Of the Atletico Madrid team that went to Manchester, there were a total of 18 players, except for the coach, team doctor, etc., but only 17 returned.

The news of Stam staying in Manchester to recuperate soon came out, and the exact news of his injury was also leaked, three months of rest was long enough for a twenty-nine-year-old veteran, and if he was unlucky, maybe he wouldn't be back to his previous form!

"Spending so much money to buy a 29-year-old veteran is a risky move in itself, and now it seems that Dick's luck is not good enough, and hopefully Stam can return to his previous form after recovering from injury, otherwise their investment in Stam will be a bit of a loss."

Many media commented that Dick turned a deaf ear to this statement, which is not wrong in itself, but Dick does not think that this investment will be a loss, after all, Stam can at least maintain the top form for two or three years, and he has played extremely well when he transferred to AC Milan at the age of 33 in history.

Now injured, Dick was confident that in three months' time he would have an equally good Stam.

Besides, if Atletico Madrid's purchase of Stam is a risk, then Real Madrid's spending more than $60 million to buy Zinedine Zidane, who is also 29 years old, is it also a risk? This kind of thing, no one can say clearly, Dick now has a headache, just how to minimize the loss of Stam in the next game.

Stam was injured and Marchena returned to the main lineup, but Atletico Madrid's overall strength must have suffered some damage.

In the next round of the league, Atletico Madrid hosted Athletic Bilbao, and finally they stopped their winning streak in this game, and were drawn 1-1 by Athletic Bilbao at home.

After being held to a draw, Atletico slipped from top of the table to second place, a point overtaken by Deportivo La Coruna, but they still held the rest of the team at bay, and the previous winning streak has allowed Atletico to regain their sense of being in the league, and a draw will not affect them too much.

After suffering this draw, Atletico Madrid welcomed Lille at home in midweek, and Dick gave a death order before the start of this game, he must beat his opponents, not only to qualify for the first round of the group, but also to lock up the top spot of the group one round earlier!

Amid the shouts of 50,000 fans at the Calderón Stadium, Atletico won the game despite Lille's stubborn resistance, Jorgensen, who came on as a substitute in the second half, opened the scoring for the team, and after the opponent equalized, Jardel's third goal in a week helped Atletico Madrid win the game, Atletico Madrid beat Lille 2-1 to make it four wins in a row in the group stage and win the group one round earlier!

Atletico Madrid are now 13 points after winning this game, while Manchester United are four points behind Atletico Madrid and can only settle for second despite a three-goal home win over Olympiacos.

Dick was delighted to have qualified for the group stage one round earlier, which allowed the final round of substitutes to play and the main players to rest for the upcoming league games, the Copa del Rey and the second group stage of the Champions League.

Of course, it is still unknown what kind of group Atletico will be in in the second group stage.

However, as the top team in the group, Atletico should be placed in a relatively good group.

Perhaps relieved, Atletico suffered Waterloo in the next round of the league, where they lost 0-1 away to Alaves - their advantage in this game was not small, but Alaves relied on excellent defense not to concede a goal, but instead won through counter-attacks, thanks to a header from Argentine defender Coloccini, who is on loan from AC Milan - Colocini was the best in the game, and at the same time his defensive performance was eye-catching. He also showed excellent form in attack, receiving a corner kick from a team-mate and rushing in front of Marchena to head the ball into the corner of the goal.

To some extent, Atletico's defeat can be regarded as paying the price for Stam's injury, although Marchena has worked hard, but in terms of air defense is worse than Stam, plus Atletico's backline has become accustomed to the stability brought by Stam, and they now have to slowly adapt to Marchena's existence.

Dick didn't put any pressure on Marchena, no matter how many players he rotated, he didn't rotate two central defenders, firstly, because the central defender position does not consume too much physical energy, and secondly, to ensure the stability of the defensive line.

The good thing is that Atletico can relax a little bit and the final round of the Champions League group stage is just a formality for them.

In the away game against Olympiacos, Dick in addition to letting Marchena and Stam partner in the central defender, all other positions were sent to substitutes, in this game, Marchena's performance obviously recovered a lot because of the previous consecutive appearances, he performed quite well in the game, clean sheets against the opponent's attack, Atletico Madrid finally played a 0-0 draw with the opponent away from home, with an unbeaten record of four wins and two draws, Manchester United also drew with Lille, In the end, Lille finished third in the group and qualified for the UEFA Cup, and Olympiacos made the way home.

