The Young Lion

2:0

Millwall defeated last season's UEFA Cup champion Galatasaray in the UEFA Super Cup and won the tasteless champion without bloodshed. Then, the draw for the UEFA Champions League group stage, which attracted the attention of all Europe, began.

millwall

sporting lisbon

Hamburger

moscow sparta

This is the result of the draw for the first group stage of the Champions League in Millwall's new season.

There is no doubt that this is a wonderful signing.

Is there any suspense about Millwall qualifying?

No.

But just because there is no, it has triggered the criticism of the Champions League by the mainstream European media.

The expansion of the Champions League last season, the voice of the outside world is not strong, most people hold the mentality of watching the fun and looking forward to the birth of a dark horse.

But this season, everyone looked at the results of the first-stage group draw again, which made everyone less interested in predicting the Champions League round of 16.

The disparity between the strengths and weaknesses of each group is too obvious, and only Milan, Barcelona, ​​Leeds United, and Bisedas, the four teams in one group have a little taste of the death group.

But in this death group, the three participating teams from England, Italy and Spain did not have a league champion.

The suspense in the Champions League group stage plummeted, and the consequences were also very intuitive: the ratings dropped.

Even if it is the death group of Milan, maybe Leeds United will play against Bisedas, it is estimated that no one will be interested in watching the game at the same time except for the fans of the two teams.

Millwall is also depressed. From the perspective of club commercial value development, they actually hope that there will be one or two challenging opponents in the group. Their games can attract more fans to watch.

From UEFA's standpoint. After the expansion of the army, it will bring benefits to other small clubs. This is a bit of what was preached during the development of socialism: those who get rich first drive others to get rich too.

Millwall's strength in this group is obviously at least one level higher than the other three opponents, so the match between them, Millwall is the focus of attention, incidentally, it can also bring influence and attention to the opponent,

Millwall is practically the face of this group.

In other words, UEFA's military expansion is sacrificing the attractiveness of the group stage to win over the support of non-mainstream powers.

group matches. The rich and powerful teams take you to play, you earn some money, show your face, you are not strong enough to qualify, and you have the motivation to come back next year.

Then at the top 16, the giants game really kicked off.

But if there are really giants who fall in the group stage before the top 16, it is indeed an upset, but the essence of the decline in the attractiveness of the game will not change.

In the past, people were reluctant to miss any of the Champions League matches, and there were many strong players in the group stage. If you miss a game, you may miss a classic.

can now. Not to mention missing one group match, I guess not to watch all the group matches, the regret will not be too big, because the good show must be in the back, no matter how exciting the previous game is, the suspense of the main premise of qualifying does not fluctuate too much.

Driven by the interests of UEFA, G14 and other organizations, the Champions League, which was originally intended to be a competitive competition between the top teams at the beginning of its establishment, has gradually changed its taste.

Aldridge was worried, but it was useless. UEFA's military expansion was forced by the situation. When Platini came to power in the future, the Champions League would become a stage for poverty alleviation and charity.

Thinking about it from a positive perspective, the pressure on a strong team is not so great, and when the conditions are relaxed, you can train and train troops, which can give young people more opportunities.

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

When a reporter interviewed Aldridge and asked about his views on the Champions League draw, he looked helplessly at the reporter at the press conference before the Premier League match, and was speechless for a long time.

What else is there to say?

There is no other way, to say that the opponents in the group are very strong, and Millwall cannot take it lightly, and must go all out to qualify.

In the fourth round of the Premier League, Millwall challenged the black cat Sunderland as a guest, and the result was 0:0.

The defending champion suffered a draw for two consecutive rounds, Aldridge's mood became bad, and Materazzi was injured again.

It is normal for players to be injured. Bad luck and large-scale injuries cannot be called accidents, but it is a severe test for Millwall.

The league is temporarily suspended, and the match day is approaching. The European qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup are full of smoke, and the hard days for England fans are coming again.

For the fans of the England national team, there are only a few weeks of pain or fun throughout the year. After all, the league and European games are still the mainstream. Few fans simply support the national team without the support of the club.

Even if there are such fans who simply support the national team and have no club position, it is impossible for them to focus on the England national team all year round. After all, the national team gathers for training and becomes the focus, and only the fixed match day , At other times, Fleet Street also regards the national team as nothing, otherwise? Who will pay for the hype topic?

The England national team performed well, so everyone can brag about it, and if they don't perform well, they can only vent in torture and pain.

Millwall's team became fragmented on the match day, and the national team was raised, and the injured were recuperated. Even young players were called away by the low-level national team.

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

He discovered an interesting phenomenon.

The eldest son Bert likes football very much, and now he has to hold the football even to sleep.

