Encirclement and suppress the Premier League!

This is the attitude expressed by mainstream European media after the Champions League group stage.

It is obvious that the strength of the Premier League in recent years has made teams in other European leagues quite afraid.

Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have all performed very well in the Champions League, and Premier League teams have reached the Champions League finals for several consecutive years. However, except for Benitez's Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea are ultimately missing the championship, but being able to reach the finals has proved the strength of the Premier League.

Although the La Liga has been incredible in the past few years, first there is Atletico Madrid, then Rijcard and Guardiola Barcelona, ​​and coupled with the superstar Galaxy battleship Real Madrid, the three powerful players are very powerful, but they are still difficult to cover up the Premier League's edge on the court, let alone in the transfer market.

In the past few years, the football market has been sluggish, and the Premier League has always been the most purchasing power league in Europe. It is even rumored that the Premier League’s newly promoted teams are richer than the upstream teams in other leagues. This is not wrong at all.

The four giants have long monopolized the top four in the Premier League and steadily occupied the Champions League qualification. They not only achieved generous returns and made a lot of money, but also greatly helped their fiscal revenue increase, making them more willing to invest in the transfer market, and even more arrogant.

However, some people believe that with this summer, the Middle East tycoon Mansour will take over Manchester City, which will inevitably break this pattern and make the good days of the Premier League semi-finals lying to count money forever.

But now, the strength of the Premier League is well known.

Among the 16 teams that stood out in the Champions League group stage, all four Premier League finals advanced, Manchester United and Liverpool both qualified as the top spot in the group, while Chelsea and Arsenal were qualified as the second in the group.

These four teams are all difficult opponents that are troublesome.

In addition to the Premier League, all the La Liga semi-finals have advanced. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are the top spots in the group, and Real Madrid and Villarrell are the second-place qualifying in the group.

Among the four Serie A teams, Roma and Inter Milan are the first to qualify in the group, Juventus is the second to qualify in the group, and Fiorentina is eliminated and forced to play in the League Cup.

As for the Bundesliga, the situation is the most tragic, only Bayern Munich stood out, Werder Bremen only won the third place in the group and was forced to play in the League Cup, and Schalke zero-fourth, he didn't even pass the qualifiers and was directly eliminated.

On the contrary, in the Portuguese Super League, Porto and Sporting Lisbon advanced, and Ligue 1's Lyon also qualified as the second in the group.

From the distribution of the rosters of the Champions League top 16, it is not difficult to see the current strength pattern of European football. The Bundesliga has even fallen to the same level as the Portuguese Super League and Ligue 1 teams, and is gradually being widened by the other three major leagues.

But it is precisely because only Bayern Munich, one team in the Bundesliga, qualifies. According to the draw rules of the Champions League quarterfinals, the same group team and the same national team are evasive in the group stage. Therefore, any of the eight second-place teams may draw Bayern Munich.

This immediately made everyone in the team that qualify for the second in the group, especially Arsenal, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Juventus and other giant teams, who were all afraid of Bayern, fearing that they would win this dead pick.

But what if he luckily avoided the high-altitude Bayern Munich?

The answer is also not optimistic.

Just like Chelsea, which avoided Manchester United and Liverpool in the same country and Roma in the same group, the remaining five opponents are Inter Milan, Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich, Porto and Atletico Madrid.

It is obvious that except for Porto's relatively confident, the other four teams are very worrying.

But who can blame this?

After losing 1-3 to Roma away in the fourth round of the group, Rijcard's team drew 1-1 to 1 against Bordeaux in the fifth round of the group, directly handing over the top spot in the group to Roma.

It can be said that Chelsea gave up the top spot in this group and was nothing special to everyone.

British media revealed that Abramovich was so angry that he almost vomited blood.

But the lottery has to continue, right?

December 19th, noon.

In the trapezoidal conference hall of UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, although the central air conditioner is on, it still makes everyone entering the conference hall feel the chill, especially the representatives of the top league teams.

From the faces of everyone who walks into the conference hall, they can understand the solemnity in their hearts.

The draw for the Champions League quarterfinals knockout round is related to their ability to qualify and the income of over 10 million euros. Who dares to be careless?

After the representatives of the sixteen teams entered the court, they each found the club's position according to the paper card on the table, and all looked nervously at the transparent glass cylinders connected in rows on the table under the trapezoidal seats.

Wait a minute, the match chart of the Champions League knockout match will be decided in the cylinder.

Peter Kenyon frowned all the way, full of thoughts.

As Chelsea's CEO, he knows the current situation better than anyone else. Failing to win the top spot in the group will be a huge loss for Chelsea. Unless he can draw Porto, the weakest among the top spots, they will all encounter a hard battle.

This is obviously something that Chelsea doesn't want to see.

On the contrary, those teams that won the top spot in the group stage are obviously more relaxed, and at least they have a greater chance of drawing more relaxed opponents.

The host of the lottery ceremony was UEFA Secretary-General and Italian Gianni Infantino.

Like Peter Kenyon, he is also a bald gentleman.

