On the third day of the match against Middlesbrough, Benitez travelled to UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, to participate in the draw for this season's UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup knockout rounds, which was broadcast live to the world.

Unlike the Champions League group draw, the draw for the round of 16 is just a draw, and the draw directly determines the matchup, and there is no award ceremony, so there are not many people on the scene, and more people like to lie on the sofa for this grand ceremony.

The draw for the round of 16 is for the top 8 group winners and the 8 group runners-up teams to play each other, while teams in the same league and group stage cannot meet.

Liverpool, who are participating in a 'special capacity', are not protected by the rule, but Liverpool are top of the group, in the same group as Chelsea, Arsenal are also top of the group, and Ferguson's Manchester United have been eliminated, and Liverpool will not meet their own side in the round of 16.

In last season's round of 16 knockout rounds, many strong teams collided in advance, which may be something that many people want to avoid.

Of course, it is good to have a big game, but the round of 16 is only the beginning of the brutal knockout stage of the Champions League, and if too many strong teams collide, then it is likely that there will be weak teams entering the semi-finals or even the final, which fans do not want to see.

For Liverpool, they are more focused on the teams that finish second in the group.

Among them, Chelsea is unlikely to meet, the rest of the strong teams are Bayern, Real Madrid has not had good league results recently, and many people say that Florentino's 'Galaxy Battleship' is about to sink, but Real Madrid's results in the Champions League have always been good, and no team likes to meet them.

Before the game, the media predicted that the most anticipated collision in the round of 16 would be Barcelona and Chelsea.

This is Mars hitting the Earth.

The theme of this season's group stage is "the road is narrow", and last season's Chelsea-Liverpool, AC Milan-PSV Eindhoven, Inter Milan-Porto, Juventus-Bayern Munich have all drawn the same group, and Barcelona and Chelsea, who were in the dark last season, may also collide again.

Chelsea were able to knock out Barcelona 5-4 on aggregate thanks to a controversial goal. And there were many turmoil outside the venue. In the first leg, Mourinho accused Rijkaard of influencing the referee, and Friske was forced to announce a "whistle"; In the second leg, Rijkaard and his players clashed with the home team's security, with Samuel Eto'o claiming racist abuse and John Terry scoring a goal in the crossing. Carvalho is also suspected of interfering with the goalkeeper.

However, it is not unlikely, that Chelsea will draw the Serie A giants.

With the exception of Arsenal and Liverpool, half of Chelsea's six possible opponents are from Serie A, and no matter who is drawn, it will be difficult to deal with, and it will inevitably lead to some grudges. For example, Crespo and Milan, Mutu and Mourinho.

Speaking ahead of the draw, Mourinho said: "Serie A teams are difficult to play against, but I still hope to play against them and it will be interesting. ”

He didn't say 'Chelsea want to draw the underdogs'. Because the probability is too small.

At this time, Benitez has a sense of superiority, originally he gave up the last game with Chelsea, if Liverpool loses, the situation is even worse than Chelsea, they may also meet Arsenal, in Arsenal, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Villarreal, Lyon to choose a team as an opponent...... It's a tough choice, and unless UEFA gives Liverpool a crumble, the chances of promoting Villarreal are slim. The other teams are not easy to deal with.

OK...... Liverpool did not lose.

In addition to Chelsea, Real Madrid, who have just changed their manager, are also the subject of media attention. They will be put to the test. In addition to Barcelona, Villarreal and Lyon, they will certainly face Arsenal, Liverpool or one of the top three in Serie A in the Premier League.

Bayern's "selection" is even larger, and they can only avoid Juventus.

Interestingly, in addition to Barcelona may meet Chelsea, last season's quarterfinals Real Madrid vs Juventus, Bayern vs Arsenal, Bremen vs Lyon have a chance to reappear!

Finally, to the sound of Colombian-style music, people from all walks of life attending the lottery entered one after another.

The ceremony officially began.

