long live football

There are four teams in each group of the Champions League group stage, but only two teams can enter the knockout round, with 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. After six games, everything is based on points.

E组最后一轮，慕尼黑18601:3不敌皇家马德里,里昂2:0小胜基辅迪纳摩，比赛刚一尘埃落定,积分榜就随即刷新：里昂积分10，皇家马德里积分9，慕尼黑1860积分8,基辅迪纳摩积分4。

Munich 1860 was deprived of the chance to enter the Champions League knockout round by Real Madrid by one point.

However, as Karl said, their journey in the European arena has not yet come to an end-after all the 8 groups of the Champions League are over, the top two teams in each group will qualify, and the eight teams ranked third will automatically enter the UEFA Champions League. In the third round of the Fed Cup, there is still a chance to aspire to the top of Europe.

The full name of the Champions League is the UEFA Champions League, and the full name of the Europa League is the UEFA Cup. Both events are hosted by UEFA, but the difference is that the Champions League is a top-level event representing the highest level of honor for European clubs. Most of the participants are the champions and runners-up clubs of major leagues. The UEFA Europa League is one level lower than the UEFA Champions League. It is a cup competition participated by the upper and middle reaches of the major leagues.

The Bertoni Cup, which represents the champion of the UEFA Cup, not only has a lower gold content than the St. Blair Cup (Big Ears Cup) representing the Champions League champion, but also the level of competition, influence, ratings, and attendance. To put it simply, the Europa League and the Champions League are the difference between a dick and a tall, rich and handsome.

However, playing in the UEFA Cup is better than returning home to play in the league without getting anything.

What's more, if you are lucky enough to win the Bertoni Cup, the team will be able to participate in the UEFA Super Cup in August next year-a single-game, single-round match between the champions of the Champions League and the Champions of the Europa League. The winning team is well-deserved European champion.

As soon as he came out of the press conference hall, Carl received a call from club chairman Orr.

He thought that the other party was here to ask questions, but he didn't expect Orr to say very kindly on the phone: "I saw the whole game and the press conference just now, don't be too depressed, Carl, we still have the UEFA Cup anyway. It is much stronger than Dynamo Kiev. Besides, hasn’t the team performed well in the German Cup and the league?”

Carl was slightly surprised, but quickly responded and thanked: "Thank you for your concern, Mr. Chairman, from the moment I walked out of the stadium, I was ready to look forward."

Al nodded in satisfaction.Although he regrets that the team was eliminated from the Champions League, the result of the game cannot be manipulated by manpower. Karl is the most important general under his command. Appropriate appeasement is beneficial to win people's hearts and let the other party vote on the club's board of directors Standing firmly behind him.

The UEFA Champions League group match Munich 1860 has been played without losing a game. The bonus plus the distribution of the club has at least tens of millions of euros. How far can we go in the UEFA Cup if the winter transfer period gives you a good transfer fund?"

"Far enough, Mr. Chairman." Carl said with a smile: "Even without your words, we would have worked hard in the UEFA Cup. The team lineup is much stronger than last season. If there is no improvement in performance , I will be more depressed than you."

Orr was very satisfied with Carl's reaction: "Then when it comes to the transfer season, you can do whatever you want, and the club will fully support you!"

It seems that the board of directors has finally understood the reason why they are reluctant to let their children be tied to wolves. It may also be that the joining of Irving and Beckham has given them a taste of sweetness. Knowing that there are two or three superstars in the team is definitely a matter of more advantages than disadvantages.

Karl readily agreed.

He didn't spend the money sent to his door in vain, not to mention that the battle with Real Madrid made him realize that it might be necessary to advance the signing plan that was originally planned for the summer.

……

When checking his bank account, Carl found that there was an extra remittance of tens of thousands of pounds.

The remitter is Cristiano Ronaldo.

He called the other party suspiciously, but Ronaldo's voice on the phone startled him: "What, what's the matter?"

"...you remitted the ten thousand pounds in my account?"

"Yes, it's...it's me who remitted...the remittance." Ronaldo panted, "An, Ando, ​​Dory—"

Carl tremors: "It's only 07:30pm! What are you doing?!"

