In the past Champions League final, Liverpool staged a shocking comeback in Istanbul, after falling behind 0-3 in the first half, chasing three goals in the second half and dragging AC Milan into a penalty shootout, and finally defeated AC Milan to win the European championship.

Liverpool has created a miracle!

The whole world was amazed, not only the Jedi reversal, but Liverpool's victory in the Champions League itself was a miracle, because Liverpool's strength itself was much worse, and their ability to reach the final has shocked many people's eyes.

Liverpool did it anyway.

However, the Champions League championship honor does not hide Liverpool's overall strength, limited to the strength of the Reds' bench and Benitez's lack of understanding of the Premier League teams, Liverpool in the league last season, in the end, only ranked fifth, which also poses a problem for UEFA - in the Champions League rules, there is no clear rule on whether the defending Champions League champions can participate in the Champions League next season, but simply stipulate that the top teams in the leagues of each country are eligible to play in the Champions League. The Premier League can only qualify for the Champions League by the top four teams: Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton.

But there is a precedent for Champions League winners to participate in next year's Champions League.

In 2000, Real Madrid won the Champions Cup, when they finished fifth in La Liga, and the Spanish Football Federation ceded a place for Real Madrid in fourth place, Real Zaragoza.

UEFA thought that such an exception would not appear again, so it did not change the rules, but it did not expect the exception to appear again, and the FA had previously made it clear that it would not follow the Spanish precedent and sacrifice the qualification of Everton, the fourth place in the Premier League, to complete Liverpool, not to mention the hostile relationship between Everton and Liverpool, the possibility of such a situation is very small -

No, it should be said that it is absolutely impossible!

Everton would love to see Liverpool unable to play in the Champions League. In this way, they can beat Liverpool, which is a rare situation in decades, how can they give up their team's place in the Champions League to Liverpool?

For this, UEFA has a lot of headaches.

Calls for the defending champions to play are very high, and UEFA's failure to change the rules in time has given them a reputation for inaction at the expense of Liverpool. Then UEFA will face even greater criticism.

Finally, on this day, UEFA held a special meeting for this purpose, and it was decided to let Liverpool start from the second round of qualification.

In other words, there will be as many as five Premier League teams participating in this season's Champions League, the only difference is that Liverpool only got a Champions League place, but not the corresponding country, which means that Liverpool will not play as a "Premier League" team. Cannot enjoy group stage benefits that are avoided against teams from the same country.

Of course, it's good to be in the Champions League, and Liverpool don't ask for too much.

Liverpool are very happy, the team is more motivated to train, and Benitez is more demanding of the players because the Champions League qualifying round has already begun, the first leg has already been played, and they have to start from the second leg. Then it's time to start preparing for the game.

Two days later, Liverpool's opponents have been decided. It's the TNS all-network team from Wales.

Founded by Joe-Smith in 1959 as Rancindifit Football Club, TNS Networks represent the border town of Rancindifit with a population of just 1,000 and play on the town's playground pitch.

Lanceindfit plays in the Montgomery County Amateur Football League, the fourth tier of the Welsh country, where he has won seven titles. In 1989/90 the team was selected to join the Central Welsh League, now known as the Central Welsh League. After only one season in the Central Welsh League, Lancindaffit was promoted to the Welsh League as runners-up. In the 1992/93 season, Lancindife continued to make a rapid rise, winning the league and the Welsh Intermediate Cup, formerly known as the Welsh Amateur Cup, to the Welsh League.

In 1996, Lancendi Feld won the Welsh Cup and qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup. At this time, TNS, a local computer company in Osworthtri, offered a £250,000 sponsorship fee, including naming rights. The team changed its name to TNS Full Network - Lanceindi Fat Football Club.

In 1997, the team changed its name to TNS All-Network Football Club, becoming the first English team to directly adopt the name of a sponsor as the team name. With Barry Town exiting in the summer of 2003 due to financial difficulties, TNS became the only full-time team in the Welsh League.

Shodder side Osworthley requested a merger with neighbouring TNS networks in the summer of 2003 due to financial difficulties, which was accepted by Osworthrie's shareholders and the Welsh Football Association, and the European Football Confederation, which initially opposed the merger of two teams from different football associations, finally approved it on 14 August 2003.

In 2003/04 'TNS' won nothing, with the league and Welsh Cup also finishing runners-up below Rhyl. However, TNS rebounded quickly last season, winning both the league and the Welsh Cup.

With last season's excellent performance, TNS secured a place in the Champions League qualifiers and beat Caphilone in the first leg to advance to the second leg where they met Liverpool in the draw.

TNS's table xiàn is very good, and it is their luck and misfortune to meet Liverpool.

Speaking of which, what other dazzling names does Welsh football have besides Ryan Giggs, Millennium Stadium and Cardiff City?

