It's the annual Champions League group stage draw again.

At the end of August every year, fans around the world will look at the Grimalti Convention Center in Monaco.

This day, here will determine the situation of the Champions League in the next six months, and select the Player of the Year.

But this year, there is not much suspense about Player of the Year. Iniesta, who helped Spain win the European Cup and was elected as the Best Player of the European Cup, will win this award. This is recognized by everyone and is also the unspoken rule of the competition year.

What really aroused everyone's interest was the draw of the Champions League.

After the final round of the qualifiers for the Champions League, UEFA announced the latest European points of the 32 Champions League group stage teams after the refresh, and divided them into four levels according to the points, which became the basis for the draw of the Champions League group stage.

According to the European War points, this rule has long been criticized, but UEFA has not yet come up with strong reform measures, so it has to continue to follow this rule this year. However, everyone was surprised to find something that was both embarrassing and helpless, but very much looking forward to.

Under Gao Han, he won the Champions League and Grand Slam. Manchester City, which was invincible in the Premier League last season, was only ranked second, and in the second place was A Milan from Italy.

The overall decline of the Serie A league is the general trend. A Milan just broke the news not long ago. The new season tickets were only 20,000, which set a record low, 10,000 fewer than last year. This shows that A Milan fans distrust the home team and hope to urge the Reds and Blacks to sign up.

But a lean camel is bigger than a horse. No matter how it is, it is still a traditional wealthy family.

If the second-tier team is understandable, then it would be absolutely unreasonable to arrange the UEFA Cup champion Paris Saint-Germain in the third-tier. Gao Han's team is invincible in the Europa League and the French Ligue 1. He has invested nearly 500 million euros in two years and is actually ranked third because of European points?

Who would like to meet Paris Saint-Germain?

What's even more serious is that in addition to Paris Saint-Germain, Serie A giant Juventus is also in the third tier, Ligue 1 powerhouse Lille, Turkish strong team Galatasaray, Dutch giant Ajax, and St. Petersburg Zenit, who invested more than 100 million euros to transfer this summer, are all in the third tier.

What is even more suffocating is that in the fourth level where the strength should be the weakest, there are two really strong teams lurking, namely Dortmund in the Bundesliga and Chinatown in La Liga.

Last season was Chinatown's first time playing in the Champions League, but it ended up winning the Champions League semi-finals in one go, and finally lost to Bayern Munich. This created a very interesting phenomenon. Others' European points are counted in the past five years, while Chinatown's European points are counted in only one year and can only be ranked fourth.

The same situation is also the Bundesliga Dortmund, and Klopp's team is also strong, but it is ranked fourth.

Everyone knows that the Champions League this season will become unprecedentedly fierce, with heroes rising together, and every group and every game may be a life-and-death battle. This not only greatly enhances the value and influence of the Champions League, but also makes all participating teams feel as if they are facing a great enemy and are trembling.

The Champions League has become fierce and its influence has increased, so the benefits brought by it will naturally be greatly improved.

With the end of the contract in the past three years, starting this summer, UEFA signed a new three-year contract with sponsors and broadcasters for 2012 to 2015, with revenue greatly increased and the revenue of participating teams also increased.

All 32 teams entering the group stage will receive a fixed appearance fee of 8.6 million euros, which is just the appearance fee. There will be other benefits such as winning prizes. It is expected that the prize money of the Champions League champion this season will be close to 40 million euros. If the market income of broadcasting shares is included, the championship team is expected to receive at least 50 million euros.

It’s like Chinatown, after playing two playoffs, the appearance fee is 2.1 million yuan, plus the appearance fee for six games in the group stage, 10 million euros are recorded, which is equivalent to Griezmann’s transfer fee, which is simply too easy to make.

Therefore, many European giant teams, including Arsenal, attach so much importance to the Champions League.

It can be foreseen that with the fierce competition in the Champions League, the attraction and influence of the Champions League will continue to rise in the future, and the benefits that participating teams can get will continue to increase.

This is also the core reason why Chinatown decided to participate in the Champions League.

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The draw ceremony is still hosted by Mi Shu leader Infantino. According to convention, ambassador McManaman, the final venue, will be responsible for drawing out the group, and the draw guests of the four teams are former Manchester United stars Dennis Law, George Wea, Gulit and Cannavaro.

The draw in the first gear is the least suspenseful, but from the second gear, the draw in the lottery starts to become nervous. When it comes to the third gear, it can basically be said that the heartbeats are accelerating and there are many screams of exclamation.

I don’t know if it was the good luck brought by Gao Han or as some people said that there were shady scenes in the lottery. UEFA intends to let the strong teams avoid Paris Saint-Germain and try to save the exciting games to the knockout stage, so the French Ligue 1 giants are so lucky.

