Chapter 686 Champions League Top 16 Opponents

On December 11, 2010, the 17th round of the Premier League.

There are several eye-catching focus battles in this round of the league.

Tottenham Hotspur host Chelsea in a London derby.

Chelsea was tied 1-1 by Everton in the last round of the league. Now, the Blues are 11 points behind the league leaders Aston Villa. In this London derby against Tottenham Hotspur, Anche Lottie's team has no way out and must win.

Another focus is Manchester United vs. Arsenal at Old Trafford.

Manchester United is currently 7 points behind Aston Villa, ranking second; Arsenal and Manchester City have 29 points together, and Arsenal ranks fifth because of less goal difference.

In this game, Manchester United will catch up with Aston Villa, and Arsenal will strive to return to their familiar positions. The media believes that it will be a battle between dragons and tigers.

This round of Aston Villa's match is against West Bromwich Albion at home.

This game is not a strong dialogue in the true sense, but its attention is even higher than those two games.

The reason is that as long as Aston Villa remains unbeaten in this round, they will tie Nottingham Forest's unbeaten record of 42 rounds in England's top league.

Before the game, the "Sun" cheered for West Bromwich Albion: Stop Villa from advancing, and the opportunity to write your name into the history of the Premier League is at hand, come on.

In this regard, West Bromwich Albion coach Di Matteo couldn't help but swear, he scolded the "Sun" with bad intentions.

"Who are we? We are West Bromwich Albion, our goal is relegation! Relegation! Relegation!"

"Our task is not to stop Villa, it is not to go head-to-head with the league leaders, this is not what we can do."

"I'm not saying we won't play as hard as we can, but don't give us the big hat of making history and stop Villa? This is not within our ability, huh?"

After Di Matteo's frank words were reported by the media, the audience laughed and praised the bald coach one after another, thinking that he had something to say and that he was very frank.

"The Sun" is also a little confused. In the past, they hyped similar things, and the effect was very good. This time they expected West Bromwich Albion to be praised by them, and they would fight Aston Villa desperately.

In fact, the "Sun" made such a move-choosing West Bromwich Albion to 'fudge', there are also considerations:

West Bromwich Albion is a well-known lifter team in the Premier League. Their strength is average. However, this team is notoriously insane. It's a bit rough, and it belongs to the kind of team that will be difficult to deal with when it is motivated.

In a word, this team is suitable for flickering.

But I didn't expect that Di Matteo would not accept this at all, and even yelled at them.

In the end, in this game, Aston Villa defeated West Bromwich Albion 3-1 at home with goals from Senderos, Michael Ballack and substitute Diego Costa.

As Di Matteo said before the game, they did not try their best in this game, they also worked hard, but the difference in strength was obvious and they lost in the end.

Of course, in the eyes of some people, if West Bromwich Albion works hard, it can cause trouble for Aston Villa. At least Aston Villa will not win 3-1 easily.

However, West Bromwich Albion has something to say, they don't have to fight desperately with the league leaders. They are not flat-headed brothers. After working hard, what about the next game?

Di Matteo clearly understands.

"Unbeaten in 42 games! "

The Premier League official website used this headline to congratulate Aston Villa, who also tied with Nottingham Forest for the second longest unbeaten streak in English top-flight history after Arsenal's 49 games record holder.

...

In the other two focus battles.

Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw by Tottenham Hotspur.

From the thirteenth round of the league, Chelsea's 0-3 upset at home at the foot of Sunderland:

In the fourteenth round of the league, Chelsea lost 0-1 away to Birmingham;

In the fifteenth round of the league, Chelsea was tied 1-1 by Newcastle in an away game;

In the sixteenth round of the league, Chelsea was tied 1-1 by Everton at home;

Coupled with this round of the league being tied 1-1 by London derby opponent Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea has lost five rounds.

In the league standings, Chelsea has gone from being only three points behind Aston Villa to now being as much as 13 points behind Aston Villa. In the words of the media, Chelsea can already give up their expectations of the league championship and concentrate on winning the league title. The UEFA Champions League.

In another game, Manchester United beat Arsenal 1-0. After the Red Devils won, they continued to catch up with Aston Villa, and Arsenal continued to rank fifth.

It is worth mentioning that after Manchester City won this round, the ranking once again rose to the third place, and the value of the checkbook waving by the Arabs has been reflected.

...

six days later.

In the eighteenth round of the Premier League, the day before Aston Villa's away game against Wigan Athletic, Fang Jue came to Nyon, Switzerland.

He is here to participate in UEFA's 2010/2011 European Champions Cup round of 16 draw ceremony.

Before the lottery ceremony started, Fang Jue chatted with Ferguson for a while.

The old Scottish man asked Fang Jue if he could sell Bell to Manchester United.

