Due to the international break, the Premier League was suspended for more than a week, and Manchester City also gave the players two days off, after which the players who did not make it to the national team will return to the team to continue training, while the rest of the players will play with the national team.

On both days, the players could rest, but Wan Sheng, as head coach, could not, and the next day, he travelled to Monaco with the club's general manager, Bill Nix, to participate in the draw for the Champions League group stage of the new season with the superstar there.

This is not the first time Wan Sheng has participated in the draw for European competitions, the last time he went to the summer before last year, he represented Derby County in the UEFA Cup draw, but the UEFA Cup was far less concerned than the Champions League, at that time, he was just a young manager of a 'small club', he was not famous at all, and naturally no one would care about him.

Now it's different.

He represented Manchester City in the Champions League draw, Manchester City was the Premier League champion last season, and what performance he will have in the Champions League this season is also exciting, especially the last time he led Derby County to win the League Cup, he is also a coach with European experience, in addition, his fame now is not the same as then, so specifically now leading Manchester City to participate in the Champions League, there are still many media willing to interview him.

When Wan Sheng and Bee Nix walked into the venue together, many reporters who were on guard flocked to him, and he was directly surrounded, while Bee Nix stood aside and watched happily.

This is the first time that a Chinese coach has appeared in the Champions League, perhaps the Chinese media will report this 'historical moment', but for the European media, interviewing Wan Sheng is normal, even in the World Cup, this completely 'out of the way' young Chinese can become the protagonist, not to mention, this season's European competition he led Manchester City is also one of the participating teams.

But the ideas of domestic and foreign media are obviously different, and there are still domestic reporters on the scene who are constantly taking pictures. To remember this moment, they intend to make this the central material of today's report, after all, this is indeed a moment that can represent the history of Chinese football.

This season, for the Chinese football media, is a worthy of special mention of the event, no Chinese players have participated in the Champions League before, and now there is soon, Manchester City's Sun Jihai and Wang Xiaolei will not say much, they will definitely be able to represent Manchester City in the Champions League, at the same time. Dong Fangzhuo is also on the verge of obtaining a labor certification, which means he is likely to represent Manchester United in the Champions League.

However, it is not unusual for players to participate in the Champions League, after all, the number of players is much more than that of coaches, and there are 32 teams in the Champions League group stage, what is unusual about having one or two Chinese players? Although it wasn't before, it's really nothing when you think about it this way.

But the coach is a surprise!

There are 32 teams in the Champions League group stage, but there are only 32 managers, one of whom is a Chinese coach, which is a great honor.

European football is largely the domain of white managers. Black managers are rarely seen, and other types of managers are almost completely extinct, in fact, this is a very invisible discrimination. Most of the sports in Europe are under the domain of white coaches, and the coaches of other races are assistant coaches, tactical coaches, etc., in short, they do auxiliary work, which is also related to some discriminatory 'habits'. White coaches are more likely to be trusted, they will be given more opportunities, and a little accomplishment will be written about. And other coaches will be questioned in various ways after achieving success.

Just like Wansheng, after some success, there are always doubts.

If he was a white man, he would have been touted by the media as the 'most talented manager', but there is no such voice at all, and even in the English media, there are constantly doubtful voices, they do not deny Wansheng's success, but want to dig out the 'real' reasons for the success to explain some 'unacceptable' problems.

This is how Wansheng is treated.

Cause? He is a Chinese, a yellow race.

It is precisely because of this that it is particularly precious for Wansheng to stand on the stage of the Champions League now, so it is completely understandable that the Chinese media want to use 'the first head coach in the history of Chinese football to appear in the Champions League' as the core material of the report.

It's not a fuss, it's a real success and honor.

Wan Sheng understood the thoughts of the domestic media very well, and he was also happy to accept interviews from the domestic media, so surrounded by reporters, he directly ordered a domestic media reporter and wanted to be the first to be interviewed by his compatriots.

"How do you feel about being able to lead the team on the stage of the Champions League?" The reporter's question was very concise, but it was a topic of concern to many domestic media and fans.

Wan Sheng smiled and said in Chinese, "My current idea is very simple, I hope the team can be divided into a good group, lead the team to the round of 16, and then continue to move forward, forward, and do our best to strive for better results!" ”

After speaking, he glanced at the surrounding reporters defiantly and changed to English, "Of course, if you can win the championship, it will be great!" ”

"Hula" was full of discussions.

The last sentence was understood by all the reporters, and they were in an uproar.

What did they hear?

This young Chinese actually said that he wanted to win the championship? Is he crazy? It's the first time to participate in the Champions League, and Manchester City, which has participated in Europe for the first time in five years, actually said that they want to win the Champions League, which is really a big joke!

Many media reporters who are not familiar with Wansheng suddenly feel that the rumors are really good, this young Chinese is not only arrogant, he is simply carried away by his own 'little bit' achievements!

Champions League winners? Haha, thank goodness if Manchester City can qualify from the group!

