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After the third round of the League Cup, the 40 teams that qualified in the third round were divided into eight groups of five teams in a single round-robin competition, with the top three teams allowed to participate in the next stage of the competition. From October 18 to December 13, the www.biquge.info has to play all the group stages in less than two months, with many participating teams and many start times, so it is impossible to have a high home-and-away double round-robin group stage like the Champions League, and it can only be a single round-robin. The top three teams from the eight groups advance to the next knockout round, with a total of twenty-four teams, plus the third-place finishers from each group in the Champions League group stage, for a total of thirty-two teams to form the round of thirty-two, which will be drawn separately. The specific draw rules are that the first place in each group will be drawn with the third place in each group, and the third place in the group stage of the Champions League and the second place in the group stage of the UEFA Cup will be drawn. Thirty-two teams will compete against each other, and the home-and-away elimination system will be held to determine the champion.

Most of the players in Metz's squad are experiencing both domestic and foreign battles for the first time, so they are somewhat inexperienced in how to deal with this situation. So after qualifying for the group stage of the UEFA Cup, they lost away to Lorient in the eighth round of the league. 0:1, lost without temper, the whole team was not in shape, and there were some problems with physical fitness. Franck Franck Franck Ribery, in particular, has never had a physical problem, and he hasn't had a good rest since last season, and the aftermath of the World Cup is still affecting him intermittently.

Ribery only played 67 minutes in this game before being substituted due to poor fitness and poor form.

His comrade-in-arms Chu Zhongtian played the whole game, but his state was also a little unstable, but he could still maintain a normal level in front of him, the whole team was not in the state, and he had no choice, he was the midfield organizer, not the finisher, he could only deliver shells to his teammates, but if everyone squandered the opportunities he created, he had nothing to do.

After the match against Lorient, it was the international break, and of course the Chinese team had a game, the Asian Cup qualifiers, and played Palestine away in Jordan. Chu Zhongtian also fell call-up, but it was no different from the previous game, Chu Zhongtian, who went to Jordan to meet with the national team, continued to sit on the bench, this time he simply did not get a minute to play, because the team won.

After the game, some netizens commented on Sina's news about the national team's victory over Palestine: "Chu Zhongtian flew all the way to Jordan and sweated, but it was not because he participated in a 90-minute game, but because he was steamed out of the local temperature in Jordan on the bench......"

After the game, some media also interviewed Chu Zhongtian, wanting to hear what he thought about the bench who sat on the bench for the whole game, Chu Zhongtian didn't talk much, he just said that Coach Zhu Suishen did this, maybe he had his considerations. After the game, he returned to Metz directly from Jordan to prepare for the league game.

On October 14, two days after the national team break, Metz drew 2-2 at home to Lille. In this game, Chu Zhongtian's form rebounded, and the team's overall form also improved, so it was a winless match with last season's third Lille.

Before, some people were worried that Chu Zhongtian was running between two places and non-stop, which would cause problems with his physical fitness and affect the state of the game. But it turns out that Chu Zhongtian has no physical worries at all, not that his own physical fitness is good, but that a trip to Jordan is equivalent to a vacation - he didn't play a minute of the game, how can he consume physical energy?

After nine rounds of league play, Metz won four, drew two and lost three, scored 14 goals, conceded 10 goals, accumulated 14 points, and ranked sixth in the league. And this is the "worst result" after nine rounds this season, and it has been hovering between the first and fourth lanes before. This is not a bad result, you must know that a season ago Metz was still a relegation team, but now it can steadily rank in the middle of the top six in the league, beating last season's third Lille, as well as strong teams such as Bordeaux and Auxerre.

Fernandes has set the goal for the team this season to make a breakthrough in Europe, and at the same time, the league ensures that the team can still play in European competitions next season, and it is good to finish in the top three and qualify for the Champions League, if not, the UEFA Cup.

After nine league games, Metz began preparations for the group stage of the UEFA Cup.

