Chapter 348 The Group of Death Is Born, Li Ang, the Best in Europe!

After winning three consecutive league games, the entire Chelsea team finally had a week of rest.

The first few rounds of the new Premier League season are not scheduled intensively. Basically, after each round of the league, each Premier League team can rest for a week.

Chelsea mainly played an extra Community Shield match and a European Super Cup match.

So the schedule burden at the beginning of the season will be heavier than other Premier League teams.

In addition, more veterans in Chelsea have left in the summer transfer window this year, and Chelsea's bench is not as deep as last year. Mourinho now needs to re-formulate the rotation plan.

At the beginning of the season, the main players in Chelsea were able to get a relatively full rest.

But it is foreseeable that in the sprint period of the second half of this season, Chelsea's main players will need to play more games than in the previous two seasons.

After all, the people sitting on the bench are different.

Last season, Drogba, Lampard, Ramires and Mikel, who were experienced veterans or mature players, were sitting on the bench at Chelsea.

This season, Chelsea's bench is mostly filled with young players like Loftus-Cheek, Zouma, Gnabry and Van Ginkel.

When the schedule is not too dense in the first half of the season, Chelsea's coaching staff can rotate these young players to practice.

But in the sprint stage of the championship, continuing to reuse these young players is giving Manchester City and Arsenal a chance.

To fight a tough battle, you still have to rely on the "mature men" in the first team. Li Ang is about to turn 25, and he can barely be considered a "mature man" in his prime.

In the first two seasons, Chelsea's main lineup was not balanced in terms of overall age.

The veterans in the team are too old, and the young players are too young. There are basically no stars in their prime in their twenties.

Now, Chelsea is a mature team that has harvested honors.

The oldest player in the starting lineup, Thiago Silva, is not yet 31 years old.

And the youngest Maguire is now 22 years old and almost 23 years old.

In the midfield trio, Matic is 27 years old, Leon is 24 years old, and Kroos is 25 years old.

The oldest player in the front trident is Suarez, 28 years old, and Hazard and De Bruyne are both 24 years old.

It can be said that the main players in Chelsea are basically in the golden age of their respective careers.

They can run and fight, have abundant physical strength, recover quickly, and have rich experience in top-level competitions.

If we only look at the age structure, Chelsea is now the most scientifically organized and most combative team in the Premier League.

No one else!

The Chelsea coaching staff has protected the young people in the team and allowed them to grow steadily for nearly two seasons. It is time to add burdens to them.

Of course, Leon is not among the players who have been burdened, because his burden has always been the heaviest~

Perhaps it is because Leon has been exploited too many times in the past two seasons, and Mourinho is somewhat embarrassed. He tried to give Leon more holidays in the new season.

However, Leon only used the one-day holidays in the previous few times to be affectionate with his girlfriend Anastasia.

This time the team was on holiday, Li Ang only rested for half a day in the morning, and drove to the Cobham training base as usual in the afternoon for extra training.

He also made an appointment to come to the training base with three young men, Zouma, Loftus-Cheek and Gnabry.

They are under little pressure from the game now. In addition to the team training games, they don't really fight with professional players in the top league.

The coaching staff will arrange for them to play the second team's games from time to time, but the training effect of that kind of game is a bit out of their reach for them.

After thinking about it, Mourinho still gave all three boys to Li Ang, asking him to help guide them during extra training.

Just like Li Ang often trained Lukaku, Ake and Van Ginkel in the previous two seasons.

Li Ang's extra training intensity is very high. The young players have played fewer games now and have strong physical recovery ability. It is only good to practice with him more.

For Gnabry and his friends, being able to train and improve with Li Ang is naturally what they look forward to.

Except that he was a bit too "devilish" in the extra training and gave them all kinds of chicken soup and didn't allow them to rest easily, Li Ang was very good to them in other aspects and played the role of a leading brother.

He took care of the transportation and meals. When they performed well in the extra training, Li Ang would also let his agent assistant take them to a nightclub to relax and have fun as a reward.

The three of them have already grown up. In the youth training environment in England, they have certainly played in nightclubs and bars.