Fang Jue 'sarcastically' said that Bell was not for sale, and even if Bell left, Ferguson would not be able to afford Bell, so the old man asked if he could install it in installments, Fang Jue really wanted to spit in the old man's face.

Turning his head, Fang Jue chatted with Wenger, these two old men are kings.

The professor told Fang Jue with some distress that Arsenal had made an offer to Inter Milan for Coutinho, but Inter Milan refused.

Wenger said he had received news that Ferguson was also interested in Coutinho.

"That Scot did it on purpose. He saw that I liked Coutinho, so he deliberately raised the price." The professor said angrily.

Fang Jue "comforted" Wenger: Who is Ferguson, you two have been fighting for so many years, you still don't know...he must think and do so.

Wenger thinks so.

The professor sighed and said that several teams have taken a fancy to Coutinho all of a sudden, and they don't know what happened.

"This shows that my vision of seeing people is correct, and my recommendation is reliable!" Fang Jue said.

The professor nodded, deeply appreciative again.

...

At 12:00 noon Central European Time, the draw officially began.

After the end of the group stage, the top eight teams in the group were Aston Villa, Schalke 04, Manchester United, Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk.

The second place in the eight groups is Inter Milan, Lyon, Valencia, Copenhagen, Roma, Marseille, AC Milan and Arsenal.

The Premier League, La Liga, and Bundesliga occupy the first place in seven groups, and the teams in Serie A and Ligue 1 are second in the group.

The draw for the 1/8 final follows the principle of avoidance with the National Football Association and the same group.

Before the draw, UEFA Secretary-General Infantino first complimented the defending champion Inter Milan.

However, what is interesting is that when Infantino said this, the director gave Aston Villa coach Fang Jue a shot, which caused a burst of laughter in front of the TV.

Infantino then introduced the situation of the various teams, and especially praised the knockout newcomers Aston Villa, Copenhagen and Shakhtar Donetsk.

This is because the bald secretary-general who was ridiculed by the fans as a professional drawer also felt sorry for Bobby Charlton's failure to attend the scene.

It was originally planned that Bobby Charlton would draw lots as the representative of the organizer of the final, but he could not arrive on time due to the heavy snow in Nyon.

Yes, this season's UEFA Champions League final will be held at the New Wembley Stadium in England, so the English media are very excited and looking forward to it. They look forward to finally realizing the scene where the Premier League teams meet at the New Wembley Stadium, at least , I also look forward to a team from the Premier League that can reach the finals and finally win the cup.

This draw has brought together many old rivals.

Real Madrid and Lyon, who met in the 1/8 finals last season, met again. Last season, Lyon eliminated Real Madrid.

Arsenal and Barcelona met again. Last season, the two teams met in the quarter-finals. Barcelona drew 2-2 away with Arsenal. Messi scored 4 goals at home and beat Arsenal 4-1.

Although Arsenal's strength has become stronger after the joining of Koscielny, Chamark, Squillage and others this season, Barcelona must still have the advantage.

When UEFA technical official Marchetti drew Arsenal for Barcelona, ​​Pique immediately sent a message to Fabregas on his personal social account, and Pique exclaimed: "Haha... welcome home, my brother! "

It is worth mentioning that Fabregas gave Pique a thumbs up for this message, and also said: "Camp Nou, oh..."

The incident caused quite a stir and Wenger is said to have been furious.

Fang Jue later called Wenger specifically, saying that if Wenger wanted to clean up the house, he would be willing to help.

The professor scolded Fang Jue with bad intentions, not really a good friend.

In addition, Inter Milan was drawn to Bayern Munich, which was a replica of last season's Champions League final, and this matchup was also particularly eye-catching.

Manchester United, Chelsea, and Roma got good draws. Manchester United and Chelsea faced Marseille and Copenhagen respectively, while Roma encountered the weakest Shakhtar Donetsk in the first group.

Aston Villa, who ranked first in Group A, drew second place in Group G, AC Milan.

When the result of this match came out, the scene was full of wow.

There are former AC Milan players Shevchenko and Ronaldo in the Aston Villa team. In addition, Aston Villa previously double-killed Inter Milan in the group stage and poured the defending champion 10 goals in two rounds. Facing Inter Milan's rival AC Milan in the same city, this game is full of gimmicks.

Fang Jue curled his lips. He seriously suspected that UEFA already knew that Ronaldinho would transfer to Aston Villa, so he made such a move.

The statement that UEFA used technical means to control the match in the draw has long been recognized by all walks of life. If you want to say that there is no trick or conspiracy, it is really "too stupid and naive".

Imagine Shevchenko, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho wearing Aston Villa's burgundy shirts as a guest at San Siro. The attention of this game is simply overwhelming.

If this is not tricky, ghosts will believe it.

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