i want to be king

Chapter 776 The Barbarian's Home Romance
The Europa League group stage draw is similar to the UEFA Champions League group stage draw.

The teams that advanced from the peripheral play-offs, the ten teams that were eliminated in the fourth round of the UEFA Champions League play-offs, plus the defending champions and other participating teams, a total of 48 teams were divided into four grades according to the European war points.

Defending champion Atletico Madrid and the other eleven teams with the highest points in the European War were placed in the first pot.

They are: Atletico Madrid, Porto, Liverpool, Sevilla, Zenit St Petersburg, PSV, Stuttgart, Alkmaar, CSKA Moscow, Sporting Lisbon, Juventus and Villarreal.

Twelve teams including Manchester City, Getafe, Paris Saint-Germain, Dynamo Kiev, Palermo, Lille, and Bayer Leverkusen were placed in the second pot, and so on, and then divided into the third pot and the fourth pot.

Like the UEFA Champions League group stage, there are a total of twelve groups in the UEFA Europa League group stage. Each group will draw a team from the fourth pot to form a group for a home and away double round-robin match. In the end, according to the group stage points, the top two will qualify.

The 24 teams drawn in the group stage, and the eight teams that were eliminated in the UEFA Champions League group stage No.3, formed the top 32 and entered the top 32 knockout rounds of the Europa League.

Finally, the Europa League final will be held in Dublin in mid-May next year.

From the perspective of the competition system, the Europa League is a bit like a small Champions League. In fact, UEFA has always been committed to making the Europa League the second-tier league of the Champions League. There was even news that the champion of the Europa League in the future is likely to get a place in the Champions League group stage.

This is undoubtedly quite attractive.

Leaving aside the long-term, Manchester City's UEFA Europa League draw, since being drawn to the second team, has inevitably encountered the fate of a strong team, and other teams are not willing to meet Manchester City.

Everyone knows that this season's Manchester City has a strong team and a super scorer like Su Dong, who would want to touch it?
In the end, the unlucky guy who met Manchester City was Juventus.

The third team is the Salzburg Red Bull of Austria, and the fourth team is Poznan Lech from Poland.

The Salzburg Red Bull is backed by the strong financial resources of the Red Bull Group, and its strength is not bad. Poznan Lech is a strong Polish team, but this summer, the number one center in the team and the winner of the Polish Golden Boot.

Judging from the results of the lottery, Manchester City's luck in the lottery is not good, but it is not bad.

The real possibility of posing a threat to Manchester City is Juventus.

……

After the Europa League draw, Manchester City did not express much opinion.

Coach Pep Guardiola said he doesn't mind what kind of opponents the team faces in the Europa League.

"Our goal is to advance, no matter who our opponent is, this goal will not change!"

The implication is that no matter who the opponent is, Manchester City will win the battle.

This is undoubtedly considered to be a solidarity with Su Dong's letter of gauntlet yesterday at the Grimaldi Conference Center.

Su Dong threatened to bring Manchester City into the Champions League and bring it to the top of the Champions League, which aroused heated discussions all over the world.

Many people felt that what he said was a bit too arrogant.

"If money can buy the Champions League, what do the rich need to do?"

This is the biggest doubt about Su Dong.

It is a joke to think that Su Dong has been playing for the rich teams in the past few years, and he has taken advantage of the rich teams.

But Manchester City welcomes Su Dong's remarks very much, because they are all eager to participate in the Champions League, or even win the Champions League.

This will definitely be the highest pursuit in countless people's careers!

After all, not everyone is like Su Dong, who won awards and got soft hands.

The club's technical director Begiristan also said in an interview with the media that he agrees with Su Dong's statement and firmly believes that the team will succeed because Manchester City is already a team full of combat effectiveness.

However, both Begiristan and Guardiola revealed that Manchester City will not think about long-term things prematurely, but will focus on the present and work hard to play every next game. I believe the team will definitely gain something in the end.

For the weekend away game against the Black Cats Sunderland, both expressed their confidence, but at the same time reminded the team that the Black Cats Sunderland is a very competitive team, especially in their Stadium of Light.

As we all know, football is a sport with a huge home field advantage.

In the Premier League, the difference between home and away is also obvious, so some very interesting teams will emerge.

Like Sunderland and Birmingham for example.

Judging from the standings, these two teams are ranked in the middle, or even the middle and lower reaches.

But they all have one thing in common, the home results are quite good, and the away results are quite bad.

From the perspective of scoring rate, last season, Sunderland only lost three games at home, which can be described as very good.

Birmingham were even better, they only lost two games.

You know, both Manchester United and Arsenal lost two games at home, and Tottenham Hotspur, ranked fourth, also lost three games.

