Chapter 45 The Defending Champion of Level 2

Although Zhou Yi has already entered the Griermadi Convention Center, his photos and videos on the red carpet are still being circulated on the Chinese Internet, and everyone is hotly discussing his performance on the red carpet for the first time.

"I really can't tell it's the first time, I'm not nervous at all. I think of his first appearance in the Bundesliga, and he's not nervous either... Is Zhou Yi's nickname 'Not Nervous'?"

"This is the first time I see Zhou Yi wearing a formal suit. I had never imagined how someone as unruly as Zhou Yi could wear a formal suit. I never expected that he would look so handsome!"

"Looking at his smile, it's so charming! At first glance, I thought he was a movie star walking on the Oscars red carpet!"

…

Both male fans and female fans were full of praise for Zhou Yi and their eyes were filled with red hearts.

The comment about "handsome" has never appeared on Zhou Yi before. This time, I don't know whether it is the rare formal attire that has the bonus effect, or the aura of being one of the top three best players in Europe...

The red carpet activities of the stars continued. Messi and Ribery both appeared one after another. The scene was still screaming. When Messi appeared, the screams were the loudest.

Seeing this scene, the Chinese reporters at the scene couldn't help but mutter: "Messi still has the greatest influence. The cheers are not on the same level as Zhou Yi just now..."

"What are you afraid of? Fortunately, this time it was a vote by journalists, not a vote by the national team head coach and captain, otherwise I wouldn't be here to report - Zhou Yi must be a green leaf for others."

"Even if you don't get first place, being in the top three is historic... I mean the FIFA Ballon d'Or. Being in the top three shows that Zhou Yi is already one of the top three figures in world football in terms of popularity... …”

On the Internet, Chinese fans did not care much about the subsequent red carpet stars. Everyone began to look forward to the final awards ceremony.

But no matter how much you care,

They still have to wait patiently for all procedures to be completed.

After the red carpet session, everyone entered the conference hall and sat down there, waiting for the Champions League draw ceremony to begin.

The draw for the UEFA Champions League group stage in the new season is the focus of everyone's attention every year, and this year is no exception. That is to say, in China, because of the Zhouyi, everyone is more concerned about the final award ceremony.

※※※

Before the start of the Champions League group stage draw ceremony, a short review video of last season's Champions League final was played on the big screen. The short film reviewed Dortmund's journey to winning the Champions League trophy last season in the form of an art gallery. Zhou Yi had many appearances in it.

The Chinese fans who watched the live broadcast were very happy - is such a performance not worthy of one of the best players in Europe?

The last shot of the short film is the moment when the Dortmund team lifts the Champions League trophy.

After the short film was screened, McNeil, who had led the Scottish Celtics to many Champions League trophies, walked into the draw ceremony holding the trophy in hand.

Then the Champions League draw ceremony officially began.

The first draw guest is Luis Figo, the legendary Portuguese star and Champions League ambassador. UEFA Secretary General Infantino is the host of the Champions League draw. He first introduced the rules of the draw: Thirty-two teams are divided into four levels and divided equally into eight groups. League teams will not meet.

At this time, Chinese fans also began to temporarily shift their attention away from the awards and devoted themselves to the drawing ceremony. They have to go through this process anyway, so they might as well take a closer look. They also want to know which group Dortmund will be assigned to this season. Dortmund was assigned to the group of death last season, but unexpectedly they turned the group of death into "other people's group of death", took the lead in breaking out, and went all the way to win the Champions League championship. In this way, the group of death seems to have given Dortmund good luck...

Everyone thinks that Dortmund, as the defending champion, will definitely be the seeded team.

But it turned out not to be the case.

According to UEFA's classification rules, they rank the 32 teams based on their European War points in the past five years. The top eight teams are the seeded teams, and the ninth to sixteenth ranked teams are the seeded teams. Second-tier teams... and so on.

So even though Dortmund won the Champions League last season, they have only participated in three seasons of European competition in the past five years. Therefore, they do not have enough points in the European competition to become a top eight team, so they are not eligible for seeding. Team.

The defending champion has become a second-tier team and may be assigned to the group of death again...

This rule made the Dortmund club quite dissatisfied. Before coming to Monaco, Watzke talked about this rule in an interview with the media. He believed that it was unfair to the defending champion, and this equal division method would also make the level of the Champions League seed teams vary. If the teams are not even, it is inevitable that there will be some teams that make up the numbers. As long as you steadily participate in the Champions League, you can become a seeded team based on qualifications.

Watzke believes that the league champions and Champions League champions of last season should be the seeded teams. Regardless of their past European war points, only such rules can be worthy of the name "UEFA Champions League".