In their first match, they will take on Rapid Bucharest (fc_rapid_bucuresti) away. The team finished runners-up in the Romanian First Division last season, and the winner was of course the famous Eastern European powerhouse Steaua Bucharest.

Although it is only October, and although Chu Zhongtian has just returned from the high temperatures in Jordan, the first snow of the year has already fallen in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.

The Romanian media considered the snow to be a good thing, because "it could hinder the Frenchman's performance in the game".

The Romanian reporters apparently didn't look into the geographical location of Metz, thinking of France as the warm Mediterranean port of Marseille. In fact, every winter Metz is not much warmer than Eastern Europe, and Chu Zhongtian has played three snow soccer games in two seasons in Metz. Therefore, the snow over Bucharest did not affect the mood of the whole team of Metz at all.

Besides, this snow is not very big, it is called light snow.

On the evening of 19 October, in the snow, Metz defeated the tenacious Rapid Bucharest 3-2 away.

It got their group stage off to a good start.

Because the group stage of the UEFA Cup is a single round-robin and only one game is played against each opponent, the Romanian has no chance of revenge and can only target the other three opponents.

※※※ From Bucharest, where the snow has already begun to fall, back to Metz, where it is still a little autumn, the team has no time to rest, and the league is waiting for them again.

On 21 October, Metz defeated promoted Mala Valenciennes 3-1 away. He got three points and moved up from sixth to fifth.

In the blink of an eye, the new season has been played for ten rounds, and almost three months have passed.

When everyone came to train and put on a thin plush mountain and coat, Chu Zhongtian still felt that summer seemed to be just a week ago. Time flies.

"Ahh......h

He was not the only one who seemed to feel the same way, and Chu Zhongtian, who was sitting next to the driver's seat, laughed.

"I'm suddenly feeling a little bored, Chu." Ribery said after yelling.

"Why?" Chu Zhongtian asked.

"The UEFA Cup is so disappointing for me...... I thought I would be able to meet some strong opponents, but I didn't expect them to be some Irish teams and Romanian teams...... The devil knows where they were before they played us...... I've never heard of their players. It doesn't feel like the UEFA Cup is on the same level as Ligue 1......" Ribery began to babble and complain.

"Did we work hard all season just to compete like this?"

For Ribery's question, Chu Zhongtian couldn't answer it.

The excitement of winning the Cup and qualifying for the UEFA Cup has long passed, and now that I think about it, the UEFA Cup and the Champions League are indeed far apart, although they are both European competitions.

He thought for a moment and said, "Maybe it'll be good when we break into the knockout stage." There will be a lot of tough opponents at that time, as well as teams that have been eliminated from the group stage of the Champions League......"

Ribery yawned.

"I don't care what you think, Chu. I won't be here again next season anyway. Ribery said to Chu Zhongtian while driving.

Chu Zhongtian did not make any response to his words.

"I've never been in a team for three seasons and I'm a little tired of everything about Metz...... I thought, maybe it's time to start over in a different place. ”

"Where to go? Lyon or Marseille? ”

"If you're not in France, there's no future or money to keep playing in France." He made a gesture to count the money.

"You come with me, Chu." Ribery turned his head to look at Chu Zhongtian. The tone was quite elopementary.

Chu Zhongtian pointed ahead: "Look ahead." I do not know...... We'll have to wait until the end of the season. ”

"Do you want to stay on this team for the rest of your life?"

"Of course not." Chu Zhongtian shook his head.

"I think we work well together, as long as we can go to a team that can participate in the Champions Cup and have the strength to win the championship, we will definitely be able to win a lot of championships together!" He excitedly described the wonderful future to Chu Zhongtian, and when he said that he was happy, he even let go of the steering wheel and danced with his hands.

"But it's unlikely that we'll join the same team at the same time, so I don't think we're willing to push ourselves, right?" Chu Zhongtian poured cold water on him. "Can you guarantee that you will see your team and me at the same time? Or maybe my team is interested in you? ”

Ribery was silent, and he knew that his idea was a bit wishful thinking.

