it is difficult to have the strength to challenge the championship.

That's why, in the first twenty-six years, there were five teams that won the championship on their first appearances, and in the next twenty-nine years, there wasn't even a single one.

Does Manchester City have a chance to become the sixth team?

After the first three rounds of the Premier League, everyone was surprised to find that Manchester City's strength has not weakened, but has become stronger than last season, and Guardiola's tactics have become more mature and stable.

Such a team has the opportunity to challenge this historic honor.

However, as the L'Equipe said, Manchester City wanting to win the Champions League for the first time is as difficult as winning the lottery.

When the football star Su Dong and technical director Begiristan were blocked by media reporters at the entrance of the Grimaldi Conference Center, when they asked Manchester City's views on the draw and their thoughts on the expectations of the outside world, Su Dong said that this is too far away .

I've played many Champions League games, so I know that in a competition like the Champions League, it's not normal to think too far, and all of us, from the management to the coaching staff to the players, should play well with our feet on the ground. next game.

Su Dong also mentioned the current grouping situation of the Champions League.

Manchester City is participating in the Champions League for the first time. Although winning the Europa League last season helped the points, Manchester City is still ranked third. What does this mean?

The first pot is the eight strongest seeded teams, the second pot is also strong teams like AC Milan, Lyon, Valencia and Villarreal, even in the third pot, there are Manchester City, Lille , Leverkusen, Ajax and other teams.

Not to mention fourth gear, Dortmund and Naples are standard in Group of Death.

That is to say, aside from the third pot, it is a high probability event that Manchester City draws the group of death.

Or it should be said, whoever is unlucky to draw Manchester City is equal to the unfortunate fall into the group of death.

This is true for opponents, but not for Manchester City themselves?

Who wants to meet the group of death from the start?

How much is the consumption in six games?

Therefore, to a certain extent, the points of the European war and the draw of the Champions League group are actually an important factor in preventing non-strong teams from going further in the Champions League.

Of course, if Manchester City is lucky enough to explode, the first pot draws the weakest Porto, the second draws Marseille or Benfica, and the fourth avoids Borussia Dortmund and Naples, then Manchester City is indeed lucky. exploded.

But this kind of good luck really can't be expected too much.

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As soon as Su Dong and Begiristan walked into the Grimaldi Conference Center, they immediately became the focus of the audience.

The reason is very simple, Manchester City has now been labeled as a group of death, whoever touches is unlucky.

More importantly, Su Dong.

No one wants to meet Su Dong in the Champions League group stage, this is terrible!

Su Dong and Begiristan stood at the entrance for a while, looking around, the first to see Messi walking towards him.

Hey Sue!

Leo.

The two embraced warmly, and then Iniesta also greeted him.

Long time no see, Su!

There are a lot of players participating in the draw and award ceremony tonight, and Xavi and Puyol are also here.

What made Su Dong's eyes very hot was that Puyol was wearing very casual clothes and appeared on such a serious occasion. This is simply too unusual in the Grimaldi Conference Center where the audience is full of suits and leather shoes. .

Yellow T-shirt, grey plaid shorts, perfect! Su Dong nodded and gave a thumbs up.

The people around suddenly burst into laughter.

Puyoldi's outfit did bring him a lot of attention.

Does it look good? This fellow asked cheekily with open arms.

Very elegant, calm, calm, with your... um... lion-like hair, I'm just... um...

When Su Dong said the end, he couldn't make it any longer. He shook his head with a wry smile, and complained, Nimei, did you forget to bring a suit when you went out? Go back and change!

The crowd burst into laughter again.

In fact, Puyol is really wronged.

When the Barcelona team came to Monaco, they wore the same suit he was wearing now, with the Barcelona team crest on his chest.

It stands to reason that if you want to come to such a formal occasion, you should put on formal clothes. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and others are all like this, but Puyol did not, he just put this one on coming.

It's impossible for UEFA to say that you won't let you in if you dress like this?

You know, there is no team badge on our suits. Puyol pulled up the team badge on his chest and said solemnly.

Harvey shook his head helplessly, He was injured and couldn't play the Super Cup, but he wanted to help the team win, so he wore this suit to the party, saying he wanted to contribute to tomorrow's game.

Su Dong was confused and only felt a crow flying over his head.

Nima, what does this have to do with tomorrow's game?

The brain circuits of Spanish players are really strange!

Then you really wear nothing! Su Dong laughed.

Tomorrow's Super Cup is the Champions League champion Barcelona, ​​against the Europa League champion Manchester City?

Su Dong immediately decided to stay away from Puyol.

Those who are close to Zhu are red, those who are close to stupid are stupid.

Better keep your distance.