Everyone who is familiar with UEFA knows that Gianni Infantino is Platini's direct descendant. Two years ago, Platini defeated Johnson and became the chairman of UEFA, immediately forced Johnson's direct descendant, the then Secretary-General Swedish Swedish, and appointed Infantino as Secretary-General.

This player who has been working at UEFA for nearly ten years and is specialized in matters such as player registration, law and patents, is familiar to everyone present and has first-class eloquence. It is a piece of cake for him to host such a lottery ceremony. It introduces the performance of each team in the group stage, which is also humorous, but it has not eased the tension at all.

Since it was live broadcast, a review video of the group stage was broadcast on the big screen, introducing the qualifying experience of each team, and the most eye-catching one was undoubtedly the lofty Bayern Munich.

The Bundesliga Giants are the only team that won all six games in the group stage, and they are also the nightmare that all second-place teams are afraid of, and no one wants to draw them.

Since the final was arranged at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, as usual, the guest of the lottery this time invited the famous Rome team, Bruno Conte, the current manager of the Rome club.

Although Bruno Conte looks very gentlemanly and handsome in a suit and tie, he is a very handsome man in Apennine, but in fact, he is a well-known youth training expert in Europe. A group of new generation players such as De Rossi were all made by him.

As a guest of the lottery, Bruno Conte highly praised everything Gao Han did in Bayern Munich when he was joking with Infantino, and thought Gao Han's achievements were unbelievable.

"Look at his transformation of Schweinsteiger, his use of Modric, his training of Robben, and his promotion and cultivation of a group of young players such as Hummels. I think they are the best teams in the group stage."

But when Infantino proposed which team Roma wanted to draw most, Bruno Conte replied with a smile, "I believe everyone knows it."

There was a burst of laughter in the venue.

In fact, everyone knows that the team ranked second most wants to draw is Porto, because this is the relatively weakest among the first place in the group and the most promising counterattack.

As for the team that ranked first, the team that most wants to draw is undoubtedly Panathinaikos.

It is absolutely surprising that this Greek team was able to reach the quarterfinals this season, but because of this, the decline of the Bundesliga is further highlighted.

Because Werder Bremen in the same group couldn't even get the second place in the group.

After a round of greetings, the lottery ceremony began quickly.

The organizer took the lead in putting the ball with the names of the second teams in the eight groups in the glass jar in front of Infantino. The Secretary-General of UEFA reached in. After stirring, he quickly chose one of them. After unscrewing, he called out the first team to be pulled out.

"Panasinaikos!" Infantino flipped the note from the ball and announced with a smile.

There was an uproar on the court, but I didn't expect that the first team to be drawn was Panasinaikos, which immediately made the eight teams in the first group eager to try.

The live broadcast footage also specially gave the representatives of these eight teams the faces, and everyone's expression was full of expectations.

Everyone knows that if you draw Panasinaikos, it almost means qualifying early.

Even the second team in the other seven groups were praying secretly in their hearts that it would be best for Panasinaikos to draw the teams they least want to meet, especially Bayern Munich.

God, just take Gao Han away quickly!

Bruno Conte smiled and reached into one of the glass jars in front of him, and also took out a small ball, unscrewed it, and took out the paper slip. The whole process happened very quickly, but it seemed to be very long in everyone's eyes.

Everyone opened their eyes wide, looking at Bruno Conte, watching him gradually flip the notes in his hand.

"Porto!"

There was an uproar in the conference hall, and most people were sighing, but only the representatives of Porto were laughing and laughing.

This is the best lottery they can draw.

If you sign up for the first time, you will definitely sign up for the first time.

But for others, it may not be.

The weakest team in the group first and the weakest team in the group second, is it really nothing wrong? It has nothing to do with the average major league resources that Platini has been promoting since he came to power?

But everyone knows that this kind of suspicion can always be a conspiracy theory.

The words Panasinaikos vs. Porto were immediately played on the big screen behind Infantino, and then the lottery continued.

The next team to be drawn is Real Madrid, while the first team to be drawn by Bruno Conte is Liverpool, which makes Mijatovic, who is present for Real Madrid, look a little depressed.

Benitez's team is famous for playing cups, especially in the Champions League. With Real Madrid's current situation, it is indeed very difficult to defeat Liverpool in the Champions League.

Of course, drawing Liverpool is always better than drawing Bayern Munich or Inter Milan.

So, this is a happy sign.

While Liverpool and Real Madrid were both relieved, Infantino took out a small ball from the glass cylinder again, unscrewed it and took out the note, proclaiming loudly, "Chelsea!"

Peter Kenyon suddenly became nervous when he heard the name.

It's finally our turn!

Bruno Conte also reached into the glass cylinder and took out a small ball.

Seeing the Roman celebrity unscrew the ball, Peter Kenion closed his eyes nervously and moved his lips slightly. If he got closer, he could hear him muttering, "Don't Bayern Munich, don't Bayern Munich, don't Bayern Munich, don't Bayern Munich, don't Bayern Munich."
Chapter completed!