After winning the Club World Cup in Japan, when Chelsea returned to London in triumph, they were welcomed by fans.

From now on, Chelsea fans can say they are world champions!

When captain Terry appeared holding the Club World Cup trophy, the fans outside Stamford Bridge cheered crazily.

Of course, this is just a spontaneous gathering of fans to welcome the trophy, an unofficial act.

After all, it is impossible to arrange a special celebration for a Club World Cup. This is not enough.

However, since the next Premier League game happened to be at home, Chelsea Club prepared a Club World Cup display event at Stamford Bridge on December 23.

Captain Terry led the players, holding the Club World Cup, and paraded around Stamford Bridge, receiving cheers from all the Chelsea fans.

Sky TV also broadcast live the entire Chelsea Champions Trophy walk-around ceremony to congratulate Chelsea on winning the Club World Cup.

Then, it’s the 17th round of the Premier League, Chelsea’s home game against Sunderland.

Facing the Black Cat Sunderland, who are fighting for relegation this season, Chelsea did not consume too much in the Club World Cup, and it was not too difficult to win the game.

With the goals of Lingard, Moses and Terry, Chelsea defeated the opponent 3:0.

This is also the last game before Christmas.

After this game, Chelsea fans can celebrate Christmas with the joy of winning the Club World Cup and a happy victory!

However, for Chelsea players, this Christmas holiday is still quite short.

Christmas Eve on December 24th, Christmas Day on December 25th, and then December 26th, the 18th round of the Premier League against Watford.

Thus begins the Devil's Christmas game.

But fortunately, this game against Watford is still at home.

In this way, Chelsea no longer need to travel between cities after returning from Japan, but can always stay in London waiting for opponents to challenge, and avoid more travel fatigue.

Of course, just like last year, there are still many issues that need to be paid attention to during the Christmas period.

Who still thinks about working overtime during the Chinese New Year?

However, with past experience, Pan Yi and the coaching staff also did a good job with the players, allowing the players to maintain a good mental state and competitive state to welcome the Christmas schedule.

Moreover, at Stamford Bridge, with Watford's strength, it is still difficult to pose any threat to Chelsea.

In the end, Chelsea relied on Lukaku's brace to defeat Watford 2:0 at home.

Although it's not a big score, in a game like this, getting all three points is the most important thing.

Just look at the performance of several other strong teams.

Manchester United was defeated 2:0 by Stoke City in the away game!

Stoke City, which is no longer the "Sky City", relied on the goals of Bojan and Arnautovic to let Manchester United taste the bitter fruit of defeat.

The even bigger upset occurred in Southampton's home game against Arsenal.

The Gunners were defeated by four goals!

Ward Prowse provided multiple assists, Sean Long scored a hat trick, and center back Fonte also scored a header.

In another strong dialogue, Liverpool defeated Leicester City 1:0 at home, giving the latter their second defeat this season.

After 18 rounds, Chelsea has 15 wins and 3 draws, and still tops the list with 48 points.

Due to the loss, Leicester City could only be ranked second with 38 points, ten points behind.

Next are Arsenal with 36 points, Manchester City with 35 points, Tottenham with 32 points, Crystal Palace with 30 points, and Manchester United with 29 points.

It is worth noting that Crystal Palace performed very well in the first half of this season and has actually squeezed into the top six.

December 27, noon.

In the trapezoidal conference hall of the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, preparations are being made for the draw ceremony for the Champions League top 16.

Although the central air conditioner was turned on, everyone who walked into the conference hall still felt the deep chill, especially the representatives of the top league's wealthy teams.

From the face of everyone who walks into the conference hall, you can read the solemnity in their hearts.

For those teams that have a chance to win the championship, whether they can draw a good lottery means that they can advance more smoothly, and it can also reduce the impact of the Champions League on the domestic competition to a certain extent.

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And even for those weaker teams, they also want to squeeze one step forward as much as possible. After all, every promotion means at least tens of millions of euros in bonuses, as well as a lot of broadcast fees and ticket revenue.

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Therefore, no one will be careless about such a draw!

After the representatives of the sixteen teams entered the stadium, they found their seats in the club according to the paper cards on the table. They all looked anxiously at the rows of transparent glass tanks on the stage under the trapezoidal seats.