After all, this is the Champions League, not the "European War Points League".

This matter has indeed aroused extensive discussion in the European media, but the Chinese media and fans are more concerned about whether Zhou Yi can win the award, and do not pay enough attention to this aspect and ignore it.

Now seeing that Dortmund is not a seeded team, many Chinese fans in front of the TV are surprised.

The TV broadcast caught Zhou Yi and Watzke, and Watzke was chatting with Zhou Yi.

No one knew what they were talking about, because both of them covered their mouths with their hands, and it was impossible to guess by reading lips.

In fact, Watzke was complaining to Zhou Yi about this binning rule, which was the same old thing he complained about to reporters.

"If we are a seeded team, we have a great chance of avoiding being assigned to a death group..."

Zhou Yi was comforting him: "Don't worry too much, Mr. Watzke. I think it's a good thing to be assigned to the death group."

"Ah?" Watzk didn't know whether Zhou Yi was being sarcastic or serious.

"Didn't we get assigned to the group of death last season? And it was said to be comparable to the group of death in 1999? As a result, we won the championship. So I think the group of death may be a sign of good luck for us?" Zhou Yi smiled.

Watzk looked at Zhou Yi in surprise, feeling that this kid's thinking was really different from ordinary people, and bad things could be said to be good things. This kind of self-confidence is really beyond the reach of ordinary people, especially in a twenty-two-year-old young man. Regarding Dortmund's confidence, to be honest, even his CEO may not be able to reach the level of Zhou Yi. After all, Dortmund lost Gotze and Lewandowski this season, and the damage to their strength is actually greater than people imagined. Can Mark and Aubameyang fill the gap left by Lewandowski's departure? Can Mkhitaryan fill the role left by Gotze? It’s hard to say this…

Interrupted by Zhou Yi, Watzk had no time to continue thinking about the seeding team. The Champions League draw had already begun.

※※※

McNeil and Figo placed the seeded team Arsenal in Group F, Chelsea in Group E, Real Madrid in Group B, Bayern Munich in Group D, Barcelona in Group H, and Benfica. Arrived at Group C...

Watzke still snorted when he pulled out Benfica.

Obviously he is dissatisfied that Benfica can be a seeded team, while Dortmund can only be a second-tier team. Just because a team like Benfica is in a small league country like Portugal and has the opportunity to participate in the Champions League regularly, it has higher points than Dortmund and has become a seeded team...

Another Portuguese team, Porto, was assigned to Group G, while Manchester United was assigned to Group A.

The draw for the teams in the first tier of the Champions League has been completed.

The guest of the draw for the second tier is the Dutch legendary star Cruyff. He and Figo are responsible for the draw of the second tier team.

When the second-tier teams were drawn, many Chinese fans paid special attention. Watzk and Zorc also adjusted their sitting postures in their seats, seeming to be sitting upright.

Because Dortmund is in the second tier of teams.

The first one to be drawn was Marseille, who was assigned to Group B with Real Madrid. Then AC Milan was assigned to Group H and met Barcelona. Schalke 04 was assigned to Group E, with Chelsea.

This result made Chinese fans a little excited - Sun Pan's Chelsea and Yang Muge's Schalke 04 were divided into the same group. In the group stage alone, they could see two Chinese derbies!

Paris Saint-Germain was assigned to Group C. He Ying was bought out by Paris Saint-Germain this summer. He completely left Barcelona and became a member of Paris Saint-Germain.

In the second half of last season, He Ying performed very well after moving to Paris Saint-Germain. This made Barcelona regret that they actually allowed Paris Saint-Germain to set a right of first refusal in He Ying's loan contract...

At that time, they may not really be optimistic about He Ying's future in Barcelona, ​​and thought it would be good to exchange for some money.

As a result, He Ying's performance was so good that Barcelona regretted it again.

Only this time, there is no point in regretting. After the end of the season, Paris Saint-Germain activated the right of first refusal to leave any trace.

The only thing that can stop Paris Saint-Germain at this time is the player's own will. If He Ying is unwilling to go to Paris Saint-Germain, the right to buy out is useless.

So the Barcelona Club sent people to lobby He Ying and painted a wonderful picture for him to stay in the Barcelona first team. But this time, He Ying directly rejected Barcelona's lobbying without even the slightest hesitation. He had made the wrong choice once before, and he didn't want to make the wrong choice again.

In this way, He Ying became a member of Paris Saint-Germain. Playing in Ligue 1, which ranks bottom among the five major leagues, seems to be a low point for He Ying. But He Ying himself is looking forward to the beginning of a new journey. He is full of hope for the future. He firmly believes that with his own feet, even in Ligue 1, he can have a brilliant future!

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . Mobile version reading URL: