Chapter 180: UEFA's Conspiracy!
On the evening of August 29, at 17:45, Monaco's Monte Carlo was ablaze with lights.
Countless stars and famous coaches gathered to attend the annual Champions League group stage draw ceremony.
The venue was lined with a red carpet, with numerous reporters on either side. Cameras and microphones were pointed at the stars and coaches from major clubs as they stepped out of luxury cars.
The main stars of the Spanish superpowers, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, were still the most sought-after by reporters.
Welsh player Gareth Bale, who made a world-record transfer in the summer, also attracted a lot of media attention due to his high-profile move and huge transfer fee.
Some keen-eyed reporters noticed that Ronaldo and Bale didn't arrive together. Although they belonged to the same club, they didn't interact at all while walking the red carpet.
It seemed the rumors were true; Bale's transfer fee might have really broken the Portuguese player's record, making Ronaldo quite unhappy.
The other half of the legendary duo, Messi, appeared with a serious expression.
Barcelona's performance in recent years hadn't been great, with the team being knocked out in the semi-finals twice in a row.
Last season, they were even humiliated by Bayern Munich with a 7-0 aggregate defeat!
This left Barcelona eager for revenge.
This season, they quickly bought Neymar, and the team was ready to make a big push.
However, due to Tito Vilanova's recurrence of cancer, he couldn't continue coaching, and Barcelona went through a coaching change in the summer.
With Guardiola and Enrique both leaving, Barcelona had no suitable candidates.
In the end, Rosell chose the compliant Martino to be the head coach of Barcelona.
Martino's capabilities were average, and the outside world didn't have high hopes for him.
Everyone knew he was just a transitional coach; otherwise, Barcelona wouldn't have given him only a two-year short contract.
With multiple factors combined, the Champions League hadn't even started this season, and there were already voices doubting Barcelona.
As the core and star player of Barcelona, most of the external pressure fell on Messi's shoulders, leaving him unable to smile.
"Messi is under a lot of pressure!"
When Lin arrived at the scene, he happened to see Messi's back as he entered.
Pellegrini, who had coached in La Liga last season, sighed.
Lin nodded. As the core of the team, they naturally bore more responsibility than other players.
When the Manchester City group arrived, the reporters quickly swarmed around, their cameras all pointed at Lin.
At last year's Ballon d'Or ceremony, he was just a little-known minor character.
But this year, as his fame and skills increased, his status in European football had risen significantly.
More and more people saw Lin as the third best player after Messi and Ronaldo.
Moreover, if he performed even better in major competitions like the World Cup or Champions League, it wouldn't be impossible for him to stand alongside Messi and Ronaldo in the future.
For such a superstar, the reporters naturally didn't dare to slack off.
With the experience from last year, Lin was no longer unfamiliar with such scenes.
He smiled and waved to the reporters and fans, fulfilled some autograph and photo requests, and then calmly walked into the venue.
Inside the venue, Lin saw several familiar faces.
"Hey, over here!"
Dortmund player Reus saw Lin enter and immediately waved at him.
Lin looked around. These seats weren't marked with names, meaning players could choose their own seats.
Given his status, his seat should be near the front, if not in the first row, then the second row.
But Reus' seat was in the fifth row, quite far back.
Sitting back there, they wouldn't get much camera exposure.
However, Lin didn't care about such things. He didn't bother with ranking or seniority and directly sat next to Isco.
"Did you come alone?"
Lin looked around and didn't see Reus' teammates, so he asked curiously.
"Lewandowski is injured, so I came in his place!"
Reus explained and then asked, "How's the Premier League? Enjoying it?"
Reus looked Lin up and down, as if checking if he was missing any limbs.
"It's okay. The defenders there are too enthusiastic. I often have close interactions with them."
"Haha, the kind where bodies go flying?"
Reus laughed gleefully. He hadn't played in the Premier League but had heard about its playing style.
"Why don't you try it yourself?"
Reus raised his hands in surrender:
"No thanks, spare me. With my glass body, going to the Premier League would be seeking death."
