2：0

Millwall defeated last season's UEFA Cup winners Galatasaray in the UEFA Super Cup, and then the draw for the Champions League group stage began in Europe.

Millwall

Sporting Lisbon

Hamburg

Moscow Sparta

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

Without a doubt, this is a wonderful sign.

Is Millwall in suspense?

No.

But precisely because it did not, it triggered the European mainstream media to criticize the Champions League.

Last season's Champions League expansion, the voice of the outside world is not strong, and most people have the mentality of watching the excitement and watching the good show, looking forward to the birth of a dark horse.

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

The disparity in the strength of each group is too obvious, and only AC Milan, Barcelona, Leeds United, Bisidas, and the four teams in one group have a little bit of the flavor of the group of death.

But in this group of death, there are three teams from England, Italy and Spain, but none of them have a league champion.

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

Even if it is AC Milan, the group of death, Leeds United is happy to play Bisidas, it is estimated that no one except the fans of the two teams will be interested in watching the game at the same time.

Millwall were also frustrated that from the point of view of the club's commercial value development, they would actually prefer to have one or two challenging opponents in the group, so that way. Their games will attract more fans to watch.

From the standpoint of UEFA. After the expansion of the army, it will bring benefits to other small clubs. This is a bit like what was preached in the development of socialism: those who get rich first lead others to get rich as well.

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

In other words, UEFA's expansion is sacrificing the appeal of the group stage in favor of the support of non-mainstream powers.

Group stage. The giants and strong teams will play with you, you will make some money, show your face, you can't get out of the line if you don't have enough strength, and you have the motivation to come back next year.

Then in the round of 16, the giant game really kicked off.

But if there are any giants who are planted in the group stage before the round of 16, it will indeed be an underdog, but the essence 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 one, you may miss a classic.

But now. Don't say that you missed a group stage, it is estimated that if you don't watch all the group games, the regret will not be too big, because the good show must be behind, and the previous games will be exciting, but the suspense of the premise of qualifying has not fluctuated much.

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

Aldridge is worried, but it is useless, UEFA's expansion is forced by the situation, and when Platini comes to power in the future, the Champions League will simply become a charity stage for poverty alleviation.

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

There are a lot of bad things, and the fixtures are intensive, especially for the English team, which can become a burden.

When a reporter interviewed Aldridge and asked his opinion on the Champions League draw, he looked at the reporter with a helpless expression at the pre-match press conference of the Premier League and was speechless for a long time.

What else is there to say about this?

There is no way, it is high-sounding to say that the opponents in the group are very strong, Millwall cannot be taken lightly, and must go all out to qualify.

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

The defending champions suffered two draws in a row, Aldridge was in a bad mood and Materazzi was injured again.

It's normal for players to get injured, and it's not a surprise that bad luck brings together a lot of injuries, but it's a serious test for Millwall.

The league is temporarily suspended, the FIFA match day is coming, the 02 World Cup European qualifiers are full of smoke, and the days of English fans' hard work have come again.

For fans of the England national team, there are only a few weeks of the year that are painful or okay, after all, the league and European competition are still the mainstream, and there are few fans who do not support the club and simply support the national team.

Even if there are such fans who simply support the national team and have no club position, then it is impossible for them to focus on the England national team all year round. Who pays for the hype?

If the England national team performs well, everyone can brag about it, and if the performance is not good, they can only vent in the torture and pain.

Millwall's squad became fragmented during the FIFA matchday, with the national team being promoted upwards and injuries recuperated, and even the younger players were called up by the lower national teams.

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

He discovered an interesting phenomenon.

The eldest son, Bert, is very fond of football, and now he has to hold it even to sleep.

The youngest son, Earle, on the other hand, has no interest in the "toy" of football.

However, when Aldridge sat on the couch and watched England play in Finland, he was surrounded by an extra spectator.

Earl sat beside him in style, watching the big screen of the TV while his older brother Bert played football on the carpet.

Aldridge then took another soccer ball and dangled it in front of Earle's eyes, trying to see his interest level, but Earl turned a blind eye. Instead, he was angry at Aldrich!

Well. Small children shout or wave their arms. Aldrich's understanding is to be angry.

Aldridge threw the ball away because it was blocking Earl's view, and then Earl calmed down and continued watching TV.

Aldrich picked up the remote control and changed the station, and Earle's scream rang out again.

