Chapter 849 50/0

After the league, the final round of the Champions League group stage began. Valencia challenged Manchester United away. Since Manchester United had already secured first place in the group and Valencia secured second place in the group, this game was more like a friendly match. In the end, Manchester United and Valencia West Asia values ​​peace and qualified from Group C 1:1.

The next day, the qualification spots for the eight groups of the Champions League were also settled. Group A qualified: Tottenham and Inter Milan; Group B qualified: Schalke 04 and Lyon; Group C qualified: Manchester United and Watts. Rencia; Group D qualified: Barcelona, ​​Copenhagen; Group E qualified: Bayern, Roma; Group F qualified: Chelsea, Marseille; Group G qualified: Real Madrid, Ac Milan; Group H qualified: Shakhtar Donetsk, Arsenal.

The first place in the group is Tottenham, Schalke 04, Manchester United, Barcelona, ​​Whites, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, the second place in the group is Inter Milan, Lyon, Valencia, Copenhagen, Roma, Marseille, AC Milan and Arsenal.

Twente, Rangers, Benfica, Basel, Rubin Kazan, Spartak Moscow, Ajax and Braga moved to the Europa League.

This season's Champions League group stage has been uneventful. All the powerful teams have qualified, and there has not been a big upset. If there is an upset, it is Shakhtar Donetsk, the leader of the Ukrainian league, and Tottenham, fifth in the Premier League. Beating Arsenal and Inter Milan to win the first place in the group.

Arsenal has many young people and their record has been unstable. However, there is no strong team in Group H. It is surprising that they were firmly placed second in the group by the Ukrainian team.

Of course, the most surprising thing is the precipitous fall of Inter Milan last season. In the league, Inter Milan had 6 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses, 13 points behind the leader Ac Milan, and has fallen out of the league championship team. In the Champions League, They were defeated by Tottenham, fifth in the Premier League, and ended up finishing second in the group.

Inter Milan has not sold any championship members except for head coach Mourinho and core Gao Xiaodong. Such results are really shocking, and it also proves that Mourinho and Gao Xiaodong are competing for the Triple Crown. play a decisive role.

Due to the wonderful performances of Shakhtar Donetsk and Tottenham, the next quarter-finals of the Champions League are no longer divided between strong and weak, but have more to watch.

After the Champions League group stage, the most eye-catching thing is the draw for the knockout rounds.

Although each draw of the Champions League matches is conducted in a very transparent manner and appears to be very fair in front of the live broadcast around the world, many fans are confused by the coincidence of some highly topical matchups in each draw. It is believed that UEFA is suspected of artificially manipulating the draw in order to increase the ratings.

In fact, there have always been rumors about the manipulation of the Champions League draw. Turkish journalist Kakar once broke the news that UEFA cheated by setting a vibrator to control the vibration frequency of the ball during the draw.

In addition to this method of real people breaking the news, there are many other rumors about controlling the lottery. For example, before the lottery, the organizer can heat or cool a specific ball to make its appearance and feel clearly different from that of the lottery. Other small balls. In this way, when the guests draw lots, they can find the specific ball based on the temperature, and to the audience in front of the TV, it looks like it was randomly drawn. In addition, you can also play tricks on the weight of the balls. By choosing different materials, the weight of the balls with the same appearance will be obvious, which can be easily perceived by the guests. The first two are physical methods, and there is also a chemical method. UEFA sprays a chemical reagent called luminol onto the ball, and the ball will appear a special color under the light, but this requires wearing special gloves. It can only be seen with contact lenses, but ordinary people cannot detect it with the naked eye.

Of course, these are just rumors and have not been confirmed. Whether UEFA has manipulated the draw or not is still a matter of whether you believe it or not.

On the day after the Champions League group stage ended, UEFA held a draw ceremony for the Champions League quarter-finals at its headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

Since Manchester United will go to Stamford Bridge to challenge the defending champion Chelsea at the weekend, this is another battle of the King of Heaven this season. If Manchester United can challenge Chelsea in the away game, it can really be said that the league championship is locked in the middle.

Manchester United took this game very seriously. Ferguson stayed in Manchester to prepare for the game and did not follow David. Gill went to Nyon, Switzerland, to attend the lottery ceremony.

At 12 o'clock at noon, after training in the snow, the Manchester United players took a shower and had a meal, and then went to the tactical hall to watch the draw ceremony of the quarter-finals.

According to the draw rules, Manchester United will definitely not encounter Arsenal and Valencia. The remaining six second-placed teams in the group may become Manchester United's opponents in the knockout rounds.

There is no doubt that what Manchester United hopes to encounter most is Copenhagen and Marseille, followed by Lyon and Roma. What they least want to encounter is the Milan duo. As the saying goes, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, even if Inter Milan is in the league and Champions League this season. They have all fallen sharply. They still have the foundation of last season's Triple Crown. No one dares to say that they can beat them for sure. The number of times Ac Milan has won the Champions League is second only to Real Madrid. It has rich experience in the Champions League and has performed well in the league this season. It is also Manchester United's natural enemy. Except for Inter Milan, among all the second-placed players, the one Manchester United least wants to touch is Ac Milan.

This season's UEFA Champions League final was held at Wembley Stadium in England. The draw was attended by Manchester United legend Sir Charlton. However, it was snowing in England and the weather was bad. Sir Charlton did not arrive in time, so the draw involved European players. Macchetti, director of the Football Federation Competition Department, came to preside over the meeting.

The first and second place in the group to be drawn was Roma. Roma was very lucky. The first place in the group to be drawn turned out to be Shakhtar Donetsk. With such a good draw, Roma, who was average in strength, could expect to reach the top 8.

The second place drawn was Ac Milan. Manchester United's players and coaches were a little nervous, but Tottenham won the prize and they became AC Milan's opponent.

Then Valencia and Arsenal were drawn out in turn, and their opponents were Schalke 04 and Barcelona respectively.

Arsenal's head coach Wenger looked frustrated. Before the game, he insinuated that UEFA would definitely allow Arsenal to draw the strongest team, Barcelona, ​​and the result was exactly what he wanted.

But Wenger can't blame luck or UEFA. If Arsenal finishes first in the group, they won't be able to touch Barcelona. In competitive football, dishonesty is the original sin.

Next, the old enemies of Lyon and Real Madrid were also drawn together. The strong Real Madrid was not afraid of this. Mourinho still looked arrogant and seemed not to take Lyon, who had eliminated Real Madrid many times, in his eyes.

Then Marseille was drawn by Bayern, and in the end there were still two second places in the group, the strongest Inter Milan and the weakest Copenhagen, and the first place in the group just happened to be left with Chelsea and Manchester United, who were about to face each other in the league.

Choose one of the two, with a 50% possibility. Manchester United's players are all nervous. They don't know whether their opponent will be Inter Milan or Copenhagen. The difference between the two is huge. If Inter Milan is drawn, they will win. , I guess you have to peel off the skin even if you don’t die, and if you win Copenhagen, it will be almost like eating Haagen-Dazs, relaxed and enjoyable.

"It must be Inter Milan, revenge. That's what UEFA likes to do."

"That's right, it will be more interesting if Gao Xiaodong goes home."

"It's another behind-the-scenes operation."

"God willing, give us Copenhagen."

"It's about time we got lucky."

…

There was a lot of chatter among Manchester United's players, with most expecting they would fall victim to UEFA's bid to boost ratings.