In the first half of the season, Wolfsburg was most proud of all their achievements, winning the Champions League group. Of the three fronts, qualification for the German Cup is just a matter of course, and teams like them should not have been eliminated in the first round. The second place in the league can only be said to be unsatisfactory, and they should have a better ranking in the points. The Champions League was perhaps the only one that made them happy compared to that, after all, they finished top of their group in the Champions League, which is a difficult honour.

Everyone knows that the Champions League has been moving towards class differentiation step by step over the years. As football becomes more globalized and commercialized, the gap between the rich and the poor between teams is getting wider and wider, and it is nothing new for the big clubs to be rich and the weak teams to be barren. The giants are terrible, and the top four every year are due. And the weak brigade new division is difficult to move forward, hard trekking, and inaction, which is not uncommon in the Champions League.

Wolfsburg can only be regarded as a weak team in the Champions League. At least compared to those teams with fans all over the world, they are just a small team in the Bundesliga, and they are definitely weak. Many of them are playing in the Champions League for the first time this year, and they are indeed newcomers.

Champions League games are not easy to play, especially for new teams who have not played in the Champions League before. Last year's Dortmund and this year's Montpellier were both at the bottom of the group as league champions, and no matter how heroic they were in the league, they were also a puddle of mud in the Champions League. And how embarrassing a local tyrant such as Manchester City is in the Champions League is even more of a joke, and the Champions League has been embarrassing year after year. It's simply an unsolved mystery. Compared to them, Wolfsburg were able to top the group in their first year in the Champions League. It's not easy.

It's just that this pride is not something that can last long: the group stage is only a stage after all. Compared to the group stage, the knockout stage is the more eye-catching game. When winter arrives, the draw for the knockout rounds of the Champions League is also held at this time, and the question of who Wolfsburg will face in the Champions League has been answered.

The Bundesliga has a short schedule and a long winter break, and when the Champions League draw was drawn, the first half of the season on the Bundesliga side was over. But a holiday does not mean complete relaxation, as a footballer. Naturally, they refused to ignore this year's Champions League draw. When the draw was made, Gao Shunyao also paid attention to the draw throughout the whole process, and at that time, he had been hoping that his team could draw a weak team.

Although it is said that the main purpose of Wolfsburg is not in the Champions League, they have entered the knockout round, which has already made them quite satisfied, facing those real top players in the world. They themselves know that they are no opponents. However, if they can go two more steps, the Wolfsburg players will naturally be happy. If you can draw a team that is not too strong, you can enter the quarterfinals. So why not?

Especially in this year's year, it would have been impossible to face a particularly strong opponent: this year's Champions League has been quite an upset, with Chelsea exiting the group as Champions League winners. It became the biggest upset, while Manchester City faced a group with Real Madrid and Ajax. is also out of the game ahead of schedule like last year, which makes this rich team quite faceless. And not just poor performance in the Premier League. Serie A has been weak for a long time, and this year it has the impact of Napoli not reaching the Champions League, which has greatly reduced the competitiveness of the Champions League in Serie A.

In comparison, the Bundesliga is considered the best. All four of their teams have reached the last 16 of the Champions League as group winners, which is enough to make the Bundesliga proud - this year's group winners, apart from the Bundesliga, the other group winners are Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus. Just the names of these teams are enough to make Gao Shunyao very satisfied with his team. Eight Champions League groups are the first, basically all the top players in the four major leagues are here, and it is naturally very proud to be able to be tied with them.

It's just that when this pride comes to the time of the draw, there is not much left. Because looking at the names of the second members of those groups, Gao Shunyao also found that it may not be so easy for Wolf Castle to go further.

There is no shortage of strong teams among the teams that finished second in the group, and the two strongest are of course Arsenal and Paris - Arsenal were squeezed into second place in the group by Wolfsburg, and they played like this, which had a lot to do with injuries. Paris faced Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea, and the group of death was fiercely contested, and it can also be said to be a non-war crime to a large extent. These two teams are strong, and they are not inferior to the group winners, so they are naturally the most formidable opponents.