At least he had self-awareness. If he did go to the Premier League, given the intensity of the defenders' fouls, Reus' injury frequency would likely increase significantly.
"Are you still getting injured this season? Can't you talk to your coach about reducing your playing time? With his tactics, unless you guys are Super Saiyans, you won't be able to keep up!"
"Ahem!"
Just as Lin finished speaking, a middle-aged man coughed beside him.
Turning his head, Lin saw Dortmund coach Klopp sitting next to him.
Lin glared at Reus. This guy must have seen Klopp but didn't tell him.
Reus looked pleased with himself, his plan having succeeded.
"Lin, do you have a problem with me?"
Klopp asked curiously.
"No, no, I have great admiration for you and your team's achievements."
"Really? But I clearly heard you criticizing my tactics. Right, Marco?"
Reus nodded repeatedly: "Yes, I can testify. He was badmouthing you!"
Reus decisively sold Lin out!
Lin's face darkened. Reus was too despicable, trying to stir up trouble!
He would have to deal with him later!
"Ahem, that's not what I meant. Coach, let me explain!"
Lin didn't want to have a conflict with Klopp. They had no previous interactions, so there was no need to offend him.
"Hmm, I'm listening."
Klopp looked like he was interested to see what Lin had to say.
"High pressing is the future of football. Its emergence will replace many current defensive tactics."
Klopp's eyes lit up, feeling a sense of camaraderie.
He hadn't expected such a young player to have such a deep understanding of modern football.
He started to anticipate more and said, "Go on."
"Just like Spain's possession football, high pressing evolved from the Dutch total football.
Our goal with high pressing is to limit the opponent's time on the ball.
Forcing them to make quick decisions increases their error rate, giving us the opportunity to win the ball back in their half and launch attacks.
The closer we are to their goal, the easier it is to attack.
I've watched Dortmund's matches. Many goals are scored from winning the ball back high up the pitch."
Klopp nodded repeatedly, a satisfied smile on his face. Lin had indeed seen through his tactics.
Dortmund's aggressive pressing was designed to force mistakes from the opponent, launching immediate attacks.
Organizing attacks from their own half required breaking through three defensive lines.
But by forcing mistakes and winning the ball back in the opponent's half or near their penalty area, they only had to face one defensive line. The rapid transition from defense to attack made it hard for the opponent to react, greatly increasing their chances of success.
"But this places high demands on the players. They need to have good technique, stamina, explosiveness, and strong execution.
If the team is full of workhorses, they might win the ball back but struggle to organize attacks.
Without speed and explosiveness, even one defensive line can be hard to break down.
If the players lack stamina or tactical discipline, they can't execute high pressing effectively.
Reus is a perfect fit for these requirements. So, in your tactics, Reus' role might be even more important than Lewandowski's.
This also leads to Reus having high playing time, but he's injury-prone. The higher the playing time, the worse the injuries, leading to a potentially disastrous outcome."
Reus protested at being called injury-prone, but the two ignored him.
Klopp thought seriously about Lin's words.
This season, Götze's departure was a huge blow to Dortmund, increasing the attacking pressure on Lewandowski and Reus.
Both already had heavy responsibilities, and increasing their load wouldn't be good for them.
Since joining the team, Reus had been plagued by frequent injuries, showing signs of being injury-prone.
Continuing with such high loads might indeed ruin the team due to injuries.
Thinking about this, Klopp nodded: "I'll seriously consider your suggestion. Thank you, Lin!"
This sincere gratitude was because no one had ever offered such an objective perspective before.
Lin was the first!
"Don't mention it. I'm just all talk. You're the one who has to find the real solutions!"
Lin wasn't being humble; he was truly just a talker.
If he were to come up with a solution to Dortmund's current issues, he wouldn't be able to do it.
Guardiola, arriving late, finally entered the venue.
After coming in, he quickly scanned the room and found Lin sitting towards the back.
Why is he sitting there?
He was about to go greet Lin when he saw Lin chatting happily with Klopp.
