"The level of the European Champions Cup has already surpassed that of the World Cup."

It was Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson who said this, but his views probably speak for many in the industry, including the vast majority of fans who are passionate about the Champions League.

On the 14th, the curtain will open on the round of 32 of this season's European Champions Cup, and the European giants will start a new round of chasing the peak. Approaching the first round of the main match, the whole of Europe is discussing, among which Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal, who are about to participate in the Champions League, have naturally become the focus of football in England.

They have been in the spotlight but now they are in the spotlight because of the Champions League, with a lot of journalists interviewing several managers to get them to talk about the upcoming Champions League, to talk about their preparations for the Champions League, to talk about their thoughts on this season's Champions League.

Of the four teams, the favourites are clearly Chelsea.

Although Chelsea have just lost to Liverpool in the league, they are still favored by many more, especially in the first four league games, Chelsea's performance is really crazy, they have won four games without conceding a goal, a feat that no one in the Premier League has ever achieved - Manchester United have conceded a clean sheet in the first four rounds of the 1997-98 season, but the record is three wins and one draw.

So Chelsea's defeat didn't affect their temperament either.

And now Chelsea seems to have only one opponent in the league, Liverpool has one less round, three wins and one loss and Chelsea is only two points apart, Manchester United and Arsenal are both points lost, Manchester United was forced to draw by Manchester City in the derby, the record of clean goals conceded was broken, and there is also one less game, five points behind Chelsea; Arsenal have also only played four games (their match against Liverpool was rescheduled due to Liverpool's participation in the UEFA Super Cup), but Arsenal have lost two games so far. With only half of the possible twelve, the current eighth-place position is also the worst since Arsene Wenger took charge – Arsene Wenger has also finished eighth after five rounds since Arsene Wenger became Arsenal manager in 1998/99, but is unbeaten on seven points.

The league is only now in September, and while other teams are affected by their international fixtures, Chelsea seem to be in shape. The only thing that can be compared with Chelsea is Liverpool, but compared to Liverpool, it is obvious that everyone is still more optimistic about Chelsea, because of the strength, because of the lineup, and because of the results, after all, Liverpool's overall performance in the first few rounds was not good, and the games won were very difficult.

Of the four strong teams in England, it seems that only Chelsea is left alone.

Arsenal lost Patrick Vieira in the summer and the team did not find the soul of attack and defence as Thierry Henry captained. The offense is a bit chaotic, and everyone seems to have an idea, but everyone doesn't think the same thing.

Ferguson blamed last season's downfall on a lack of chances and a lack of seizedness, but they haven't improved much in that area this new season. With just five goals scored in four league games, there were fewer effective shots on goal than in the past.

'No one seems to have an answer to how to stop Chelsea from going on a rampage.' The Sun put it this way, "To beat a team that has few mistakes, you first demand that you have no mistakes. But there are always a lot of problems for the main challenger, and how to ask the middle and lower teams to block the car? ”

The only thing that can be analysed is the match between Liverpool and Chelsea.

Three to one.

The game has just passed. But I don't know how many people started to analyse the game, although Liverpool was a little different from Chelsea in the eyes of fans, Liverpool became Chelsea's 'only opponent' and they managed to win against Chelsea.

But the result of the analysis is that Liverpool has Zhang Tiehan

Yes. Zhang Tiehan scored three goals alone, to say that the first goal was the reason for Zhang Tiehan and his teammates to cooperate, the second free kick and the third direct turn to shoot were completely a reflection of personal ability. It doesn't matter what the team works with, so Zhang Tiehan is the reason for the victory over Chelsea.

But Zhang Tiehan is only one person, he can't appear in other teams, this result is meaningless for other teams, and even they have to think about how to limit Zhang Tiehan when facing Liverpool, which is a problem, and it has no effect on the game against Chelsea.

In conclusion, The Sun once again described Chelsea's strength as the media could no longer find a way to beat Chelsea, "only Liverpool have a way because they have stars"

"Maybe you should consider buying more world-class stars, such as Ronaldinho from Barcelona, Adriano from Inter Milan, and Kaka from AC Milan."

Not only in the league, but in the upcoming Champions League, Chelsea are also the favourites to win the title and are the most favourites in all of Europe.

Chelsea and Liverpool, the two league opponents are in a group, but they have not met in the first round of the Champions League, with Chelsea facing Anderlecht at Stamford Bridge and Liverpool away to Real Betis.

On the afternoon of the 13th, Argentine striker Crespo said that he would use the European championship to completely forget the nightmare of four months ago.

Crespo was undoubtedly one of the tragic figures in last season's Champions League, starting for AC Milan in the decisive battle in Istanbul, scoring twice in the first half, and at half-time, AC Milan had a three-goal lead, but in the second half, Liverpool scored three goals in a row to beat AC Milan on penalties.