The youngest son, Earl, is the complete opposite, and has no interest in the toy of football.

However, when Aldridge sat on the sofa watching England's game as a guest against Finland, there was an extra audience around him.

Earl sat next to him in style, watching the football game on the big TV screen intently, while his brother Bert played football on the carpet.

Aldridge dangled another football in front of Earl at this time, trying to see his interest, but Earl turned a blind eye. Instead, he got angry at Aldridge!

Ok. Small children use yelling or waving their arms. Aldrich's understanding is to get angry.

Aldridge dropped the football because it was blocking Earl's view, and Earl calmed down and continued watching TV.

Aldrich picked up the remote and changed the channel, and Earl's screams sounded again.

Aldrich smiled.

Understood.

It turns out that Earl likes watching football games, probably like a child likes watching cartoons.

Aldridge doesn't know if his one-year-old son can understand it. But he happily put Earl on his lap, and the father and son watched the England national team game together. Bert lay on his back on the carpet and fell asleep after being tired from playing on the carpet.

Uh, a game that was tortured in the eyes of Aldridge, but Earl seemed to enjoy watching it, until the end of the game, Earl saw the commercials on TV, and he repeatedly pulled Aldridge's hand, as if he wanted to The football game continued on TV, and it took Aldridge a long time to distract him.

England and Finland. draw!

If placed in a relaxed environment at ordinary times, England failed to win Finland away. If you don't win, you don't win. At best, it's just a small accident.

But in the background that the England national team was defeated in the European Cup group in the summer and did not qualify, and because this game was related to the World Cup qualifying situation, England fans were blown away!

The situation in England's group is actually quite optimistic. First of all, unlike the other half of the group which has 6 teams, this group has only 5 teams.

England, Finland, Greece, Albania, Germany!

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

At first glance, that is the situation of England and Germany competing for the first place.

And England's fate is good, and Germany, which is in the same group, is the German team that has fallen to the bottom in recent years.

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

You must know that in the two World Cups in the 1980s, the German team won two runners-up. In 1990, under the leadership of Beckenbauer, they aspired to the top of the world. In 1994 and 1998, they began to decline, ranking fifth and seventh respectively.

As for the European Cup record, runner-up in 1992, champion in 1996, in 2000, that is, this summer, I went home after playing hand in hand with England in the group stage.

This is the background that the German team is recognized as falling to the bottom. In terms of record, the European Cup and the World Cup are indeed declining all the way. In addition, Germany's own lineup replacement is not satisfactory. Only then has the public opinion of the worst German team in the past two decades Label.

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

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

Kevin Keegan was under tremendous pressure, and suddenly became the object of condemnation from the whole country.

The head coach is like this. If you do a good job, farts are delicious. If you don’t do a good job, any decision will be magnified and become a target for the outside world to attack you.

Keegan made Adams withdraw from the national team in frustration, insisted on reusing Shearer, who was over 30 years old and in poor condition, and the defense of the old saying, etc. It seems that Keegan has no advantages in his whole body!

Aldridge spent a happy few days in Liverpool, and then returned to London. He would like to continue to preside over the training of the first team, but there are really few players left.

I originally planned to go to the club to watch 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 been fighting with the first team in Europe and has a good record. While Millwall itself has become the biggest focus, the youth team has also improved its reputation, which has allowed the outside world to start digging The commercial value of youth teams.

The French TV broadcasting organization has signed a new agreement with UEFA. In the new season, the U19 European Youth League named Next Generation will be established, and teams with excellent European youth training will be invited to participate in order to obtain new benefits.

Of course Millwall was one of the invited teams. Unbeknownst to Aldridge, this event was born ten years earlier because of him as a butterfly!

Further development will become the European Youth Champions League!

He only thinks this is a good thing. Give the youth team more opportunities to go out and experience more, and play against teams with different football styles. It is not harmful to the growth of young players. How much money, this is a dream, it would be nice to be able to make up for the cost of the game to make up for the youth team's expenses.

After parking the car at Leo's training base, Aldridge was walking to the youth team when his cell phone rang, and he picked it up to answer it, and Andrew's deep and solemn voice reached his ears.

Where are you?

Leo training base. Is there something wrong?

Do you have time?

Well, yes.

In twenty minutes, I'll wait for you outside and call you when I arrive.

What's the matter? It's so mysterious.

You'll find out later.

Aldrich wandered around the training base for more than ten minutes. Andrew called again. He walked out of the training base and saw Andrew's car at the door. He went up and opened the co-pilot's door. There was someone in the back seat, who turned his head and greeted him with a smile.

Mr. Chairman Thompson, hello.

The chairman of the FA smiled and shook hands with Aldridge. Andrew drove the car and quickly disappeared into the street. (To be continued..)