Due to the influence of international match days, the Premier League was suspended for more than a week, and Manchester City also gave players two days off. After that, players who did not enter the national team had to return to the team to continue training, while other players followed the national team to play.

Players can rest during these two days, but Wan Sheng, as the head coach, cannot rest. The next day, he went to Monaco with the club's general manager Bi Knicks to participate in the draw ceremony of the new season of the Champions League group stage for the superstars there.

This is not the first time that Wan Sheng has participated in the European tournament draw. The last time he went to Derby County to participate in the UEFA Cup draw the second summer before yesterday, but the League Cup has received much attention than the Champions League. At that time, he was just a young coach of the "Little Ball Club" and was completely unfamous, so naturally no one would care about him.

It's different now.

He represented Manchester City in the Champions League draw. Manchester City was the Premier League champion last season. It is also exciting to see what performance will be in the Champions League this season. Especially the last time he led Derby County to the League Cup, he is also considered a coach with European experience. In addition, his fame is not the same as that time, so in the current situation, many media are still happy to interview him.

When Wansheng and Bi Knicks walked into the venue together, many reporters who were waiting flocked to him. He was surrounded directly, while Bi Knicks stood aside and looked happily.

This is the first time that a Chinese coach has appeared in the Champions League. Perhaps the Chinese media will report this "historical moment", but for European media, interviewing Wan Sheng is normal. Even in the World Cup, this young Chinese who is completely "out of the matter" can become the protagonist, not to mention that Manchester City led by him this season is also one of the participating teams.

But the ideas of domestic and foreign media are obviously different. There are still domestic reporters who keep taking pictures to remember this moment. They plan to use this as the central material for today's report. After all, this is indeed a moment that can represent the history of Chinese football.

This season is a big-picture event for the Chinese football media. No Chinese player has participated in the UEFA Champions League before. Now there is now, Manchester City's Sun Jihai and Wang Xiaolei won't say much. They will definitely represent Manchester City in the Champions League. At the same time, Dong Fangzhuo is about to obtain a labor certificate. This means that he is likely to play in the Champions League for Manchester United.

However, it is not uncommon for players to participate in the Champions League. After all, there are many players compared to coaches. There are 32 teams in the Champions League group stage, and there are one or two Chinese players. Although there is not before, it is actually nothing if you think about it this way.

But the coach is strange!

There are 32 teams in the Champions League group stage, but there are only 32 head coaches, one of which is a Chinese coach. It is a great honor.

European football is basically the world of white head coaches, and black head coaches rarely see it. Others' head coaches are basically completely extinct. In fact, this is a very invisible discrimination. Most European sports are the world of white coaches, and other race coaches are assistant coaches, tactical coaches, etc. In short, they are all auxiliary work. This is also related to some discrimination "habits". White coaches are more likely to be trusted, and they will get more opportunities. If one achieves a little, they will be very particular. When other people's coaches get it, they will be questioned in various ways.

Just like Wan Sheng, after some success, doubts have always existed.

If he were a white man, he would have been touted by the media as the "most talented coach". But there was no such voice at all. Even the English media kept skeptical voices. They did not deny Wansheng's success, but wanted to explore the "real" reasons for success to illustrate some "not wanting to accept" issues.

This is what Wan Sheng received.

The reason? He is a Chinese, a yellow man.

It is precisely because of this that Wan Sheng is now particularly precious to stand on the Champions League stage. Therefore, it is completely understandable that the Chinese media thought of using "the first head coach in the Champions League in Chinese football history" as the core material for reporting.

This is not a big deal, but a real success and honor.

Wan Sheng understood the ideas of domestic media very well, and he was happy to accept interviews from domestic media. So surrounded by reporters, he directly called a domestic media reporter and wanted to be the first to accept interviews from his compatriots.

"What do you think of being able to lead the team to stand on the Champions League stage?" The reporter's question was very concise, but it was a topic of concern to many domestic media and fans.

Wan Sheng smiled and said in Chinese, "My idea is very simple now. I hope the team can be assigned to a good group, lead the team to the top 16, and then continue to move forward, and do our best to strive for better results!"

After saying that, he took a provocative look at the surrounding reporters and switched to English, "Of course, it would be great if you can win the championship!"

"Hula" was talking about it.

All the reporters understood the last sentence, and they suddenly became uproar.

What did they hear?

This young Chinese actually said he wanted to win the championship? Was he crazy? Isn’t he the first time he participated in the Champions League? Manchester City, who participated in the European Championship for the first time in five years, actually said he wanted to win the Champions League championship. This is a big joke!

Many media reporters who were not familiar with Wan Sheng suddenly felt that the rumors were really right. This young Chinese was no longer just arrogant. He was simply overwhelmed by his "small little" achievements!

Champions League champion? Haha, thank you if Manchester City can qualify in the group!

