Millwall defeated last season's UEFA Cup champion Galatasaray in the European Super Cup and won this useless championship without any blood. Then, the draw for the UEFA Champions League group stage, which attracted the attention of the whole Europe, began.
millwall
Sporting Lisbon
Hamburger
Moscow Spartak
This is the draw result for the first group stage of Millwall's new season's Champions League.
There is no doubt that this is a great deal.
Is Millwall in doubt about qualifying?
No.
But precisely because it did not, it triggered the European mainstream media to criticize the Champions League.
Last season, when the Champions League was expanded, outside voices were not strong yet. Most people were just watching the excitement and looking forward to the birth of a dark horse.
But this season, when everyone took a look at the first-stage group draw results, no one was interested in predicting the top 16 of the Champions League.
The disparity between the strengths and weaknesses of each group is too obvious. Only AC Milan, Barcelona, Leeds United, and Bethesda, four teams in one group, have the flavor of a group of death.
But in this group of death, there are three participating teams from Britain, Italy and Spain, but there is no league champion.
The suspense of the Champions League group stage has plummeted, and the consequences are very intuitive: the ratings have dropped.
Even if AC Milan is a team of death, maybe Leeds United will play against Cedars. It is estimated that no one will be interested in watching the game at the same time except for the fans of the two teams.
Millwall is also depressed. From the perspective of club commercial value development, they actually hope to have one or two challenging opponents in the group, so that their games can attract more fans to watch.
From UEFA's standpoint, expansion will bring benefits to other small clubs. This is a bit like what was preached during the development of socialism: those who get rich first will lead others to get rich too.
Millwall's strength in this group is obviously at least one level higher than the other three opponents, so in the game between them, Millwall is the focus of attention. Incidentally, it can also bring influence and attention to the opponents. Millwall
Er is actually the face of this group.
In other words, UEFA's expansion is sacrificing the appeal of the group stage to win over the support of non-mainstream powers.
In the group stage, a rich and powerful team will take you to play. You can make some money and show your face. If you are not strong enough to qualify, you will also have the motivation to come back next year.
Then in the top 16, the rich game really kicked off.
But if a giant team fails in the group stage before the top 16, it will indeed be called an upset. However, the inherent decline in the attractiveness of the game will not change.
In the past, people were reluctant to miss any of the Champions League matches. There were so many strong players in the group stages. If you missed one, you might have missed a classic.
But now, not to mention missing one group match, I guess not watching all the group matches will not be a big regret, because the fun is definitely coming later. No matter how exciting the previous games are, the suspense of the main premise of qualifying has not changed much.
Driven by the interests of organizations such as UEFA and G14, the Champions League, which was originally intended to be a competitive competition between the top teams from its inception, has gradually changed its flavor.
It's useless for Aldridge to worry. UEFA's expansion is forced by the situation. When Platini comes to power in the future, the Champions League will simply become a stage for poverty alleviation and charity.
Thinking on the bright side, the pressure on a strong team is not that great, and when conditions are relaxed, you can train your troops and give young people more opportunities.
There are many disadvantages. The schedule is intensive, especially for English teams, which will become a burden.
When a reporter asked Aldridge about his opinion on the Champions League draw, he looked helplessly at the reporter who asked the question at the Premier League pre-match press conference and was speechless for a long time.
What else is there to say?
There's no way. It's fair to say that the opponents in the group are very strong. Millwall cannot take it lightly and must go all out to qualify.
In the fourth round of the Premier League, Millwall challenged Black Cat Sunderland as a guest, and the result was 0:0.
The defending champion suffered draws in two consecutive rounds, Aldridge became in a bad mood, and Materazzi was injured again.
It is normal for players to get injured. A combination of bad luck and extensive injuries cannot be said to be unexpected, but it is a severe test for Millwall.
The league is temporarily suspended, the FIFA match day is coming, the 2002 World Cup European qualifiers are in chaos, and the hard days of England fans are coming again.
For fans of the England national team, there are only a few weeks throughout the year that are either painful or fun. After all, the league and the European competition are still the mainstream, and there are very few fans who simply support the national team without supporting the club.
Even if there are such fans who simply support the national team without a club stance, it is impossible for them to "worry about the country and the people" and focus on the England national team all year round. After all, the national team gathers for training and becomes the focus, and there are only fixed FIFA games.
On other days, Fleet Street also treats the national team as nothing, otherwise? Who will pay for the hype?
If the England national team performs well, everyone can brag about it. If the England national team performs poorly, they can only vent in torture and pain.
Millwall's team became fragmented during the FIFA match day. They were promoted to the national team and recuperated from injuries. Even young players were called up by the lower-level national teams.
Aldridge gave the team a holiday as usual and went to Liverpool to visit his two sons.
He discovered an interesting phenomenon.
The eldest son Bert likes football very much. Now he even sleeps with a football in his arms.
The younger son Earl is the complete opposite and has no interest in the "toy" of football.
However, when Aldridge sat on the sofa watching England's game against Finland, there was an extra spectator beside him.
Earl sat beside him in a dignified manner, watching the football game on the big TV screen intently, while his brother Bert played football on the carpet.
