Chapter 776 Barbarians’ Home Romance
The Europa League group stage draw is similar to the Champions League group stage draw.
The teams that qualified from the qualifying play-offs, the ten teams 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 tiers according to their European competition points.
Defending champion Atletico Madrid and the other 11 teams with the highest European points were placed in the first tier.
They are: Atletico Madrid, Porto, Liverpool, Sevilla, Zenit St. Petersburg, PSV Eindhoven, Stuttgart, Alkmaar, CSKA Moscow, Sporting Lisbon, Juventus and Villarreal.
Twelve teams including Manchester City, Getafe, Paris Saint-Germain, Dynamo Kyiv, Palermo, Lille, Leverkusen and others were placed in the second tier, and so on, the third and fourth tiers were divided.
Like the Champions League group stage, the Europa League group stage has a total of twelve groups. Each group will draw a team from each of the four tiers to form a group and play a home and away double round-robin tournament. Finally, the top two teams will advance based on their group stage points.
The 24 teams drawn for the group stage, together with the eight teams eliminated as third place in the Champions League group stage, formed the last 32 and entered the last 32 knockout stage 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 is a bit like a small Champions League. In fact, UEFA has always been committed to making the Europa League the second-level league of the Champions League. There was even news that the champion of the Europa League will most likely get a place in the Champions League group stage in the future.
This is undoubtedly quite attractive.
Putting aside the long-term prospects, Manchester City's Europa League draw has made it inevitable that they will encounter the fate of a strong team since they were drawn into the second tier of teams, and other teams are not willing to face Manchester City.
Everyone knows that Manchester City is strong this season, and with a super scorer like Su Dong, who would want to play against them? In the end, the unlucky team that faced Manchester City was Juventus.
The third-tier team is Austria's Red Bull Salzburg, and the fourth-tier team is Poznan Lech from Poland.
Salzburg Red Bull has the strong financial support of the Red Bull Group and is quite powerful. Poznan Lech is a strong team in Poland. However, this summer, the team's top center forward and Polish Golden Boot winner, Lewandowski, transferred to Bundesliga's Dortmund for 5 million euros, which had a significant impact on Poznan Lech.
Judging from the draw results, Manchester City’s luck in the draw was not good, but not bad either.
The team that could really pose a threat to Manchester City is Juventus.
…
After the Europa League draw, Manchester City did not comment much.
Head coach Pep Guardiola said he does not mind what kind of opponents his team faces 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 also seen as a show of support for the letter of challenge issued by Su Dong yesterday at the Grimaldi Forum.
Su Dong threatened to lead Manchester City into the Champions League and to the top of the Champions League, which sparked heated discussions around the world.
Many people felt that what he said was a bit too arrogant.
"If money can buy the Champions League, why do the big clubs need heritage?"
This is the biggest question about the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
It is believed that Su Dong has been playing for top teams over the past few years and has taken advantage of them, which has made him somewhat arrogant. He even wants to bring his fledgling mercenary team into the Champions League, which is simply laughable.
But Manchester City welcomed Su Dong's words very much, because they all wanted to participate in the Champions League and even win the Champions League.
This will definitely be the highest pursuit in the careers of countless people!
After all, not everyone is like Su Dong, who wins so many awards.
The club's technical director Begiristain also said in an interview with the media that he agreed with Su Dong's statement and firmly believed that the team would succeed because Manchester City was already a team full of fighting spirit.
However, both Begiristain and Guardiola revealed that Manchester City will not consider long-term issues too early, but will focus on the present and work hard to play well in every next game. They believe that the team will definitely gain something in the end.
Both of them expressed their confidence in the away challenge against Sunderland this weekend, but at the same time reminded the team that Sunderland is a very competitive team, especially at their Stadium of Light.
As we all know, football is a sport where home advantage is huge.
In the Premier League, the difference between home and away is equally obvious, so some very interesting teams will emerge.
For example, Sunderland and Birmingham.
Judging from the standings, both teams are ranked in the middle, or even in the lower middle.
But they all have one thing in common: their home results are quite good, but their away results are quite bad.
Judging from the scoring rate, Sunderland only lost three games at home last season, which is very outstanding.
Birmingham is even better, they have only lost two games.
You know, Manchester United and Arsenal both lost two games at home, and Tottenham Hotspur, ranked fourth, also lost three games.