The media press conference believes that it is difficult for Manchester City to cross the group stage threshold. It is not that they think that Manchester City has poor strength and no European experience. Manchester City was the Premier League champion last season and defeated Chelsea and Arsenal in the first three rounds of this season. They must have the strength. Everyone must admit this, but they still think so. In fact, there are some reasons, that is, Manchester City's UEFA points.

The UEFA points of a team are the sum of the points in the European Cup over the past five years (the Champions League and the League Cup are both European matches) and the points in the European matches of the national league. According to the existing points rules of UEFA, a team can enjoy 33% of the European match points in the national league. That is to say, if a team does not participate in any European matches within five years, it will also have certain European match points.

This is the case with Manchester City. In the past five years, Manchester City had not participated in the League Cup or the Champions League, and they did not have any European Cup points. Therefore, Manchester City's UEFA points are only 33% of the Premier League European Cup points in the past five years, which is 39.133 points.

This score is higher than that of some minor league teams, but is far lower than that of the giant teams in major leagues.

According to the UEFA grouping rules, all participating teams will be divided into four levels according to UEFA points. Each group will be divided into four teams, and Manchester City's points are only higher than Anderlecht, and are at the end of the third-level team. This is because Manchester City is a Premier League team. If they change to another league, or if the Premier League team's performance was a little worse last season, Manchester City will likely be directly classified as the fourth level.

Of course, there is actually no difference between the third and fourth grades. The common point is that the group they are assigned will definitely have a strong team of the second and third grades.

Add to that, Manchester City itself, that is, Manchester City will almost certainly be assigned to a 'death group'.

This is also the reason why European media are not optimistic about Manchester City being able to qualify in the group.

Of course, everything depends on the grouping situation.

The draw ceremony of the UEFA Champions League was actually the best award ceremony for the Champions League last season. The Champions League champion last season was Barcelona. So they took away the honors of the best scorer, the best midfielder and the best coach. The head coaches and players of other teams could only watch them go up and receive the award.

Barcelona did perform well in the Champions League last season. After qualifying for the group stage, they defeated Chelsea, Benfica and A-Milan in the knockout round, and defeated Arsenal in the final to win the Champions League title.

Chelsea and Milan are definitely strong teams in the Champions League. These two teams even had the lowest odds to win the championship last season and were also the most optimistic teams to win the Champions League. As a result, they were defeated by Barcelona one after another. It can be said that Barcelona's championship is full of gold.

Wan Sheng looked at the players coming up to receive the prize, his face a little serious. He knew that this moment was the beginning of Barcelona's glory. In his memory, Barcelona's performance will always be very good, so that basically the Spanish national team composed of Barcelona and Real Madrid players are very strong, and they won the European Cup and World Cup in 2008 and 2010 respectively. It can be said that in the next few years, if he wants to lead the team to achieve good results in European competitions, Barcelona will definitely become one of the most important opponents.

It is not easy to defeat the powerful Barcelona, ​​it is much more difficult than defeating Chelsea in the league.

Wan Sheng could feel a stream of passion flowing in his heart.

That is the excitement and excitement of facing challenges.

After the award ceremony, the group lottery ceremony was reached.

At this time, the invited player representatives, UEFA officials and guests will come forward one by one to draw lots for each player.

In the order of draws, first the seed team, then the second and third grades. When Manchester City's name was drawn, Wan Sheng and Bi Knicks both had wry smiles on their faces.

Everyone looked at him with sympathy.

Manchester City were assigned to Group G, with Spanish giants Real Madrid, Bundesliga overlord Bayern Munich and Sofialevsky from Bulgaria.

This is the unquestionable ‘Death Group’!

Seeing this group, what else can Wansheng do besides smiling bitterly?

In this group, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are both extremely strong opponents. Many people think that the two teams will compete for the first place in the group, and Manchester City is only a bit threat to the two teams. As for Sofialevsky, it is purely a header team and there is no hope of qualifying.

Of course, Wan Sheng’s view is different. What he thought was how it would appear.

There are only two teams in a group that can qualify. Needless to say, Sofialevski definitely has no chance. If Manchester City wants to qualify, they must squeeze out the quota of Bayern Munich or Real Madrid. Compared with the two opponents, the Bundesliga overlord is better. Real Madrid, whose performance has become worse and worse recently, has performed strongly in European games, but every season, it is actually just the result of qualifying in the group. They have many superstars, but various internal problems have caused Real Madrid to be unable to compete with Barcelona in the Spanish arena, and their results in the Champions League have also been affected.

So, Manchester City still has great hope.

What's more, even if you face Bayern Munich and Wan wins, you are not afraid of anything. Manchester City is the Premier League champion last season. Even if you don't have European experience, you may not necessarily lose to the Bundesliga overlord.

Of course, the most important thing in the group stage is to grab enough points. The outcome of one or two games is not important. Which game is important and which game is not important depends on the schedule. In order to avoid problems such as team injuries, you should consider it more when the game is approaching.

But no matter what, Wan Sheng also has great confidence in leading the team to qualify.