At this time, Aldrich waved a football in front of Earl's eyes, trying to see his interest, but Earl turned a blind eye. Instead, he got angry at Aldrich!
Well. A child yells or waves his arms. Aldrich understands it as getting angry.
Aldrich threw the football away because it blocked Earl's view, and then Earl calmed down and continued watching TV.
Aldrich picked up the remote control and changed the channel, and Earl's scream sounded again.
Aldrich smiled.
Understood.
It turns out that Earl likes watching football games, probably just like children like watching cartoons.
Aldrich didn't know whether his one-year-old son could understand. However, he happily put Earl on his lap. The father and son watched the England national team's game together. After Bert got tired of playing on the carpet, he lay down.
He fell asleep on his back on the carpet.
Well, a game that was tortured in Aldrich's eyes, but Earl seemed to be watching with gusto. Until the end of the game, Earl saw commercials starting to play on the TV and tugged on Aldrich's hand, seeming to want to win.
The football game continued to play on the TV, and it took Aldrich a long time to distract him.
England and Finland. Draw!
If placed in a normal relaxed environment, England failed to win Finland in the away game. If they didn't win, they didn't win. It was just a minor accident at best.
But in the summer, the England national team was defeated in the European Cup group and failed to qualify, and because this game was related to the situation of qualifying for the World Cup, England fans were furious!
The situation in England's group is actually relatively optimistic. First of all, unlike the other half of the group which has 6 teams, this group only has 5 teams.
England, Finland, Greece, Albania, Germany!
There is one spot to advance directly to the World Cup finals, and the second place in the group will go to the play-offs.
At first glance, it looks like England and Germany are competing for first place.
Moreover, England has good luck. Germany, which is in the same group, is a German team that has fallen to the bottom in recent years.
Of course, the German team also has its own comparative background.
You know, in the two World Cups in the 1980s, the German team had two runners-up places. In 1990, under the leadership of Beckenbauer, it reached the top of the world. In 1994 and 1998, it began to decline, ranking fifth and seventh respectively.
As for the European Cup results, they were runner-up in 1992 and champion in 1996. In 2000, this summer, they finished the group stage hand in hand with England and went home together.
This is the background why the German team is recognized as having hit rock bottom. In terms of record, the European Cup and World Cup have indeed been declining. In addition, Germany's own lineup replacement is unsatisfactory, which is why the public opinion of the German team is the worst in the past two decades.
Label.
But comparing England and Germany together, there is really no comparison. England can only be said to be worse in terms of record, and it cannot be better than Germany, which is the worst.
Therefore, in such a group, England failed to win Finland, which was listed as a loser. They fought for every point in 8 games and lost 2 points in the first game. This made England fans seem to have foreseen England's defeat.
Ranking second and going to the play-offs, the nightmare of not qualifying for the World Cup in 1994 is about to happen again!
Kevin Keegan was under great pressure and instantly became the target of nationwide condemnation.
That's the way a head coach is. If you do well, your farts will taste good. If you don't do well, any decision you make will be magnified and become a weapon for the outside world to attack you.
Keegan made Adams feel disheartened and quit the national team, insisting on reusing Shearer who was over 30 years old and in poor condition, cliche defense, etc. It seems that Keegan has no advantages in his whole body!
Aldridge spent a few happy days in Liverpool and then returned to London. He wanted to continue hosting the training of the first team, but there were really few players left.
I originally planned to go to the club to watch the youth team training, because the youth team also faces new challenges in the new season.
In the past few years, Millwall's youth team has traveled around Europe with the first team and has achieved good results. While Millwall itself has become the biggest focus, the youth team has also increased its reputation, which in turn has attracted the attention of the outside world.
The commercial value of youth teams.
The French television broadcast agency signed a new agreement with UEFA to form a U19 European Youth League called "Next Generation" in the new season and invite outstanding teams from European youth training to compete in order to obtain new benefits.
Millwall was of course one of the invited teams. Little did Aldridge know that this tournament was born ten years early because of his butterfly!
Further development later, it became the "European Youth Champions League"!
He only thinks this is a good thing. Giving the youth team more opportunities to go out and see more and play against teams with different football styles will be beneficial to the growth of young players. As for the youth team, it can make money for the club from this event.
How much money, this is just a fantasy, it would be nice to be able to make up for the expenses of the youth team by collecting the game costs.
After parking the car at Leo's training base, Aldridge was on his way to the youth team when his cell phone rang. He picked it up and answered it, and Andrew's deep and solemn voice reached his ears.
"Where are you?"
"Leo Training Base. Is something wrong?"
"Do you have time?"
"Yes, yes."
"I'll be waiting for you outside in twenty minutes. I'll call you when I get there."
"What is it? It's so mysterious."
"You'll find out later."
Aldrich wandered around the training base for more than ten minutes when Andrew's call came again. He walked out of the training base and saw Andrew's car at the door. He walked up and opened the passenger door. After sitting in, he unexpectedly discovered
There was someone in the back seat. He turned around, smiled, and stretched out his hand to say hello.
"Hello, Mr. Chairman Thompson."
The Chairman of the FA smiled and shook Aldridge's hand. Andrew drove the car and quickly disappeared into the street. (To be continued...)