But on the road, Sunderland lost thirteen away games, while Birmingham lost twelve away games.
Even with such a huge difference between home and away games, Sunderland and Birmingham are ranked in the middle and lower reaches of the league.
Last season, the powerful teams that lost at Sunderland's Stadium of Light included Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, with Tottenham Hotspur losing 1-3 away from home.
Manchester United managed to win by a score of 1-0, but it was also a very dangerous win.
Manchester City was tied at 1-1 and failed to gain any advantage at the Stadium of Light.
Birmingham is even more interesting. They drew with all the top-ranked 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 regard. For example, Mourinho has maintained an unbeaten record at home for a long time, but overall, there is not much difference.
But for a team 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 an unbeaten probability of nearly 90%, which is already the level of top giants.
Home advantage is a very complex system, which involves factors ranging from the venue to the atmosphere, to the referee's standards, to the ability to rest and wait for the opponent to tire out, and even the players' psychology and morale are very important factors.
All of these combined together are what is called home advantage.
The Black Cats Sunderland are undoubtedly the best team at home among many Premier League teams.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that their head coach is Steve Bruce.
He is the meritorious captain of Manchester United and Ferguson's direct disciple.
…………
…………
On the afternoon of August 29th, 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, adopting the iconic Premier League team's offensive style of play, launching a fierce attack on Manchester City and taking long shots whenever they had the chance.
Even the frequent anti-aircraft guns could not stop Sunderland's "romance".
What’s even more interesting is that every shot can further stimulate the passion of the fans on the field, making them shout louder and more vigorously, and the passion of the fans also drives the players on the field.
There is no doubt that from a technical and tactical point of view, Sunderland's level is really rough and very British.
But judging from the actual results on the court, it can indeed produce results.
They suppressed Manchester City right from the start, punching and hitting non-stop.
In comparison, Manchester City played more delicately and with higher technical and tactical content, but there was no way around it. Sunderland was like an unreasonable barbarian. They didn't care about anything and just started to fight as soon as they got on the court.
When they are in good physical condition, they are able to frequently break through Manchester City's passing and controlling system and create shooting opportunities.
Of course, almost all the shots were long shots.
But they don't care.
On the court, Su Dong could feel Sunderland's momentum, but he could also feel the crudeness of the Black Cats' skills and tactics.
Does that mean that Manchester City's tactics are definitely good, and Sunderland's style of play is definitely bad? Su Dong thinks not.
If both sides did not consider physical strength, Sunderland would have a good chance of suppressing Manchester City throughout the game, or even defeating them.
But unfortunately, players are human beings, and as long as they are human beings, they will have physical limits and need to rest and take a breath.
The only difference is the time.
Sunderland had a chance to catch their breath after fifteen minutes.
It was a corner kick opportunity.
Sunderland pressed forward into Manchester City's 30-meter area, trying to score a goal in one go.
As a result, Kompany cleared the ball and headed it out of the penalty area. Central defender Bramble stopped the ball and wanted to pass it into the penalty area again.
Unexpectedly, Su Dong suddenly came out from the side, and when Bramble made a lob pass, he rushed over and blocked the pass with his burly body.
The ball hit Su Dong's arm, and Bramble immediately raised his hand to signal that Su Dong had committed handball.
However, since 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 did not give his opponent any time to react. He took the lead and kicked the ball forward with a big foot. He also started quickly and sprinted forward at the fastest speed, carrying the ball with big strides, running straight all the way, crossing the center line and rushing towards Sunderland's goal.
Sunderland center back Michael Turner chased all the way and kept sticking to the inside of Su Dong.
But Su Dong was skilled and bold, and he did not rush to pass the ball. Instead, he continued to rush forward with the ball while observing the situation around him.
Di Maria and Sanchez were also very fast. One on the left and the other in the middle, and they both caught up in time.
Manchester City quickly formed a three-on-two situation in the frontcourt.
Su Dong ran quickly with the ball in his hand and rushed directly into the penalty area. He suddenly stopped on the right side and dribbled the ball back.
Michael Turner chased him all the way and couldn't stop, so he rushed past him.
But this time Su Dong did not kick the ball himself. Instead, he dribbled the ball back and made a feint 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.
Di Maria, with no one guarding him, sent the ball into the empty goal with his left foot in front of the left post.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