After a long while, he said, "Will we be rivals in the future?" ”

"It's not bad to be an opponent, ha!" Chu Zhongtian laughed. "Let you taste the power of my scissor feet!"

"Hey, be careful that I can't find you in the north."

The two bickered, leaving some worries about the future behind. It's just that whether they deliberately didn't talk about it or unintentionally revealed it, it's hard to say.

It's just that Ribery didn't mention the idea of transferring to a team together to Chu Zhongtian later, and of course he didn't mention the fact that everyone knows about only staying for one season.

※※※ Chu Zhongtian's life is like Ribery's complaints, ordinary and ordinary, but he himself enjoys this peaceful life.

Although the national team always called him up to play, they didn't give him many opportunities to play, and he was not the core of the team, just a foil. But he didn't care so much. Anyway, the national team finally won the Asian Cup, but the domestic criticism of Zhu Suishen has not stopped since the last 1:1 draw at home against Iraq.

He didn't get involved in that kind of thing, something his father had reminded him so many times. Whatever you say in the country, don't get involved, lest you be taken advantage of by people with intentions.

The national team has qualified and there will be no international matches until January next year, so he can enjoy his life at Metz with peace of mind.

Every day, in addition to training, I see the stitches and make porridge on the phone with Emily. In the past, Emily had to be sneaky when she called Chu Zhongtian to not let her mother know. Now that her relationship with Chu Zhongtian has been clarified, she has said those love words in front of her mother, and she is not shy at all. Later, Miranda hid her daughter - she was still dissatisfied with Chu Zhongtian for stealing her daughter's heart like this.

In addition to making porridge on the phone with Emily, Chu Zhongtian has very few hobbies. Occasionally go on the Internet, but I rarely show up on the forum to speak, because of the fame, there are naturally more people staring at him, in case what he says is caught and used by others, he will lose a lot.

He dived for a long time, only occasionally to tell those who genuinely cared about him that everything was fine. If someone asked him on the forum why he couldn't play the main team in the national team, he pretended not to see it.

Pjanic has been coming to him a lot since that visit, and sometimes when Chu Zhongtian went to visit Wang Hao and a few young Chinese players on the youth team, he would come up.

This Bosnian will talk to Chu Zhongtian if he has any troubles, and he will also talk to Chu Zhongtian if he has any incomprehensible problems in football. And Chu Zhongtian also learned something from him - how to improve his skills.

In addition, about Yayiovi, Chu Zhongtian and Yayiovi often communicate together in training, Chu Zhongtian told Yayiovi about his understanding of football, and Yayiovi also studied hard, but he found that there was one thing that he couldn't learn no matter how he learned. That is the "intuition" that Chu Zhongtian hung on his lips, Chu Zhongtian can pass a good ball without observing much, Yayiovi can't do it, he must observe, and he has to keep looking up.

He could only attribute this to Chu Zhongtian's talent, and talent was something that no one could learn or steal.

Chu Zhongtian could only tell him how to do multiple-choice questions in the game, and to play the ball with his brain, not just his heart.

In the process of being a Yayiovi teacher, Chu Zhongtian also felt the challenge - he found that playing football is far easier than teaching others to play football, he can understand it when he plays it himself, but it is difficult to make others understand, not to mention that what he wants to teach is not something like technology that can be demonstrated many times, but consciousness...... So at this time, he admired Russell very much, and he insisted on training himself, a rough Chinese rough brother...... Russell, you really have a talent for coaching, and you don't know what you're doing right now. I can't play games anymore, but do you still play soccer occasionally?

※※※Time flies in Chu Zhongtian's calm but fulfilling life.

He spent his 23rd birthday on a plane the day before the team had just finished the group stage of the League Cup away to Polislav (mlada_boleslav), where he scored a long-range strike to secure a 2-1 victory. With the final round of the group stage still to go, Metz has won two and drawn one, and has already qualified ahead of schedule. For him, that's the best birthday present.

When he returned to Mace, he also received a birthday present from Emily - a new mobile phone. Chu Zhongtian's current mobile phone was bought in the summer of 2004, and it has been almost three years now, and the style has long been outdated, and many of the latest practical features are not available.

