Chapter 206: Clever "Mu" can't make a meal without rice
Three days later, the second round of the Europa League began and the Celtics came to Rome to challenge away.
The 0-4 score in the first round has already announced the end of the series, and Celtics head coach Postecoglu is not prepared to try hard to create a miracle.
His first goal is still the Scottish Premier League.
Celtic currently leads Rangers by 6 points. There are still 10 rounds in the league and the outcome of the championship is still unpredictable.
Under the leadership of new coach Mark van Bronckhorst, Rangers' league performance was not as good as last season, but they surprisingly reached the semi-finals by defeating Portuguese Super League team Braga in both rounds of the Europa League.
Since Rangers went bankrupt and was relegated, there has been no third team in the Scottish Premier League that can achieve results in European competitions, so the team can only rely on Celtic to support and maintain the Champions League points.
However, the Scottish Premier League, which is ranked 11th in Europe this season, originally only had the qualification for a play-off for the league champion. However, after the fight between Russia and Ukraine, UEFA, in order to cooperate with the sanctions of European countries and the European Commission, issued a ban to cancel the Russian Premier League's quota and replaced it with the Scottish Premier League and Ukrainian Premier League, which are ranked 11th and 12th respectively.
Therefore, if Celtic can win the league title this season, they will directly advance to the group stage of the Champions League next season.
This is undoubtedly a huge motivation, especially when Rangers, the only rival in the league, is distracted by the Europa League.
Participating in the Champions League this season will get you a guaranteed bonus of 8.6 million euros. Entering the group stage will get you another guaranteed bonus of 1.7 million euros. For the six group matches, the appearance fee for each game is 340,000 euros, 2.8 million euros for a win and 960,000 euros for a draw.
By this calculation, even if the team loses all six group stage games, they can still get at least 12.3 million euros in bonuses. Even if they can only get third in the group, they can still participate in the Europa League round of 16 play-offs. If they win and enter the round of 16, they can make another small sum of money.
And this data is increasing every year with the development of the Champions League .
In the next season, which is the 22-23 Champions League, even if they lose all six group stage games, they can still get 15.64 million euros.
This amount of money is a considerable reward not only for the Celtics, but also for Serie A giants like Inter Milan and Juventus.
After all, after working hard for a whole season and winning the Serie A championship, the broadcasting fee share is only 23.4 million euros...
The top-ranked leagues also have bonus pools in their Champions League total prize money.
Of the approximately 2 billion euros in prize money for the Champions League, 55% is allocated based on the specific results of this season's Champions League.
This part of the prize money is fixed. For example, the champion will receive a fixed reward of 20 million euros, the runner-up will receive 15.5 million euros, the semi-finals will receive 12.5 million euros, the quarter-finals will receive 10.6 million euros, and the round of 16 will receive 9.6 million euros.
The remaining 45% is a floating bonus.
30% of this will be allocated based on each team’s European competition points in the previous 10 years.
All 32 teams that qualify for the group stage will receive a share of the money, but the disparities are huge.
The 32 teams are ranked according to points. The first-placed team can get 32 shares of the commission, which is about 36.38 million euros, while the last-placed team can only get 1 share of the commission, which is only 1.14 million euros.
It is obvious that UEFA set this part of the bonus to compromise with those wealthy clubs, that is, those clubs that want to establish the European Super League, and some top teams like Bayern and Paris Saint-Germain.
The creators of the European Super League also feel that this part of the bonus is still not enough for them.
The remaining 15% of the 45% is broadcasting revenue, with a total value of 300 million euros.
Of the 300 million euros, half will be given to the broadcasting associations of each country and distributed to the participating teams in each country based on the market share of each country determined by UEFA.
Correspondingly, the four countries with larger audiences, namely Britain, Spain, Italy and Germany, received larger allocations.
The other half is based on the number of home games each team has played. The rules are also simple: the further you go, the more you get.
So there is another interesting point here. For example, in competitive countries like England and Spain with high market quotas, once all other teams are eliminated and only one team is left, all the prize money in that country's broadcasting bonus pool will be given to this club.
Therefore, from the perspective of fans, seeing their arch-rivals in the same league being eliminated from the Champions League is naturally a relief. From the perspective of the club, seeing the team in the same league being eliminated early is actually a happy experience.
Compared with the Champions League's total prize money of 2 billion euros, this season's Europa League's total prize money is approximately 465 million euros, while the Europa League's is 235 million euros.
This is also the reason why giants generally give up the Europa League and focus on the league to compete for a place in the Champions League.
The opponents in the Europa League are not so weak that they can be easily defeated. If they are drawn to a distant country, they will have to go through a lot of trouble to travel there. Not only will they not earn much money, but they will also increase the risk of injuries and affect the progress of the league.