"Do, do exercise." Ronaldo suddenly realized that his intermittent voice was too misleading, so he inhaled and exhaled, and said as calmly as possible: "Wait a minute, I will slow down the frequency of the treadmill, and then follow the your video."

Carl turned on his laptop, and three minutes later, the link between Munich and Manchester was up.

Through the clear camera, Carl saw Ronaldo running on a treadmill wearing a sports vest. The light gray cloth on his chest was already wet, as if he had been exercising for a long time.He probably put the notebook on the sofa, because from Carl's perspective, the picture looks a bit like a shot from above.However, Ronaldo has a Bluetooth headset, which does not affect the call.

Looking across the other person's whole body, Carl coughed: "Tell me, what are you sending me money for?"

"Andorinia won a game, 2 pounds prize money, half of you and me."

"What are you doing to me in such a hurry? It's the same if you keep it first."

"No, I don't like the feeling of holding other people's money, and it's not troublesome to send money." Sweaty, Ronaldo got off the treadmill, took off his sports vest, grabbed a towel beside him and wiped it with a serious face Said: "No matter how much money I earn every week, Andorinia's bonus income is of great significance. I am going to open an account for it, and I will not move a cent of the bonus. When it retires, I will see how much it can save." How many……"

After talking a lot, Ronaldo didn't get a response for a long time. He turned around and glanced at the computer, and saw Carl in the screen looking at him with a very quiet expression, blinking his eyes for a long time.

Ronaldo immediately shivered. He threw the towel aside and raised his arms to the camera: "Shocked? I have good muscles, right?"

"Hmm." Carl hesitated for a long time, then hesitated and said, "It's so big."

Smiling proudly, Ronaldo patted his thigh: "The muscles here are bigger and stronger!"

"...I'm talking about your breasts."

"What?!" Ronaldo didn't seem like he didn't hear clearly, but he couldn't believe it.

"Manchester United's first chest?"

Faintly seeing signs of a volcanic eruption on Ronaldo's face, Carl disconnected the link and ran away calmly: "I suddenly remembered that there are still files to look at, so I'll download them first."

Immediately, the words "Link down" appeared on Ronaldo's computer screen.

The young Portuguese was indignant and said through gritted teeth, "Nonsense, Rooney's breasts are bigger than mine!"

……

Before the No.16 round of the Bundesliga, Karl was doing the final mobilization work in the locker room of the stadium.

He talked a lot today, because in the past few days, many media have been bad-mouthing his team-those reporters think that the exit from the Champions League will greatly affect the morale of 1860 Munich in the domestic league, and the Lions will surely Entering a period of downturn, Stuttgart, Bayern, and Hertha Berlin are ranked behind the Lions in the standings, but the scores are not very different. As long as the teams seize the opportunity, they will definitely be able to make a beautiful turnaround battle.

Kardang's words are farting, but he also has to guard against the psychological impact of some players, so he spent twice as much time as usual to analyze with his players. Behind those seemingly objective news reports, In fact, how many private dirty little thoughts are hidden.

For example, in the past few days, I have been "predicting" that Munich 1860 will usher in a Christmas crash in my personal column. Kraft, a commentator of the "Munich Daily", almost every commentary article in his article implies that the Lions have shortcomings here. There are loopholes, and these days they are singing dirges, pessimistically as if Munich 1860 did not enter the Champions League knockout round, it would definitely usher in the end of the world.

However, as long as someone carefully searches Kraft's name on Facebook, his personal page can be found immediately, and the Bayern Munich team logo on Kraft's profile picture will immediately tell you that he is a hardcore southern member. Star fans.

A curse from a rival fan, what's there to worry about?Karl told his players: "1860 Munich is a strong team, and a strong team will never be demoralized by a defeat."

It can be seen from the disdainful eyes the players gradually cast on the newspaper that Karl's persuasion was successful.

Looking across everyone's faces, just as Karl was about to turn around and let the players rest in the locker room for a while, the door was suddenly pushed open, and a stadium staff shouted at them: "Gentlemen, you It's time to show up."

Raising his wrist to look at the time, Carl said in surprise: "There is still more than half an hour before the start of the game, isn't it?"

The staff did not explain, but said mysteriously: "Something happened on the court, and you need to go out and deal with it."