This made Guardiola hesitate, and after some thought, he chose not to interrupt and sat in another row with mixed feelings.
...
After chatting with Klopp, the draw ceremony began.
The hosts for the draw were CNN sports host Pedro Pinto and 1996 Miss Switzerland winner Melanie.
Before the draw officially started, the hosts announced the nominees for last season's Best Player in Europe award.
As the Bundesliga top scorer, Lin made it to the final shortlist.
However, it was clear he was just there to make up the numbers. The award would likely go to Bayern's Champions League heroes Robben or Rib
ery.
Sure enough, the winner was scarface Ribery.
Among him and Robben, the panel chose Ribery.
Although Robben redeemed himself in the final with a crucial goal, professionals viewed Ribery as more important to the team.
After the Best Player in Europe award ceremony, the main event, the group stage draw, began.
According to Champions League draw rules, the 32 teams in the group stage are divided into four pots.
The eight highest-ranked teams are in Pot 1 as seeded teams, drawn first.
Then, one team each from Pot 2, Pot 3, and Pot 4 are drawn into each group.
According to the principle of country protection, teams from the same country cannot be drawn into the same group. If drawn, they automatically move to the next group.
The eight seeded teams were quickly drawn:
Manchester United in Group A, Real Madrid in Group B, Benfica in Group C, defending champions Bayern in Group D, Chelsea in Group E, Arsenal in Group F, Barcelona in Group H, and Porto in Group G.
Among the eight seeded teams, La Liga had two, the Premier League had three, the Bundesliga had one, and the Portuguese league had two.
Serie A and Ligue 1 had no seeded teams due to poor Champions League performances.
Surprisingly, Portugal's league had two seeded teams, earning some respect.
Among these seeded teams, the strongest were obviously Bayern, Barcelona, and Real Madrid.
Especially defending champions Bayern, no one wanted to be in their group.
After drawing the first pot, Dutch legend Johan Cruyff took the stage to draw the second pot.
Drawn into Group A was Shakhtar Donetsk, Group B was Juventus, Group C was Paris Saint-Germain, Group D was CSKA Moscow, Group E was Werder Bremen, Group F was Marseille, Group H was AC Milan, and Group G was Atletico Madrid.
Among these, Lin was surprised that Werder Bremen was in the second pot.
Their European points were actually higher than Manchester City's, making Lin curious:
How bad was Manchester City's previous Champions League performance?
After the first two rounds of the draw, the groups of death had already emerged.
They were Group B and Group H, Real Madrid with Juventus, and Barcelona with AC Milan.
Any third team joining these groups would find it hard to advance.
Just as luck would have it, these two groups had no Premier League teams, so according to the country protection principle, Manchester City could only be drawn into five groups, with a 40% chance of landing in one of these groups of death!
Manchester City's staff were starting to worry. They hoped not to be drawn into these groups.
The third star to take the stage was English player Owen. He first drew Leverkusen into Group A.
Then he drew Turkish side Galatasaray into Group B.
This result made Manchester City breathe a sigh of relief. One group of death was off the table, reducing the probability by half.
Galatasaray didn't fear this outcome. What were Real Madrid and Juventus to them? Their Turkish home fortress was invincible.
However, the coaches of Real Madrid and Juventus looked worried.
The Turkish team wasn't strong, but their home games were tough. The fans were extremely passionate. They would rather play in the icy Eastern Europe than face the unpredictability of Turkish stadiums.
The draw continued. Greek league's Olympiacos was drawn into Group C.
Next, Owen drew another team, and with a smile, he announced:
"Manchester City!"
The host quickly placed Manchester City's ball into Group D, where the teams were Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, and Manchester City.
The camera focused on Bayern's coach Guardiola but didn't show Manchester City's coach Pellegrini. Instead, it zoomed in on Lin.
Lin had always heard that the Champions League draw was rigged. He had been skeptical before.
But now, he believed it!
The UEFA deliberately set up this father-son duel between Guardiola and Lin. He wouldn't believe otherwise even if you paid him!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone