Chapter 577: Champions League group stage grouping

Li Zihan walked up to the stage and hugged Baggio, and then Baggio announced the winners of the second and third places. Cristiano Ronaldo finished second, and third, of course, was Manuel Neuer, who was not dominant in his position.

UEFA President Michel Platini shook hands with the three players before presenting them with trophies.

When presenting the award to Li Zihan, Platini said: "We meet again, young man! ”

The last time Li Zihan and Platini faced each other like this was when Arsenal won the Champions League last season, and UEFA President Michel Platini presented Arsenal with an award.

"If it's like this every time I see you, I want you to be my neighbor, because then I can see you every day." Li Zihan said shyly.

Platini laughed and took the trophy for the best player in Europe from Miss Manners and handed it to Li Zihan: "The future is yours, young man!" ”

"Thank you, Mr. Platini!" Li Zihan took the trophy.

Li Zihan held the trophy and was led by Miss Etiquette to the rostrum to deliver an acceptance speech.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you" Li Zihan didn't finish a complete sentence for a long time.

The audience below laughed and coaxed.

"I am very grateful to my mentor, Mr. Conte, who led me to such a fantastic paradise. I would also like to thank Andrea Pirlo, Roberto Baggio, Mr. Maldini and many others, as well as my former club team-mates at Juventus. They taught me a lot, really. I am not where I am today without their guidance, and I am very grateful to my current mentor, Mr. Arsene Wenger, who is a very popular manager, and you can only know what fascinates him when you have played under him, and I am very grateful to the team-mates and staff at Arsenal now for their support and this award belongs to our team. Finally, I am very grateful to the fans who supported me, their cheering is my motivation" Li Zihan said this very fluently, without the previous embarrassment and intermittent at all.

Only then did everyone know that Li Zihan was joking with everyone when he stammered before.

There were applause from everyone, including his rivals Neuer and Cristiano Ronaldo, but the Portuguese superstar didn't look good, perhaps because he had been a spectator for four years in a row.

But thinking that this time there is no Messi, who he looks very unpleasant to, Cristiano Ronaldo's face is slightly better.

Li Zihan walked down and hugged Baggio again, and then Conte behind Baggio, who is now in charge of the Azzurri and has become the head coach of the Italian national team.

He was followed by good friends and teammates from the club and Italy, such as Vidal, Andrea Pirlo, Maldini and Batistuta.

Finally, there is the current Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal team-mates.

After the award ceremony, it was time for the draw for the group stage, which is the focus of attention every season.

There have been a lot of instability in this season's Champions League, starting with Manchester United, the seeded team, missing this year's Champions League, leaving the seeded team vacant and only the second-tier team with the most points to come on as a substitute.

Ligue 1 originally had two and five places, two of which would be in the main draw and the other in the play-offs. However, last season's Ligue 1 runner-up Lille was eliminated by last season's Portuguese Premier League runner-up Porto, so there are only two Ligue 1 teams participating in the Champions League: Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco.

Last season's Serie A teams in Europe were very poor as a whole, and in the round of 16, Napoli, Juventus and Roma failed to make it out of each Serie A team. So it directly affects the European resources obtained by Serie A.

Serie A, like Ligue 1, has only two and a half places, with league champions Juventus and runners-up Roma in the main draw, while Napoli play in the play-offs. However, like the Ligue 1 brothers, Napoli were eliminated in the play-offs by La Liga giants Basque Lions Athletic Bilbao, and only two teams from Serie A participated in the group stage.

In other minor leagues, there are many names that are hard to see, such as Basel, Atletico Greece and Malmo. Among them, the two teams of Razgrad Ludogorets of the Bulgarian League and Maribor of the Slovenian League have advanced to the Champions League for the first time.

Eight seeded teams were first announced, with Real Madrid, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Chelsea, who have not missed a Champions League game almost every season, seeded by La Liga giants Atletico Madrid, Portuguese Premier League duo Benfica and Porto. These three teams also regularly compete in the Champions League, with the highest Champions League points among the other second-tier teams.

