Chapter 91
With the second round of the Europa League all over, the top 16 teams have all been decided.
Among them, only Everton advanced in the Premier League, Tottenham lost to Fiorentina, and Liverpool lost to Besiktas.
The intensity of the Premier League is the best in the world. Seeing that the schedule is about to enter the sprint stage in March, Liverpool and Tottenham have used rotation lineups. In addition, the opponents are not weak, so there is nothing to say about losing.
Everton easily advanced, mainly because the opponents are too weak, and their coach Martinez is a coach who likes to give up league results to gamble on cup games.
At that time, he was just the head coach of a relegation team. When coaching Wigan Athletic, he faced the dual events of relegation and the FA Cup, and chose to attack on two fronts.
Wigan Athletic unexpectedly defeated Manchester City and won the FA Cup when it was already relegated. Martinez succeeded Moyes in the second season and became the head coach of Everton, taking a big step forward in his career.
Moyes spent eleven years to build Everton into a top seven team in the Premier League, while Martinez only played for two and a half seasons and turned the team into a club that only knew how to attack and had a fiscal deficit.
Everton became a relegation team, but Martinez's career has been on the rise. He has coached the Belgian and Portuguese teams successively. He can be said to be a professional manager who doesn't care about the lives of others.
All five Serie A teams have advanced, and Inter Milan, Naples, Roma, Fiorentina and Torino are all striving to win the Europa League.
Especially Inter Milan, Naples and Roma. The first two teams have performed well in the Champions League in recent years, and Roma is a veteran Serie A team.
After the top 16 came out, the Italian media vowed that as long as the Serie A teams don't meet too early, it is very likely that two teams will advance to the semi-finals, and with better luck, they may even meet in the final.
Among the three La Liga teams, Villarreal and Sevilla advanced to the next round, and Athletic Bilbao was eliminated by Torino.
Although there are not many teams left in La Liga, the best are still there, including the defending champion Sevilla.
In this event, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Bayern may not be as good as Sevilla. Later, people even called the Europa League the Sevilla Cup.
The Bundesliga only has Wolfsburg left, and Monchengladbach lost to Sevilla.
On the contrary, two teams from the two major countries remained in the top 16, and their competitiveness is even stronger than that of Serie A and the Bundesliga.
Among the "big three" in the Dutch Eredivisie, Ajax is the only one left, PSV Eindhoven was completely defeated by Zenit, and Feyenoord lost to Roma 2-3 in two rounds after a fierce battle.
The Belgian League leader Anderlecht was eliminated, but Bruges remained in the top 16.
On the second day after the Europa League top 16 was announced, UEFA immediately held the top 16 draw ceremony.
Sun Yu watched the top 16 draw ceremony at home, and all the head coaches of the top 16 appeared in the conference hall in Zurich.
After entering the top 16, teams from the same league no longer have the avoidance rule, but for unknown reasons, the teams of Da Mao and Er Mao cannot directly confront each other.
Listening to the tone of the host, as long as there is a draw ceremony, the teams of the two leagues will not directly confront each other, unless the teams of the two leagues meet in the Europa League final.
But this is obviously impossible. If things are really so difficult, just play tricks through the draw or competition, and take the initiative to eliminate several of the teams to avoid unnecessary risks.
Unexpectedly, the first draw was a king bomb. Sevilla and Villarreal of La Liga were drawn together, which caused an exclamation in the venue.
Who would have thought that the two popular teams were drawn together.
In the second round of draws, Zenit drew Turin. Sun Yu felt that the Turin team should not be able to withstand Zenit. After all, Da Mao's club is really rich when it becomes rich, and it is also an oil club.
In the third round of the draw, Everton drew Dynamo Kyiv. It was hard to say what the matchup would be like in this round, and Sun Yu had no impression of it at all, which meant that neither team should have made any splash.
At the end of the fourth round of the draw, there was another exclamation.
Fiorentina and Roma were drawn together, and both teams are considered strong teams in the Europa League.
Although Serie A has declined rapidly in recent years and has become the fourth league in Europe, the former "Seven Sisters of Serie A" are still competitive in the Europa League.
The two teams met together, which was equivalent to eliminating a difficult option for other teams.
In the fifth round, Naples drew Dynamo Moscow, and the big Mao lost a team.
In the sixth round, Bruges drew Besiktas.
The four teams that were not paired were Inter Milan, Wolfsburg, Ajax and Dnipro.
In Sun Yu's opinion, Dnipro was obviously the best choice. In this team, Sun Yu only knew that theyKalinic, the No. 9, played for Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League for two years.
This guy also had a very embarrassing transfer. AC Milan leased Kalinic from Fiorentina and then bought him out.
Usually, the introduction of players by leasing and compulsory buyout in the second year is for economic reasons, and it must be recognized by the player.
As a result, AC Milan leased him for a year and found him unusable. After paying the transfer fee in the second year, it sold the player to Atletico Madrid.
Kalinic was actually only an AC Milan player for one week, and AC Milan spent a total of 25 million euros to introduce him, including leasing and buying him, and Atletico Madrid successfully picked him up in installments of 13 million euros.
Two years later, Verona spent 1.6 million euros to buy the bottom.
In the six transfers of Kalinic, only the youth training parent team Hajduk and Fiorentina obtained substantial economic benefits during the transfer process, while Dnipro used the player's value.
While Sun Yu was thinking, Infantino pulled out the first ball. He broke the shell, opened the note and faced the camera.
"Ajax!"
After the duck voice sounded, Sun Yu subconsciously slowed down his breathing.
Another UEFA staff member wearing glasses scratched between the three small balls with his hands and finally took out a small ball.
At this time, the camera lens stayed on De Boer's face for a few seconds, and then kept switching to the faces of other club coaches.
The white-haired man with glasses broke the ball, took out a note and turned it over, and Sun Yu immediately covered his face.
"Internazionle!"
When the white-headed old man read out the name of the team, the live camera was divided into two pictures. On the left was Mancini with an expressionless face and a slightly raised corner of his mouth, and on the right was De Boer with his arms folded and an expressionless face.
Alas!
Sooner or later, you will pay for what you have done.
Last time, I drew Legia Warsaw, and this time I drew Inter Milan. It can be regarded as luck conservation, and there is still some surplus of good luck.
In the Europa League, Inter Milan can only be regarded as a veteran from the 1990s. They won the UEFA Cup three times in the 1990s and the Champions League four and a half years ago, but now they are just a nervous knife at best.
In such a situation, Sun Yu can only say in his heart: "Fortunately it is not Sevilla!"
Bale became famous in the battle against Inter Milan that year, and the same opportunity came to Sun Yu again.
This is a club with both reputation and poor actual situation, just like a down-and-out gentleman with a bright and gorgeous coat and a patched shirt.
Thinking of this, Sun Yu is a little eager to try.
First beat Eindhoven, then beat Inter Milan, and get half of the Golden Boy trophy!
What kind of rotten fish is Martial!