Chapter 256: Champions League Group Stage Draw
Atletico Madrid were held to a draw by a weak team in the first round of the league, which is also not a small piece of news.
In the first round, Barcelona and Real Madrid defeated promoted horses at home and won smoothly, while defending champion Atletico Madrid suffered an upset, which naturally caused various discussions in the media.
"The Sheets Army was upset, and the first round of the new season was unpopular"
"Atletico Madrid is slightly tired, and the squad disadvantage has reappeared"
Compared with Barcelona Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid has always been considered to have insufficient squad depth, and this time the upset was forced to draw, and this issue will be mentioned again.
'It was just an accident and we will win the trophy at home next time.' Ringer replied simply at the airport and boarded the plane to Monaco.
The next game will be played at Atletico's home stadium, when last season's league trophy will be awarded, and of course a win will be a win to welcome the trophy.
And now Ringer is taking his parents and sister to Monaco with the club's president, Cerezo, for the Champions League group stage draw, and there will be an award for the best European player after the draw.
Ringer, who was the hero of last season's Atletico double, was undoubtedly in the top three of Europe's best player rankings, so he had to attend the award in person.
Monaco is a highly developed capitalist country, known for its gambling and tourism industries, and it is also a small country, the whole country is a small town, and the total land area is only 2 square kilometers. Intuitively compared, it is not as big as the Summer Palace in Beijing, so it is said that every inch of land is expensive, and there is no land to build the airport.
Ringer and his entourage first took a plane to Nice, France, the nearest city to Monaco, and then took a helicopter from Nice to Monaco. Of course, you can do it by train or car, but it takes more time, almost half an hour.
"Xiaolin, why do you still have to take a helicopter?" Mother Lin, who was doing a helicopter for the first time, was a little uncomfortable.
"There's no airport there, so of course you have to take a helicopter there. Don't worry, it's only a few minutes, very soon. Ringer reassured.
It was indeed very fast, and in less than 10 minutes, Ringer and others arrived in Monaco.
The reporters who had been waiting here for a long time immediately surrounded them.
"Ringer, are you confident that you will win this year's European Player of the Year?" The first to ask questions was a domestic journalist.
"Absolutely, I think I deserve this award for my performances over the past season."
"Lin, Ronaldo also said that he is confident of winning the award, what do you think?"
'Cristiano Ronaldo is of course a great player, but I think I played better than him in the last season.
The best player in Europe is voted for by the journalists, and Ringer will of course have to help himself get a vote at this time.
Among the various awards in international football, the best player in Europe is arguably the only award in the Golden Ball and the World Footballer of the Year, which was called the European Club Footballer of the Year 11 years ago, and later changed to the best player of Europe.
In the face of such an award, Ringer certainly has to try his best to fight for it.
The top three this year are Ringer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neuer.
Ringer and Cristiano Ronaldo mainly relied on their performances in the Champions League last season, while Neuer was selected as a representative of the German national team to win the World Cup. In general, everyone thinks that this award will basically be between Ringer and Ronaldo, and Neuer is just here to accompany him.
Messi's performance last season was really average, and he didn't make the top three. This is also the first time since 08 that Messi has failed to enter the top three of this award.
Ringer, on the other hand, is undoubtedly the favourite, after all, he was much better than Cristiano Ronaldo in championship glory last season.
At 5:45 p.m. local time in Monaco, the draw for the 2014/15 Champions League group stage took place at the Grimaldi Convention Centre in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
At this time, it is close to 12 o'clock in the evening in China, but there are still many fans waiting to watch the draw ceremony, mainly waiting to see the award after the draw ceremony, to see if Ringer will win the best player in Europe award, which is likely to be the first more valuable personal honor Ringer won after entering Europe.
"The senior management of the clubs participating in this season's Champions League have entered the convention centre and the draw for the group stage of the Champions League is about to begin." The domestic broadcast commentary is He Poet.
"Ringer has already arrived, as well as his parents and girlfriend, and we all sincerely hope that he will win this year's European Player of the Year award, and that he will win the award in the presence of his parents."
It will take a while for the award of Europe's best player to be awarded, starting with the draw for the Champions League group stage.
