Chapter 813 Champions League Top 16 Opponents

Aston Villa, the defending champion of the UEFA Champions League and five-time winner, has come to Tokyo. This is a big event.

The Japanese media reported this incident with a mixed mentality.

Hundreds of fans waited outside the hotel and when the full Aston Villa team arrived and got off the bus, there was a huge commotion.

"Mr. Fang Jue."

"Coach Fang Jue!"

"Teacher Fang Jue!"

"Mr. Fang!"

"The most popular is not Modric, not Suarez, not Gareth Bale, not the players, but Mr. Fang Jue, the head coach of Aston Villa. When Mr. Fang Jue appeared in front of everyone, young The girls are already screaming... the girls are screaming like they're watching a movie star..."

"He is more popular than his players, the young and handsome head coach not only makes the school girls scream crazy, even the housewives are enamored by his charm...

Yumiko, a 27-year-old housewife, fell in love with Fang Jue when Aston Villa visited Tokyo a year and a half ago. This time, she was dressed up and squeezed into the crowd, screaming and cheering. , when Fang Jue waved his hand, Yumiko's eyes seemed to be shining..."

"Before this, it was Beckham... Kaka... Ronaldo, these were the players, it was the first time a manager stole the limelight from everyone."

Domestic media were also shocked by Fang Jue's popularity in Japan.

Everyone can't even understand the mentality of the Japanese people. Thinking differently, let alone a Japanese football coach, even a top Japanese star, it is difficult to cause such a sensation and fascination in China.

Of course, the scandal between the wife of the Kurosawa family and Hidetoshi Nakata is another matter.

The "Tokyo Daily" summed it up: handsome, talented, rich, a sense of awe brought by the ability to conquer Europe.

...

Fang Jue gave the team an order: never do anything that affects the image of the Aston Villa club.

The implication is that those players who want to experience Japanese customs and culture, take it easy.

This is not alarmist talk. Many wealthy teams visited Japan before, and often made some shitty things.

Ronaldo left his genetic genes in Japan, and it took root.

Ferdinand simply took care of a Japanese action movie star, and even brought it back to England, almost causing a divorce.

Every time Beckham visits Japan, the Spice Girls must follow, and the reason is self-evident.

The Aston Villa team arrived in Tokyo on the morning of December 12.

This Club World Cup is also an important opportunity for Aston Villa Club to further develop the Asian market, especially the East Asian market.

"Who made this itinerary?" Fang Jue questioned.

"Is there any problem? Boss." Seeing Fang Jue's angry expression, Byron asked cautiously.

"Revocation." Fang Jue said with a serious expression, "One more thing, any time in the future, itinerary and activity arrangements in Japan must be reported to me, and I will approve it after review."

"Sorry, boss, I didn't strictly review it." Byron said quickly, "Fortunately, it's tomorrow's schedule, and it hasn't affected it yet."

"Remember, I am Chinese, and Villa is a Chinese-funded team. In this island country, any behavior of Aston Villa must meet the most basic requirements of a Chinese-funded enterprise."

"Understood." Byron nodded solemnly. This is the itinerary suggestion given by the Japanese side. Now it seems that he is clever and considers the historical enmity between China and Japan. Ask Fang Jue for instructions, otherwise it will be true Something could go wrong.

Fang Jue was quite satisfied with Byron's attitude, but he also knew that it might be difficult for an Englishman to truly understand.

This incident reminded Fang Jue that he was considering carrying out basic training on "corporate culture" within the Aston Villa club, at least within the senior management.

The first point is that the owner is Chinese, and Villa is a Chinese-funded team. If you speak ill of China, disrespect China, and do things that Chinese people hate, you are against the owner and get out!

No wonder Fang Jue got angry.

As stated in this schedule, tomorrow, that is, December 13, the entire Aston Villa team will go to a nursing home in Tokyo to show condolences to Japanese fans and show Aston Villa's friendly and friendly side.

Fang Jue directly vetoed it, not to mention whether the Japanese side did it on purpose, but its heart can be punished!

To condolences nursing home? Who the hell knows if there are any little devils still alive in it!

Most importantly, what day is December 13th?

Fang Jue will never forget, nor can he!

...

On December 13, apart from normal training, the entire Aston Villa team did not go out and was very quiet.

The next day, after dinner, the entire Aston Villa team watched the 2011/2012 UEFA Champions League Round of 16 draw ceremony in Nyon, Switzerland at the hotel where they stayed.

After 6 match days in the group stage, the top 16 of the UEFA Champions League in the 2011/2012 season were all produced.

