The Young Lion

2: 0!

Millwall defeated last season's UEFA Champions League Galatasaray in the European Super Cup, and won the tasteless championship with no blood of blood. Then, the European Championship group draw began.

Millwall

Sporting Lisbon

Hamburger

Moscow Spartan

This is the result of the draw of Millwall in the first stage of the Champions League in the new season.

There is no doubt that this is a wonderful sign.

Is there suspense in Millwall's qualifying?

No.

But precisely because it did not, it triggered the criticism of the Champions League by the mainstream European media.

Last season's Champions League expansion, the outside voice is not strong, most people hold the mentality to watch the lively and good show, and look forward to the birth of the dark horse.

But this season, everyone will take another look at the results of the first stage group draw, so that everyone is interested in predicting the Champions League 16 qualifying.

The difference between the strengths and weaknesses of the various groups is too obvious, and only AC Milan, Barcelona, ​​Leeds United, Bisidas, four teams are divided into a group with a little taste of death.

But in this dead group, three teams from England and Italy did not have a league champion.

The suspense of the UEFA Champions League group stage has plummeted, and the consequences are also very intuitive: the ratings have dropped.

Even if this is the death group of AC Milan, perhaps Leeds will play Bixidas. It is estimated that no one but the fans of the two teams will be interested in watching the game simultaneously.

Millwall is also depressed. From the perspective of the development of the club's business value, they actually hope that there will be one or two challenging opponents in the group, so that their game will attract more fans to watch.

From the standpoint of UEFA, the expansion of the army will bring benefits to other small clubs, which is a bit preached during the development of socialism: the person who gets rich first drives others to get rich.

Millwall's strength in this group is obviously at least one grade higher than that of the other three opponents. Then the game between them, Millwall is the focus of attention. Incidentally, it can also bring influence and attention to the opponent. Seoul is actually the signboard of this group.

In other words, UEFA's expansion is at the expense of the attractiveness of the group stage to envelope the support of non-mainstream powers.

In the group stage, the powerful teams will take you to play. You make a little money, show your face, your strength is not enough to get out of the line, and you have the motivation to come again next year.

Then, after reaching the top 16, the giant game really kicked off.

But it's true that there are giants who were planted in the group stage before the round of 16, which is indeed called an upset, but the decline in the nature of the game's attractiveness will not change.

In the past, people were reluctant to miss any game in the Champions League. The group stage players are like Lin. If they miss a game, they may miss a classic.

But now, Mo said that he missed a group match. It is estimated that all the group matches will not be watched. Unfortunately, it will not be too big, because the good show must be behind, the previous game is more exciting, but the big premise of the qualifying suspense does not fluctuate too much.

UEFA, G14 and other organizations are driven by interests. The Champions League, which was originally designed to compete with the top teams, has gradually changed its taste.

Aldrich was worried and useless. UEFA expansion was forced by the situation. When Platini came to power in the future, the Champions League became a charity stage for poverty alleviation.

From a good point of view, the pressure of a strong team is not so great. When the conditions are relaxed, you can train your troops and give young people more opportunities.

There are many unfavorable aspects, the schedule is intensive, especially for the England team, this will become a burden.

When a reporter interviewed Aldridge to ask about his views on the Champions League draw, he looked helplessly at the questioning reporter at the press conference before the Premier League.

What else is there to say?

There is no way, the sounding talk about the opponents in the group is very strong, Millwall can not be taken lightly, must go all out to qualify.

In the fourth round of the Premier League, Millwall guest challenged the black cat Sunderland, the result is 0:0.

The defending champion suffered a tie in two consecutive rounds, Aldridge became in a bad mood, and Materazzi was injured again.

It's normal for players to be injured, and bad luck has come together to cause a lot of injuries. It can't be said that it is an accident, but it is a severe test for Millwall.

The league is temporarily suspended, the FIFA match day is coming, the 02 World Cup European zone qualifiers are scorching, and the days of the English fans are coming again.

For the fans of the England national team, it is painful or YY for only a few weeks throughout the year. After all, the league, the European war is still mainstream, and very few fans simply do not support the national team without club support.

Even if there is such a fan who simply supports the national team and has no club position, then they cannot focus on the English national team all year round. "After all, the national team gathers training and becomes the focus, and only the fixed FIFA game. In other days, Fleet Street also regards the national team as nothing, otherwise? Who will pay for the hype?

The England national team has performed well. Everyone can brag about YY. If they do not perform well, they can only vent in the pain of torture.

Millwall's team became fragmented on FIFA match day, raising the national team's upward adjustment, healing the wounded, even young players, were called by the low-level national team.

Aldridge put the team on holiday as usual, and he went to Liverpool to visit his two sons.

He found an interesting phenomenon.

The eldest son, Burt, loves football very much.

The younger son Earl, on the contrary, has no interest in football as a "toy."

However, when Aldridge was sitting on the sofa watching England's visit to Finland, there was an additional audience around him.

Earl sat next to him in a decent manner, watching the football match on the big TV screen, while his elder brother Bert played football on the carpet.

