After the 23rd round of the league match with Paderborn, Lu Wenbin obtained 2 assists 1000+2 goals 2000+team win 2000, a total of 5000 experience points reward, and the level experience rose to 10712/50000.
Unfortunately, Mainz and Borussia Mönchengladbach, who were ahead of Hoffenheim, also won their games, so Hoffenheim had to continue to rank behind Mainz due to the disadvantage of goal difference and ranked third in the standings.
However, although the team's ranking did not rise, Lu Wenbin's personal performance of scoring and assisting twice still conquered all the Hoffenheim fans and club executives present.
Fans called on the club on the website to quickly give Lu Wenbin a new contract to avoid being poached. Boss Hope also gave general manager Rothaus a strict order to get Lu Wenbin a new contract as soon as possible.
So, just two days after the game with Paderborn, Lu Wenbin's agent Mendes finally helped him get a new contract with Hoffenheim.
The new contract is for five years, with an annual salary of 600,000 euros and a penalty of 20 million euros.
This salary is among the top three annual salaries in Hoffenheim.
In the German professional league, which emphasizes financial health, this is already higher than the salary of most ordinary Bundesliga players. (The book is set in 2008, and Shao Jiayi's 500,000 euros at Energie Cottbus in the Bundesliga was already one of the highest salaries in the team. Readers should not compare it with the football salary in 2018, nor with the salaries of Premier League and La Liga giants.)
Not only the salary, but also the appearance fee, goal award, assist award, promotion award, championship award, etc. have increased significantly. When signing the contract, Lu Wenbin also received an additional signing fee bonus.
On March 14, two days before the 24th round of the league, Hoffenheim held a press conference and announced the signing of a new contract with Lu Wenbin.
After signing the new contract with the club, Lu Wenbin can focus on training and playing with peace of mind and do his best for Hoffenheim's promotion and championship, and the fans can also put their worries aside.
At least, in the short term, there is no need to worry about anyone trying to poach Lu Wenbin.
Two days later, at 2:00 p.m. on March 16, in the 24th round of the German 2nd Division, Hoffenheim played against Aue, who was ranked third from the bottom, at home.
Because the German Cup semi-final would be held in two days, Ralph played most of the substitutes in this game, even the goalkeeper was rotated, and only Lu Wenbin continued to stay on the field to maintain the deterrence against Aue.
Sure enough, Lu Wenbin, who had just completed the signing, put tremendous pressure on Aue on the field, making Aue dare not attack aggressively even when facing Hoffenheim's substitute lineup.
Moreover, even though they guarded Lu Wenbin closely, they still failed to defend the goal in the end.
No matter how low Lu Wenbin's off-ball running is and how tightly the opponent defends him, it is impossible for Lu Wenbin to not have a single shooting opportunity in a whole game.
As long as there is a shooting opportunity, Lu Wenbin's shooting skills are a super killer weapon.
In this game, because the substitute teammates' ability to find open spaces to pass the ball and assist was not as good as that of the main lineup, and Lu Wenbin's own ability to run into open spaces was not high either, Lu Wenbin only got two good shots in the penalty area and one free kick opportunity outside the penalty area in the first half.
The free kick failed to go in even though the system skill was used, but Lu Wenbin scored one of the two shots in the penalty area.
Therefore, at the end of the first half, Hoffenheim was able to enter the halftime break with a score of 1-0.
During the half-time break, Ralf Rangnick considered for a long time and decided to replace Lu Wenbin early.
Not to mention that they were already leading 1-0 in this league match, even if they lost in the end, Hoffenheim still had time to come back. But the next German Cup match really couldn't afford to lose.
Reaching the final means a high chance of participating in next season's UEFA Cup. Compared with a Bundesliga match which is not life-threatening for the time being, the German Cup semi-final is obviously more important.
Therefore, after the 15-minute halftime break, Lu Wenbin sat on the bench.
After seeing that Lu Wenbin was not on the court, Aue launched a counterattack.
However, Hoffenheim's substitutes were no worse than Aue, who ranked third from the bottom in the standings. In addition, Aue's defense was tight, so they didn't get any decent shooting opportunities in the second half.
Under the terrified gaze of the home fans, the 90-minute game came to an end, and Hoffenheim actually held on to the score of 1-0 and won the German Second Division victory.
As a result, Lu Wenbin received another reward of 1000 goals and 2000 wins, a total of 3000 experience points, and his level experience rose to 13712/50000.
What is even more surprising is that after the other two games that started at the same time as Hoffenheim, Fürth unexpectedly lost to Koblenz at home, and Mainz was also tied by Munich 1860 away.
As a result, Hoffenheim occupied the second place in the standings with 43 points, leaving behind Fürth and Mainz who were tied with Hoffenheim in the previous round.
The only team ahead of Hoffenheim is Borussia Mönchengladbach, who has 4 points more than them.
There are still 10 rounds left until the end of this season's league. Hoffenheim still has the opportunity to wait for Borussia Mönchengladbach to make a mistake, and then overtake the points to win the Bundesliga championship.
Of course, the premise is that Hoffenheim does not lose the game.
However, considering Hoffenheim's offensive power, having won nine consecutive league cup games after the winter break and Lu Wenbin scoring in every game, it is not impossible for Hoffenheim to surpass Borussia Mönchengladbach.
…
After the league game with Aue, Hoffenheim began to prepare for the German Cup semi-finals.
Speaking of which, the focus of Hoffenheim's opponent Jena in the German Cup semi-final this season is a bit strange.
They did not focus on relegation in the league, but put all their energy into the cup competition. They made it all the way to the semi-finals of the German Cup, but fell into the relegation zone in the German 2nd League early and are currently ranked second from the bottom.
Do they hope to advance to next season's UEFA Cup through the German Cup
If they really beat Hoffenheim in this German Cup semi-final and enter the final, and Bayern Munich beats Wolfsburg in the other semi-final, then even if Jena cannot beat Bayern in the final, they will advance to next season's UEFA Cup because Bayern has already qualified for the European competition through the Bundesliga.
In the Bundesliga, Jena's hope of staying in the league is slim. They have a big gap with the third-to-last team and will almost certainly be relegated to the Bundesliga next season.
If Jena advances to the German Cup final and is relegated, then next season there will be a funny scene of a third division team representing German football in the UEFA Cup, which may become a good story.
However, Hoffenheim naturally would not allow this to happen.
In order to prepare for this semi-final, Ralph used almost all substitutes in the last round of the league. Even Lu Wenbin was replaced after the first half, just to ensure the victory over Jena in the semi-final.
As for Lu Wenbin himself, he would not allow Hoffenheim to be defeated by Jena.
Not only does he have to defeat Jena to advance to the final, even if he meets Bayern Munich in the final, he has to do his best to defeat Bayern in order to complete the system task of the double champion and activate the hidden skill "Injury Tendency".
PS: The previous article was wrong in writing that the other semi-final was between Bayern and Stuttgart. It was clearly a typo. Stuttgart had been eliminated by Jena. The other semi-final that season was actually between Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg. It has been corrected.