Interestingly, Atletico Madrid doubled Manchester United and Lille in the group stage, but drew with Olympiacos in a row, but Olympiacos also got a total of three points in the group stage, and two points were scored on Atletico Madrid......

After playing away from home, Dick sent Marchena back to Madrid while he flew to Lausanne, Switzerland, for the draw for the second group stage of the Champions League.

"It's really troublesome...... The first stage of the group stage, the second stage of the group stage, the quarterfinals vs. the draw, the top four vs. the draw, now this Champions League season in addition to playing so many games, but also draw so many times, no wonder it was reformed in less than two years, although the money is earned, but such a dense game and frequent draws, it is indeed easy to make people feel tired. ”

On the plane to Switzerland, Dick thought in his heart, and at the same time he was also thinking about which teams Atletico Madrid would be in a group in the group stage, among the teams that qualified this time, there are three teams in La Liga, in addition to Mallorca was driven to play in the League Cup, Deportivo La Coruna and Real Madrid have qualified from the group, Atletico Madrid will not be in a group with them, and Manchester United and Atletico Madrid have played each other in the first stage of the group stage, so they will not be divided together, that is, those who can be in a group with Atletico Madrid are left with the other twelve teams.

Liverpool and Arsenal in England, Juventus and Roma in Italy, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen in Germany, Porto and Boavista in Portugal, Nantes in France, Galatasaray in Turkey, Panathinaikos in Greece and Spartak Prague in the Czech Republic.

The tough opponents are none other than six teams from England, Italy and Germany, none of whom are easy opponents to deal with, and six of them are slightly weaker, while Roma, Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen are all second in the group, if Atletico Madrid and a strong group are in the same group, and then one of the three group runners, then the group will be difficult, if you are unlucky, both of the group runners-up are from these three teams...... Tsk, that's the standard death group......

Roma are at their strongest, although Barty's form has begun to decline, with Arsenal winning the Premier League in their history this season and Bayer Leverkusen ...... Ballack, who is in excellent form and has a game that has been against the sky this season, is not easy to play no matter who he meets.

And those who are the first in the group are not easy to deal with, and the cruelty of the second stage of the group stage is cruel here, because the teams that can appear at the draw site are the teams that have stood out after a tragic fight! If the next step is to play the knockout round, you may be able to rely on luck to beat the opponent, but in the second stage of the group stage, with the characteristics of the group stage, the element of luck is almost reduced to the minimum, only strength, absolute strength, can complete the group qualification!

With the strength of Arsenal, it has not been able to reach the knockout stage of the Champions Cup until now, which is enough to prove the cruelty of the two-legged group stage of the Champions Cup!

Of course, compared to the brutal battle between the Champions League and the two best groups to reach the quarterfinals of the knockout round, the two-legged group stage is relatively simple compared to the time when the Champions Cup was not expanded, and then the six group winners entered the quarterfinals with the best results.

When Dick entered the draw ceremony, the other managers looked at Dick differently.

Dick was just a young manager who had achieved some results, and although he won the UEFA Cup and La Liga last season, he still lacked the foundation - the so-called foundation, for the coach, is the number of titles he has won! You must know that there is no shortage of managers in this world who quickly achieve outstanding results as soon as they coach the team, but if there is no long-term results to build a foundation, they will be quickly forgotten, just like Deschamps later, he reached the final of the Champions Cup as soon as he coached Monaco, and he was in the limelight for a while, but after failing to achieve any results next, he was quickly forgotten, and when people discussed Mourinhodo's power, he was completely forgotten, in the 03-04 season of the Champions Cup, Didier Deschamps is no less in the limelight than Mourinho.

It's just that Mourinho quickly became the top manager after that year with a series of outstanding results at Chelsea, and then became a god with the same success at Inter Milan and Real Madrid. The most memorable achievement is to lead the relegated Juventus back to Serie A, which naturally cannot be said in the same day!

And after the start of this season, Dick led Atletico Madrid's continued outstanding performance, so that his position began to become more and more stable, winning the Spanish Super Cup and the European Super Cup may be said to be lucky, but in the Champions Cup group stage double beat Manchester United, this is a great achievement, in the Champions Cup performance is also able to maintain enough competitiveness in the league, all this, is enough to make Dick more respected!

In this circle, strength is king! It's a great individual performance as a player, and it's a great coaching ability as a manager! With such strength, you don't have to worry about having nowhere to go no matter what!