Before the draw for this year's Champions League knockout round, if someone asked Gao Shunyao which team he thought was the most humiliating team in the Champions League, the first answer that came to Gao Shunyao's mind was definitely the name Manchester City. For a long time, in Gao Shunyao's view, the performance of Manchester City's team in the Champions League can be described as a joke.

His idea, of course, was due to Manchester City's performance, which made him quite disdainful. It's not that Manchester City are really bad as a team, it's just that their performance is really different from what people expect from them.

This money-hungry team has long been regarded as one of the strongest teams in the Premier League. They have great players, a lot of money, and a horrible salary level and a star roster that anyone who has seen it will not easily forget.

For a long time, this team was just a little brother in the same city of Manchester United, and they lived in the shadow of Manchester United when Alex Ferguson led Manchester United's illustrious massacre. And now, with enough money, they keep bringing in reinforcements, changing blood, and determined to become the new Premier League giants, which also makes them attract enough attention.

Although this team has been accompanied by a lot of controversy since the beginning of its rise, because of the method of spending money lavishly, but in the midst of various controversies, people have to admit that they have spent a lot of money so that they do have a very good lineup, relying on this lineup, they have made a lot of achievements in the Premier League, and now they have basically the Champions League every year to play.

But. This enviable lineup, the strength shown in the Champions League, is really unsatisfactory. Although they have the best stars, they have disappointed people time and time again.

In fact, although people are optimistic that Manchester City will achieve results in the Champions League, the expectation for them is not to expect them to be a huge success as soon as they start playing in the Champions League. In the midst of their Champions League journey. As long as they can show some fighting spirit and determination in the face of strength, it is enough to win the expectations and appreciation of fans. The process of a team starting from scratch is not as easy, even if it has financial support, it has to come step by step, and people still understand this truth.

But the problem is that people are waiting for Manchester City to get stronger step by step, but Manchester City's footsteps always seem to be lingering in the same place. In the Champions League for two consecutive years, they couldn't play in the league at all, and they couldn't beat the top giants. Even the average underdog team participating in the Champions League can't play, and even has the experience of being at the bottom of the group and not even playing in the Europa League. That's all it takes for a year, but they have played about the same for two years in a row, and the amount of money spent is one of the best in football, but the European results can't even be counted in the group stage, which is really contemptuous of them.

Of course, Manchester City fans always say. They played like this because they were unlucky, because the team was in poor gears. That's why it's always a strong team. However, in this case, Wolfsburg can be said, but Manchester City can't say: they spend a lot of money, and they are originally rushing to become giants, as a team that aspires to become a giant, but they dare not compete with other giants. This in itself is a disgrace.

Also rising from the underdogs, Dortmund played countless times better than them, and the same money to make a fortune, Paris Saint-Germain, also played better than them in the Champions League. City's current situation can be found with a whole host of excuses. But whatever the excuse, it's an indisputable fact that they didn't play well in the Champions League.

And if you don't play well, you will always be despised, and there is no way to do it.

And this year, compared to before, Manchester City seems to have finally made some progress. Although they still can't beat the giants in the group stage, at least abusing some other underdogs is not too much of a problem. After the group stage of the Champions League, Manchester City finally achieved one of their long-cherished dreams: to reach the last 16 of the Champions League.

This time, they finally finished second in the group and successfully entered the last 16 of the Champions League. And this success made them extremely happy. Especially when they saw that after the round of 16, they faced Wolfsburg, the weakest team in the first pot, Manchester City's confidence was also unprecedented, and they were even ready to make another breakthrough and enter the Champions League quarterfinals.

They dare to think like this, in addition to their own progress, a very important reason is that they are facing no other strong team but Wolfsburg. Such a result made Manchester City ecstatic, compared to the media publicity such as Dzeko's homecoming, in their opinion, Manchester City can qualify, this is the most important thing.