But the youth training contracts they had previously obtained were not enough to support their wanton indulgence in the big city of London.

The nightclub that Li Ang asked his agent assistant to take them to was one of the best "good places" in London.

As long as they didn't play too much, Li Ang's agent assistant would follow Li Ang's instructions to help them pay the bill.

Such a good brother can't be found in football!

For example, those old Brazilian superstars who love to play may also take a few youngsters they like to go to nightclubs to indulge themselves.

But people like Li Ang, who personally train young players and really improve their strength, are completely rare species.

Mourinho didn't say much after knowing this, because he believed that Li Ang knew the limits.

This is indeed the case. Only when the performance of the young players in the extra training meets Li Ang's expectations can they get the "reward" of going to the top nightclubs to have fun.

They can't relax too much, otherwise they will feel the pain in their wallets if they pay for it themselves.

After getting used to this process, the number of times they go to other nightclubs to hang out with friends has greatly decreased.

The training performance is getting better and better, and the growth rate can also make the coaching staff completely satisfied.

Although Li Ang has spent some money, he is rich enough!

Mourinho feels that his decision to let Li Ang lead the young people is getting more and more correct.

With the fourth round of the Premier League approaching, Mourinho even began to consider whether to give more playing time to several young guys.

For example, Zouma, who is a little older, it seems okay to let him replace Maguire, who has played several games in a row, to start once.

His physical condition is also very outstanding. Although he is sometimes a little slow in defense, with Thiago Silva watching, he should be able to do a good job of defending.

The more Mourinho thought about it, the more he felt that this rotation plan was feasible.

In the last few days of preparation training, he also tried to put Zouma and Salah into the main lineup at the same time to see the effect of the training match.

It was not until the afternoon of August 27, two days before the start of the fourth round of the new Premier League season, that Mourinho temporarily extinguished his enthusiasm for tactical experiments.

Because the draw ceremony for the group stage of the new season of the Champions League was about to begin.

After the training that afternoon, all the players in the Chelsea team except Li Ang also gathered in the team restaurant to watch the group draw ceremony of the new season of the Champions League.

As for the absent Li Ang?

He is now sitting at the scene of the Champions League group stage draw ceremony. After the draw ceremony is officially completed, he will go on stage to receive the UEFA Player of the Year award!

As early as the end of last season, Li Ang was unanimously recognized by the media as the biggest winner at the UEFA and FIFA annual awards ceremony.

There was no way, there was no World Cup and European Cup this past summer, and Messi failed to lead the team to win the championship on the stage of the America's Cup.

And Li Ang not only won the two heavyweight championship trophies of the Premier League and the Champions League.

More importantly, his personal data has also ushered in a big explosion. His personal performance last season was not inferior to that of Messi and Ronaldo.

Now that the title of six-time champion has been obtained again, the media can't think of any other player who can compete with Li Ang this year!

The live camera at the draw ceremony also frequently turned to Li Ang in formal clothes, completely ignoring Ronaldo and Neuer sitting next to him, which was completely "explicit".

Fortunately, the draw ceremony started on time, and the shift of the camera also made Li Ang feel much more comfortable. He once again tilted his head to communicate with Ronaldo and Neuer.

This year's Champions League group stage tiering rules have finally changed.

Compared with previous seasons, the first, second, third and fourth tiers of teams were determined directly according to the European points ranking of each team.

This year's new rules for the Champions League tiering are more considerate of the champions of other major leagues.

Under the new rules, the defending Champions League champions and the champions of the top 7 association leagues in UEFA points will directly enter the first tier.

For example, teams like Benfica, Zenit St. Petersburg, Juventus and PSV Eindhoven will directly enter the pool of first-tier seed teams according to the new tiering rules.

If the tiering is still based on the old rules, more than half of these teams will fall into the second or even third tier pool.

Although Juventus is now the overlord of Serie A, in terms of the total points of the European war in the past five seasons, they are still not as good as Arsenal, who has played stably in the Champions League.

Arsenal, which has always been ranked at the end of the first tier in the past few seasons, was directly classified into the second tier pool this year.

