When UEFA President Johansson announced the start of the draw, the head coaches of the sixteen clubs, including Dick, began to pay attention.
If we talk about the draw of the first stage of the group stage, many head coaches of wealthy clubs don’t particularly care, because basically they will qualify if nothing unexpected happens, and they won’t encounter too much trouble even if they are placed in a more difficult group. If things go wrong, then in the second stage of the group stage, even the head coach of a wealthy club will pay great attention to the draw of the group stage, hoping that he can be assigned to a relatively easy group.
As the first place in the group, Atletico Madrid was quickly drawn out. They were placed in Group B of the second stage of the group stage. The first teams to be drawn out of the other three groups were Bayern, Real Madrid, and Juventus. Tus.
"Bayern and Juventus are not in the same group as us... That's good, otherwise we would be in trouble." Dick thought in his mind.
However, the first place draw will not have much impact. Whether a group is the group of death mainly depends on the draw of the second place. Just like the first group stage, it does not depend on how the first and second tier teams are divided. Yes, it depends on what group the strong teams in the third and fourth tiers will be divided into.
The first group to be drawn out and the second in the group was Manchester United. There was a low exclamation at the draw. Bayern and Manchester United were in the same group. It was really a good show. Three years ago, Manchester United won the final. It took three magical minutes to kill Bayern. Last year, Bayern defeated Manchester United twice to advance and finally succeeded in winning the Champions League. Now these two old enemies are placed in the same group again. It is indeed a sufficient gimmick.
"Damn, it's a bit dangerous now..." Dick thought in his mind. If the second place in Group A is not Manchester United, it will reduce the risk of Atletico Madrid being placed with a strong team in second place. Because Manchester United would never be in the same group as Atletico Madrid! Now, the possibility of Atletico Madrid drawing three teams: Roma, Arsenal and Leverkusen begins to become very high.
Sure enough, when the second team of Group B was drawn next, Platini smoothly drew Roma...
Roma and Atletico Madrid are in the same group - the two teams met in the UEFA Cup semi-finals last season. In the end, Atletico Madrid relied on set-piece tactics to stun Roma at home, and then won 5-1 at home. With this big victory, they successfully advanced to the finals and finally won the championship. Now Atletico Madrid and Roma are in the same group. No one believes that there is nothing wrong with it!
What's more, the two teams of Roma and Madrid have a close relationship in the past two years. They have been in the same group with Real Madrid in the Champions League for several years. They faced Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Cup last year, and they were divided with Real Madrid in the first stage of this year's group stage. In the same group, and now they are in the same group with Atletico Madrid in the second stage of the group stage, Roma is considered to be fighting against the city of Madrid.
"UEFA did a damn good job with this stunt..." Dick muttered in Spanish from his seat. He did not intentionally suppress his voice. The UEFA officials on the stage Although he couldn't hear it, Del Bosque, Irueta, Ferguson, Hitzfield and Roma's head coach Capello who were sitting not far away from him could hear it clearly without missing a word. …
Several old guys showed smiles on their faces. It is not a secret that UEFA manipulates the draw of the Champions League group stage. It is also common for coaches to complain in private or make some subtle sarcastic remarks in interviews with reporters. However, Dick
It’s really the first time for me to make such unscrupulous comments at the lottery ceremony.
"This kid is really open-mouthed."
The live broadcast camera immediately focused on the faces of Dick and Capello after pulling out of Roma. Dick's muttering was also captured by the camera. Many program producers immediately hired lip reading experts to study.
Soon, Dick's words spread throughout Europe...
All the viewers who watched the show were overjoyed when they heard those lip-reading experts imitating Dick vividly and saying, "UEFA did a damn good job with this stunt."
Of course, Dick didn't know at this time that his casual murmurs would be recorded by the live camera. He just continued to pay attention to the following lottery ceremony.
What’s not bad is that when Group D was drawn, Leverkusen was drawn out, which means Atletico Madrid will not be in the same group as Leverkusen.
When drawing another second-place team in Group B, Dick smiled bitterly again - Liverpool was drawn in Group B. This has advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that there are at least three capable teams in this group.
The good thing about the qualifying teams is that the last team to be drawn out cannot be Arsenal. Because of the avoidance of the same league, Arsenal cannot be placed in the same group as Liverpool.
"Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Roma... last year, three of the top four teams in the UEFA Cup finals became members of this group. It's really interesting... Roma and Liverpool were both teams that lost to Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Cup. This time
They will definitely be thinking about revenge in the group stage... Although this group may not seem to have so many giants, the confrontation in the UEFA Cup last year alone was enough to make this group quite interesting! UEFA's
The arrangement was really painstaking...I didn't say this was a deliberate group formation, I can only say it was too coincidental, but in UEFA's draw, such a coincidence cannot be called a coincidence..." ESPN's commentary
The member smiled and said.
