Chapter 45 The defending champion of the second grade
Although Zhou Yi has entered the Griermadi Convention Center, his photos and videos on the red carpet on the Internet in China are still circulating, and everyone is discussing his first red carpet performance.
"I really can't tell that it's the first time, I'm not nervous at all. I remembered that he played in the Bundesliga for the first time, and he wasn't nervous at all... Is Zhou Yi's nickname "Not nervous"?"
"The first time I saw Zhou Yi wearing formal clothes, I used to be unable to imagine how a person as unfair as Zhou Yi was wearing formal clothes. I didn't expect to wear super handsome clothes!"
"Looking at his smile, it's so fascinating! When I saw it, I thought it was a movie star walking on the Oscar red carpet!"
...
Both male fans and fans praised Zhou Yi and were full of eyes.
The evaluation of "beautiful" has never appeared on Zhou Yi before. This time, I don't know if it was a rare formal outfit that had a bonus point effect or the halo of the top three best players in Europe...
The red carpet event of the stars is still continuing. Messi and Ribery have both appeared one after another, and there are still screaming at the scene. When Messi appears, the screams are the biggest.
Seeing this scene, the Chinese reporters at the scene couldn't help but mutter: "Messi has the greatest influence. The cheers are not on the same level as Zhou Yi just now..."
"What are you afraid of? Fortunately, this time it was a reporter's vote, not a national team head coach and captain, otherwise I wouldn't report it - Zhou Yi will definitely be a green leaf for people."
"Even if you can't get the first place, it's still historic to enter the top three... I mean FIFA's Golden Ball Award. Being able to enter the top three shows that Zhou Yi is already the top three in the world football world in terms of popularity..."
On the Internet, Chinese fans are not very concerned about the subsequent red carpet stars, and everyone is looking forward to the final award ceremony.
But no matter how much they care, they still have to wait patiently for all the programs to complete.
After the red carpet session, everyone entered the conference hall and sat there, waiting for the Champions League draw ceremony to begin.
The draw of the Champions League group stage in the new season is the focus of everyone's attention every year, and this year is no exception. In China, because of the Zhouyi, everyone is more concerned about the final award ceremony.
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Before the draw ceremony for the Champions League group stage, a short review of last season's Champions League final was played on the big screen. The short film reviewed the journey of Dortmunddo's Champions League trophy last season in the form of an art gallery. Zhou Yi has many out of the country.
The Chinese fans who watched the live broadcast were very happy - isn't this performance worthy of the best player in Europe?
The last shot of the short film is the moment when the whole Dortmund team lifts the Champions League trophy.
After the screening of the short film, McNeill, who once led the Champions League trophy with many Celtics in Scotland, walked into the draw ceremony with the trophy in his hand.
The Champions League draw ceremony then officially began.
The first guest to draw lots is Portugal's legendary star and Champions League ambassador Luis Figo. Infantino, Secretary General of UEFA, is the host of the Champions League draw. He first introduced the rules of the draw: 32 teams are divided into four levels and are divided into eight groups evenly, and teams in the same league will not meet.
At this time, Chinese fans began to temporarily shift their attention from the awards ceremony and devote themselves to the lottery ceremony. Anyway, they have to go through this process, so it is better to take a good look. They also want to know which group Dortmund will be assigned to this season. Last season, Dortmund was assigned to the Death Group, but they did not expect that they turned the Death Group into the "Death Group of Others", and broke out first, and won the Champions League championship. In this way, the Death Group seemed to have given Dortmund good luck...
Everyone thinks that as the defending champion, Dortmund will definitely be a seed team.
But the result is not the case.
According to UEFA's grading rules, they ranked 32 teams according to their European Cup points in the past five years. The top eight teams are seed teams, and the second-level teams ranked ninth to sixteenth... and so on.
So even though Dortmund won the Champions League last season, they have only participated in three seasons of European competition in the past five years, so the European competition points are not enough to hide to the top eight teams, so they missed the seed team.
The defending champion has become the second-level team, and there is a possibility of being assigned to the death group again...
This rule made Dortmund club quite dissatisfied. Before coming to Monaco, Votsk talked about this rule in an interview with the media, believing that this is an injustice to the defending champions, and this equal split will also make the level of the seed teams in the Champions League uneven, and it is inevitable that there will be some teams to make up for the numbers. As long as you participate in the Champions League steadily, you can rely on your qualifications to become a seed team.
Vatsk believes that last season's league championship and Champions League championship should be seed teams. No matter what their European points in the past, only such rules can be worthy of the title of "UEFA Champions League".
After all, it is a Champions League, not a "European Points League".
