Chapter 166: Champions League draw

Liu Ting, who scored the only goal in the Super Cup, became the best player in the game, and with this goal, Liu Ting also became the first player to score in two consecutive European Super Cups.

However, Liu Ting's two consecutive Super Cup victories are not the only ones, AC Milan had the feat of defending the Super Cup, so there were many players at that time who had a record of winning the Super Cup for two consecutive years, but Liu Ting was the first player to win the championship for two consecutive years for different teams.

Liverpool's win this time has reached four UEFA Super Cup titles, second only to AC Milan's five, making them the second-most UEFA Super Cup winners.

After the Super Cup, the whole Liverpool team did not return to England immediately, because the next afternoon will be the draw for this season's Champions League group stage, and there will also be the major awards of last season's Champions League.

Liu Ting and Torres were both selected for the best striker, Gerrard was selected for the best midfielder, Agger was selected for the best defender, Reina was gone but this did not prevent him from being selected for the best goalkeeper, while Gerrard and Liu Ting were both selected for the best player in the Champions League.

On the afternoon of August 30, the draw for the group stage of the 09/10 Champions League took place at the Grimaldi Convention Centre in Monaco.

As in previous years, the draw and awards were interspersed.

The best defender went to Barcelona's Puyol, the best midfielder went to Gerrard, the best striker Messi was won, and the best player was also given to Gerrard, these awards were awarded to the two teams in the final, only the best goalkeeper was given to Chelsea goalkeeper Cech who was eliminated in the semi-finals, this award is that Reina and Valdés did not perform well in the final, one conceded three goals and one conceded four, on the other hand, it was to appease Chelsea, after all, Chelsea fans are still haunted by the 'Stamford Bridge tragedy'.

Liu Ting was shortlisted for the two most important awards, Best Striker and Best Player, and his performance last season gave him the right to qualify, but in the end he didn't win either.

Liu Ting has long been mentally prepared for this situation, and Wagner has already told him that his lack of qualifications and lack of fame is the biggest obstacle preventing him from appearing on stage at the award ceremony.

With the end of the awards ceremony, the draw for the Champions League group stage was also announced (in order of brackets 1 to 4):

Group A is the Bundesliga Bayern Munich, Serie A Juventus, Ligue 1 Bordeaux and Israeli team Maccabi Haifa;

Group B is Manchester United in the English Premier League, CSKA Moscow in the Russian Premier League, Besiktas in Turkey and Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga;

Group C is AC Milan in Serie A, Real Madrid in La Liga, Marseille in Ligue 1 and Zurich in the Swiss Super League;

Group D is Chelsea in the English Premier League, Porto in the Portuguese Super League, Atletico Madrid in La Liga and Atletico Greeks in Cyprus;

Group E is Liverpool in the Premier League, Lyon in Ligue 1, Fiorentina in Serie A and Hungarian side Debrecen;

Group F is La Liga Barcelona, Serie A Inter Milan, Ukrainian Kyiv Dynamo and Russian Premier League Kazan Ruby;

Group G is La Liga's Sevilla, the Soviet Premier League's Glasgow Rangers, the Bundesliga's Stuttgart and Romanian side Uniria;

Group H is Arsenal in the Premier League, AZ Alkmaar in the Eredivisie, Olympiacos in Greece and Standard Liege in Belgium.

This year's grouping is strictly not a real group of death, because the stronger teams are basically divided into the first two pots, which largely avoids the emergence of the group of death.

Only new Bundesliga champions VfL Wolfsburg are stronger in the fourth tier, but his Group B side is dominated by Manchester United, with the other three teams grabbing a second place in the group.

The third-tier teams are Marseille and Bordeaux in Ligue 1, Fiorentina in Serie A and Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine are considered to be stronger, and finally after comparison, Group C of AC Milan Real Madrid and Marseille is considered to be the most difficult group this season, barely called the 'first group of death', Barcelona Inter Dynamo Kiev is in Group F is the 'second group of death', the third is Group E where Liverpool is located, and Group A where Liu Ting's old club Bordeaux is located is the 'fourth group of death'.

Only Liu Ting knows that the two groups that Liverpool and Bordeaux are in are the real group of death, and if history does not change, Liverpool will be squeezed out of the top two groups by Fiorentina, and Bordeaux will also squeeze Juventus out to advance to the knockout round.

However, things have changed for Liverpool now, and even if there are some difficulties, they will not be eliminated in the group stage, otherwise Liverpool will become the first team to be eliminated in the group stage of the reigning Champions League champions.

However, looking at Liverpool's group at present, almost everyone thinks that Liverpool is safe to win the first place in the group, and Lyon is more likely to be second in the group, but Lyon should also be careful not to be squeezed out by Fiorentina.

The draw for the group stage was over, and the entire Liverpool squad returned to England.

Liu Ting's performance in the UEFA Super Cup last night only occupied half a day's sports page, and was quickly compared to the results of the Champions League draw.

The English media naturally paid the most attention to the group of the top four of the Premier League, Manchester United and Arsenal were both signed, Chelsea was second, and Liverpool's group was the most difficult.

The most talked-about group in all of Europe is the one in which Inter are Barcelona, and this is another war between Mourinho and Barcelona.

Mourinho started as a translator at FC Barcelona, and later became a world-famous coach in the world, but he had conflicts with Barcelona again and again.

Jose Mourinho made a name for himself after winning the Champions League in the summer of '04 before moving to Chelsea.

