Chapter 605: I know the Bernabeu well!
There was an unspoken rule for the Champions League draw, which was to face the old club.
For example, last season, many media and fans speculated that Bayern would face Su Dong's former club Barcelona.
Unexpectedly, we didn't meet in the group stage, but instead met in the quarter-finals.
Now, Bayern has been drawn in the group stage again and may face Su Dong’s former club, Sporting Lisbon of the Portuguese Super League.
To be honest, when Su Dong was sitting in the Grimaldi Forum, he was actually hoping that his team would meet Sporting Lisbon.
Because among the other seven teams in the second tier except Werder Bremen, Sporting Lisbon is relatively weak.
The most troublesome ones are definitely Real Madrid and Juventus.
As expected, Bayern's luck was not so good. They did not draw teams like Sporting Lisbon or PSV Eindhoven in the second tier, but Real Madrid again.
This made the atmosphere in the venue a little unsettled.
In particular, the Real Madrid representative, General Manager Mijatovic, stood up from his seat, wanting to see clearly whether the note in the ball said Real Madrid. Isn't this too unlucky?
Draw with Bayern in the group stage for two consecutive seasons? That's really bad luck, isn't it?
When Real Madrid summed up the lessons learned from last season's elimination in the round of 16, one of the most important lessons was that they only finished second in the group stage and were forced to challenge the first in their group in the round of 16, which was really disadvantageous for Real Madrid.
But now, we have drawn Bayern again.
"I'm really starting to doubt whether there is something shady going on." Su Dong smiled bitterly.
Is it really just luck that they got Real Madrid for two consecutive seasons? Of course, in fact, no matter who they get, the difference is not that big for Bayern. Roma, Villarreal and other teams are not necessarily easier to deal with than Real Madrid. It can only be said that Real Madrid is relatively more solid.
If drawing Real Madrid in the second pot was considered bad luck, then drawing Zenit St. Petersburg in the third pot was truly a shady deal.
Su Dong’s first reaction when he saw the draw results was to laugh.
"It turns out that Tymoshchuk is facing his former club!"
Everyone smiled.
In fact, there is a frequent flow of professional players in Europe now, and there are only a few teams that have the strength to play in the Champions League. With the coming and going, there will definitely be many teams that encounter their old clubs, especially in a tiered draw like this, the probability of encountering them is actually very high.
However, Bayern's luck in this draw is really bad.
The second pot got Real Madrid, and the third pot got last season's UEFA Cup champion. Could anything be more unlucky than this?
What’s more interesting is that in tomorrow’s European Super Cup, Bayern will face Zenit St. Petersburg in advance.
Isn't this a preview of the Champions League group stage? Lucio was really depressed when he saw this sign, and immediately made a harsh statement.
"If you have the guts, pick Fiorentina or Shakhtar Donetsk for me in the fourth tier. If they really come up, I will go on stage to verify the ball and solve the mystery of this shady deal myself!"
When Bayern heard this, they all started to cheer, thinking that it would be good if they really drew Fiorentina and Shakhtar Donetsk.
At least, we can see the wonderful drama of the Brazilian central defender tearing apart UEFA's tricks for the Champions League draw, right? UEFA must have heard Lucio's harsh words, so they backed off and drew Belarus's BATE Borisov in the fourth pot for Bayern. This team is not strong, but it is a bit disgusting on the road.
Especially according to the schedule, Bayern will go to Belarus for an away game at the end of November, which is even more terrible.
"It seems that we have to try to win all the first four rounds so that we can be relatively relaxed when we go to Belarus." Ram said while analyzing the situation in the group stage.
"The third and fourth rounds are home and away games against Real Madrid, which is quite troublesome." Schweinsteiger also looked embarrassed.
Su Dong laughed and said, "It's okay, I'm familiar with the Bernabeu!"
Everyone burst into laughter.
…
Along with the draw results came out, the major UEFA awards from last season were also announced.
Su Dong won the two most prestigious awards, Best Forward of the Season and Best Player of the Season, becoming the player with the biggest gain that night and was also warmly welcomed by the audience.
This award is known as the weather vane of the World Footballer of the Year and the Ballon d'Or. Su Dong won the award again after a two-year absence, which is undoubtedly the most eye-catching news for media and fans around the world.
Everyone knows that Su Dong had made a bold statement half a year ago that he would strive to win the double Footballer of the Year award in 2008. Now that he has won these two major awards, he is undoubtedly one step closer to his goal.
Judging from the performance in the European Cup, no team's players can compete with Su Dong.
Although Spain won the championship, it, like the runner-up Germany, played team-style football, which resulted in no obvious outstanding stars in the team, and naturally it could not compete with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Ribery was awarded the best midfielder of the season, which was not surprising since Zidane was in charge of presenting the award.
The best defender of the season was a competition between Manchester United's Ferdinand and Vidic, and in the end Ferdinand won slightly.