At the end of the next day's training session, his teammates served him a custom-made birthday cake. The cake was filled with a full twenty-three candles mischievously, and later, according to his teammates, it was Ribery's idea, and Chu Zhongtian was not surprised at all.

After eating the cake, the time turned, and the group stage of the League Cup was all over. Metz beat Athens' Panathinaikos 4-0 at home despite having already qualified. Pushing Panathinaikos, who had two wins and a draw with seven points, moved them to second place in the group, where they won the group and had the upper hand in the next knockout draw – according to the rules, the top of each group is a head-to-head battle against the third in each group.

The team that appeared in the UEFA Cup for the first time are unbeaten so far, and the local media in Metz are excited to wait for the knockout stage to come.

That's what Metz's players are looking forward to, and the group stage opponents are too weak for them to be interested. But everyone knows that once you enter the knockout round, you will be strong. This feeling reminded Chu Zhongtian of Wimbledon's first trip to the FA Cup, and everyone's mentality is also like this...... Chu Zhongtian flew to Los Angeles to find Emily during the Christmas holiday, and Emily took him to appear frequently in front of the media's cameras, and even the movie premiere took him with him. This is Emily's first film after her transformation, and whether the audience recognizes her acting skills and whether the transformation is successful depends on this battle. At this time, Emily's pressure was very high, so Chu Zhongtian wanted to be by her side.

Judging from the reaction after the premiere, it was not to the point of sensation, but most people affirmed Emily's efforts, and the media who have always been vitriol also gave encouragement and praise to Emily's brave attempt, believing that Emily was right to decisively throw out the image of the vase, and now she is on a promising road. After all, the vase can't be played for a lifetime, she always has to grow old, and only acting skills are weapons that can accompany her for life.

Emily smiled genuinely, and her agent's mother, Miranda, let out a sigh. In order to reward her daughter, she specially gave Emily a few days off and allowed her to go out with Chu Zhongtian for a good time. Emily's New Year's resolution is to go to Disneyland in Los Angeles with Chu Zhongtian.

Now it's happening.

At Disneyland, she was as happy as a little girl. Later, she told Chu Zhongtian that this was her first time playing at Disneyland.

After spending a wonderful Christmas holiday with Emily, Chu Zhongtian returned to France. On January 6, the French Cup kicked off, with Metz beating Troyes 2-0 away from home to last season's relegated second division.

Then the league was rekindled, and the national team's European training also sent a call to him. But unfortunately, the first game of the national team in Europe and the first league game after the winter break clashed, if Chu Zhongtian had to participate on both sides, he had to play the league on the night of the 13th and rush to Spain overnight, meet with the national team, and then play the next day's game.

This is obviously unrealistic, and the club will not release him.

In the end, the result of the discussion was that Chu Zhongtian would report to the national team after playing the match with Le Mans. Anyway, the national team's matches are on the 16th and 18th, and from the 13th to the 24th, there is no league, only one French Cup game, and Chu Zhongtian doesn't have to play.

So in the past two weeks, Chu Zhongtian flew back to France to return to the league of Metz and Nantes after playing games with Borussia Mönchengladbach and Huelva on behalf of the national team.

This time the national team trained in Europe, Zhu Suishen gave Chu Zhongtian the opportunity to start in the game with Borussia Mönchengladbach, but Chu Zhongtian's performance was still not as good as his performance in Metz, he knew Metz well, but he was very unfamiliar with the national team.

There were some comments in the media that questioned Chu Zhongtian's inability to do his work, and Chu Zhongtian left all these negative reports behind him -- it was not that he was unwilling to defend himself, but that he simply did not have time to do these things. Ligue 1 has entered the second half of the season, with the UEFA Cup reaching the knockout rounds and the French Cup reaching the quarterfinals and finishing third in the league.

For him, for Metz, the season has reached a crucial stage. He didn't have time to fight with the Chinese media.

(To be continued)