However, the media doesn't see this way. Almost the media who saw this group group situation felt that Manchester City had no hope at the first time. They even felt that there was no need to pay attention to Manchester City, because Manchester City would definitely not be able to appear in the group. What should I pay attention to when a team that could not be seen in the round of 16 knockout stages?

But there are still English media who are happy to interview Wan Sheng. After all, Wan Sheng is the focus of England. The grouping is not good now, and the English media still hopes that Manchester City can qualify because Manchester City is an English club. The appearance of the group means that it can bring more UEFA points to England.

So after the lottery was over, some English reporters surrounded Wan Sheng.

Wan Sheng didn't care about the attitude of foreign media towards him. Now they don't interview themselves. When the team leader appears, they will definitely beg to interview themselves, and everything is still about results. It is not necessary to care too much about these things.

He seemed very relaxed in the face of the English media.

There were many faces in front of him, including many familiar ones, so Wan Sheng also smiled. But this does not mean that Wan Sheng is in a good mood. Now he is in a very bad mood. No team will be happy to be assigned to such a group.

So why did Manchester City be assigned to the "Death Group"? This is not accidental, but inevitable. Even if you change the group, you can just replace Real Madrid with Milan, or replace Bayern Munich with Lyon. In short, the group where Manchester City is located must be the Death Group.

All this is due to the fact that Manchester City is given to the "third-level team" by UEFA.

UEFA calculates "UEFA points" based on the team's European competition results to determine the team's level. Wan Sheng feels it is unfair because Manchester City has not played European competitions in a few years, but Manchester City is the league champion last season.

So facing the media, Wan Sheng said, "I believe that the performance of the previous league is the real criterion. Two years ago, Liverpool won the European Champions League, but was 36 points behind Derby County in the Premier League and did not even enter the top four. Last year, Arsenal reached the Champions League final, but only won fifth in the league and did not even have the qualification to participate in the Champions League."

Then Wan Sheng pointed his finger at Inter Milan, "Inter Milan was only the third place in the Serie A last season, and their championship was only printed on the jersey." He refers to the "phone gate scandal" in the summer. As Milan and Juventus were punished, Inter Milan won a league championship in vain.

Wan Sheng talked about Manchester City afterwards, "We were the Premier League champions last season. I can't think of why the Premier League champion is the third-level team, the runner-up Chelsea is the second-level team, and the third-level Manchester United and the fourth-level Liverpool are the first-level teams?" Then he put forward his own suggestions, "I think UEFA should consider this point. The champion teams in major leagues should have extra points, otherwise it would be too chaotic!"

Although I know what the Chinese people are in front of me are, the media reporters around me are still quite surprised. It would be fine if I was in the domestic league, but this guy actually spoke wildly in the Champions League?

Is it my first time leading a team to participate in the Champions League, and I still dare to point fingers at UEFA's group rules?

Although many people think that Wan Sheng’s statement makes some sense, more people feel that this young Chinese is too arrogant!

This is the Champions League, not the Premier League!

It’s the first time I lead the team to participate in the Champions League, so why should I be a little low-key? Even if I’m assigned to the death group, it’s fine if I’m not satisfied. I’ll keep it in my heart and wait for good results before talking about it. The group stage has not started yet. Just say that, aren’t you afraid of offending UEFA or attracting more attention?

Wouldn't Manchester City's hope of qualifying be small again?

Or maybe this Chinese feels that there is no hope for qualifying, and then he is scared!? This is big news!

But in fact, it is not only Wan Sheng who is dissatisfied with the grouping situation. It is not only Wan Sheng who dares to criticize UEFA's grouping work, because in addition to Wan Sheng, there is also Mourinho in the Premier League.

The group where Chelsea is located is definitely not good because they met Barcelona again, and met Barcelona in the Champions League for three consecutive years. This time, they met Barcelona in the group stage. In addition to the new Bundesliga Werder Bremen, this is also the death group.

For Chelsea, this is definitely not a good sign.

All of this is also thanks to Chelsea being given to "the second-tier team" by UEFA. So after the grouping ended, Mourinho said in an interview, "Chelsea should not be in the second level. We have reached the top 16 of the Champions League for three consecutive years and won fourth last year. I think UEFA should consider the league results to add points and reduce points." He even said something to Manchester City, "Marcelona is the third level? This is really ridiculous. We just lost to them at Stamford Bridge. If this Champions League, the English team is not as good as other leagues, it must be a problem with this grouping!"

Then he expressed his dissatisfaction with the Barcelona group, "This seems to be something that must have happened. It is not easy to encounter Barcelona for three consecutive years, but it happened."

In fact, Chelsea's UEFA score is also related to their elimination by Barcelona during the 16-to-8 last season, but this time, they once again drew the same group as Barcelona in the draw.

This is the same group as the defending champion for two consecutive years.'

After finishing the interview, some media joked, "In the English League, Wan Sheng and Mourinho are the absolute mortal enemies. But in the Champions League, the two actually joined forces tacitly" (.)
Chapter completed!