The Legendary Chairman Novel - Chapter 565
565 Champions League Final 16 Draw
The game ended with Leeds United beating Porto 2-0.
After this round of matches, all the group matches will be over, and this season’s Champions League group matches will also be over.
The current ranking of Group G is like this. Leeds United are 5-1 with 15 points, ranking first in the group. Second in the group was Porto, who were 3-1, 2-10. Ranked third in the group was CSKA Moscow, who were two wins, one draw, three losses and still had seven points, while Hamburg, at the bottom of the group, had one win, five losses and three points.
Yes, in the final round, Hamburg showed what they deserved, winning 3-2 against CSKA Moscow, finally saving them some face.
In this group, the teams that qualified were Leeds United and Porto.
The matches in the other groups had also ended. Now, all the teams that had advanced to the last 16 had been born. In the end, the situation in each group was like this.
Chelsea came in first in Group A with 13 points and four wins, one draw and one loss. Ranked second was defending champion Barcelona, who were three wins, two draws and one loss with 11 points. Ranked third was Werder Bremen, who were 3-1, 2-10. At the bottom of the list was Sofia Levsky, who had lost zero points in all six matches.
Chelsea and Barcelona qualify for the group.
Ranked first in Group B is Bayern Munich, who are three wins, three draws and 12 points. Internazionale came in second, with three wins and one draw and two losses of 10 points. Ranked third was Moscow’s Sparta, who were 1-2, 3-5. Ranked fourth, Sporting Lisbon was also one win, two draws and three losses, with five points, because the winner was ranked last.
Bayern Munich and Inter Milan qualify for the group.
Ranked first in Group C was Liverpool, who drew 1-1 and scored 13 points. Ranked second was PSV Eindhoven, who were three wins, one draw and two losses with 10 points. Ranked third was Bordeaux, who were 2-1, 3-7. At the bottom of the table was Galatasaray, who won one game, drew four, and scored four points.
Liverpool and PSV Eindhoven qualify for the group.
Ranked first in Group D was Valencia, who were four wins, one draw and one loss, with 13 points. Roma came in second with three wins and one draw and two losses and 10 points. The Donetsk miners were ranked third, with one win, three draws, two losses and six points. At the bottom of the list was Olympia Coase, who scored three points, three draws and three negative points.
Valencia and Roma qualify for the group.
Group E was led by Lyon, who were four wins and two draws with 14 points. Ranked second was Real Madrid, three wins, two draws and one loss, with 11 points. Ranked third was Planet Bucharest. They were one win, two draws, three losses and five points. At the bottom was Dinamo Kiev. They were two bottles, four losses and two points.
Lyon and Real Madrid qualify for the group.
Manchester United came in first in Group F with 12 points from four wins and two losses, followed by the Celtics with nine points from three wins and three losses. Ranked third is Benfica, they are two wins, one draw and three losses, seven points. Copenhagen was ranked last. They were also two wins, one draw and three losses, with seven points, because the outcome was the last.
United and the Celtics qualify for the group.
Ranked first in Group H was AC Milan, who were 3-1, 2-10, followed by Lille, who were 2-3, 1-1, with 9 points. Ranked third was AEK of Athens. They were two wins, two draws, and two losses, with eight points. At the very bottom was Anderlecht, with four points, two draws, and four losses.
AC Milan and Lille qualify for the group.
At this point, the 2006-2007 Champions League group stage was complete, and 16 goals were scored by Chelsea, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Liverpool, Eindhoven, Valencia, Rome, Lyon, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Celtic, Leeds United, Porto, AC Milan and Lille.
Of the 16 teams, four are from the Premier League, three from La Liga, three from Serie A, two from Ligue 1, one from the Bundesliga, one from the Premier League, one from the Dutch League and one from the Portuguese Premier League.
It was clear that all the Premier League teams had entered the knockout stages of the last 16, showing a very strong competitive edge. Of course, it was hard to see how powerful a league could be when it came to the top eight and four.
Next up is the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League for the 2006-2007 season, after which the Champions League begins its one-on-one knockout round, with two home and away legs.
The draw for the Champions League is based on this rule, which is in principle the first of the group against the second of the group. However, there were still two small details inside. The first was that the first and second group members of the same group were avoided and would not be selected. The second is that the same football association under the team is avoided, will not be picked.
In other words, in the final 16 eliminations will not encounter through the league teams clash.