Manchester City and Manchester United, the Manchester duo and the exits of Porto and Valencia are no small surprise.

In particular, Manchester United failed to qualify from a group of good signings, which is really unexpected.

Where there are upsets, there are dark horses. The Cyprus team APOEL and the Swiss powerhouse Basel are dark horses with full color.

Among the 16 teams, 8 teams including Aston Villa have won the Champions League, and 2 teams have been runners-up in the Champions League.

Only Chelsea and Aston Villa are left in the top four of the Premier League.

Serie A has the Milan duo and Naples to advance.

In La Liga, only Real Madrid and Barcelona are left.

Only Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen are left in the Bundesliga.

Ligue 1 still has Marseille and Lyon surviving.

According to UEFA's lottery rules, after entering the round of 16, opponents in the same country's league and the previous group will avoid.

According to this principle, there may also be some strong dialogues in the first round of the Champions League knockout round. For example, AC Milan, who qualified as the second in the group, is something no one wants to encounter.

Mr. Infantino, Secretary General of UEFA presided over the draw ceremony. Before the draw, he first wished Aston Villa, who participated in the Club World Cup in Tokyo, good results. Responsibility, or more bluntly:

Aston Villa want to bring back the Club World Cup to European football.

After introducing the 16 qualified teams through a short film, the draw ceremony officially began. This season’s UEFA Champions League final will be held at the Allianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich. Therefore, UEFA invited the legendary German star Paul Blakener as a special Guests are invited to attend.

...

"We are likely to meet the Serie A team again." Ceballos Fang Jue said.

Fang Jue nodded, he also had this premonition.

Moreover, Fang Jue has an intuition that Aston Villa is likely to meet AC Milan again.

Bayern, Inter Milan, Benfica, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Aston Villa, APOEL and Barcelona are the first to qualify in the group.

The second qualifying teams in the group include Naples, CSKA Moscow, Basel, Lyon, Leverkusen, Marseille, Zenit, AC Milan.

Since Michel Platini came to power, the stalemate between the Premier League and Serie A has been staged almost every year, and it has become the oldest routine.

In this draw, AC Milan and Naples have a 28% chance of drawing Chelsea or Aston Villa.

Among them, Aston Villa, as the defending champion of the Champions League, is recognized as the strongest among the first teams in the group; AC Milan is recognized as the strongest among the second-placed teams in the group.

Fang Jue thought about it. According to UEFA's urine, it is really possible to arrange for Aston Villa and AC Milan to meet again.

Otherwise, there would really not be even a strong dialogue in the Champions League round of 16 matchup.

Sure enough, as Aston Villa guessed, Infantino drew AC Milan to Aston Villa.

Representatives of the various clubs at the scene, except AC Milan vice-chairman Galliani, all smiled and applauded.

The Rossoneri are the mines in the second place in the group, and everyone is unwilling to touch them. UEFA assigned AC Milan to Aston Villa, and everyone likes it.

Galliani frowned. This was the worst draw for AC Milan.

You must know that in the last sixteen of the Champions League last season, the two teams met. At that time, Milan was 2-4 at home and 1-2 away. The total score was 3-6 and they were eliminated.

In addition to Aston Villa's draw to AC Milan, Chelsea also drew to Naples. UEFA really "arranged" the Premier League Serie A matchup again.

In addition, Bayern Munich drew Basel, Barcelona drew Leverkusen, Inter Milan drew Marseille, and Real Madrid drew CSKA Moscow.

Lineker, the guest of BBC5's commentary draw, also shook his head and said with a smile, "AC Milan is assigned to Aston Villa, and other teams are naturally good draws."

Another guest commentator, Eddie Gray, sarcastically said that the Premier League once again encountered Serie A, a familiar script.

Last season, Aston Villa met AC Milan and Inter Milan in the knockout round.

In fact, in the last five seasons, the Premier League and Serie A have been deadlocked at least twice, which is why Platini and UEFA's conspiracy theories against the Premier League and Serie A are popular.

In addition, this time the Ligue 1 giants Lyon actually drew the super gift package of APOEL, which is regarded as the weakest team in the top 16, and the suspicion of a tricky draw is even more serious.

...

AC Milan drew Aston Villa, which is undoubtedly the most high-profile game in the 16-to-8 knockout round of the Champions League.

After the draw was announced, Galliani, vice chairman of AC Milan, said, "We have won the Champions League seven times, and Aston Villa has only two! This is a good draw, and we want revenge in our dreams."

Galliani's meaning is very clear, AC Milan is a frequent visitor to the Champions League, there is no reason to fear a team that has only won the Champions League twice.