The first to be drawn was Chelsea. When the label of the team's name was seen, all the cameras pointed to Mourinho and the Portuguese appeared to be calm and composed.

Then it was their opponent - Futbol-Club-Barcelona (Barcelona)!

You don't need to look at it at all, you can imagine Mourinho's face at this time, pitch black is a good adjective. He almost jumped up from his seat and cursed...... Thankfully, he kept his demeanor, but as anyone knows, Mourinho is certainly not in a good mood.

In the round of 16, against Barcelona again, this is not a good opponent.

Barcelona is considered by many to be the strongest of the sixteen teams, but it is not without reason, Barcelona is stronger than last season, Ronaldinho is not an exaggeration to be called the best core in the world, and his goals have always been more dazzling than the core position, Van Bommel, Larsson, Edmilson, Deco, Puyol and other midfielders are quite strong, Iniesta, Marcos and other players have also grown up, everyone can see that Barcelona is rising rapidly, and now they are a behemoth, In La Liga, Real Madrid is not competitive at all compared to Barcelona.

This is the current Dream Second Team.

Chelsea are also in the spotlight, even in the summer, they have the lowest odds to win the title, but now no one thinks Chelsea are better than Barcelona, last season Chelsea still eliminated Barcelona by controversial goals, this season? It's hard to get the real heart.

Soon, the next matchups were drawn one by one.

The Galactic Battleship will meet the "Arsenal" Arsenal!

Werder Bremen will compete with Juventus!

Now it's Bayern Munich, and the Bavarian beast faces her old rivals, AC Milan!

Dutch giant PSV Eindhoven's opponent is Lyon, who swept Ligue 1!

Inter Milan's opponents will be ......? Ajax! The Italian is interested in several Ajax players.

Look at the luck of defending champions Liverpool, who will meet Benfica, who knocked out Manchester United!

Villarreal, the Spanish team who entered the Champions Cup for the first time, are in luck, and there is no suspense in the end, they will meet the giants of the Soviet Super League!

……

After the draw, some people were smiling, others were full of anger.

Serie A giants. Juventus and Inter Milan are relatively lucky to face Bremen and Ajax respectively, while AC Milan are not so lucky as they meet Bayern Munich in a narrow way. Faced with this result, all three teams kept a low profile, believing that any team that can make it to the round of 16 is excellent. Don't underestimate any of your opponents.

Inter boss Roberto Mancini cautiously said the clash with Ajax "won't be easy". He said Ajax had lost just one game against Arsenal in the Champions League so far.

"We can't be fooled by Ajax's performance in the Dutch domestic league, that doesn't mean what they're really capable of. While they have lost a couple of stars, some good young players have filled the void well. ”

The manager is low-key, but the chairman is not.

Moratti, for his part, was pleased with the draw and believed that Inter had avoided stronger teams. However, he also reminded Inter not to take their opponents lightly. "The worst mistake we can make is to think we're against a weak team. Although they are missing the big stars, their young people are very good. To get to the quarter-finals, we have to play our best. ”

Against Werder Bremen, Juventus coach Fabio Capello said it was an acceptable result. But at the same time, he warned his disciples not to underestimate the enemy.

'Bremen's counter-attack was quite good, they had good and fast attackers, so we have to be careful.'

Compared with the good signings of Inter and Juventus, AC Milan vice president Galliani is obviously quite dissatisfied with the encounter with Bayern Munich. 'It wasn't what I was hoping for, we had a strong opponent. But. We can also accept this result. We are ready to compete with Bayern."

There are also three teams in the Premier League, but unlike Serie A, only Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez is happy.

In an interview at the end of the draw, Benitez complimented Benfica. 'Benfica are a Portuguese powerhouse, they knocked out Manchester United, we should be cautious.

But personally, I can see that Benitez is quite happy with the draw for Benfica.

The other two, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho, turned blue.

