The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 484 Group of Death
The first round of the league is usually not easy to play, the reason is very simple, not in form, and there is a lack of rhythm in the league.

The human body is very strange. Only when you are in a rhythm that you are used to and are familiar with can you perform well, so the start of the league is a groping and finding rhythm for all teams the process of.

It's hard to say how fast or slow this process is, and no one can give an explanation.

It's as if Arsenal's first game against West Bromwich Albion in bloomers at the Emirates Stadium, they played rather poorly but got lucky as they were joined by new signings just over four minutes into the game Nasri scored a goal, and then kept it until the end of the game, beating the bloomers 1:0.

Equally bad was Manchester United, who welcomed Newcastle at Old Trafford and were first attacked by Martins to score, but Fletcher equalized the score 2 minutes later, but after that, Manchester United still couldn't seem to find the feeling of scoring. Can only watch Keegan's team take away a point from Old Trafford.

Tottenham Hotspur's performance in the first round was not very satisfactory, and they challenged Southgate's Middlesbrough away.

The strength of this team is not weak, with Downing, Alfonso Alves, Tonchay and other famous players in the team, and Tottenham Hotspur performed very well in the first half, Goals from Thiago Silva and Robin van Persie gave them a 2-0 lead, but in the second half Robert Huth took a corner and pulled it back for Middlesbrough.

The final score was 2:1, Tottenham beat Middlesbrough away.

Mark Hughes' Manchester City had the saddest performance in the first round.

This team, which spent a lot of money to strengthen the team this season, challenged Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa away in the first round of the new season. As a result, Aston Villa scored four consecutive goals in the away game, and finally ended in 2: The disastrous defeat of 4 did not show the ambition and strength of Mark Hughes to strive for the top four.

Forward Abang Lahor performed a hat-trick and became the most eye-catching player in the first round of the league. He is also the top scorer in the Premier League in the new season, which has also attracted the attention of many media and fans.

However, the best performance in the first round of the Premier League was Scolari's Chelsea, who won Redknapp's Portsmouth 4-0 at home, directly rushing to the league leader's position, and these four goals They were scored by four different players, and their offensive ability is good, which makes many people optimistic about Chelsea's prospects this season.

A week later, Tottenham Hotspur sat at White Hart Lane and ushered in the black cat Sunderland.

Speaking of which, Roy Keane's team also caused Tottenham Hotspur a lot of trouble at the beginning of last season. This time Roy Keane once again showed his desire to beat Tottenham in the away game Nam Hotspur's wild ambitions, but they lost a 1:2 at the White Hart Lane Stadium, although they lost, they saved their face.

切尔西客场1：0小胜维冈，曼联1：0客场小胜朴茨茅斯，利物浦主场2：1击败了米德尔斯堡，阿森纳客场0：1负于富勒姆，曼城则是主场3：0击败了西汉姆联。

After two rounds, the situation in the Premier League has changed. Only three teams have won two consecutive victories, namely Chelsea at the top of the list, Tottenham Hotspur at No.2, and Liverpool at No.3, Manchester United, Blackburn and other teams followed closely behind, while Arsenal ranked outside the ten.

Regarding Tottenham Hotspur's victory over Manchester United in the Community Shield, but in the first two rounds of the league, they did not play the tide of offensive fans expected. Many football professionals feel that this is mainly because of the Community Shield The performance was too eye-catching, leading both Middlesbrough and Sunderland to adopt conservative strategies.

Moreover, Tottenham Hotspur have still not been able to find a very good and effective way to form an effective fusion mechanism between the creative and delicate midfielder and the more powerful and explosive frontcourt wings, especially Gareth Bale. , Van Persie and Cavani, there is no interaction and movement similar to the previous Trident.

This has also become a big problem for Tottenham Hotspur in the new season, and considering that the team's operation in the first two rounds of the league is not very good, other teams have relative countermeasures, so many people feel that, With the return of Messi and others from the Olympics, it will help Tottenham Hotspur rediscover attacking football.

After playing the first two rounds of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur held another event at Theobald Training Base. The whole team took a family portrait for the new season and every player wore a newly signed sponsorship For this reason, Versace also specially arranged a whole set of shooting teams including makeup artists and photographers to come to Theobald training base.

Versace sponsors Tottenham Hotspur for a period of two years, with an annual sponsorship fee of 400 million euros, which is similar to the level of formal wear sponsors of major clubs. Your own influence helps a bit.

For Versace, which has not been in a very ideal situation in the past few years, has suffered losses almost every year, and has just carried out large-scale layoffs, with the influence of Tottenham Hotspur and Ye Qiu, it is actively developing markets outside Europe, especially The Asian and North American markets are crucial to them.