In other words, Leeds United won’t be able to touch Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool in the last 16 knockout stages, and they won’t be able to touch Porto, so there won’t be many teams left.
First, the 2006-2007 Champions League group results were like this, with Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Valencia, Lyon, Manchester United, Leeds United and AC Milan ranked first.
Ranked second were Barcelona, Inter Milan, PSV Eindhoven, Roma, Real Madrid, Celtic, Porto and Lille.
There are still many strong teams in the second place of the group. Look at defending champions Barcelona, Inter Milan, Rome, Real Madrid and so on. How many strong teams are they? These are all the top teams in the group.
Moreover, the Premier League teams are all first in the group, so Leeds United will not enjoy the principle of avoiding teams owned by the Football Association because there are no Premier League teams in the second group. After arriving at Leeds United, all they had to do was avoid Porto.
In other words, the second of the remaining seven groups could be picked by Leeds United.
This is Barcelona, Inter Milan, Roma and Real Madrid, the odds are high, Leeds United fans are very worried.
At this time, Leeds United fans were praying that Leeds United would not hit any of the four teams, or else Leeds United would bid farewell to the European Champions this season and scratch their cheeks.
If Leeds United chose to lose to Porto in the final round, they would face a challenge to the top team in the group. Under two evasion rules, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Porto will be eliminated and Leeds United will pick one of the remaining four teams in Group 1-Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lyon and AC Milan.
To be honest, this looks much better than being ranked first in the group.
Therefore, many Leeds United fans still hoped that Leeds United would be second in the group, so that they could avoid Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Roma.
However, Zhong Cheng still chose to beat Porto head-on, winning this match and winning first place in the group. He went to head-on beat Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Thinking about it now, Zhong Cheng was really stupid, too stupid.
Zhong led his personal assistant Julia Oliveira and Brandán Rogers to Nyon, Switzerland, the headquarters of UEFA, to participate in the draw for this season’s Champions League knockout round.
This time, the head coach of the top 16 teams was all present at the drawing of lots ceremony.
The coaches were all seated in a very different position, but the Premier League coaches were not seated together. Instead, they were separated by a wide distance. One could tell that the relationship between these coaches was not very good, otherwise, they would not be so far away?
Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson came to sit with Zhong Cheng in the last group draw. The two of them were talking and laughing, but now the two of them were strangers. The relationship had changed very quickly.
Sitting beside Zhong Cheng was Eindhoven’s head coach Ronald Koeman.
The two of them had met once, and they had fought in a warm-up match. The two of them nodded and questioned each other. They chatted very casually. They weren’t very close, but they seemed to be closer to each other than they were to Alex Ferguson.
Following which, the drawing of lots for this season’s Champions League knockout round will officially begin.
At this time, the Champions League knockout rounds of the last 16 had not been divided, and at this time, there were only eight A-H matchups.
The first team to be pulled out was Liverpool. They were in the F2 position. The first team in the group was in the 2 position, and the second team in the group was in the 1 position, because the second team in the group was in the order of first host and last guest.
The next team to be drawn is Chelsea, whose position is A2. The first draw was just a preface to the first team in the group, from A to H, Chelsea, AC Milan, Leeds United, Manchester United, Lyon, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Valencia.
These were all trivial things, but the real big meaning came next, and the match was about to begin.
The first team to be drawn out was PSV Eindhoven from Liga. All the teams in the first group, except Liverpool, who were in the same group as PSV Eindhoven, immediately became serious because there were no teams under the Football Association and there was no need to avoid them.
Zhong Cheng first glanced at Ronald Koeman, who was standing beside him. When he looked over, Ronald Koeman happened to look over. The two of them looked at each other with a deep meaning in their eyes.
At this moment, Eindhoven’s position was also taken out of the C1. Zhong Cheng and Ronald Koeman looked at each other and smiled bitterly. They really didn’t expect this result to be like this. Because Leeds United are in C2.
In other words, the draw for Leeds United has come to an end. Their opponent is PSV Eindhoven from the La Liga.
After that, Zhong Cheng paid no attention to the drawing of lots ceremony. In the end, he passed the drawing of lots ceremony with a relaxed expression. The final result of the match was as follows:
Porto against Chelsea, Celtic against AC Milan, Eindhoven against Leeds United, Lille against Manchester United, Roma against Lyon, Barcelona against Liverpool, Real Madrid against Bayern Munich and Inter against Valencia.
This is the table for the 2006-07 Champions League final 16 knockout rounds.