At this time, Aldridge took another football to dangle in front of Earl's eyes, trying to look at his interest value, but Earl turned a blind eye and instead turned on Aldridge!

Well, when children yelled or waved their arms, Aldridge understood that he was angry.

Aldridge dropped the football because it blocked Earl’s sight, and then Earl calmed down and continued to watch TV.

Aldridge picked up the remote control and changed stations, and Earl's screaming sounded again.

Aldridge smiled.

understood.

It turns out Earl likes to watch football games, probably like children like to watch cartoons.

Whether the one-year-old son can understand it, Aldridge does not know, but he is happy to put Earle on his lap. The father and son watched the game of the England national team together. Burt lay down after he was tired of playing on the carpet. Sleeping on the carpet with his back up.

Uh, in a game that was tortured in the eyes of Aldridge, Earl seemed to be interested. Until the end of the game, Earl saw that the TV began to broadcast advertisements, and dragged Aldridge's hand repeatedly, it seemed that he wanted to let The TV continued to broadcast football games, and it took Aldridge a long time to distract him.

England and Finland, draw!

If it is placed in a relaxed environment, England will not be able to win Finland on the road, and it will not be won if it is won. At best, it is a small accident.

But in the summer when the England national team defeated the European Cup team and did not qualify, this game was related to the World Cup qualifying situation. At this time, the English fans exploded!

The situation of this group in England is actually more optimistic. First of all, unlike the other half of the group, there are 6 teams. This group has only 5 teams.

England, Finland, Greece, Albania, Germany!

There is one place to advance directly to the World Cup finals, and the group will play second in the play-offs.

At first glance, that is the situation where England and Germany are fighting for the first place.

And England's life is good, divided in the same group of Germany, is the German team that has fallen to the bottom in recent years.

Of course, the German team also has its own background.

You know, the two World Cups in the 1980s, the two runner-ups of the German team, won the top of the world under the leadership of Beckenbauer in 1990, and began to decline in 1994 and 1998, respectively fifth and seventh.

The European Cup record, 92nd runner-up, 96-year champion, and 2000, this summer, went home hand in hand with England after finishing the group stage.

This is the background that the German team is considered to have fallen to the bottom. From the record, the European Cup and the World Cup have indeed been declining all the way. In addition, Germany’s own lineup replacement situation is unsatisfactory. Only in the past two decades has the worst German team’s public opinion. label.

Comparing England and Germany together, there is really no comparison. England can only say that the record is worse, it is impossible to be better than the worst Germany.

Therefore, in such a group, Finland, which was listed as a leader, failed to win in England. In 8 games, every point must be contested, and the first game lost 2 points, which makes English fans seem to have foreseen England Ranked second to play in the playoffs, even the nightmare of failing to enter the World Cup in 1994 is about to repeat itself!

Kevin Keegan was under great pressure and suddenly became the object of condemnation from all over the country.

This is the case with the head coach. After you do it well, the farts are fragrant. If you do not do well, any decision will be amplified and become a handle for the outside world to attack you.

Keegan made Adams frustrated and withdrew from the national team. He resolutely reused Hiller, who has been in poor condition for more than 30 years, the old-fashioned defense, etc. It seems that Keegan has no advantages all over the body!

Aldridge spent a few happy days in Liverpool, and then returned to London. He wanted to continue training for the first team, but there were really few players left.

Originally intended to go to the club to see the youth team training, because the youth team also ushered in new challenges in the new season.

In the past few years, the Millwall youth team has fought south and north with Europe in the first team. The record is good. While Millwall itself has become the biggest focus, the youth team has also increased its reputation, and the outside world has begun to tap. The business value of the youth team.

The French television broadcaster and UEFA have signed a new agreement to form the U19 European Youth League called "Next Generation" in the new season, inviting outstanding European youth teams to compete in order to obtain new benefits.

Millwall is certainly one of the invited teams. Aldridge did not know that this event was born ten years earlier because of his butterfly!

After further development, it became the "European Youth Champions League"!

He only thinks this is a good thing, giving the youth team more opportunities to go out to know, and playing with teams of different football styles, which is harmless to the growth of young players. As for the youth team, it can make money for the club How much money, this is a fool's dream, it is good to be able to pay the cost of a game to make up for the youth team's expenses.

Parked at the Leo training base, Aldridge was on his way to the youth team, but his cell phone rang. He picked it up to answer, and Andrew’s voice was low and solemn.

"where are you?"

"Leo Training Base. Anything?"

"Do you have time?"

"Well, there is."

"Twenty minutes later, I will be waiting for you outside and I will call you."

"What's the matter? So mysterious."

"You will know later."

Aldridge walked around the training base for more than ten minutes. Andrew's phone call came again. He walked out of the training base. At the door, he saw Andrew's car. He walked up and opened the door of the co-pilot. After sitting in, he accidentally discovered Someone in the back seat looked around and smiled and greeted each other.

"Mr. President Thompson, hello."

The FA's chairman smiled and shook hands with Aldridge. Andrew drove the car and soon disappeared on the street.