This is also a major "crime" of the giants in opposing UEFA's bonus distribution principles.
In their eyes, the Europa League is useless and all the prize money should be put into the Champions League. But now, in order to take care of smaller leagues and clubs, UEFA not only did not listen to the giants, but also created a Europa League. Those giants could no longer tolerate this and officially announced the European Super League.
Putting aside these grudges, the European football ecosystem based on the Champions League has in fact become the biggest factor in the competition among various leagues.
The prize money for participating in the competition is just a superficial number. Behind it is the increase in sponsorship brought about by the increased influence of the team. Excellent players will also give priority to clubs that can participate in the Champions League when choosing a club to transfer to. Being able to participate in the Champions League can increase the value of the team's main players, thereby selling them at a better price when transferring, further increasing the revenue of small and medium-sized teams.
To sum up, it is reasonable for Celtic to give up the Europa League and concentrate on the Scottish Premier League.
The same goes for Mourinho.
In a game like this where the outcome is not important, there is no need to send the main players to fight for real. The team should focus on the more crucial league.
As a result, both sides tacitly agreed to send out a "youth team" consisting of only one-third of the main players.
Chen Xiaoliang, Cesco, Abraham, Mancini, Veretout, Malacia and others did not play. Instead, Pellegrini, whose position has been taken by Chen Xiaoliang recently and who has started less frequently, and Zaniolo, who was suspended from domestic competitions due to a red card, led the team, allowing Wu Lei, Carles Perez, El Shaarawy, Darbo, Beauvais, Kumbulla, Trippi and others to play for training.
They even "carefully" sent in third goalkeeper Boll.
According to European competition rules, any player who has played on the field, even for just one second, will receive a championship medal if the team wins the championship.
As a result, the two sides played a lethargic 0-0 game for 90 minutes.
Wu Lei did get two good one-on-one opportunities, but without the bonus of Chen Xiaoliang's pass and tacit connection, his old problem of missing one-on-one opportunities reappeared, one of his kicks went astray and one hit the opponent's goalkeeper.
But this result is very satisfying for Mourinho.
No injuries, rest of the main players, and smooth advancement, what more can you ask for?
For Chen Xiaoliang, although he did not play in this game, he still gained a "huge" improvement.
After sitting on the sidelines and chatting with his teammates for the entire game, he returned home and opened the system. Although he only completed the task of [Enter the roster for the next game] and received [Reward: 1 skill value], it was this one point that increased his skill value from 99 to 100.
He lit up a new skill that he had been preparing for a long time:
[Good at passing the ball from one side of the court to the other]
This skill can improve the accuracy and speed of long-distance cross passes, greatly speeding up the team's transfer of the ball to the other side when encountering tight defense on one side, improving the transition from the strong side to the weak side of the court, helping to initiate wing attacks, and at the same time forcing the opponent to adjust the focus of its defense and expose defensive loopholes.
At this point, Chen Xiaoliang already has 5 skills.
Improve tackling speed and accuracy [Good at falling tackle]
Improve the atmosphere at home and make the players more excited [good at motivating the audience]
Improves close defense ability and reduces the efficiency of the player being marked [Good at close defense]
And the newly unlocked [Good at passing the ball from one side of the court to the other]
And the passive skill [all sports-related negative status duration is halved]
Skill value 100 → 0
Now that his defensive and passing abilities have been formed, if he can add ball control, attacking from behind and improving his shooting ability in the next step, Chen Xiaoliang will be able to become the true all-around midfield master that Gerrard and De Rossi envisioned at the time!
However, even with a system, we still have to take one step at a time and train day by day.
With the Celtics eliminated, the Europa League round of 16 knockout matches are basically complete.
Among the top eight, Roma is in the upper half and its next opponent will be PAOK from the Greek Super League. Another match in the upper half is between PSV Eindhoven, a veteran Dutch powerhouse, and Leicester City, which ranks 8th in the Premier League this season.
The winners of the two matches will advance to the semi-finals to compete for a ticket to the final.
In the lower half, Marseille of Ligue 1 faced Slavia Prague of the Czech First League. Like Leicester City, this Czech team had also played against Chen Xiaoliang before.
The other match in the lower half is between Dutch Eredivisie team Feyenoord and Serbian Super League team Belgrade Guerrilla.
Overall, except for the match between Eindhoven and Leicester City where the outcome is unpredictable, the remaining matches are basically clear-cut.
Roma's opponent PAOK has the lowest value and the lowest reputation among these eight teams.
But after entering the semi-finals, both Eindhoven and Leicester City are among the strongest teams remaining in this tournament.