Aldrich smiled.

I see.

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

Whether his one-year-old son can understand it, Aldrich doesn't know. However, he happily put Earl on his lap, and the father and son watched the England national team play together, and Bert was tired of playing on the carpet and fell asleep on his back on the carpet.

Well, a game that was tormented in Aldrich's eyes, but Earl seemed to watch it with relish, until the end of the game, Earl saw the commercial start on the TV, and tugged Aldrich's hand repeatedly, as if he wanted the TV to continue to play the football game, and it took Aldridge a long time to divert his attention.

England and Finland. Draw!

In a relaxed environment, England failed to win away from Finland. If you don't take it, you don't take it, it's just a small accident at best.

But in the context of the defeat of the England national team in the summer and the failure to qualify for the European Cup, this game is related to the World Cup qualifying situation, and at this moment, England fans are furious!

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

England, Finland, Greece, Albania, Germany!

There is a place in the finals of the World Cup, and the second place in the group will go to the play-offs.

At first glance, this is the situation in which England and Germany are vying for first place.

And England has a good life, 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.

In the eighties, the German team won two runners-up in the World Cup, and in 90 years under the leadership of Beckenbauer, it began to decline in 94 and 98, ranking fifth and seventh respectively.

And the European Cup record, runner-up in '92, champion in '96, in 2000, that is, this summer, went home with England hand in hand after the group stage.

This is the background of the German team being recognized as falling to the bottom, from the record, the European Cup and the World Cup, it is indeed all the way down, and Germany's own lineup replacement is unsatisfactory, so it has the public opinion label of the worst German team in the past two decades.

But if you compare England with Germany, there is really no comparison, England can only say that the record is worse, and it cannot be better than the worst Germany.

Therefore, in such a group, Finland, which was listed as a gift-away, England failed to win, 8 games, every point must be fought, and 2 points were lost in the first game, which made England fans seem to have seen England finish second to play the play-offs, and even, the nightmare of failing to enter the World Cup in 94 is about to repeat!

Kevin Keegan was under tremendous pressure, and suddenly became the target of national condemnation.

The manager is like this, if you do a good job, the fart is fragrant, if you don't do a good job, any decision will be magnified and become a handle for the outside world to attack you.

Keegan let Adams withdraw from the national team in frustration, insisted on reusing Shearer, who is over 30 years old, and is in poor form, clichéd defense, etc., it seems that Keegan has no merit in his body!

Aldridge spent a happy few days at Liverpool before returning to London with a first-team squad that wanted to continue training with few players left.

I was going 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, Millwall's youth team has played well in Europe with the first team, and while Millwall itself has become the biggest focus, the youth team has also increased its reputation, which in turn has allowed the outside world to tap the commercial value of the youth team.

The French television agency has signed a new agreement with UEFA to form the Under-19 European Youth League, called "The Next Generation", for the new season, inviting the best teams from European youth to participate in the competition, in order to reap new benefits.

Millwall, of course, was one of the invited teams, and Aldridge didn't know that this tournament was born ten years ahead of schedule because of him, a butterfly!

After that, it became the "UEFA Youth Champions League"!

He only thinks that this is a good thing, giving the youth team more opportunities to get out of the rut and learn more, and playing more against teams with different football styles, which is not harmful to the growth of young players, as for how much money can the youth team make to the club from this competition, this is a fool's dream, and it would be good to make up for the cost of the game and make up for the expenses of the youth team.

After parking the car at Leo's training base, Aldridge was on his way to the youth team, but his mobile phone rang, he picked it up and answered, and Andrew's deep and solemn voice came into his ears.

"Where are you?"

"Leo Training Base. Something? ”

"Do you have time?"

"Yes, there is."

"Twenty minutes later, I'll be waiting for you outside and I'll call you when it's time to get there."

"What's the matter? So mysterious. ”

"You'll find out later."

Aldrich walked around the training base for more than ten minutes, Andrew's call came again, he walked out of the training base, at the door, saw Andrew's car, he walked up and opened the co-pilot's door, sat in and unexpectedly found someone in the back seat, turned his head to look, smiled and stretched out his hand to greet the other party.

"Hello, Mr. Thompson."

The FA president smiled and shook Aldrich's hand, and Andrew started the car and quickly disappeared into the street. (To be continued......)