Wait a minute, the matchups for the Champions League knockout rounds will be determined in the tank.

Nasser, the chairman of Paris Saint-Germain, also came to the draw today.

He sat there with his brows furrowed and full of thoughts.

As the absolute hegemon of French Ligue 1, Paris Saint-Germain's dominance is even more stable than Chelsea's in the Premier League.

Ligue 1 has now played 16 rounds, and Paris Saint-Germain has 14 wins and 2 draws, remaining unbeaten.

Chelsea managed to draw three games after all!

Therefore, Nasser is certainly not worried about his team's performance in the league.

Paris Saint-Germain's biggest wish is, of course, to go further in the Champions League!

This is the team’s biggest vision and the biggest goal for Qatar Group to take over Paris Saint-Germain.

However, now he knows the current situation better than anyone else.

They are second in the group.

It’s not that they didn’t perform well in the group stage, but they were assigned to Real Madrid.

Although they have won all four games against the other two teams Shakhtar Donetsk and Malmo, one draw and one loss with Real Madrid was enough to be squeezed into second place.

Mainly because Real Madrid's performance was extremely stable, with 5 wins and 1 draw in the end, taking away the first place.

As a result, Paris Saint-Germain's situation is very bad.

Any opponent who can win the first place in the group is not easy to mess with.

Real Madrid are in the same group and will not be drawn together, but Chelsea, Manchester United, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, Barcelona, ​​and Bayern all feel difficult to play.

Unless they can draw Zenit St. Petersburg, the weakest team in the top spot, they will all face a tough battle.

This is obviously something that no one at Paris Saint-Germain wants to see.

On the contrary, those teams that won the first place in the group stage are obviously easier. At least they have a greater chance of winning an easier opponent.

Eindhoven, Wolfsburg, Benfica, Roma, Gent... Although there are relatively tough opponents like Juventus, Arsenal, and Paris Saint-Germain, they are still easier to deal with than the seeded teams.<

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The host of the draw ceremony was UEFA Secretary General, Bald Infantino.

This person who has worked at UEFA for nearly ten years and is responsible for player registration, legal and patent matters is familiar to everyone present.

His eloquence is first-rate, and it is a piece of cake for him to host such a lottery ceremony. He also introduced the performance of each team in the group stage with humor.

However, this did not ease the tense atmosphere at all.

During Infantino's introduction, a review video of the group stage was also played on the big screen, introducing each team's qualifying experience, and the most eye-catching one was undoubtedly Pan Yi's Chelsea.

This Premier League leader is the only team that has won all six games in the group stage. It is also a nightmare that all second-place teams fear to avoid. No one is willing to draw them.

Since this season's final was scheduled to be held at Milan's San Siro Meazza Stadium, the famous stars and former captains of the Milan duo, Maldini and Zanetti, also attended the draw ceremony again.

Infantino first chatted with Maldini and Zanetti.

The two spoke highly of everything Pan Yi did at Chelsea and thought Pan Yi's achievements were incredible.

Maldini said jokingly: "They are the best team in the group stage and the favorite to win the championship. I hope that the team I am drawn to play against will not throw tomatoes at them."

There was a burst of laughter in the venue.

But after those team representatives finished laughing, their expressions quickly returned to their original nervousness.

Everyone knows that if Chelsea is really drawn, there is a high chance that it will be one word: "Send".

For a team that ranks second in the group like Paris Saint-Germain, the first-place team they want to draw is undoubtedly Zenit St. Petersburg from Russia.

Because this is the weakest one among the first place players in the group, and it is also the one that gives many second places in the group the most hope of a successful counterattack.

On the other hand, if the top players in the group were asked to choose, most of them would hope to draw Gent from Belgium.

This is obviously the team with the weakest overall strength among the top 16 teams.

A large part of the reason why Zenit St. Petersburg and Gent were able to qualify was that they were placed in the same group, and they were fortunate enough to be placed in a less strong group.

Of course, their performance was also quite impressive, and in the end they edged out Dynamo Kyiv and Valencia and qualified.

By the way, it was Valencia's poor performance in the Champions League that led former head coach Nuno to announce his resignation, and then gave Gary Neville the opportunity to take over the Bat Corps...

After a while of greetings, the lottery ceremony soon began.
To be continued...