At the same time, as AC Milan eliminated Juventus, who had no intention of fighting and was focused on the top four in the league, the matchups for the Italian Cup semi-finals have been decided.
According to the rules, the semi-finals will be played in two rounds, home and away.
Roma's opponent will be Fiorentina, while on the other side, there will be a two-round Milan derby between AC Milan and Inter Milan.
But then again, although the opponents in the next round of the two cup competitions are relatively the weakest among all opponents, Mourinho's goal is not just to reach the semi-finals or the finals. If he cannot win the cup championship, even if he reaches the final of the Champions League but fails to win, it will be meaningless.
If you want to make it to the end, you must have the ability to defeat all opponents.
Fortunately, the team still has time to continue adjusting and waiting for the injured players to return.
The team rested for another two days before heading to the away game to challenge Fiorentina in the first semi-final of the Italian Cup.
After selling Vlahovic, who scored 17 league goals in half a season, for 81.6 million euros, Fiorentina did not become a toothless tiger at the mercy of others as expected.
They spent 14 million euros to buy French winger Ikone from Lille, loaned Polish center Piatek from Bundesliga Hertha Berlin, and finally spent 15.56 million euros to buy Brazilian center Cabral from Swiss team Basel.
Fiorentina spent 30 million euros, reorganized an entire attacking line, and made a net profit of 50 million euros. This wave of transactions in the winter window has the flavor of European black shops such as Benfica and Monaco.
In recent rounds of games, several new players have gradually run in and their form has gradually improved. They have won nearly three home games in the league, and their ranking has surpassed Atalanta, which suffered a series of losses, and they have firmly established themselves in 8th place. They have a chance to impact the Europa League next season.
But for Mourinho, the situation is not so good.
Spinazzola, who gradually participated in low-intensity ball training, didn't know whether it was because he hadn't exercised for a long time and his resistance was reduced or what, he caught a viral cold. It was not a big deal at all, but it spread within the team.
Chen Xiaoliang, Cesco, Kumbulla and Malaysia were unfortunately all infected and developed a low-grade fever.
Mourinho angrily accused the team doctor of not discovering the symptoms of illness in time and allowing Spinazzola to go home to rest, but instead continued to let him stay in the team for training until the symptoms appeared.
In order to avoid further infection, he had to keep all the people with colds in Rome and let them go home to rest.
Also not travelling were Matic, who was slightly unwell in the first leg against Celtic, and Zaniolo, who had one game left of suspension.
If the last match against Celtic was a tacit agreement between both sides to give the main players a rest, then in this match, Mourinho really had no cards to play.
He could only use the existing lineup to let Abraham and Pellegrini play as double strikers, and put Veretout in the central midfielder position that Chen Xiaoliang usually played, with Cristante and young player Volpato behind him;
The only three main central defenders all played, with Zalewski and Binia playing as wingbacks on the left and right;
Patricio's fracture will be out for another month, so second-choice goalkeeper Fuzzato will continue to start.
On the Fiorentina side, new signings Ikone, Cabral and Piatek all went into battle;
The back line captain Biraghi, Milenkovic and Venuti were all healthy and started together;
Midfielder Bonaventura has been in excellent form recently and is responsible for the right side of the midfield, while the tall and tough Moroccan midfielder Amrabat plays as a single defensive midfielder, and the left midfielder is Ghana international Alfred Duncan.
With four defenders and a single defensive midfielder, Fiorentina Italiano clearly wanted to use the home advantage to attack Roma's defense and try to take the initiative in the two-round match and score more goals.
After the opening, just as Italiano expected, the Purple Lilies took the initiative to attack in the first second.
They did not focus on ball possession like Atalanta and Juventus, and did not frequently pass the ball around in order to avoid losing it, looking for opportunities to attack again.
They must attack whenever they have the chance tonight, never hesitate if they can make a shot, and immediately counterattack if the attack fails.
Chen Xiaoliang and Cesco, two injured players, were sitting on the sofa at home watching the game while blowing their noses.
It has been a long time since they had the chance to watch the games of their team on TV.
Erica even laughed at them for being unemployed.
Wu Lei's wife enthusiastically brought some boiled ginger soup and white vinegar, which many Chinese people believe can kill "cold germs."
He also taught Helena step by step how to boil vinegar and how to spread the vinegar smell in the room to achieve a "sterilizing" effect.
Although he knew that it was of no use, Chen Xiaoliang was too embarrassed to directly reject Mrs. Wu's kindness. He could only watch Rome being dominated by Florence in his home with the doors and windows closed according to the "secret" and filled with a sour smell.
However, Cesco and Erica thought that the Red Countryman's method was magical, and after smelling the slightly pungent sour smell, it seemed that their noses were a little clearer...