This incident has indeed caused widespread discussions among European media, but Chinese media and fans are more concerned about whether Zhou Yi can win the award, and they do not pay enough attention to this area and ignore it.
Now that Dortmund is not a seed team, many Chinese fans in front of the TV were surprised.
The TV broadcast scanned Zhou Yi and Vatsk, and Vatsk were talking about something with Zhou Yi.
No one knew what they were talking about, because both of them covered their mouths with their hands, and it was impossible to guess by interpreting their lips.
In fact, Vatsk was complaining about the division rules to Zhou Yi, but the clichés he complained to reporters.
"If we were a seed team, we had a high chance of avoiding being assigned to a death group..."
Zhou Yi comforted him: "Don't care too much, Mr. Votsk. I think it's a good thing to be assigned to the death group."
"Ah?" Vatsk didn't understand whether Zhou Yi was irritating or serious.
"Aren't we assigned to the Death Group last season? And it's also the Death Group that is claimed to be comparable to that in 1999? As a result, we won the championship. So I think the Death Group may be a sign of our good luck?" Zhou Yi smiled.
Votsk looked at Zhou Yi in surprise, feeling that this kid's thinking was indeed different from ordinary people, and bad things could be said to be good. This kind of self-confidence is beyond the reach of ordinary people, especially for a 22-year-old young man. To be honest, even he, the CEO, may not be able to achieve this level of Zhou Yi. After all, Dortmund lost Gotze and Lewandowski this season, and his strength was actually greater than people imagined. Can Mark and Aubameyang support the vacancy after Lewandowski left? Can Mkhitaryan make up for the position left by Gotze? These are hard to say...
After being interrupted by Zhou Yi, Vatsk had no time to continue to consider the seed team, and the Champions League draw had already begun.
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McNeil and Figo divided the seed team Arsenal into Group F, Chelsea into Group E, Real Madrid into Group B, Bayern Munich into Group D, Barcelona into Group H, and Benfica into Group C...
When he pulled out Benfica, Vatsk still snorted.
Obviously, he is very dissatisfied with Benfica being a seed team, while Dortmund can only be the second team. A team like Benfica can often have the opportunity to participate in the Champions League because it is a small league country like Portugal, and its points are higher than that of Dortmund, and it has become a seed team...
Another Portuguese team, Porto, was assigned to Group G, while Manchester United was assigned to Group A.
The first-class team in the Champions League draws completed.
The second draw guest is Dutch legendary star Cruyff, who and Figo are responsible for the draw of the second draw of the team.
When the second team draws lots, many Chinese fans pay special attention. Vatsk and Zorke, who are sitting in the seat, also adjusted their sitting posture, which makes them look like sitting upright.
Because Dortmund is in the second-level team.
The first one to be drawn was Marseille, who was assigned to Group B and was with Real Madrid. Then AC Milan was assigned to Group H and met Barcelona. Schalke 04 was assigned to Group E and the same group with Chelsea.
This result made Chinese fans feel a little excited - Chelsea where Sun Pan is and Schalke 04 where Yang Muge is located were assigned to a group, and you can see two Chinese derbys in the group stage alone!
Paris Saint-Germain was assigned to Group C. He Ying was bought out by Paris Saint-Germain this summer. He completely left Barcelona and became a member of Paris Saint-Germain.
In the second half of last season, He Ying performed very well after transferring to Paris Saint-Germain, which made Barcelona club regret that they actually allowed Paris Saint-Germain to set a priority buyout right in He Ying's loan contract...
At that time, they might not really be optimistic about He Ying's future in Barcelona, and it would be good to be able to exchange for some money.
As a result, He Ying's performance was so good that Barcelona regretted it again.
But this time, regret is useless. After the season, Paris Saint-Germain launched the right to buy out, hoping to leave He Ying behind.
At this time, the only thing that can stop Paris Saint-Germain is the players' own wishes. If He Ying himself is unwilling to go to Paris Saint-Germain, then the right to buy out is useless.
So the Barcelona Club sent someone to lobby He Ying and painted a wonderful picture of staying in the first team of Barcelona. But this time, He Ying didn't even hesitate at all and directly refused Barcelona's lobbying. He had made a mistake before, and he didn't want to make mistakes again.
In this way, He Ying became a member of Paris Saint-Germain. Playing in the Ligue 1, which ranks at the bottom among the five major leagues, seems to be a trough for He Ying. But He Ying himself is looking forward to the beginning of a new journey. He is full of hope for the future. He firmly believes that with his feet, even in the Ligue 1, he can play a brilliant future!
Chapter completed!