Chelsea meet old rivals. Known as the 'Dream Team', Barcelona, no matter how confident he is in his team, he does not dare to say that it is better than Barcelona, in fact, whether it is the style of football or the lineup, or the overall strength of the team, Barcelona has stood at the top, although Chelsea is also majestic, but the two teams are still a little worse.

It's the worst sign ever!

Wenger's face is not good, because Arsenal met Real Madrid, even if Real Madrid has just changed the manager and is in a turbulent period, even if Real Madrid's league results are a mess, the overall performance is not good, but there is still no team that wants to meet Real Madrid, which is only a little better than Chelsea.

Interestingly, Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez walked out of the draw side by side.

There was no conversation between the two.

Before walking out of the door, in front of a group of reporters, Mourinho threw a sentence directly at Benitez, "Shit luck!" Then he turned around and got into the car.

Benitez shrugged and spread his hands at the reporters, "Some people just don't have the bearings. ”

Then a reporter immediately asked Benitez to explain in detail, even if Benitez was personable and good-tempered, Mourinho's provocation just now also annoyed him, so he said, "He was not satisfied with the draw results, thinking that my team drew a good lot, and his team drew a bad lot, but the draw ceremony was not decided by me, and he couldn't complain about God, so he made this picture......"

With that, Benitez shrugged his shoulders again and left.

But his words are actually no different from direct scolding, which translates as, "Mourinho is a villain, and he is jealous of Liverpool when he draws a bad lot." ”

The reporters were excited for the first time, you must know that Benitez is usually very personable, and it is rare for him to be so angry that he swears.

The draw was not limited to Benitez and Mourinho.

Next, the reporters interviewed Benfica club coach Koeman, Benfica is going to meet Liverpool in the round of 16, Liverpool is the defending champion, the league is very strong this season, the Champions Cup is also very strong, such an opponent is quite scary for Benfica, but Coman said that he is prepared.

"In the knockout round, we will definitely meet strong teams, this is no way, no matter which team we meet, we can accept it."

Koeman had said before the draw that he would be willing to choose Barcelona in La Liga or Arsenal in the Premier League for his next opponent. He was not unhappy with the draw after the draw was announced, with Coman believing that Liverpool had a large number of stars from England and Spain, a very strong defensive line-up, and few goals conceded; There is no shortage of good players up front, and they are a formidable opponent who overtook Chelsea in the group stage to sit first.

But Liverpool are not invincible.

"We have something special about being in the last 16 of the Champions League. Liverpool have the advantage, but the fact that we knocked out Premier League giants Manchester United in the group stage shows that we are capable of beating the big teams. ”

But Benitez did not respond to this.

In fact, back in England, Benitez began to hold in the office, preparing for the next League Cup against Manchester United, for the current Liverpool, there is no time to fight with other teams, the Premier League is different from other leagues, two cup competitions, no winter break but a more intensive schedule, he must hurry up to deal with a qiē.

At the same time, Zhang Tiehan received a piece of news that was neither good nor bad.

He was selected for the Ballon d'Or by France Football and won second place, ahead of Inter Milan defender Cannavaro, who narrowly won the award over Zhang Tiehan, who had to regret finishing second.

Zhang Tiehan has some regrets about this result.

Honor has always been what he wanted, for the opening of the next ancient power, maybe a Ballon d'Or is not enough, but something is better than nothing, especially for footballers, it is also an honor to be happy about, but ...... Golden Globe Award, he could only shake his head and smile bitterly.

The award was voted for by European journalists, based on his popularity among journalists...... It's good to have this result, just two points away from Cannavaro.

Unfortunately for not winning the Ballon d'Or, Zhang Tiehan quickly put it behind him, and the whole Liverpool team was ready for the Carabao Cup and a big game with Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Although it is only the League Cup, this is what Liverpool want to strive for, and Manchester United will never let go, they have not done well in the league and have been eliminated from the Champions League, so they will definitely go all out in the domestic cup competition.

Both teams did not want to give up, and the breath of the big war had spread. (To be continued......)