In the contract between Tottenham Hotspur and Versace, the first appearance was in the UEFA Super Cup, as well as the group stage draw and award ceremony of the UEFA Champions League. This is also Tottenham Hotspur's first appearance in the new season A debut appearance, as the defending champion, can be said to have attracted much attention, and Versace will even arrange a professional team to go with it.

The whole group set off from London to Monaco, entered the hotel that UEFA had booked before, and then the team set off for the Grimaldi Conference Center in Monaco that night.

This is also the first full appearance of Tottenham Hotspur in the new season. Four players, including Messi who participated in the Olympics, and Franck Ribery, who is injured, all came to the scene, and everyone was dressed in suits , It really brightened the eyes of countless fans, and instantly killed the film of countless media.

As the defending champions, Tottenham Hotspur directly have the qualifications for a seeded team in the group stage. They will form the seeded team for the group stage with the other seven teams with the highest points in the European War. In other words, the team with the highest points in European competitions in the past few years is Chelsea, and this has to rely on Ye Qiu's two years of coaching the Blues with a championship and a runner-up.

There are a total of four Premier League teams participating in the Champions League group stage this season. Both Arsenal and Chelsea participated in the third round of the qualifiers, but they both advanced smoothly. Interestingly, except for Tottenham Hotspur’s lack of points, but But because they are the defending champions, they won the seed team qualifications, and the other three teams are all seed teams.

All of a sudden, four seeded teams appeared in the Premier League, accounting for half of the eight seeded teams. , according to the previous UEFA European War points ranking, Liverpool ranked second among all teams.

The Premier League is indeed the strongest league in the past few seasons, and the title of the world's number one league is not an exaggeration.

Originally, Ye Qiu was not interested in participating in such UEFA activities. This was because he was very dissatisfied with Johansson's behavior back then, but since Platini came to power, he took the initiative to close the relationship with Ye Qiu, and His attitude towards Tottenham Hotspur is also very good, so Ye Qiu is also happy to borrow the slope to get off the donkey.

And there is no doubt that Ye Qiu won UEFA's Coach of the Season Award almost without any competitors after defeating Manchester United in Tottenham Hotspur's Champions League final with an almost miraculous comeback.

In the past, Ye Qiu wanted to get the first prize, but he couldn't get it anyway. Now he doesn't care, but it came to his door on his own initiative. This world is so weird, it won't be given to you when you want it, You don't want it anymore, but he insists on stuffing it into your hand.

Ye Qiu also received congratulations from Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and others for winning the Coach of the Season Award, especially the Frenchman, who returned to the Champions League after a year's absence. He seemed in a good mood.

The best goalkeeper of the season undoubtedly belongs to Peter Cech of Tottenham Hotspur. His performance in the Champions League and Premier League last season was quite outstanding and stable. Even Ye Qiu can say that Tottenham Tottenham Hotspur's offensive characteristics and the team's defensive level last season, without Peter Cech, it would be difficult for Tottenham Hotspur to have such outstanding results.

And the best defender fell to Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic, the Serbian central defender's performance is indeed very good, better than Tottenham Hotspur's Hangeland and Thiago Silva, and Chelsea's Terry is much better.

The best midfielder was given to Fabregas of Tottenham Hotspur. The performance of this young Spanish player is definitely worthy of recognition, especially his strategizing and organization in the midfield like a general, as well as his scoring from behind. His ability has put him among the ranks of world-class midfielders, especially after Tottenham Hotspur won the Champions League.

The best striker of the season was given to Cristiano Ronaldo. Many people think that this award is given to Cristiano Ronaldo mainly because of his goals and performance in the Champions League, and he also performed well in the final. Franck Ribery is very good in the league, but in the first half of the Champions League final, points were deducted, and he missed the second half due to injury.

But it happened that after his absence, Tottenham Hotspur played a miraculous reversal, which somewhat made some people who doubted Ribery even more negative about him.

But the player of the season undoubtedly belongs to Frank Ribery!
Seeing Franck Ribery limping onto the podium, everyone was giving him blessings in their hearts. UEFA President Michel Platini, who presented him with the award, hugged the French compatriot tightly. Cheer for him personally and hope he can return to the game as soon as possible.

"I'm 25 years old!" Ribery, with a scar on his face, approached the microphone when receiving the trophy from Platini, "In the first 20 years of my life, no one ever told me I, I can have today, at that time I didn’t understand anything, wandered around, was once reduced to a problem even eating, and then, as many people know, I became a brick mover on a construction site.”

"I will never forget that when I was 20 years old, he came into my life and told me, Franck Ribery, believe me, you can be the best player in the world, just follow you Papin, like your compatriot Zidane, became a great player."

As he spoke, everyone could see a little sparkle on Ribery's terrifying face, and the Frenchman's voice began to tremble, which showed the excitement in his heart at this moment.

"I took a gamble with myself. My wife said to me, you should try it, so I came to London. I gambled on the future, the future, and I told myself, if it doesn't work, I will Continue to go back and be my brick mover, and live a life of self-discipline."