"Ringer~~ Ringer came out of the backstage, he was the representative of the defending Champions League champion Atletico Madrid, and he returned the Big Ears Cup to UEFA, and then he will also be a guest of the draw to help draw the first tier of teams~~~"
In the early years, UEFA also had a rule that European clubs could keep the Big Ears Cup permanently if they achieved three consecutive Champions League titles or a total of five Champions League wins, but this rule was abolished in 09, and now each winning team can only copy a slightly smaller replica trophy for themselves.
So in Europe, only five clubs, Real Madrid, Ajax, Bayern, AC Milan and Liverpool, have managed to keep a real trophy permanently, the first three teams have won the championship by consecutive titles, and Milan and Liverpool have won it by accumulating five titles.
So now, Atletico Madrid can only copy one trophy and collect it in the honor room, and the real trophy must be returned to UEFA. Of course, the name of Atletico Madrid is already engraved on the body of the authentic trophy.
The main draw for this year's Champions League group stage is Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who is responsible for working with him to divide the first-tier teams into groups, with Ringer drawing teams and Schmeichel drawing each group and then pairing them one by one.
In this year's Champions League play-offs, Athletic Bilbao, the fourth in La Liga, eliminated Napoli, the third in Serie A, with a score of 4:2, and the third Porto in the Portuguese Super League eliminated the third Lille in Ligue 1 3:0, so there are only 16 teams in the five major leagues in total to enter the Champions League group stage, four each in La Liga, Bundesliga and the Premier League, and only two in Serie A and Ligue 1.
Atletico Madrid were placed in Group A, but the rest of the teams in this group have not yet come out, and it is not yet known whether it will be good or bad.
If you want to form a group of death in the group stage of the Champions League, you mainly need to look at the third and fourth teams.
Among the teams in this year's Champions League, Liverpool in the English Premier League is the third pot that everyone wants to avoid, as well as Athletic Bilbao in La Liga and Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga also have some strength. Among the teams in the fourth pot, Monaco, the new local tyrant of Ligue 1, undoubtedly does not want to be encountered, and Serie A Roma should not be underestimated.
After Ringer went down, then German legend Riddle, who was the venue of this season's Champions League final, took the stage and drew the second team together with Schmeichel.
Then there was Atletico Madrid's Serbian Pantic, who came to the stage and Schmeichel to draw the team in the third tier.
In the end, it was Real Madrid legend Hento who went up and drew the fourth team with Schmeichel.
The final draw results came out, and Atletico Madrid's Group A, the other three teams were Serie A giants Juventus, Greek team Olympiacos, and Swedish team Malmo.
"Atletico Madrid's results in this group are not bad, Swedish side Malmo are a new team in the Champions League, this is their first Champions League competition, and Greek side Olympiacos is also limited, and they have poached key players in the summer, so it is difficult to cause problems for Atletico Madrid and Juventus. If nothing else, it is Atletico Madrid and Juventus who occupy the first and second places in the group, but it is difficult to predict who will compete for the top spot in the group. He Shishi is explaining the results of the draw for Atletico Madrid.
This season's Champions League group stage is quite stable, there is no cruel group of death, and there should not be a situation like last season, when Napoli scored 12 points and went out of the group.
In Group B, Real Madrid and Liverpool have a clear advantage.
Group C, Benfica, Zenit, Bayer Leverkusen and Monaco, this is the most "dead" group, the four teams are not much different in strength, it may form a scuffle, but in fact it is more like rookies pecking each other.
In Group D, Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund meet again, and they have little problem occupying the two qualifying places, but at most they will be careful of Galatasaray causing an upset, as they knocked Juventus out of the competition last season.
In Group E, Bayern and Manchester City have the upper hand, and Roma have a chance to cause them problems.
In Group F, Barcelona and Grand Paris have made it out of the group.
In Group G, Chelsea have no problem topping the group, while Schalke 04 and Sporting Lisbon are battling for second place in a group.
In Group H, Shakhtar Donetsk and Athletic Bilbao played in the "top three", and the Belarusian team Borisov was the sending boy.