This season, there are giants such as Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City, and Paris Saint-Germain in the second tier, while in the third tier, there are difficult tough players such as Liverpool, Bayer Leverkusen, Ajax and Galassatare, and finally in the fourth tier, there are new powerhouses such as Roma and Monaco.

So there will definitely be a group of death in the Champions League this season, it's just that I don't know which unlucky guys will be grouped together.

According to UEFA's "bad tastes", Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Barcelona, and Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain are all stories and teams that are likely to be grouped together

Eight seeded teams from eight groups will be selected first, which is not to be expected, and everyone is looking forward to the draw that follows.

Atletico Madrid is seeded in Group A, Real Madrid is in Group B, Benfica is in Group C, Arsenal is in Group D, and Group E to Group H are Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Chelsea and Porto!

Finally, the draw for the second division team was very focused.

The first place to start was Group A, where Portuguese legend Figo pulled out a small soccer ball from the transparent glassware, pushed it aside and pulled out a small note.

He smiled, then pointed the note directly at the camera and the guests and the team staff: "Dortmund! ”

Arsenal breathe a sigh of relief that if they still meet Dortmund in the group stage this season, they may be about to collapse, but fortunately, Atletico Madrid, the hapless guy, has pulled Dortmund away.

And the people of Atletico Madrid scolded Figo to death, and there were Basel and Zenit, the two weakest teams in the second division, who did not draw, but brought in a difficult Dortmund

Figo drew a second small football: "Basel! ”

Wow

The low is a partial coaxing, Figo is still helping his former club Real Madrid after retiring, drawing a Dortmund for his sworn rival in the same city, but drawing the weakest Basel for his Real Madrid

The third draw is Zenit, who will meet Benfica, and the quality of these two teams is not much different, and it will definitely be another battle of dragons and tigers.

When it came to Group D of the fourth Arsenal, Li Zihan and Arsene Wenger and others held their breath. Now there are also roles such as Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Juventus in the second tier, but according to the principle of group avoidance of teams in the same league, only Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus are left, and these two teams are not what Wenger wants to meet.

Because the winter in Ukraine is cold, a lot of managers don't like to meet teams from both Ukraine and Russia, oh and of course the Turkish team away from the devil.

Therefore, Wenger hopes to draw the Bundesliga powerhouse Schalke 04 the most, although the Schalke Stadium is known as one of the devil's stadiums in Europe, and they are the home stadium with the highest decibel decibels in all European stadiums. But compared to the cold Ukraine, oh, I heard that Ukraine is still at war recently, so Wenger would prefer to go to Germany

Figo took out the small soccer ball again, glanced at the small note, and looked a little weird.

The experienced Wenger knew that it was bad when he saw the other party's expression, and there might not be good fruit to eat.

Sure enough, when Figo turned the note around, Wenger almost wanted to throw the mineral water bottle on the table!

"Juventus !!" Figo read out Arsenal's opponents in this group.

"What ???"

"Juventus ???"

"Haha Arsenal is uncomfortable now, I knew it would be better to meet Dortmund, this can't be UEFA's intentional?"

"It's definitely a conspiracy"

The low-level guests and the audience laughed and coaxed, completely watching the lively mentality.

The camera focused on Arsene Wenger and Lee Zihan, before sweeping to the Juventus camp led by Manuel Pellegri and Andrea Pirlo. The expressions on both sides were very strange, and it was clear that they had not expected to meet each other at all.

The fifth draw is the Premier League's new giants Manchester City, who will be in a group with Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. The quality of the two teams is almost the same, with Bayern Munich winning the Bundesliga last season and Manchester City winning the Premier League, and the two league winners meet in the Champions League group stage.

Following the Barcelona group, Figo took out the small football again, glanced at the small note, and his eyes were wrong again

The new Barcelona manager Enrique immediately chuckled in his heart.

Sure enough!

"Paris-Saint-Germain!!"

"Grass!!" Enrique almost cursed.

Barcelona fans hate Figo even more, and the "defection" from Barcelona to Real Madrid has already made Catalan fans hate the Portuguese superstar to death. But today, Barcelona fans have reached a new high in hatred for him.

Real Madrid drew a Basel team, but Barcelona drew Paris Saint-Germain, which is almost the strongest team in the second division

Poor Portuguese, who offended fans of Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.