Chapter 324 The Curse

The 2013-2014 Bundesliga season has come to an end.

In the end, Dortmund won the league championship and won it for four consecutive seasons.

And what about Bayern Munich? After playing perfectly all season, there were mistakes in three games, and Dortmund seized the opportunity. Now they can only accept this result.

Schalke 04 defeated Nuremberg 4:1 at home in the final round and ended the season with a victory. They eventually ranked third in the league and won the right to participate in next season's Champions League.

Wolfsburg defeated Monchengladbach 3:1 at home. As a result, although Leverkusen defeated Werder Bremen 2:1 at home, they still could not surpass Wolfsburg, so Wolfsburg took advantage at the last moment and qualified for the Champions League.

Leverkusen can only participate in the Europa League with hatred.

Monchengladbach ranked sixth and also qualified for next season's Europa League.

In terms of personal honors, Zhou Yi became the Bundesliga assists leader with 25 assists.

Mark Wagner was the top scorer in the Bundesliga with 22 goals.

Dortmund has had a bumper harvest.

But for Bayern Munich and Dortmund, the season is not over yet.

On May 17, Bayern Munich will also participate in the German Cup final, and their opponent is Wolfsburg.

This is the only game in which Bayern Munich can strive for honors, preventing them from going all out this season.

Dortmund will participate in the Champions League final on May 24, and their opponent is Real Madrid.

Real Madrid performed poorly in La Liga this season, but they made it all the way to the finals in the Champions League.

Many people are actually not very optimistic about Dortmund.

I think it's already good that they can reach the Champions League final. Judging from the team's current uneven personnel situation, it will be very difficult to defeat Real Madrid.

The most important thing is that since the Champions League was restructured, no team has been able to successfully defend the title. This is basically like a curse.

It’s not like no defending champion has reached the final before.

Before the restructuring of the Champions League, there had been twelve successful title defenses. But since the restructuring, there has never been such a good thing.

Four championship teams reached the Champions League final again the following year. They were AC Milan in 1995. However, they lost to the then young guard Ajax in the final. Kluivert became famous in one battle. , and then transferred to AC Milan.

The next year in 1996, Ajax also reached the Champions League final as the defending champion. They lost to Juventus in a penalty shootout in the final and missed the opportunity to defend the championship.

Another year later in 1997, this time it was the defending champion Juventus who had a chance to successfully defend their title. They met Dortmund in the final. As a result, in that final, super substitute Ricken scored the winner, helping Dortmund defeat Juventus 3:1.

Dortmund won the first Champions League title in their club history, while Juventus lost the chance to defend their title.

From 1995 to 1997, there were three Champions League finals. The previous champions all reached the finals, but were defeated. The same thing happened three times in a row. The curse of not being able to defend the Champions League after the restructuring of the Champions League appeared.

For many years after that, no defending champion could reach the final again. They were always eliminated before the final.

Until 2009, last season's Champions League champion Manchester United finally reached the final again. Their opponent was Barcelona led by Guardiola. As a result, Manchester United lost to Barcelona 0:2 in that game.

Guardiola has since ushered in the era of the Dream Team. That year he led Barcelona to six championships, which was unprecedented and unprecedented.

Of course, such an awesome "Cosmos Team" has not been able to break the curse of defending the Champions League.

The next year, they were blocked from the final by Mourinho's Inter Milan in the semi-finals - many Barcelona fans were still looking forward to them going to the Bernabeu to win the Champions League trophy and slap Real Madrid in the face... …

In the football world, many times what you analyze may not be as convincing as a "magic curse".

Football is round, so the possibility of various "superstitious" situations is higher.

Superstitions such as "curses" have always been more popular in football.

Sometimes people really have to think about the "curse" aspect, because the elimination of some defending champions is really hard to figure out.

In 1991, if AC Milan, the winner of last season's Champions League, wins again, they will win three consecutive Champions League titles - AC Milan last season was the last team to successfully defend the Champions League title.

They met Marseille in the quarter-finals.

The first leg match between the two sides ended with a score of 1:1 at the San Siro Stadium. In the second round, AC Milan used aggressive tactics in the away game but failed to save the situation and could not resist Chris Waddle's goal. Waddle even had a slight concussion in a confrontation before, but he is still recovering. Then helped Marcel take the lead 2:1.

This score remained until stoppage time. AC Milan was not hopeless. As long as they scored one more goal, they would equalize the total score and eliminate Marseille with the advantage of away goals. But at this time, several lighting problems suddenly occurred at the Velodrome Stadium, Marseille's home stadium.

