The Europa League group stage draw is similar to the Champions League group stage draw.
The teams that advanced from the peripheral play-offs, the ten teams that were eliminated in the fourth round of the Champions League play-offs, plus the defending champions and other participating teams, a total of forty-eight teams were divided into four according to the European War points.
grade.
Defending champion Atletico Madrid and the other eleven teams with the highest points in the European competition are placed in the first pot.
They are: Atletico Madrid, Porto, Liverpool, Sevilla, Zenit St. Petersburg, PSV Eindhoven, Stuttgart, AZ Alkmaar, CSKA Moscow, Sporting Lisbon, Juventus and Villarreal.
Twelve teams including Manchester City, Getafe, Paris Saint-Germain, Dynamo Kyiv, Palermo, Lille, and Bayer Leverkusen were divided into the second pot, and so on, and then divided into the third pot and
Fourth gear.
Like the Champions League group stage, the Europa League group stage has a total of twelve groups. Each group draws a team from the four tiers to form a group and conduct a home and away double round-robin. Finally, the top two teams will be ranked according to the group stage points.
Famous.
The twenty-four teams drawn in the group stage, together with the eight teams eliminated from the third place in the Champions League group stage, form the top 32 teams and enter the top 32 knockout rounds of the Europa League.
Finally, the Europa League final will be held in Dublin in mid-May next year.
From the perspective of the competition system, the Europa League feels a bit like a mini-UEFA Champions League. In fact, UEFA has been committed to making the Europa League a second-tier league of the Champions League. There was even news that in the future, the Europa League will
The winner of the Cup is likely to get a place in the Champions League group stages.
This is undoubtedly quite attractive.
Leaving aside the long-term perspective, Manchester City's Europa League draw has inevitably encountered the fate of a strong team since they were drawn into the second tier, and other teams are unwilling to encounter Manchester City.
Everyone knows that Manchester City has a strong team this season and has a super scorer like Su Dong at the helm. Who is willing to touch it?
In the end, the unlucky guy who encountered Manchester City was Juventus.
The team in the third pot is Austria's Red Bull Salzburg, and the team in the fourth pot is Lech Poznan from Poland.
Red Bull Salzburg is backed by the strong financial resources of the Red Bull Group and is very strong. Lech Poznan is a strong team in Poland. However, this summer, the team’s number one center and the winner of the Polish Golden Boot Award, Lewando
Fski moved to Dortmund in the Bundesliga for 5 million euros, which had a great impact on Lech Poznan.
Judging from the draw results, Manchester City's luck in the draw is not good, but it is not bad either.
The real threat to Manchester City is Juventus.
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After the Europa League draw, Manchester City did not express too many opinions.
Head coach Guardiola said that he does not mind what kind of opponents the team encounters in the Europa League.
"Our goal is to advance, no matter who our opponent is, this goal will not change!"
The implication is that no matter who the opponent is, Manchester City will win.
This is undoubtedly considered to be a show of solidarity with Soviet Union and Dong’s letter of challenge at the Grimaldi Conference Center yesterday.
Su Dong threatened to bring Manchester City into the Champions League and to the top of the Champions League, which triggered heated discussions around the world.
Many people felt that what he said was a bit too arrogant.
"If money can buy the Champions League, then why do wealthy clubs need to have the foundation?"
This is the biggest doubt about Su Dong.
I think that Su Dong has been playing for wealthy teams in the past few years, and he has taken advantage of them. This has made him a little arrogant, and he actually wants to bring the mercenary team that he has been creating into the Champions League. It is simply called
People laugh.
But Manchester City welcomed Su Dong's words very much because they all aspire to participate in the Champions League or even win the Champions League.
This will definitely be the highest pursuit in countless people’s careers!
After all, not everyone is like Su Dong, who is soft-hearted about winning awards.
The club's technical director Begiristain also said in an interview with the media that he recognized Su Dong's statement and firmly believed that the team will succeed because Manchester City is already a team full of combat effectiveness.
However, both Begiristain and Guardiola revealed that Manchester City will not consider long-term matters too early, but will focus on the present and work hard to play every next game. I believe that the team will definitely gain something in the end.
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Regarding the away game against Black Cats Sunderland at the weekend, both of them expressed their confidence, but at the same time reminded the team that Black Cats Sunderland is a very competitive team, especially at their Stadium of Light.
As we all know, football is a sport with a huge home field advantage.
In the Premier League, the difference between home and away games is equally obvious, so some very interesting teams will emerge.
Examples include Sunderland and Birmingham.
Judging from the standings, both teams are ranked in the middle, or even in the middle and lower reaches.
But they all have one thing in common: their home results are pretty good, but their away results are pretty bad.
Judging from the scoring rate, Sunderland only lost three games at home last season, which is very good.
Birmingham were even better, they only lost two games.
You know, Manchester United and Arsenal have both lost two games at home, and Tottenham Hotspur, who is ranked fourth, has also lost three games.
