Tottenham Hotspur, the reigning champions of the Champions League, topped the group from the Group of Death last season, and defeated Real Madrid, Juventus and AC Milan in the knockout rounds?

You must know that most of the teams that are divided into the first two grades are the top giants in European football, at least they are also quasi-first-class teams, and they are already superior to the teams that were divided into two grades in terms of strength. If nothing else, the most likely outcome is usually for the two clubs to join forces to qualify for the round of 16, with the other two teams battling it out for a place in the UEFA Cup. But if they add a Tottenham to their group, the pressure on them to qualify and the difficulty of qualifying will increase dramatically!

While this may feel conspiracy theory, UEFA do like to pull out one or two groups of death in this way to increase the popularity and attention of the group stage. For example, in the past 04-05 season, UEFA placed Tottenham in the same group as Bayern, Ajax and Juventus, which directly led to the Bundesliga hegemon having to swallow the bitter fruit of losing in the group stage twice in three years. Now, Tottenham have managed to elevate themselves to the third tier with last season's miraculous title, but this change will obviously not do much to UEFA's plan to form the Group of Death!

Therefore, after learning the news that Tottenham Hotspur was placed in the third tier by UEFA this time because of the lack of European points, except for the three Premier League clubs that will definitely not meet Tottenham in the group stage, the other teams in the first two brackets are almost secretly praying, hoping that UEFA will never put them in the same group as Tottenham!

In this way, the time came on August 28, the day after George and his entourage arrived in Monaco, after the speech of UEFA President Johansson, the high-profile Champions League group draw ceremony officially kicked off at the Grimaldi Convention Center in Monte Carlo!

The draw was made by Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton and former French star Laurent Blanc, and the pair's appearance was really unexpected by many people - most people thought that UEFA would invite Platini to be a special guest at the draw ceremony!

Indeed, in UEFA's original plan, Platini was the best person to be the guest of honor for this draw. Because the venue of this year's Champions League final is the Stade de France in Paris, France, if Platini is the guest of the draw, it can not only reflect UEFA's support for Paris to host the Champions League final, but also make the French more serious about their obligations and responsibilities.

However, the main reason why this plan did not come to fruition in the end was that Platini had officially announced that he would run for the new UEFA president. And this move of the French was seen by Johansson as a challenge to his authority!

Under George's reminder, Johansson has a deeper understanding and understanding of Platini's ability to incite people and form cliques than in his previous life, and it is naturally impossible to let his competitors get more performance and opportunities to win people's hearts at this critical juncture. Therefore, the Swedes will try to prevent Platini from being the guest of the lottery and invite Bobby Charlton and Laurent Blank to take charge of this in turn!

Incidentally, Johansson's arrangement was not only aimed at preventing Platini from taking the opportunity to expand his sphere of influence, but also had other intentions. The invitation to Bobby Charlton is intended to win over the FA, which has a strong influence within UEFA, so that this ally will not defect to Platini's banner, and the main purpose of allowing Blanc to attend the ceremony is to appease the emotions of the French, so as not to do anything in the Champions League final in anger, so that he and UEFA will lose face and give Platini a chance.

It cannot be said that Johansson was psychologically dark. After all, the French have never been very innocent in this regard. The most typical example is the World Cup held in France seven years ago, Ronaldo's sudden epilepsy before the final affected the entire Brazilian team, resulting in the Samba Army, as the favorite to win the championship, was collectively sleepwalking in the final and was defeated by France by three goals, and passed by the Hercules Cup close at hand. Although there has been no conclusive evidence to prove that it has anything to do with the French, Ronaldo has not had similar symptoms over the years, which cannot help but make people doubt in the direction of conspiracy theories.

Now let's take a brief look at the 32 teams that are divided into four categories. According to the European points rules set by UEFA, eight clubs including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Arsenal, Bayern, Porto and Milan are divided into the first pot, the eight teams in the second pot are Juventus, PSV Eindhoven, Lyon, Panathinaikos, Chelsea, Villarreal, Ajax and Monaco, while Tottenham are in the third pot along with Anderlecht, Olympiacos, Schalke 04, Sparta Prague, Club Brugge, Glasgow Rangers and Bremen. As for the fourth bracket, although the teams in this bracket have always been considered the weakest of the participating teams, I don't know if it is influenced by Tottenham, and there are also strong teams such as Atletico Madrid, Benfica and Udinese this season. Therefore, if UEFA really wants to do something about the group draw, then the opportunities in front of them can really be said to be everywhere!

Soon, the draw for the first two rounds was announced under the auspices of Bobby Charlton and Blank. With the exception of Barcelona, who were fortunate enough to be placed in Group C with Panathinaikos, the weakest team in Pot 2, the other teams in the same group did not have a significant gap in terms of quality. It is worth mentioning that Manchester United's abandoned Diego Forlan will represent Champions League newcomers Villarreal this time against his old club, while Chelsea and Porto, Mourinho's new and old clubs, have been drawn into the same group, and Bayern Munich and Juventus meet in the Champions League group stage for the second year in a row!

It can be seen that the current UEFA obviously likes to increase the attraction and attention of the group stage through such gimmicks and routines!

After the first two rounds of draws, the next round is the third round of the draw ceremony, and at the same time, it is also the most concerned round of the draw by the top giants. Because the fate of the defending champion Tottenham Hotspur will be officially decided in this round of draw!

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