The referee thought the game could continue, but AC Milan seemed to think this was an excellent opportunity to ask for a replay using the lighting problem as an excuse.

The team retreated to the locker room and refused to return to the field.

The referee was not polite and bluntly rejected AC Milan's request for a replay. In the end, Marseille was awarded the victory with a score of 3:0. AC Milan not only lost the chance to defend the title, but was even banned from participating in next season's European competitions by UEFA because of this willful replay request.

So the brilliant AC Milan said goodbye to the Champions League. In the season they were not allowed to compete in the Champions League, Barcelona defeated Sampdoria to win their first Champions League trophy in the club's history. The team led by Cruyff was also known as the "Dream Team".

However, such a dream team was completely defeated by AC Milan 0:4 in the Champions League final two years later.

At the same time, AC Milan also reached the Champions League final in the 1992-1993 season when it resumed participating in the Champions League, but lost to Marseille in the end. Of course, a match-fixing scandal later emerged in Marseille. Although they were not deprived of the Champions League championship, they were disqualified from participating in the Toyota Cup. AC Milan participated in the Toyota Cup instead, which made people think that the Champions League championship that year was awarded to AC Milan. , but actually not. The reason given by UEFA is that the appeal period has expired, so the Champions League championship still belongs to Marseille.

In the 2006-2007 season, defending champion Barcelona was eliminated by Liverpool in the quarter-finals. Liverpool, who eliminated them, had internal strife before the game. At that time, Bellamy and Riise not only went to the bar to drink and party before the game, but also had a conflict because they drank too much. After returning to the hotel, Bellamy took out a golf club and went to Riise's room to give the latter a shot. stick.

But that's it. In the next game, Liverpool defeated Barcelona 2:1 away from home, and the goals were scored by Bellamy and Riise...

Red Star Belgrade, which defeated Marcel in the final to win the Champions League in 1991, had a chance to defend the title. However, the Yugoslav Civil War broke out, and many stars in the team left the team to seek development in Western Europe. The team's vitality was severely damaged. Coupled with the sanctions of the United Nations, Yugoslavia's teams were banned from participating in the Champions League and the national team was unable to participate in the European Cup. The extremely powerful Yugoslav football was destroyed by the war...

In 2003, AC Milan defeated Juventus in a penalty shootout and once again won the Champions League. But the next year, when they easily defeated Deportivo La Coruna 4:1 at home in the first round of the quarter-finals, they inexplicably lost 0:4 to Deportivo in the second round and were eliminated.

In 2010, Barcelona led by Guardiola was at its peak. Everyone felt that if any team could break the curse, it must be the "Cosmic Team" led by Guardiola. As a result, such a Barcelona team was suffocated by Mourinho's bus in their home court in the semifinals...

Of course, the worst defending champion was Chelsea. After defeating Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in 2012 and winning the first Champions League title in the club's history, they failed to even make it past the group stage the next year and were eliminated...

All the above examples fully illustrate how powerful the curse of "the defending champion cannot defend his title" is.

There are so many reasons why it is difficult for Dortmund to win the Champions League, which is more effective than "It is a curse not to defend the Champions League champion".

The odds offered by bookmakers are obviously more optimistic about Real Madrid.

※※※

After winning the league, Klopp gave the team a whole day off to let them rest and recover.

After a day's rest, Dortmund's players returned to the Brackel training base to begin preparations for the Champions League final.

A reporter blocked the door of the training base and asked Zhou Yi what he thought of the defending champion's inability to defend his title.

Zhou Yi smiled and waved his hand: "I believe in science, not superstition."

The reporter said: "But you also said before that it is a curse that Real Madrid cannot win against the German team in away games..."

Zhou Yi spread his hands: "When did I say this? I said it was Murphy's Law and science, not superstition."

The reporter seemed to have known what Zhou Yi would say for a long time, and asked triumphantly: "But Real Madrid defeated Schalke 04 6:1 and Bayern Munich 4:0 in away games this season. They are both German teams... …”

Zhou Yi nodded: "Yes. So Real Madrid has proven with practical actions that there is no magic spell, right?"

The reporter who asked the question was stunned and speechless.

He really didn't expect Zhou Yi to be so thick-skinned and change his face so quickly...

When a Chinese reporter next to him saw the foreign reporter's defeat, he couldn't help laughing like a barbell - Didn't this man do his homework before coming to interview Zhou Yi? Don’t you know who Zhou Yi is?

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