But when it came to away games, Sunderland lost 13 away games and Birmingham also lost 12 away games.
It is under such a huge difference between home and away games that Sunderland and Birmingham are ranked in the middle and lower reaches of the league.
Last season, Sunderland lost to powerful teams at the Stadium of Light, including Liverpool, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur. Among them, Tottenham still lost 1 to 3 away from home.
Manchester United was lucky enough to win 1-0, but it was also a very dangerous victory.
Manchester City was one to one and could not take advantage of the Stadium of Light.
Birmingham is even more interesting. It has drawn with top teams such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City at home.
According to existing data, in the four major leagues, the probability of being unbeaten at home is about 70%. Strong teams will have more advantages in this aspect. For example, Mourinho has maintained an unbeaten record at home for a long time, but
Overall, there is not much difference.
But like Sunderland, the probability of being unbeaten at home has been raised to 84%, which is more than ten percentage points higher than the average. Birmingham has even reached a probability of nearly 90% of being unbeaten. This is already
It is at the level of top wealthy families.
Home field advantage is a very complex system, ranging from the venue to the atmosphere, to the referee's standards, to factors such as leisure and waiting, and even the player's psychology and fighting spirit are also very important factors.
All of these come together to form the so-called home field advantage.
Black Cats Sunderland are undoubtedly the best team among the many Premier League teams that are good at playing at home.
Maybe this has something to do with their head coach being Steve Bruce.
He is the meritorious captain of Manchester United and the direct disciple of Ferguson.
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On the afternoon of August 29, in the third round of the Premier League, Manchester City visited the Stadium of Light to challenge Sunderland.
As soon as the game started, Steve Bruce's team took the lead and adopted the iconic Premier League team's impact style, launching a fierce attack on Manchester City and taking long shots whenever they had the opportunity.
Even frequent anti-aircraft guns can't stop Sunderland's "romance".
What's even more interesting is that every shot can further stimulate the passion of the fans at the scene, making them shout louder and roar harder, and the passion of the fans also drives the players on the field.
There is no doubt that from a technical and tactical perspective, Sunderland's standards are really rough and very British.
But judging from the actual results on the court, it just works.
As soon as he came up, he suppressed Manchester City, kept throwing punches, and kept hitting.
In comparison, Manchester City played more sophisticated football and had higher technical and tactical content, but there was nothing to be done about it. Sunderland were like unreasonable barbarians who didn't care about you at all and just started messing around on the pitch.
With plenty of physical energy, they were able to frequently break through Manchester City's passing and ball-control system and frequently create shooting opportunities.
Of course, almost all shots are long-range shots.
But they don't care.
Su Dong can feel Sunderland's momentum on the pitch, but he can also appreciate the roughness of the Black Cats' techniques and tactics.
Does that mean that Manchester City's skills and tactics must be good, and Sunderland's style of play must be bad?
Su Dong thinks not.
If the two sides do not consider physical fitness, it is entirely possible for Sunderland to suppress Manchester City for the whole game, or even defeat Manchester City.
But it is a pity that players are human beings. As long as they are human beings, they will reach their physical limits and need to rest and take a breather.
The difference is just in time.
Sunderland's breather came fifteen minutes later.
It was a corner kick opportunity.
Sunderland pressed into Manchester City's 30-meter area, trying to get a goal first.
As a result, Kompany cleared the ball and pushed it out of the penalty area. After the center defender Bramble stopped the ball, he tried to pass the ball into the penalty area.
Unexpectedly, Su Dong suddenly stabbed out diagonally. When Bramble kicked the ball, he rushed over and blocked the ball with his burly body.
The ball hit Su Dong's arm. Bramble immediately raised his hand to indicate Su Dong's handball.
But because Su Dong's left hand was close to his body and not open, the referee did not think it was a handball.
After blocking the ball with his body, Su Dong didn't give his opponent any time to react. He took the lead and pushed the ball forward with his big feet. He also quickly started, sprinting forward as fast as possible, carrying the ball in long strides, and running straight.
Dribbling the ball across the center line and towards Sunderland's goal.
Sunderland central defender Michael Turner chased all the way and kept sticking to the inside of Su Dong.
But Su Dongyi was brave and did not rush to pass the ball. Instead, he continued to rush forward with the ball while observing the situation next to him.
Di Maria and Sanchez were also very fast. One was on the left and the other was in the middle, and they both caught up in time.
Manchester City quickly formed a three-on-two frontcourt.
Su Dongmei walked quickly, dribbling the ball directly into the penalty area, suddenly stopped on the right side, and dunked the ball back.
Michael Turner kept chasing him all the way, couldn't hold back, and rushed over.
But this time Su Dong did not kick the ball by himself. Instead, after dunking the ball back, he feinted a shot with his left foot, as if he was going to pass it to Sanchez, but in fact he passed the ball low to the left side of the goal.
With no one defending him, Di Maria sent the ball into the empty goal with his left foot in front of the left post.