In the new season, Crespo returned to Chelsea from a loan spell and had just finished a game against Liverpool, and then Chelsea lost to Liverpool directly, and he was also pushed to the ground by Zhang Tiehan, and then received a yellow card.

Chelsea have two more Champions League group games to play with Liverpool.

"Jose Mourinho should consider dropping Crespo," said The Sun for Mourinho, "Crespo is likely to have a shadow in his mind against Liverpool. ”

But Crespo said: "I want to play in the final again and be the winner." I'm confident that Chelsea have a chance to fulfill my dream, and if not, the wounds from last season's final may not heal for the rest of my life. ”

Poor Crespo

Crespo is scrappy, but will not be able to start until the game starts. Jose Mourinho has "two hands" ready in every position, so Crespo and Drogba, only one can start. There is one exception, Frank Lampard, the heart of Chelsea's midfield.

Mourinho said: "Rest? Why let Lampard rest? He played very well at Chelsea. When I decide who to play, I only refer to his table at the club. National? That's a world. ”

Mourinho has used eight players in midfield since the start of the league, Claude Makelele, Essien, Gudjanssen, Joe Cole, Arjen Robben, Duff, Wright Phillips and Frank Lampard, but only the Iron Man has played all five league games.

'I'm very happy with Frank Lampard's appearance, he didn't show any fatigue when he started the new season. So there is no need to rest. Chelsea take on Anderlecht tonight and Frank Lampard will also start. ”

In fact, Frank Lampard's appearance is not as good as Mourinho claims, in the Premier League, Frank Lampard played 450 minutes, 2 assists and 2 goals, which is not bad on the surface, but it is not sharp enough compared to last season, especially in attack, Lampard is not at his best. But. He's been improving, albeit a little slower, but it's not stopping, and according to the latest statistics, Frank Lampard is the top of the passing charts.

"He's in a very good mental state." Mourinho revealed, "After coming back from the national team, he was very strict and it was difficult to see a smile on his face. Because the national team lost, he himself received a lot of criticism. But after a day of self-adjustment, he was fully recovered. Life at Lampard is full of sunshine. With a brilliant career and a happy family, he should be happy. ”

That's Frank Lampard, who will always be at the heart of Chelsea.

Mourinho didn't talk about tomorrow's opponents, he just talked about the state of the team and the condition of the players.

But Chelsea's opponent was Anderlecht in London. But you can't talk about Chelsea.

Anderlecht, the historic Belgian powerhouse like their national team, hasn't caused any surprises for a long time, and the night before the game, coach Wacotran sighed from the bottom of his heart. 'I admit I want my team to make a difference in the Champions Cup, but looking at Chelsea and Liverpool in the same group, I almost lose basic confidence.

It's a bit of a bad time to say that before a game.

It also seems to be a sign that Chelsea will get off to an easy start to the Champions League group stage tomorrow

While the media across Europe is clamoring for the upcoming Champions League and the English media is focusing on Chelsea, the whole Liverpool squad has arrived in Spain.

As European champions, Benitez led Liverpool back to his native Spain.

Benitez is no stranger to Betis, who watched the team every week at the beginning of his coaching career.

"When I started coaching, I was an assistant coach of a reserve team in the Spanish second division (Real Madrid) and I was responsible for scouting our opponents before every game. Because of the schedule, every time I watched it was a match between our opponent and Betis. Benitez watched Betis games all the way that season, "So, I know the club very well, they have great fans, even though they were only in the second division at the time. ”

"Betis are not an easy team to play against, their manager Ferrer is experienced and professional. I have a good relationship with him. It's important for us to play the first game well and our goal is to win and try to keep a clean sheet. We played well against Tottenham last weekend and I expect that to be the case this one, but this time we need to score goals. ”

Rafael Benitez was keen to play the opening game, having won 2-0 at home to Monaco in their opening group game last season.

Betis also have Benitez's old team, Brazilian striker Oliveira was bought by Betis to Valencia, "Oliveira scored a lot of goals last season, Betis is very good in fast attack, the defense is also solid, they don't have a central defender who is more than six feet tall, Zhang will cause them problems. ”

As the defending champions, Benitez expressed his confidence and confidence: "I think our team and squad are stronger than last season. Although we still have some issues in some locations, we will have to wait until January next year to solve them. ”

However, Benitez is not showing complete confidence, and he also takes the Champions League and his team seriously, stressing that the team must focus on the task at hand, "I don't want to win the championship again, I just focus on making sure that the team is more stable home and away. We need to maintain a good team and our coaching team is full of very competent and committed people. ”

"That final is still in my memory, and that's enough. I prefer to think about the next challenge. ”

And just like that, the first leg against Real Betis began. (To be continued......)