Although Manchester City have consistently underperformed against strong opponents, they naturally feel that they can still try against weak teams. For Manchester City, this draw can be said to be a good result, and they are extremely happy with it.

The three-year Champions League seems to have come to an end at this time, and this time they seem to see a bright future.

And the opposite of them is Wolfsburg's opinion of this draw. After the draw, seeing that he encountered Manchester City, Gao Shunyao suddenly felt that he might have despised Manchester City too much before.

Last year, Wolfsburg watched Manchester City's great fame and was eliminated early, and Gao Shunyao also laughed at them at the time, and even regretted why he didn't meet this opponent. And this year, they really met Manchester City, and Gao Shunyao was a little worried.

When this opponent looks at it from a distance, he always thinks that they are just a joke. It's ridiculous that so many stars are playing in the Champions League. But when it comes to meeting in person, their list is still scary: no matter how bad they have been in the Champions League, they are still a group of stars.

Turan, Silva, Kompany, Aguero...... Just look at those names, it's enough to make people laugh. Not to mention anything else, Dzeko, who was a core player at Wolfsburg, couldn't even secure his absolute main identity at Manchester City. It's a star-studded place, there's a lot of competition, and it's a completely different environment from Wolfsburg.

City have money, and even those who hate them the most have to admit it. And if you have money, you can have good players, which is also an iron law in the football world.

These players who enjoy a lot of fame all over the world, even if they have played games that people can't bear to look at, but as long as they still have the ability to play on the pitch and can win games for their team, they are not objects to be underestimated. Maybe they played in the Champions League, but who's to say they're going to keep going like this? And their strength, even if it is just to excite one, Wolfsburg will encounter a big crisis.

Of course, some people always think that the team that relies on money is not as strong as the giants. Some people think that the players of such a team only play for money and will not do their best for the team, so they are always inferior to the giants, and no matter how many stars there are, there is a gap in strength.

However, if you are serious about it, in modern football, even the big teams have to rely on spending money to be able to play, and if the team has no money, it will not be able to save the current decline in the glorious past. Even a thrifty coach like Arsene Wenger, who has experienced many years without a championship because he is reluctant to spend money, even if he is a celebrity like Real Madrid, if he wants to bring in players, the transfer fee and salary cannot be reduced. In this football world, the vast majority of people play for money, and there is nothing wrong with that. Except for individual stars in individual teams, who can say that playing football by themselves is not for money?

Of course, these local tyrant teams can't buy hard-working players with money, but as long as their players are good enough and can be absolutely crushed in terms of quality, then what does it matter if they are unwilling to work hard for the team? If you look at their lineup, you can see that these players of theirs, even if they don't do their best, it will be extremely difficult for Wolfsburg to cope with it.

A team like Manchester City may be beaten badly against Real Madrid and Barcelona, but against Wolfsburg, they are still in trouble. It's funny to see these rich people blink their heads in the Champions League from afar, but it's not a good thing to actually let yourself touch them. Drawing such an opponent can only be said to be bad luck for Wolfsburg.

This season, Wolvesburg has made up their minds that they no longer want to compete for anything in the league, but to fight hard in the Champions League. However, the result of the draw made Wolfsburg quickly realize that even if they really want to only play in the Champions League and want to win the final victory, it is not easy to do it.

This challenging road is still extremely difficult.

Why can't your own team draw teams like Galatasaray or Olympiacos? Watching Chelsea and Real Madrid bring these two teams home one by one, Gao Shunyao can only sigh at the good luck of these strong teams. Their luck was significantly worse than those teams. Even their luck is not as good as Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, although the Arsenal and Juventus they met are not weak and equally famous, but in Gao Shunyao's opinion, they are better than Manchester City.

Maybe only Porto, in terms of luck is as bad as Wolfsburg. They met Paris, which was a much tougher team. And apart from them, Wolfsburg may be the most depressed team.

On February 19, Wolfsburg is about to meet a strong opponent in the Champions League. And before that day came, they had little time to prepare. (To be continued.) )