The players were taken aback: "What happened on the pitch? Riots?"

"Could it be the fans fighting?"

"Could it be that there is something wrong with the turf so we can't play today?"

Carl thought it was very strange.

But in broad daylight, and it's the Lions' own home court, what can go wrong?Clapping his hands, Carl called out to all the players to come out with him.

When walking in the player tunnel, everyone felt something was wrong. Koch scratched his hair, frowned and muttered: "Why do you think it's weird..."

It took a moment for them to realize what had gone wrong: quiet, too quiet.Usually before the start of the game, the stadium is full of chaos. The fans are either singing or talking, and there is basically no quiet time. The noise made by tens of thousands of fans is faithfully spread in every room inside the stadium, even if it is blocked by walls. In a corner, but now, even the players with the sharpest ears can't hear the noise from outside.

The moment they walked out of the player tunnel, everyone was shocked by the scene in front of them: the fans held cardboard and made a huge blue lion pattern on the home stands, and countless sky blue lions on the other stands. Slogans floated: "The Champions League - come back next season!" "Every player is our hero!" "The Lions don't cry, stand up and roll!"

Dozens of ball boys wearing Munich 1860 uniforms were holding hands and standing facing them on the field. The average age of these ball boys should not exceed ten years old, each of them has blond hair, fair cheeks, and innocent eyes like angels.

"Did they bring in all the children under the age of ten from the youth training camp?" After being shocked, Sven murmured to his brother.

Lars shook his head: "There are not so many young players in our club's youth training camp, and there are probably some children of fans." The ball boys who hold the players' hands before each game are basically from the club's youth echelon. Those young players play, but not always, some players or club staff's children will occasionally act as caddies to play soy sauce.

The fans sat upright in the stands, no matter how enthusiastically they waved their arms, they didn't make a sound. The stadium became more and more quiet, until there was no sound at all.

The little caddies opened their mouths, and songs wafted from their throats.

It is the team song "RockMe1860" of Munich 60.

However, unlike the masculine feeling that is yelled out by male fans every time during the game, the impassioned music and lyrics sung by these immature voices have a more childlike and innocent taste, as if to baptize the soul .

In the second half of the song, a lion—Henri the Lion, the mascot of the 1860 Munich team—suddenly jumped out from the side, holding a large bouquet of flowers, twisting its body behind the ball boys.

There were bursts of laughter from the stands, and the fans raised their cell phone cameras to record the rare scene of the mascot dancing with the caddies.

Every Bundesliga team has a mascot, such as Bayern's brown bear Bernie, Dortmund's bee Emma, ​​Hamburg's dinosaur Hermann, Frankfurt's golden eagle Attila, etc., choose to use lions like Munich 1860 The mascot team also has Leverkusen's Bryan, and this year's World Cup mascot Griot VI in Germany.

The German media often engage in various selection activities. Griot VI was still very popular during the World Cup. When the World Cup ended, he was immediately voted "the ugliest mascot in history" by fans.

In the past, Carl always thought that Henry was hideously ugly, almost on par with King Griot VI, but now he suddenly thinks that the team's mascot is also... ugly and cute.

At the end of the singing, the little caddies blushed and greeted the curtain call towards the stands all around.

No matter how the fans in the stands behaved, all the coaches and fans of the Lions applauded desperately, and some mischievous people even blew a few whistles—they understood the banners and slogans in the stands. The ball boy's song and the mascot's dance are actually gifts from the fans, a comforting gift.This is really heart warming.

The warm applause from the side of the court made the little caddies suddenly become restrained and shy. They stood on the turf for a few seconds, and then started from a tall little girl, and rushed towards the players and coaches one after another. come over.

All the coaches and players actively bent down to let these cute little angels leave a sweet kiss on their cheeks.

The applause in the stands was even louder, and the media area was also lit up with flashing lights.

Everyone felt healed by the little singing and the little kiss.

The mascot Henry walked clumsily from the field with flowers in his arms.

The players laughed heartily and pushed Carl out.

Since Henry was holding only one bouquet, everyone knew who it was going to be given to.

Taking the bouquet from Henry, Carl embraced the club's mascot - for the first time ever.