In Chelsea's first season, the 04/05 Champions League round of 16 Mourinho's team met Barcelona, this time the old people met not warm at all, the two teams of one extremely advocating offensive football, one is the most famous defensive bus in Europe, as soon as the game starts, Chelsea lost 1:2 at the Camp Nou, but after the game Mourinho accused Barcelona of bribing the referee, because someone saw the Barcelona senior management into the referee's room at halftime, which is something that UEFA absolutely does not allow, With no real evidence to make a move, the two sides blamed each other, and Mourinho and Barcelona fought a war of words, and finally Chelsea returned to their home stadium to beat Barcelona 3-1 in the second leg to successfully turn the tables.

In the 05/06 season, Chelsea met Barcelona again in the round of 16, this time Chelsea lost the game with an aggregate score of 2:3 and was eliminated.

In the 06/07 season, Chelsea and Barcelona met in the group stage, in Chelsea's 2-2 draw away to Barcelona (Chelsea won the group by virtue of this draw), Chelsea scored the equalizer by Drogba in injury time, Mourinho played a beautiful sliding kneeling roar on the sidelines of the Camp Nou, it can be said that this is the most beautiful sliding kneel celebration of the manager's celebration, which angered the Barcelona fans again, the Chelsea players were still celebrating on the field just after the game, The tap for watering the turf at Camp Nou turned on, and the whole Chelsea squad was drenched.

In the following 07/08 season, Mourinho was fired by Abou before he had time to do something with Barcelona, otherwise he would have to meet Barcelona in the knockout round with UEFA's urine fingers, and then the magic bird went to Inter Milan for reemployment, and now it is another time Mourinho visited Camp Nou, which directly became the most watched group in the group stage.

Mourinho has been famous for six seasons, one of which is just a month before the class, which can only be regarded as five seasons, just because Mourinho and Barcelona meet to be interesting, so four seasons and Barcelona encounters, UEFA's discipline should never be overestimated, just like Chelsea always met Liverpool in the Champions League before.

While talking about Mourinho and Barcelona, the mainstream European media also gave the latest Champions League winning odds, which made Liu Ting realize the role of fame again.

Liverpool didn't make much of a move this summer, instead removing important players such as Arbeloa, Reina and Modric, while Barcelona, the opponent in last year's Champions League final, brought in Ibrahimovic with a lot of money, so Barcelona's odds to win the title were ahead of Liverpool, which is reasonable.

But Barcelona is not the first favourite, Barcelona is only second, Liverpool is third, and Real Madrid is the recognized favourite in Europe.

Just because Real Madrid introduced last year's World Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and the year before last year's World Footballer Kaka, even if they did not perform well in official competitions, Real Madrid became the first favorite to win the championship, or the first favorite recognized by most people, and the recognition of fame in football can be seen.

In the odds of winning the championship, Real Madrid ranks first with 1 to 4.25, Barcelona ranks second with 1 to 5, Liverpool ranks third with 1 to 6, followed by Chelsea at 1 to 7 and Manchester United at 1 to 9, Arsenal and Inter Milan are tied for sixth with 1 to 12, and the top seven Premier League semi-finals occupy four places, and the Premier League is still deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

The Champions League group stage will not start until mid-September, and attention will soon turn to the league.

During Liverpool's trip to Monaco for the UEFA Super Cup, the fourth round of the Premier League for the other 18 teams has ended, and the highlight of this round is Manchester United's home match against Arsenal, which ended in Manchester United beating Arsenal 2-1 to win the first strong match of the season, while Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur have won the other games to continue to lead the table with four consecutive wins, and Liverpool are eight points behind the top two teams with one game in hand.

Liverpool's game is an away game with Bolton, and the specific make-up time has to be arranged according to Liverpool's situation in the future, if Liverpool is out of the domestic cup early, it is likely that the make-up match will be arranged in the first half of the season, on the contrary, if Liverpool goes far in the domestic cup, it may have to be arranged to the second half of the season.

Liverpool's start is not too good, it can be said that it is bad, Liverpool currently only has 4 points, ranked 13th in the Premier League standings, and now has injured two central defenders, if it were not for Heynckes to lead the team to win the first title of the season, there may be media to start hyping Liverpool's change of manager.

The good news is that Skrtel's strain is not a big problem and should be back after a week of rest, while the bad news is that Ager's injury is not so good, to say the least, it will take a month.

In fact, Liverpool knows what the reason is for this situation.

Anything in the world, if you want to have a harvest, you have to have a comeback. Liverpool has made a lot of money in the Asian tour and expanded Liverpool's global influence, but this has also made most of Liverpool's players too tired, and now they are in unstable form and have many injuries, which is the most intuitive manifestation.

In the 03/04 season, Real Madrid under the leadership of Queiroz in the last five rounds of the league five consecutive defeats to send the trophy to Valencia, although in the end Queiroz returned to Manchester United to continue to be an assistant coach for Ferguson, but after the analysis, many people believe that Real Madrid's Asian trip in the previous summer participated in too many commercial activities, which made Real Madrid unable to prepare well, and finally there was a long list of players on the field at the end of the season.

Liverpool's situation is not very good, and the English media will naturally not let go of this topic, and some Liverpool fans have also been disturbed under the hype.

A small episode occurred when Liverpool fans protested at the club's door with banners, demanding that the team change sponsors and exchange it for the old Carlsberg beer.

Liverpool negotiated a new sponsorship contract with Qatar Airways last season, and the advertising on the chest of Liverpool's jersey belonged to Qatar Airways at the beginning of the new season.

Carlsberg beer sales are declining, and the money can't afford to sponsor a fart, sponsoring fans to listen to beer machines twice?

The English god stick is no worse than the Chinese master.