Few people could have thought of it.

Because of the encounter with Liverpool, TNS quickly became known to many people, and after learning about this team, many people found it very interesting, TNS is in a small town with a population of less than 1,000 people, and for a small town, the stadium of 2,000 people is really big enough.

But in recent years, TNS have been so good that they have played in Europe in a row, and they have had to loan Wringham or Newton to meet UEFA's requirements for a venue.

Originally made up entirely of amateur players from the small town, the squad was able to become the only professional club in Wales in four years, and head coach McKenna knows the ups and downs of the club: "No training grounds, no equipment, no players. Nothing. In less than 4 years, we built a club from scratch. ”

Four years ago, McKenna, who organised the team's first pre-season training, stepped onto a temporary field on loan at Lakeham, with just three players participating. Four years later, McKenna is excited to see the team move to a new 3,000-seat stadium.

Right now. As the owner of the Everton season ticket, he will appear at Anfield as an opponent for the Reds.

The whole TNS team is excited to prepare for the game, but on the other hand, Liverpool treats the game like a warm-up, and although TNS has been doing well lately, they are still a little too weak compared to a behemoth like Liverpool.

Liverpool didn't pay much attention to the opponent and just trained normally.

At the same time, Liverpool are still preparing for the new season. For example, to find some great old stars to replenish the squad, Benitez has been doing this, and he wants to get Real Madrid's Portuguese superstar Luis Figo, whose contract with Real Madrid expires this year, and he can move to other clubs on a free transfer.

But in the end, Benitez couldn't get his wish, and Figo chose Inter Milan.

In an interview, Figo, who had just put on Inter's new shirt, revealed the reason for giving up on Liverpool, "Liverpool offered me a good contract. It really appealed to me. But as soon as I arrived at Inter Milan, I made up my mind that the Nerazzurri would go with it. They were very kind to me. It makes me feel like I'm home. I decided to do my best to win the title for Inter. ”

Figo's words were a bit vague, as if to imply that Liverpool were not enthusiastic enough about him, but the English media believed that the most crucial factor in Figo's whereabouts was nothing more than the word "money". It's about Real Madrid, it's about Figo himself.

It is known that Real Madrid still owe Inter a transfer fee, and whether Liverpool can afford the Portuguese's high annual salary. It's also one of the problems.

The two economic factors overlapped, and Liverpool seemed destined to be out of Figo for a long time.

It's a bit of a shame that you didn't get Figo, but that's not the only thing that troubles, and Benitez received another piece of bad news before the game against TNS. That is, Chilean Mark González, who is on loan from Albacete, did not have a labor certification on the grounds that the Chilean national team did not make it into the top 70 in the FIFA rankings.

It's quite a blow.

Benitez believes the 21-year-old Gonzalez is the best Chilean rookie, and Gonzalez has previously reported to Liverpool, and Benitez also hopes that Gonzalez can be a member of the stalwart of the team.

"We spent six months observing him. I can responsibly tell the fans who don't know much about Gonzalez, he has a lot of quality, very strong, so to speak. It's incredibly fast, he's tall, he's got air dominance, he's able to pass the ball and shoot at goal. He is the best player in Chile. We consulted with the Quartet, scouts, pros, former pros and football coaches, who came to the same conclusion that Gonzalez has reached the standard of a first-class player and that his future will be even better. I believe he will soon be one of England's brightest players. ”

Benitez had planned to go on a one-year loan before making a permanent move next summer, but he overlooked a serious issue: labor certification.

"I didn't expect labor certification to be an obstacle. When I heard the news, I was very surprised. If the Chilean national team can win two games, maybe things will change. ”

The only thing Liverpool can do is appeal.

Manchester United's new signing Park Ji-sung also did not get a labor certification at first because he did not make up to the standard number of appearances for the national team. But Manchester United appealed and won a labor certification. Liverpool are also hoping to secure Gonzalez's right to play in the Premier League through the same route.

If they are rejected again, Liverpool will have to wait until January next year to reapply.

After this incident, Benitez felt that he had to know more about the rules of the Premier League, although he has been the Liverpool manager for a year, but occasionally he still makes some unnecessary mistakes, and he is also very frank in the face of the media, "The Premier League is very different from other leagues, and my players and I must continue to learn and improve." ”

Fortunately, the team's pre-season training has done well, which is also the biggest comfort in Benitez's heart.

In the continuous preparation of the pre-season, on July 26, Liverpool ushered in the first round of the second leg of the UEFA Champions League qualifying round, and the opponent TNS network team has arrived in Liverpool.

This is Liverpool's first game since the gathering, and it is an important match related to whether or not they can participate in the Champions League.

All the players are looking forward to the game.

At noon, the Liverpool squad arrived at Anfield Stadium by bus, and in another hour's time, they will enter the game against the TNS team. (To be continued......)