Media reporters think that Manchester City is difficult to cross the threshold of the group stage, not that Manchester City is poor, no European experience or anything like that, Manchester City is the Premier League champion last season, and in the first three rounds of this season, it has defeated Chelsea and Arsenal one after another, and the strength must be there, which everyone must admit, but they still think so, in fact, there are some reasons, that is, Manchester City's UEFA points.

A team's UEFA points are the sum of UEFA points in the past five years (the Champions League and the UEFA Cup are both European competitions) and the European points of the home league, according to UEFA's existing points rules, a team can enjoy 33% of the European points of the domestic league, that is, a team has not participated in any European competition in five years, and will also have a certain number of European points.

This was the case with Manchester City, five years ago. Manchester City have not played in the UEFA Cup or Champions League, and they do not have any European points, so Manchester City's UEFA points are only 33% of the European points in the Premier League in the past five years, or 39.133 points.

This score is higher than that of some teams in the minor leagues, but much lower than the big teams in the big leagues.

According to the UEFA grouping rules, all participating teams will be divided into four brackets according to UEFA points, and each group will be divided into four teams in four brackets, while Manchester City is only higher than Anderlecht and at the bottom of the third bracket, again because Manchester City is a Premier League team. If it were a different league, or if the Premier League team had a worse result last season, Manchester City would probably be relegated to the fourth tier.

Of course, there is actually no difference between the third and fourth gears, and the common point is that the group they are assigned to will definitely have a strong team in the second and first tiers.

Add to that Manchester City themselves, which means that Manchester City will almost certainly be placed in a 'group of death'.

This is also the reason why the European media is not optimistic that Manchester City can qualify from the group.

Of course, it all depends on the grouping.

The draw ceremony for the UEFA Champions League. In fact, it was also the best awards ceremony in the Champions League last season, last season's Champions League winner was Barcelona, so they took away the top scorer, the best midfielder and the best coach, as well as the managers and players of other teams. I can only watch them go up and claim the prize.

Barcelona did excel in the Champions League last season, beating Chelsea, Benfica and AC Milan in the knockout stages after qualifying from the group stage, and beating Arsenal in the final to win the Champions League.

Chelsea, AC Milan. Both are definitely strong teams in the Champions League, and these two teams even had the lowest odds to win the title last season, and they are also the most favored teams to win the Champions League. As a result, they were all defeated by Barcelona one after another, and it can be said that Barcelona's championship is full of gold.

Wan Sheng looked at the players up to receive the award, his face was a little solemn, he knew that this moment was the beginning of Barcelona's glory, in memory, Barcelona's results have been very good, so that basically the Spanish national team composed of Barcelona and Real Madrid players is very strong, and won the European Cup and the World Cup in 2008 and 2010 respectively, it can be said that in the next few years, if he wants to lead the team to achieve good results in European competitions, Barcelona will definitely become one of the most important opponents.

It will not be easy to beat the mighty Barcelona, which is much more difficult than beating Chelsea in the league.

Wan Sheng could feel that there was a blood flowing in his heart.

That's the excitement and excitement of facing a challenge

After the award ceremony, it was time for the group draw ceremony.

At this time, representatives of the invited players, UEFA officials and guests will come forward one by one to draw lots for each player.

In the order of the draw, first the seeded teams, then the second and third pots, and when the names of Manchester City were drawn, both Wan Sheng and Bee Nix had a wry smile on their faces.

Everyone looked at it with sympathy.

Manchester City have been drawn in Group G, along with Spanish giants Real Madrid, Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich and Bulgaria's Levski Sofia.

This is the unquestionable 'Group of Death'!

Seeing this grouping, what else could Wan Sheng do but smile bitterly?

In this group, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are both extremely strong opponents. Many people think that the two teams will compete for the top spot in the group, and Manchester City is only a little threat to the two teams, as for Sofia Levski, it is purely a top team, and there is no hope of qualifying.

Wan Sheng's opinion is of course different, he thinks about how to appear.

Only two teams in a group can qualify, Sofia Levski needless to say, there is definitely no chance, Manchester City wants to qualify must squeeze out Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, compared with the two opponents, the Bundesliga hegemon is better, Real Madrid, which has been getting worse and worse recently, is still strong in Europe, but every season, in fact, it is only the results of the group qualification, they have a lot of superstars, but various internal problems, resulting in Real Madrid in Spain can not compete with Barcelona at all, Results in the Champions League have also suffered.

So. City's hopes are still high.

What's more, even in the face of Bayern Munich, Wan Sheng is not afraid of anything, Manchester City is also the Premier League champion last season anyway, even if there is no European experience, it is not necessarily lost to the Bundesliga hegemon.

Of course, the most important thing in the group stage is to grab enough points, and it doesn't matter if you win or lose one or two games, which one is important and which one is not. It still depends on the schedule, in order to avoid problems such as injuries to the team, you still have to think more about the upcoming games.

But in any case, Wansheng also has a lot of confidence to lead the team to qualify.