The three opponents were not strong, including Porto in the Portuguese Super League, Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine and Dynamo Zagreb in Croatia. Although these three teams are not considered weak teams, compared with Paris Saint-Germain, they are really unable to stop the Ligue 1 giants. Group A can almost be said to be the most powerful gap among the eight groups.

However, Chinatown, which performed extremely well last season, failed to get good luck in the draw this season and was drawn into the group. The top spot in the group was Arsenal, the second place was Milan, and the third place was St. Petersburg Zenit.

Although there are no top teams, they are all very strong.

Needless to say, Wenger's team is a stable member of the Champions League quarterfinals. Although he is known as the Premier League's fourth-place maniac, Chinatown is still somewhat shorter in front of Arsenal, who is also fourth in the league.

A Milan is in poor condition recently, but the lean camel is bigger than a horse. The giant team is a giant team, and at least the foundation is still there. In addition, Serie A teams have always been La Liga, so it is also a big battle to meet A Milan in Chinatown.

As for St. Petersburg Zenit, who is third in the group, he is all an old acquaintance. He encountered it in the Champions League group stage last season, and it was difficult to distinguish. What’s more interesting is that Brazilian center Hulk, who played for Porto last year and caused a lot of trouble for Chinatown, also switched to St. Petersburg Zenit this summer.

This is really a narrow road for enemies.

Gao Han was quite satisfied with the draw results of Chinatown's Champions League group stage this season. It can be said that he is pretty good. He was neither drawn to the death group, but he was not as lucky as last season.

The Champions League has always favored stable and mature teams. If they drew Arsenal and A-Milan last year, Chinatown would probably be in danger, but this year, Gao Han felt that Chinatown might not have the power to fight.

First of all, Chinatown's overall tactical framework has always been very stable. The ups and downs last season were so large, mainly because the management had some problems at the decision-making level, or was not mature enough, which led to the team's entire central axis being taken away at the same time and losing its pillars, causing the team's performance to fluctuate and turmoil.

But this summer, although four players were sold, Aubameyang left the team and introduced Griezmann. Although his scoring ability has declined, players such as Hazard, Isco, De Bruyne and Firmino have become more mature, especially after a season of Champions League training, the players' strength has improved significantly.

Herrera left the team, but with Isco, Cork, Verati and other players rising, Rakitic staying in the team, coupled with Ilia Lamendi's progress and the joining of defensive player Kante, the strength of Chinatown's entire midfield has not been weakened, and it can even be said to have improved.

Relatively speaking, the least impact is the departure of the two full-backs on the left and right. Danilo and Alex Sandro took over the main position. They both played for many years and had no problems. Montoya and Moreno will be a powerful supplement to the two wings. Coupled with the growth of Varane, Devri and Umtiti, Chinatown's defense line is still strong.

Under such circumstances, Gao Han firmly believes that Chinatown is not without the strength to compete for the right to qualify in the Champions League group stage.

Of course, there is nothing to be boastful about.

The Champions League semi-finals last season were full of accidents. The group stage and the draws in the quarterfinals were good. Barcelona, ​​who fought against the same country in the quarterfinals, was also aware of the bottom line. They stopped in the semi-finals and lost to Bayern Munich. Chinatown was still honored even though they lost.

But it is already difficult to replicate the success of last season this season.

On the contrary, Paris Saint-Germain has indeed been too lucky in the draw in the group stage. Gao Han has enough confidence and confidence to qualify from the top in the group stage and strive to gain a better position for the next knockout stage.

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As expected by Gao Han.

As soon as the results of the Champions League group stage draw were released, it immediately attracted the attention and hype of media around the world, and conspiracy theories were once again noisy, especially the rumors of UEFA favoring Paris Saint-Germain.

The reason is very simple. Paris Saint-Germain's head coach is Gao Han, who has a close relationship with UEFA Platini. Moreover, Platini is still a Frenchman, so he naturally wants to favor French teams.

What's more, many media reporters were waiting for Paris Saint-Germain, who was in the third tier, to draw Chinatown in the fourth tier, but the two teams were not drawn, which forced them to suspect that there was a shady situation.

In this regard, Chinatown Technical Chief Cantalero said in an interview with the media that the draw result of this time is quite acceptable. "We are a young team and lack experience in the Champions League, so we are happy to compete with strong teams playing different styles of football. This is a training for us."

Cantalero was also asked about the prospects for the Champions League group stage this season. "We are the fourth team and we must forget the results of last season because this season is a new beginning. The Arsenal, A-Milan, and even St. Petersburg Zenit are all strong teams that have been famous in European football for a long time."

"We are eager to stand out from the group stage, but only if we have to do our best and show our best form in every game so that we can meet the challenges of the Champions League."

Gao Han refused to answer all questions related to Chinatown. He just said that Paris Saint-Germain is confident of standing out from the group stage. At the same time, he also said that the European Super Cup tomorrow will be a big test against Paris Saint-Germain.
Chapter completed!