Just as unfair as Arsenal, there are Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, whose total points in the European war in the past five seasons are enough to enter the first tier pool.

This new tiering rule has both advantages and disadvantages, but it is foreseeable that the Champions League death group, which was difficult to appear in previous seasons, will probably appear frequently in the future.

Chelsea, as the defending champion of the Champions League, directly became the first seed team.

At first, Li Ang was relatively relaxed. Chelsea's luck in the group draw in the past two seasons was relatively good, and basically there would be no difficult competitors for qualifying.

But when the easier teams in the second pool were drawn one by one, and only Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid were left, Li Ang and Neuer's faces began to change.

Because there are no second-tier opponents in the first pool, only Chelsea and Bayern Munich are left!

Li Ang and Neuer are still smiling awkwardly at the camera on the surface, but in fact they have already cursed UEFA for making trouble in their hearts!

Can this be a coincidence? !

The most difficult Madrid duo in the second pool let the strongest Bayern and Chelsea in the first seed team bite, right!

"You are so good to UEFA. This year, you are targeting us instead of Arsenal. What did the London team do to you? You keep catching them every year..."

Li Ang complained in his heart, but just as he finished complaining, the guest drawer Maldini drew Real Madrid to Group G where Chelsea was!

"God! Chelsea and Real Madrid really met in the group stage!"

"UEFA is really daring to stir up trouble! Isn't the old man scolding Infantino to death?!"

"The little lion is going home! The script I have been waiting for for two years finally played out today!"

"Are you sure that it is going home and not bringing people to mess up the scene? But I like this kind of game! I want to see a river of blood!"

"The strong dialogue between Bayern and Atletico Madrid is also very interesting. Will there be two death groups this year? Looking forward to it!"

When the exciting draw results finally appeared, the fans who watched the live broadcast of the draw ceremony also instantly ignited the sports forums of various countries!

Chelsea vs Real Madrid!

Bayern Munich vs Atletico Madrid!

It can be said that this is the civil war between the four best performing super teams in the Champions League in recent seasons!

Among them, the confrontation between Chelsea and Real Madrid is even more popular!

Li Ang and C Ronaldo smiled bitterly at each other and shook hands at the scene.

Neuer, sitting next to Li Ang, also curled his lips helplessly.

However, the successive draws of the third-tier teams made Neuer feel much better.

Because the group that Bayern and Atletico Madrid were in drew Olympiacos, a recognized underdog team in the third tier.

And because the group that Chelsea and Real Madrid were in directly drew the recognized tough team in the third tier.

CSKA Moscow!

Although it is immoral to build happiness on the pain of others, Neuer still wanted to say with a smile at this moment:

"Comfortable!"

Yes, not only him, but also the players of other Champions League teams who were watching the draw ceremony in front of the TV at this moment felt comfortable!

This season's Champions League death group has been born in advance!

CSKA Moscow, that is a tough bone with magic attacks!

Li Ang and C Ronaldo looked at each other again.

Although they didn't say anything at the moment, they knew that they must have tacitly thought of the Champions League game they played in Moscow many years ago.

"Moscow is approaching winter, and there is still artificial turf! This is too fucked..."

Li Ang accepted his fate. He couldn't do anything if UEFA wanted to play like this.

When Wolfsburg, another tough team in the fourth tier, was drawn into Group G, he even showed a strange smile on his face.

Group G is now firmly known as the group of death.

Chelsea, Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg!

Even if they are confident that they can break out of such a group of death, Chelsea and Real Madrid will have to suffer enough and will not be able to qualify as easily as in previous seasons.

In the player restaurant at the Cobham training base, Chelsea's first team players all complained about the current situation of UEFA's troublesome draw.

Mourinho didn't know what to say, but just kept shaking his head at his coaching staff.

He had long thought that it would be very difficult to continue to lead Chelsea to defend the Champions League this year, but he didn't expect UEFA to set such a big obstacle for them!

However, after complaining, watching Li Ang who won the European Player of the Year award in the live broadcast, Mourinho felt confident enough in his heart!

Artificial obstacles?

It depends on whether the signings arranged by UEFA are stronger or Chelsea is stronger!

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