Therefore, the best outcome for Milan is to go to London to complete revenge.

Milan coach Allegri pointed out more cautiously that the key to defeating Aston Villa is that Milan should not have too many injuries.

Compared with Galliani's self-confidence in claiming revenge, the Italian media is not so optimistic.

"Corriere dello Sport": Aston Villa is the toughest opponent Milan can encounter.

"Turin Sports Daily": AC Milan is facing a daunting task. If they want to enter the top 8, they must defeat the powerful defending champion.

"Milan Sports Edition" cheers for AC Milan and Naples: If Aston Villa and Chelsea are eliminated, it will be the first time since 1996 that no Premier League team has entered the Champions League quarterfinals.

"Evening Post": Milan's promotion task is very difficult.

The next day, at the press conference before the semi-finals of the Club World Cup, a reporter asked Fang Jue how he responded to Galliani's remarks.

"Milan is the team with the second most titles in the Champions League. It is a great team worthy of respect. The result of the draw means that we will usher in two fantastic matchups."

"To be honest, we definitely hope to meet the second place in other groups. However, we have a certain advantage because we have a guest first and then the host."

"We won 4-2 at the San Siro last season against AC Milan in the Champions League round of 16, and we were the ones who qualified, so our recent history is something to be happy about."

This answer more or less disappointed the reporters who were eager to watch.

Fang Jue is naturally not obliged to meet the needs of the reporters, and he is not a blatant Thai Ritian.

Fang Jue is not the kind of provocative subject for no reason. His answer is very decent, not only expressing respect for the opponent, but also showing his strong confidence in Aston Villa.

...

"What does the weather forecast say?" Fang Jue asked Ceballos.

"It will be sunny tomorrow," Ceballos said. "There might even be moderate rain during the game."

Fang Jue frowned slightly.

Tokyo in December is already chilly.

The most important thing is that in rainy games, the field is slippery, which greatly increases the possibility of player injury.

For the Club World Cup, Fang Jue's mentality is that he hopes that the team can win the championship in a relatively easy way.

Yes, he is going to decide on the championship, and at the same time, he hopes that the process will be relatively easy and sweat-free.

One of the most important things to avoid is player injuries.

"During warm-up, you, Werner and Enke will check the turf situation in time slots, so you know what's going on," Fang Jue ordered.

"clear."

Fang Jue was lost in thought.

In this game, his requirements for the team are very simple.

To win.

To score more goals.

Score as many goals as possible.

At the same time, there is an additional task: the whole team should try their best to cooperate with Bell, let Bell perform well, and it is best to shine as much as possible.

The voting for the FIFA Ballon d'Or is nearing the end, and Aston Villa will do everything possible to let Berdo perform and win votes for Bell.

...

It was approaching the Yokohama National Athletic Stadium in Tokyo. Although there was a police car from the Tokyo Police to clear the way, the speed was getting slower and slower.

This is because there are already a large number of fans from both sides gathering.

Only a relatively small number of them are Aston Villa fans, and many of them are Aston Villa fans from China and Southeast Asia. There are relatively few fans from the UK.

The vast majority of them are fans wearing the Kashiwa Helios jersey, and some fans are wearing the Blue Samurai jersey of the Japanese national team.

When they saw Aston Villa's bus, these Japanese fans were excitedly waving their arms and team flags, shouting, and some fans gave Aston Villa's bus a thumbs up.

There is no tit-for-tat scene, but relatively harmonious.

"The Japanese fans are really enthusiastic." Ceballos said.

"You said whether they will support us after the game starts." Werner also said.

You are thinking about farting.

Fang Jue snorted with a half-smile.

Although these fans are very harmonious now, but after the game starts, they must support their national team.

but……

"The harder we beat Kashiwa Sunshen, the more Japanese fans respect and support us," Fang Jue said.

"Impossible." Ceballos shook his head immediately.

"No, no, it's possible." Werner said, "I heard Ronaldinho say that during the Beijing Olympics, although they won the Chinese team, many Chinese fans cheered for the Brazilian team." .”

"Huh?" Fang Jue was surprised, "What slogan are they shouting? Come on, Brazil?"

"It doesn't seem to be." Werner thought for a while, "I remembered, it was written."

Fang Jue took a serious look at Werner, and he was confirming whether this guy was a high-level black man.

PS: Please subscribe, ask for a monthly ticket, ask for a recommendation ticket, thank you everyone.

Ask for a subscription, ask for a monthly ticket, ask for a recommendation ticket, thank you everyone.