After Barcelona defeated Real Betis and won the Spanish Super Cup, Real Madrid's mouthpiece Aspen sarcastically said that the Spanish Super Cup has a curse and that all teams that win the Super Cup will lose in the defense.
The Catalan media sneered at this, saying that Aspen was saying sour grapes because they couldn't get enough of them.
It was in this atmosphere where the two major media camps were firing at each other that the entire Barcelona team set off for Monaco.
Every year at the end of August, the eyes of football fans all over the world are focused on Monaco.
After three rounds of qualifying, the top 32 teams in the Champions League have been announced, and the draw in Monaco will determine the future trend of these 32 teams.
As early as after the qualifiers were played, major media reported on the points rankings of this season's Champions League seed teams.
Thanks to last season's championship, Barcelona ranks first in the seeding standings, followed by Real Madrid.
This makes many people lament the strength of La Liga.
In the early years of the 2000s, Real Madrid won the Champions League twice in three years, and its momentum could be said to be unrivaled in the entire European arena.
Today's Real Madrid has shown signs of fatigue. Superstars such as Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo, and even Beckham have shown their age and are not at their peak. However, Barcelona has risen up and taken over the La Liga title from Real Madrid.
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Although Barcelona did not invest even a penny in the transfer market this summer, no one can deny that the overall strength of this team is better than last season.
Marcos Senna can finally represent the team in the Champions League. The addition of Van Bommel has also strengthened the midfield. In addition, young players such as Sudong, Messi and Iniesta have matured for another year, which makes Barcelona's overall performance
Strength has been improved.
As a result, after the top 32 list was just decided, Europe's three major gaming companies all offered winning odds.
Barcelona is a real favorite, second only to Chelsea, the blue team at the top of the list.
The main reason why Chelsea can surpass Barcelona is because this team spent huge sums of money this summer to introduce many powerful stars including Essien, and its overall strength has been greatly improved.
But Barcelona's problem still exists, that is defense, especially when the opponent defends and counterattacks.
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The draw was still held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, interspersed with the award ceremony.
The overall situation of this year's Champions League group stage has changed a lot compared to last year, which can be seen from the second-tier teams.
As a La Liga team, Barcelona has avoided fellow country team Villarreal in the second tier. Its truly powerful opponents are Juventus and Chelsea. The Bianconeri's performance in the European wars in recent years has not been satisfactory.
As for the points, the score is not high, but the performance in the league is very stable.
With Vieira joining this season, Juventus has formed a double midfielder combination of Vieira and Emerson. This can be called the most luxurious top double midfielder in world football today, plus that one
With an incredibly luxurious defense, Capello's team is also one of the favorites for this year's Champions League.
Fortunately, Barcelona had good luck this time, avoiding Juventus and Chelsea, and was drawn to Porto of the Portuguese Super League.
This sign is neither good nor bad, overall it’s pretty good.
Because of their participation in the European Super Cup, the entire Barcelona team was invited to attend this event. Seeing Porto, who were drawn in the Portuguese Super League, everyone couldn't help laughing and obviously felt relieved.
After all, no one wants to encounter a strong opponent in the group stage too early. This is not a good thing.
But the luck of the draw for the third-tier team was worse, and the strongest team was drawn, Werder Bremen from Germany.
Among the teams in the fourth pot, they avoided Real Betis from the same country and drew Udinese from Serie A.
As a result, Barcelona's group is embarrassed again.
If we talk about strength, Barcelona is definitely a unique team, there is no doubt about it.
Even Porto has lost its glory in the past two years. After all, after Mourinho left, he poached most of the team's players, causing Porto's overall strength to return to Europe's second-rate.
However, Werder Bremen and Udinese are both teams in the four major leagues. Their ability to enter the Champions League proves that the strength of these two teams is extraordinary. Even if they are not as good as Barcelona, they still have the ability to disrupt the situation.
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Therefore, Barcelona's pick this season can only be regarded as quite satisfactory, neither good nor bad.
Real Madrid, on the other hand, had much better luck. Although Lyon of Ligue 1 was drawn in the second pot, Olympiacos and Rosenborg were drawn in the third and fourth pots. Neither team could pose a threat to Real Madrid and Lyon.
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Relatively speaking, Galaxy Battleship's signing is obviously better.
…
Along with the drawing process, the major awards of last season's Champions League were also released one after another.
The Champion Coach Award was given to Rijkaard and Gazzaev. The former is the head coach of Barcelona and led the team to win the Champions League. The latter is the head coach of CSKA Moscow and led the team to win the UEFA Cup.
These two teams are also participating teams in the European Super Cup tomorrow.