Dick glanced at Capello first, then at Houllier, and then curled his lips.
In such a group, although there are some troubles, it is still okay. The three teams may be about the same in terms of strength. Occasionally, there will be no big problem if there is a slight mistake. Now let’s see what the fourth team is.
The team is...
"Galatasaray!"
When Platini announced the fourth team in Group B, Dick, Capello and Houllier all breathed a sigh of relief - although Galatasaray is not easy to deal with.
The team, last year they reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League. In the end, they defeated Real Madrid 3-2 at home in the quarterfinals and were eliminated on the road. However, after all, compared with Atletico Madrid, Galata
Saare is obviously still a level below, and it is difficult to cause any trouble to the three teams. Their opponents are still each other.
When the draws were all over, Dick felt that he was lucky - although he was not assigned to the Portuguese team, the Greek team and the Czech team, this group was all quasi-strong teams, and there were no
For the top teams, look at Group D where poor Deportivo is in, Leverkusen, Deportivo, Juventus, Arsenal... Such a group is the real group of death.
Woolen cloth!
Group A of Manchester United and Bayern did not become a death group. The remaining two opponents in their group were Boavista and Nantes, which were obviously one session behind Manchester United and Bayern. Real Madrid was assigned the lowest ranking.
Good group, the remaining three teams in Group C are Panathinaikos, Sparta Prague and Porto. Real Madrid's strength can be said to stand out in this group!
After the lottery ceremony, Dick quickly returned to Madrid to prepare for the next league match. Then he knew that the words he muttered at the lottery ceremony had spread throughout Europe...
"I am in no way saying that UEFA controls the entire game."
In an interview with reporters, Dick denied that he was complaining about UEFA's control of the draw: "I just said that UEFA was very lucky. Obviously, we played against Liverpool and Roma last season.
, will definitely attract a lot of attention when we meet each other now. As for 'fuck'? This is just a catchphrase, some kind of modal particle and modification. I am a person with no quality. I habitually say dirty words. Please don't mind.
, but I think I am not a role model for teenagers. That must be a role for people in the cultural field. As for the word 'do', does it mean manipulation? This word has many meanings, I just
It’s just that UEFA just happened to hit this draw. I believe that every draw by UEFA is random. There is no doubt about it. Well, I don’t think I need to be punished for a casual exclamation.
What kind of accusation, because this kind of accusation is completely unreasonable and unreasonable! I think I should live in a country with free speech. I mutter a few words at will and it has nothing to do with anyone, and I have no ill intentions...
…That’s it.”
Dick pushed four, five, six, and cleared up all the connections. However, this incident also made him wary. When he wants to mutter in the future, he must mutter in Chinese, preferably in dialect, so that those bastards
Let lip-reading experts guess - even if you ask a northerner to come here, they may not be able to tell which country’s southern dialect I’m talking about!
When thinking like this, Dick also felt that he had been a little negligent. You must know that many coaches in later generations covered their mouths with their hands when discussing tactics with assistant coaches, just to avoid the media using lip reading to analyze what he said.
, even in such a much-anticipated lottery ceremony, I even muttered in Spanish, saying that I shouldn’t have suffered a loss this time, and I should pay more attention next time.
This matter passed quickly. Although UEFA was very angry with Dick's outspoken words, Dick said that he was just sighing, not accusing. Naturally, they would not make such a big deal about it.
You can only pretend that you haven’t heard anything and don’t know anything. When you are being interviewed, you have to say, “We know Dick. He is a straightforward person. We understand what his original intention is. We hope the media will not misunderstand him.”
Read, our lottery is absolutely fair, transparent and open, and everyone can prove this."
This matter just calmed down.
But this second stage of the group stage is probably going to be very troublesome. If you don't perform well, you'll have a lot of trouble qualifying - in terms of the schedule, Atletico Madrid will play two Champions League games before the New Year.
In the group stage, they first faced Liverpool at Anfield, and then faced Galatasaray at home. After the New Year, they faced Roma twice in a row in February, and then they faced Liverpool at home and Galatasaray away.
The schedule is quite favorable for Atletico Madrid, but if they have not won the right to qualify in the final round, it will be an extremely difficult situation to go to Hell to challenge Galatasaray at home.
"I hope I can get the right to qualify as early as possible in the previous games. Otherwise, it won't be worth it if we are intimidated by those crazy fans against a team like Galatasaray in an away game." Dick said.