The second strong opponent is AC Milan, Porto, after all, Milan used to be dominant, even if it is now down, because there is no money, they are about to become a laughing stock, but after all, their names are still there, and they are still not to be underestimated. Porto is the overlord of the Portuguese Super League, and it is very popular in its own league, as one of the most notorious black shops, there are many good players, although the attention is lower, but the strength is not bad at all. As a La Liga team, although Valencia has been suppressed by the two big bantons for many years, they have not seen the shadow of the top two in the league for many years, but their strength is still there, and the La Liga team is still quite strong in the European competition, compared to Manchester City, which is definitely different. And Ajax is the same as the declining aristocracy, but in the past two years, it is said that they have also carried out a lot of reforms, and it seems that there has been some improvement - such a team has a very solid foundation, and when they meet them, they are afraid that it will not be easy to play.

Of these six teams, Wolfsburg did not dare to say that they would win. Therefore, when the draw was made, Gao Shunyao also kept hoping that Wolfsburg could draw the two remaining weaklings of Celtic or Galatasaray. However, Gao Shunyao's good luck obviously did not affect the draw, and the two weak teams were drawn away by other teams.

Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga were the lucky ones in this round, as they drew Celtic, their weakest opponent. It's an interesting opponent: Borussia Dortmund have struggled with counter-attacks in the league this year, and in the group stage, Celtic won praise for their strong defence. Celtic's style of play is just the right way to restrain Dortmund, and it's hard to say whether they can win the game.

The other lucky winner was Juventus, who drew Galatasaray. This opponent is much worse than Juventus, but Juventus is also recovering, their European results in the past two years have not been excellent, and it is unknown whether they can win the game, which has always been known for their defense.

If this lottery is really drawn, then Gao Shunyao can only say that God obviously wants to watch a few evenly matched games. This kind of signing simply makes all the teams play very hard. Otherwise, give these two weak teams to Wolfsburg, and Wolfsburg can already prepare for the eight-in-four game in advance.

Fortunately, although Wolfsburg did not encounter the weakest, it did not encounter the strongest either. Because they played with Arsenal in the group stage, they only had to worry about Paris, but fortunately, Paris was withdrawn by Real Madrid, and there was nothing to do with Wolfsburg.

In the Champions League in the past two years, the local tyrant team has always encountered the top giants, and the declining aristocracy has always encountered the league leader, since the top 16, it has always been full of this kind of strength and weakness gap, but it may not be a game without a hard fight, which is nothing new. Paris is a big tycoon, they should have met Real Madrid and Barcelona, and only such an opponent can stabilize them.

And the duel between the giants and the quasi-giants is also quite interesting.

In the same way, in order to make the giants and the quasi-giants play against each other, Wolfsburg did not draw Milan and Ajax - Milan was drawn by Barcelona, and they were going to play the showdown of the giants. How much strength is left in the declining Milan is also touching. Ajax has become Manchester United's opponent, but I don't know if this former giant can let Ferguson stage the Champions League curtain call, of course, there is also a group of giants that have a lot to do with Wolfsburg, it is Arsenal vs. Bayern. That game can also be said to be eye-catching.

In contrast, Schalke and Wolfsburg are much less watchable, their games, and all that remains is uncertainty.

Schalke drew Valencia and Wolfsburg played against Porto, and their games could be said to be tough enough. These two opponents have a certain strength, against Porto, Wolfsburg may still be the weaker one, one is not careful, and it is very possible to be taught by the other party to be a man.

Thinking that the first leg of the Champions League knockout round was played on February 13, and the rematch with Bayern was played on February 16, the density of this game was enough to make Gao Shunyao feel difficult. He can only hope that Arsenal don't lose too much in the first leg and that if they can cause some problems for Bayern, Wolfsburg will also benefit greatly.

It's just that how to play when the time comes, so that you can win the game? He also thought about this question for a long time. But in the end, he couldn't come up with an idea, so he had to stop thinking and leave the problem to Magat.

Anyway, Magath is the coach and it should have been his job. As a player, you just need to follow the coach's instructions and train well - instead of thinking about these useless things, what you should do is to further polish the defensive system with the team this winter.

The Bundesliga has a long winter break, and Wolfsburg has also arranged training matches. As if in order to give the players a strong trip, this winter training, Wolfsburg specially chose Dubai. It's a good place to go, of course, not for the players to enjoy the holidays, and they have two friendlies to play this winter, and they need to get something out of it. As Magath said, the purpose of these two games is to continue to let the defenders run in and make them go further.

Two friendlies, four league games away from the Champions League and seven games away from Bayern. These opponents are the final trials of Wolfsburg, and Gao Shunyao can only look forward to completing the run-in of his team when he plays against them. (To be continued.) )