The goalkeeper of the year award is not too controversial, mainly because the goalkeepers of the two teams participating in the Champions League final were not very good.
Needless to say, Barcelona's Valdes, AC Milan's Dida is also not very reliable.
The three goalkeepers actually participating in the competition are Liverpool's Dudek, Juventus' Buffon and Chelsea's Petr Cech.
In the end, it was Cech of the Blues who won the award.
This Czech goalkeeper was indeed the best and most stable goalkeeper in European football last season. Regardless of his height or various statistics, Cech is the well-deserved number one goalkeeper.
With Cech's age and the stability he has shown so far, I believe it won't be long before he surpasses seniors such as Buffon and Casillas and becomes the new generation of top goalkeepers in Europe.
The best defender was awarded to Maldini of AC Milan.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! This is a more controversial award, because the competition with Maldini is Chelsea's captain Terry and Barcelona's Puyol, needless to say the former
Well, the central defender who performed best last season, Puyol led the team to win the Champions League as captain, especially the epic reversal, which are all bonus points.
But in the end, Maldini, the oldest scorer in the history of the Champions League final, won the award.
The Midfielder of the Year Award is also controversial, but the source of the controversy is not the winner, but Ronaldinho's position.
Kaká won the Midfielder of the Year Award, but many people believe that Ronaldinho is the most suitable candidate. However, in UEFA's classification, Ronaldinho is classified as a forward.
In other words, it is impossible for Ronaldinho to participate in the competition for the best midfielder.
So Kaka defeated Deco and Xavi to win this award.
Among the best forwards of the year, Ronaldinho lost to his teammate Su Dong, and there is no dispute about this.
If nothing else, just by scoring five dollars in the Champions League final, Su Dong could basically win all the major awards last season.
Finally, the Player of the Year was also awarded to Su Dong.
When Sudong received the MVP award, which represents the best player, from the hands of UEFA President Johansson, the entire Grimaldi Conference Center burst into applause, and all Barcelona players cheered and applauded him.
In his speech, Su Dong also expressed his gratitude to the Barcelona players and coaching staff.
He said that without the support of his teammates and coaches, he would not have been able to stand on this podium and receive this award.
"Here, I want to tell my teammates that although this award is for me, it also belongs to everyone. I hope that we can continue to work hard in the new season. I believe that we will have a chance.
Let’s fight for more and higher honors!”
Su Dong's words are undoubtedly in response to the club's strategic goal this season, the Triple Crown!
In the history of La Liga, no team has ever won the Triple Crown, even at the top like Real Madrid.
And with Barcelona's current strength, they are really capable of competing for this honor.
The premise is that the club creates a better playing environment for the team and the locker room maintains stability and harmony.
…
Su Dong's speech after winning the award quickly aroused heated discussions around the world.
Barcelona's current strength is indeed very strong, but it is not so strong that it can ignore other competitors, such as Real Madrid.
As the mouthpiece of Real Madrid, Aspen was the first to stand up, believing that it would be difficult for Barcelona to achieve the goal of the Triple Crown because their defense is still fragile, and Rijkaard's on-the-spot command and formation have gradually revealed shortcomings.
"When Su Dong was locked up by his opponents, Barcelona had almost nothing to do!"
British media also believe that it is unlikely that Barcelona will defend the Champions League.
"It is not difficult to see from the betting company's odds that the real number one favorite is Chelsea. After Mourinho's team has continuously introduced many strong players, the overall strength is already very strong."
"If we really meet in the Champions League, the team that laughs last will definitely be Chelsea!"
The British media are definitely on Chelsea's side.
Cruyff, the godfather of Barcelona, strongly supports Sudong and Rijkaard, believing that Barcelona is fully capable of achieving this goal.
"I want to remind everyone, especially the Barcelona management, that from ancient times to the present, problems in Barcelona never come from the locker room, but from outside the locker room!"
Cruyff reminded the management that if they want to achieve the great goal of winning the Triple Crown, they must ensure a stable game and training environment in the locker room and minimize unnecessary frivolous operations.
"So far, the management's actions are worthy of recognition."
"Renewing contracts with Su Dong, Ronaldinho and Rijkaard has stabilized the team's morale, and renewing contracts with rookies such as Iniesta and Messi has provided guarantees for the thickness of the team's lineup. The current Barcelona first-team talents
Jiji, there is definitely hope to achieve results.”
Finally, Cruyff also tactfully reminded Rijkaard that the team should increase its efforts in rotation to ensure that some core players are in match condition for key battles.
"I'm looking forward to watching Frank Rijkaard's dream team create their own great era!"