However, the media did not see it that way, and the media, who almost saw the grouping of this group, immediately felt that Manchester City had little hope, and they even felt that there was no need to pay attention to Manchester City, because Manchester City would definitely not be able to appear in the group. What is there to watch out for a team that is unlikely to be seen in the round of 16 knockout rounds?

But there are still English media who are willing to interview Wan Sheng, after all, Wan Sheng is the focus of attention in England, and the grouping is not good now. The English media still hope that Manchester City can qualify, because Manchester City is an English club, and the appearance of the group means that it can bring more UEFA points to England.

So after the draw, some English reporters surrounded Wan Sheng.

Wan Sheng didn't care about the attitude of foreign media towards him. Now they don't interview themselves, and when the lead group shows up, they will definitely beg to interview themselves. Everything still has to be done by grades, and there is no need to care too much about these things.

In the face of the English media, he appeared relaxed.

There are many faces in front of him, and there are many familiar ones, so Wan Sheng also smiled, but this does not mean that Wan Sheng is in a good mood, now his mood is really bad, and no one whose team is divided into such a group will be happy.

So why Manchester City will be divided into the 'Group of Death', this is not accidental, but inevitable, even if it is a change of group, it is just to replace Real Madrid with AC Milan, or Bayern Munich with Lyon, in short, Manchester City's group must be the Group of Death.

All this is thanks to Manchester City's being classified as a "third pot team" by UEFA.

UEFA calculates "UEFA points" based on the team's European results to determine the team's grade, and Wan Sheng feels very unfair about this, because Manchester City has not played in European games in previous years, but Manchester City won the league last season.

So facing the media, Wan Sheng said, "I believe that the performance of the previous league is the real criterion, two years ago, Liverpool won the European Champions Cup, but in the Premier League 36 points behind Derby, not even in the top four, last year Arsenal reached the Champions Cup final, but only finished fifth in the league, not even qualified for the Champions League." ”

Then Wan Sheng pointed the finger at Inter Milan, "Inter Milan was only third in Serie A last season, and their championship was only printed on the jersey. He was referring to the 'phonegate scandal' of the summer, where Inter Milan won the league title for nothing due to the penalties imposed on AC Milan and Juventus.

"We were the Premier League champions last season, I can't think of why the Premier League champions are the third-tier teams, the runners-up Chelsea are the second-tier teams, and the third-placed Manchester United and fourth-placed Liverpool are the first-tier teams. Then he made his own suggestion, "I think UEFA should take this into account, the champions of the major leagues should have extra points, otherwise it will be too chaotic!" ”

Although I know what kind of temper the Chinese are in front of me, the surrounding media reporters are still quite surprised, in the domestic league nest, this guy actually spoke wildly in the Champions League?

The first time you led the team to participate in the Champions League, you still dare to dictate to the UEFA grouping rules?

Although many people feel that Wansheng's statement has some truth, more people feel that this young Chinese is too arrogant!

This is the Champions League, not the Premier League!

It's the first time you're leading a team to the Champions League, so why should you keep a low profile? Even if you are in the group of death, you will be dissatisfied, hold it in your heart and wait for good results, and now that the group stage has not started, you are not afraid of offending UEFA, or attracting more attention?

Wouldn't Manchester City's chances of qualifying be slimmer again?

Or is it that this Chinese feels that there is no hope of qualifying, and then he is afraid!? That's big news!

But in fact, Wan Sheng is not the only one who is dissatisfied with the grouping situation, and Wan Sheng is not the only one who dares to criticize UEFA's grouping work, because in addition to Wan Sheng in the Premier League, there is also Mourinho.

Chelsea are in a group that is definitely not good, because they meet Barcelona again, they have met Barcelona in the Champions Cup for the third year in a row, this time they met Barcelona in the group stage, plus Bundesliga newcomer Werder Bremen, which is also the group of death.

It's definitely not a good signing for Chelsea.

And all this is also thanks to Chelsea being classified by UEFA as a "second pot team", so after the group, in an interview, Mourinho said, "Chelsea should not be in the second pot, we reached the last 16 of the Champions League for three consecutive years, and last year we also got fourth, I think UEFA should consider the league results to add points and subtract points." He even said a rare word for Manchester City, "Manchester City is in the third tier? It's ridiculous, we just lost to them at Stamford Bridge. If this Champions League, English teams are not as good as other leagues, it must be a problem with this grouping! ”

Then he expressed his dissatisfaction with the group with Barcelona, "It seems like something that will happen, three years in a row against Barcelona, it is not an easy thing to happen, but it happened. ”

In fact, Chelsea's lack of UEFA points improvement is also related to the fact that they were knocked out of Barcelona last season in a 16-8 run, but this time, they were drawn in the same group as Barcelona in the draw.

This is the second year in a row that Chelsea have been in the same group as the defending champions. ‘

After the end of the interview, some media laughed and said, "In the English league, Wan Sheng and Mourinho are absolute rivals." But in the Champions League, the two actually joined forces tacitly" (to be continued.) )