Lion Henry hugged back excitedly, and pressed two huge palms on Karl's buttocks.

Well, Carl takes back what he said about it earlier.

He smiled awkwardly, and put his left hand without the flower against the mascot's chest, beckoning him to let go of him.

Henry the Lion let go of Karl reluctantly.

Carl prayed that no one had noticed what had just happened.

But his hopes were dashed.A burst of full-scale and violent boos suddenly erupted from the surrounding stands, and the entire stadium shook as if it was about to shake. No matter the male or female fans, even the reporters in the media area were also patting the railings around them to protest strongly. .

Angry shouts resounded throughout Allianz: "Being a mascot doesn't mean you can get rich! Don't think we don't know that there is a man hidden in the doll costume!"

Henry the Lion moved despondently, and walked towards the staff passage.

When he passed by the stand area, a rain of sundries fell from the sky. Bread, empty beer bottles, and mineral water bottles fell to the ground one after another. It hit the head of the club mascot, but because the mascot was very thick, it did not cause any harm to the staff inside.

Facing the faces of his players with different expressions, Karl coughed nonchalantly: "Go and warm up!"

After the game, there was a wave of crusades and accusations against the Lions mascot on the Internet. The fans justly stated that the person who played the lion Henry was suspected of using his work for personal gain. They spoke out of righteous indignation: "Detain him Salary! This kind of person must have his entire monthly salary deducted!"

In online messages and street interviews, the fans of Munich 1860 all turned into righteous men of noble character, but in the team's next game, when warming up before the game, dozens of them wore the image of Henry Fans in doll costumes suddenly appeared in the stadium, they climbed over the fence and tried to "attack" the coach's dugout.

Carl slipped back into the locker room long before they were running toward him.

Within 10 minutes, a team of Munich police appeared, armed with batons, and expelled this group of "lions" from the stadium... It became a super joke in European football within a week.

……

There is still a week before Christmas, the training is over, and Karl appears in the locker room.

The players looked at the coach and guessed in their hearts: Is the boss going to give a lecture?say what?Now there is only one game left in a week before the winter break. Could it be that the boss wants them not to eat and drink during the holiday?

Thinking of this, Sven Bender immediately felt his stomach tighten.

However, Karl was not busy talking. He nodded his head to make sure there were a lot of players, then went out again and brought back a big box.

The players looked at the big box decorated with a Chinese New Year atmosphere, and saw Carl holding it relaxed, and couldn't help asking: "Boss, what is this?"

"Christmas is coming, so—"

A player immediately responded: "You want to give us a Christmas present?"

"It should be said that I will give one of you a Christmas present, if I get him." Carl patted the box: "This year we will play a secret Santa game. There are many notes in the box. There is a name written on the note, you can pick one at random, and the person on it is the person you want to give Christmas gifts to. When the Christmas Eve Club Christmas dinner is held, you stick the note on the gift and secretly put it under the tree. Unpack it together—everyone can only know who they want to give the gift to, but not who gave it to them. Don’t tell each other, it’s no fun to tell the secret, you know?"

The players stared at the box in Carl's hand for a while with interested eyes, and nodded unevenly.

This is a game Karl played with his roommates in college. It can not only increase the anticipation and mystery of Christmas, but also reduce some of the embarrassment and awkwardness of face-to-face gift giving. He thinks this idea can make the atmosphere of the locker room more pleasant. harmonious.

Karl wanted to use this game to make the team more like a whole, and he didn't expect that the group of five big and three thick guys would understand what it means to be warm and sweet, but what he didn't expect was that the funny people appeared so soon——

"Boss, if the person I draw is not my friend, can I give another gift to my good friend?"

"Of course, the secret Santa Claus team activities have nothing to do with your private life."

"If I draw someone I don't like, can I send him a bomb?"

"...Tell me now who you hate."

Ozil giggled: "I'm joking, boss."

However, his words aroused the vigilance of many people. Several players clenched their fists and tried to scan the audience with "majestic" eyes: "If anyone gives me a slug, or similar disgusting things as a gift-I But I will take the gift box for fingerprinting!"

…Carl only hoped that such a bad situation would never happen on Christmas Eve.