It is said that the reason why Ferdinand was chosen was mainly because Vidic was beaten too badly by Su Dong in the Champions League final.
This made Su Dong feel a little embarrassed. He felt like he had become the evil dragon boss in the eyes of others.
The best goalkeeper of the season was given to Van der Sar, which was indeed well deserved.
Although Kahn was a main player last season, his performance was not very stable. On the contrary, Van der Sar performed quite well.
…
As per convention, after the draw, the participating representatives will be interviewed by on-site media reporters.
The first to bear the brunt is the unlucky Real Madrid.
Real Madrid's luck is really bad as they are placed in the same group with last season's Champions League champion and UEFA Cup champion.
But this also feels a bit like self-inflicted fault, because who made Real Madrid disappear in the round of 16 in recent years?
If we continue to advance to the round of 16, we will definitely remain in the second tier, and there is even the possibility of slipping to the third tier if we are not careful.
Mijatovic was not satisfied with the draw result and he thought Real Madrid's luck was indeed bad.
He admitted that both Bayern and Zenit St. Petersburg would cause great troubles to Real Madrid. Both teams are very strong, especially Bayern. Having superstars like Su Dong made this Bundesliga giant the number one favorite in this season's Champions League and an opponent that no team wants to face.
But Mijatovic is also confident, "If you want to win the championship, you will definitely face these strong teams. This is inevitable. Champions have always been born in high-level life-and-death duels."
Mijatovic was once an excellent striker. He said, "When the draw is unlucky, it is very important to start well. If you lose points at the beginning, it will be very disadvantageous for the next game. Of course, we don't need to be afraid, because Real Madrid is the team with the most Champions League titles in history."
“We are confident that we can win the championship again!”
…………
…………
The evening after the Champions League group stage draw, the European Super Cup officially kicked off at the Stade Louis II in Monaco.
Bayern, who were just drawn into the same group, will face Zenit St. Petersburg.
As soon as the game started, both teams played without reservation.
The Dutch coach Edvocat of Zenit St. Petersburg has been the head coach of Zenit since 2006. He has instilled the philosophy of Dutch football into the team. The team did not play conservatively from the beginning, but took the initiative to press and oppress, strangling Bayern's midfield and backcourt, and frequently planned offensives.
Although Arshavin had been threatening to transfer throughout the summer, he still got the starting spot against the powerful Bayern.
His partners are Danny, who just joined in the summer, and UEFA Cup top scorer Bergrebjak.
Zenit's strength is still quite good as it was able to win the UEFA Cup, especially Arshavin, who continued his excellent performance in the European Cup, showing his outstanding personal ability, playing the role of Zenit's front offensive core, frequently threatening Bayern's penalty area and causing a lot of trouble for Bayern's defense.
In the first fifteen minutes, Zenit had the advantage and even had a good chance in the penalty area. The unguarded Bergrebjak suddenly shot, but was saved by Neuer.
This save won unanimous praise from Bayern players.
Heynckes immediately strengthened the defense.
It is obvious that Zenit is not an easy team to deal with.
Afterwards, Zenit got two consecutive chances, one was Arshavin's long shot from outside the penalty area, and the other was a foul caused by Arshavin while dribbling the ball, and the free kick in the frontcourt almost resulted in a goal.
Bayern also had a very threatening counterattack when Podolski dribbled forward and, with Su Dong in front having run into space, the Prince of Cologne was eager to show himself and, instead of passing the ball in time, took a long shot himself, which ended up posing no threat at all.
This made Heynckes on the sidelines so angry that he jumped up and down.
Three on three in the frontcourt, what a great opportunity.
Olic pulled away the defensive players and Su Dong had already run into the open space. As long as Podolski passed the ball to him in time, Su Dong would have a one-on-one chance. However, Podolski wanted to show himself and took a long shot directly, missing the great opportunity.
Perhaps knowing that he was too impatient and made a mistake, Podolski raised his hand to apologize to Su Dong and Heynckes with full of apology.
In the 33rd minute, Bayern intercepted the ball again in their own half, and Modric dribbled forward and directly crossed the center line.
Su Dong raised his hand in front to ask for the ball.
The Croatian midfielder immediately passed the ball diagonally.
Su Dong blocked the central defender Krizanak with his body, and faced Modric's diagonal pass directly. He volleyed the ball in front of himself with his right foot, turned around, shook off Krizanak, caught up with the football, and dribbled straight into Zenit's penalty area.
"What a beautiful stop and go!"
"Su Dong showed his outstanding footwork and delicate technique!"
"Look at this time, Su Dong dribbled the ball diagonally to the left, and there were two defenders in front of him. Zenit's defense was also very fast, and behind him was Krizanak chasing back, a situation of three defending one."
"Su Dong continued to dribble the ball to the front of the penalty area, and three people double-teamed him."
"Su Dong took the lead and passed the ball to the unmanned area on the left."
"Will someone come to pick him up?"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