But on the road, Sunderland lost [-] away games, while Birmingham also lost [-] away games.

It is in this case that the difference between home and away is very different, Sunderland and Birmingham rank in the middle and lower reaches of the league.

Last season, among the powerful teams that fell at the Sunderland Stadium of Light, including Liverpool, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur, Tottenham still lost [-]-[-] away.

Manchester United was lucky to win [-]-[-], but it was also very dangerous.

Manchester City was one to one and failed to take advantage of the Stadium of Light.

Birmingham is even more interesting. At home, he has tied with Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City, all of which are top-ranked teams.

According to the available data, in the four major leagues, the probability of being unbeaten at home is about [-]%. Strong teams will have an advantage in this regard. For example, Mourinho has maintained an unbeaten record at home for a long time, but overall, the difference is not big.

But like Sunderland, the unbeaten probability at home has been raised to 80.00%, which is more than ten percentage points higher than the average score. Birmingham has reached nearly [-]% unbeaten probability, which is already the level of top giants.

Home field advantage is a very complex system, from the venue to the atmosphere, to the referee's scale, to factors such as waiting for work at leisure, and even the psychology and fighting spirit of the players are also very important factors.

All of this comes together in what is known as home field advantage.

Black Cat Sunderland is undoubtedly the team that is best at playing home games among the many Premier League teams.

Maybe it has something to do with their coach being Steve Bruce.

He is the meritorious captain of Manchester United and a direct disciple of Ferguson.

…………

…………

On the afternoon of August 29th, in the third round of the Premier League, Manchester City was a guest at the Stadium of Light to challenge Sunderland.

As soon as the game opened, Steve Bruce's team took the lead, adopting the iconic Premier League team's impact style of play, launching a fierce attack on Manchester City, taking long shots at every opportunity.

Even frequent anti-aircraft guns can't stop Sunderland's "romantic".

What's more interesting is that every shot can further stimulate the passion of the fans on the scene, making them shout louder and more energetically, and the passion of the fans also drives the players on the field.

There is no doubt that from a technical and tactical point of view, Sunderland's level is really rough and very British.

But judging from the actual combat effect on the court, it just happens to be effective.

As soon as he came up, he held down Manchester City, punched and punched non-stop.

In contrast, Manchester City's football is more refined, with higher technical and tactical content, but there is no way, Sunderland is like an unreasonable barbarian, who doesn't care about you at all.

In the case of sufficient physical fitness, they can really break through Manchester City's passing and possession system frequently, and frequently create shooting opportunities.

Of course, almost all shots are long shots.

But they don't care.

Su Dong can feel the momentum of Sunderland on the court, but he can also feel the rough skills and tactics of the Black Cats.

Does that mean that Manchester City's skills and tactics must be good, and Sunderland's style of play must be bad?
Su Dong thinks not.

If the two sides do not consider physical fitness, it is entirely possible for Sunderland to suppress Manchester City and even defeat Manchester City.

But it is a pity that players are human, as long as they are human, there will be physical limits, and they need to rest and take a breath.

The difference is nothing but time.

Sunderland's respite came after 15 minutes.

It was a chance for a corner kick.

Sunderland pressed into Manchester City's 30-meter area across the board, trying to push for a goal first.

As a result, Kompany cleared the ball and pushed it out of the penalty area. After the center back Bramble stopped the ball, he wanted to pick the ball into the penalty area.

Unexpectedly, Su Dong suddenly made a diagonal stab, and when Bramble kicked a pass, he rushed over and blocked the kick with his burly body.

The ball hit Su Dong's arm, and Bramble immediately raised his hand to signal Su Dong to handball.

But because Su Dong's left hand was close to his body and did not open, the referee did not think it was a handball.

After blocking the ball with his body, Su Dong didn't give his opponent any time to react. He took a step ahead and moved the ball forward with his big foot.

Sunderland defender Michael Turner chased all the way and kept sticking to the inside of Sudong.

But Su Dongyi was bold and didn't pass the ball in a hurry, but continued to rush forward with the ball while observing the situation next to him.

Di Maria and Sanchez were also very fast. One was on the left and the other was in the middle, and they both caught up in time.

Manchester City quickly formed a three-on-two frontcourt.

Su Dong sprinted with the ball in his hand and rushed directly into the penalty area with the ball. He made a sudden stop on the right side and dunked the ball back.

Michael Turner chased after him all the way, couldn't stop his momentum, and rushed directly to the head.

But this time, Su Dong didn't kick himself. Instead, after kicking the ball back, he feigned a shot with his left foot, as if he was going to pass it to Sanchez, but in fact he passed the ball low to the left of the goal.

With no defense, Di Maria sent the ball into the empty goal with his left foot in front of the left post.

(End of this chapter)