"I am very glad that I won!" Ribery raised the trophy in his hand high, "So, here, I must thank my wife, children and family who have supported me in the past few years. I also want all my teammates at Tottenham Hotspur, without them I would not be me, but I should thank my manager more than ever, I will always be grateful to you!"

There was a burst of thunderous applause at the scene, and everyone looked at Ribery who limped off the podium, walked to the stands, walked to Ye Qiu, and hugged him tightly amidst the applause.

As Platini said in the introduction, Ribery used his experience to tell everyone the most obvious truth, football is never just talent, not just genius, it needs you Persevere non-stop, make unremitting efforts, and he will definitely reward you in the end.

From Ribery's body, everyone can clearly see that he may not be a genius, he does not have Ronaldo's super talent, and he has never had a smooth career. He has had ups and downs, even at Chelsea. Was put into the cold palace by Mourinho for a while, but he finally survived and got his head out.

Platini also expressed his gratitude to Ye Qiu on the court after Ribery stepped down, but he was not as a Frenchman, but as the president of UEFA. Many, many stars have made outstanding contributions, and he also believes that Ribery will be able to return to the game as soon as possible and return to the top.

Tottenham Hotspur is undoubtedly the big winner of the major awards of the season, but in the draw of the group stage that followed, Tottenham Hotspur became a big tragedy because they were ranked in the so-called Group of Death.

The eight seeded teams are defending champions Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Inter Milan and Lyon. These eight teams are divided into eight different groups. Tottenham are in Group D.

There are also strong teams in the second tier. For example, Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Juventus, Roma and other teams are all strong teams. Leme, Porto and other teams are all strong.

The first two gears are outstanding, that's nothing, it's normal, but the key suspense is in the third and fourth gears.

None of the teams in the third tier are from the four major leagues, but the strength of the Marseille team is impressive, and the terrible thing is the fourth tier. Fiorentina and Atletico Madrid are both headache teams. These two teams in Serie A and La Liga are absolutely capable of upset.

Tottenham Hotspur was unlucky, because they drew the most powerful giants Bayern Munich in the second tier, and the strongest Marseille in the third tier, and the fourth tier was Atletico Madrid in La Liga was drawn.

Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich, Marseille and Atletico Madrid, such a powerful combination, looking at the eight groups in the Champions League, is definitely the group with the strongest comprehensive strength, and it is definitely the most terrifying group of death.

Ye Qiu was more or less mentally prepared for some of the lottery rules for the UEFA Champions League.

Don't look at Tottenham Hotspur won the Champions League last season, but in the eyes of many people, Tottenham Hotspur's victory is considered an upset, a bit similar to Ye Qiu's previous life Porto won the championship, who really regards Porto as a giant up?Even Porto was disqualified from the Champions League later, no one cared, and few people knew.

The same is true for Tottenham Hotspur now. A Champions League does not mean anything. If they cannot continue to maintain the team's combat effectiveness and competitiveness in the next few years, then Tottenham Hotspur will soon be lost to everyone. Forgotten and continued to be reduced to a second-tier team, so Ye Qiu knew very well that what the team needed most at the moment was results.

But the fact is very cruel. In the group stage draw, the strong teams must be staggered with the strong teams, and the balance should not be too unbalanced. Otherwise, once the strong teams fail to advance, it will be a series of upsets, which will affect the market influence of the Champions League. Therefore, Before the game, many people thought that Bayern Munich would either draw Tottenham Hotspur or Lyon, choose one of the two.

The reason is simple. These two teams are considered to be the two teams with the weakest overall strength in the group.

It's like Leverkusen, who were invincible in the previous season, but were immediately defeated in the next season. Many people's attitude towards Tottenham Hotspur is to adopt a spectator strategy, even many sponsors so it is.

For Tottenham Hotspur, it is indeed cruel to be assigned to such a group, but when Ye Qiu was interviewed by the media, he was still very optimistic and confident that the team's goal has not changed, or To strive for the first place in the group.

Because for Tottenham Hotspur, if they get the first place in the group, they will be able to avoid strong teams in the knockout round and go one step further.

For the four teams in Group D, the outside world also feels that Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich are very likely to qualify together. The key is for Tottenham Hotspur to continue to maintain the level of last season.

On the second day after the draw and awards ceremony, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Zenit 3:1 at the Louis II Stadium and successfully won the European Super Cup. The first European Super Cup in history.

The team had won the UEFA Cup before, but lost to AC Milan in the Super Cup, resulting in a miss, and finally got it this time.

However, when the team was competing for the Super Cup, the Premier League played the third round, and Tottenham Hotspur's away game against Chelsea was postponed. In the end, Manchester United won and climbed to the top of the league table.

After the end of the three rounds, the Premier League ushered in a two-week national team match day.

(End of this chapter)