The two German Cup semi-finals will be held over two days, on March 19 and March 20 respectively. The first semi-final will be between Hoffenheim and Jena at home.
Although it was an unexpected match between two 2. Bundesliga teams, it was the semi-final of the German Cup after all, and there were no other matches in the same period.
Therefore, the German Sports Television still broadcast the semi-final between Hoffenheim and Jena live to the whole country.
At 20:30 on the evening of March 19, the first semi-final of the 2007/2008 German Football Association Cup between Hoffenheim and Jena officially kicked off at Hoffenheim's home stadium, the Dietmar Hopp Stadium.
Because this game is a cup match with a decisive outcome, not a league game, and the venue was chosen as Hoffenheim's home stadium, there is actually no distinction between home and away games.
Therefore, the Football Association was forced to allocate 1,000 seats out of the total 6,000 seats at the Hope Stadium to Jena fans so that Jena players would not be too lonely when playing away games.
Jena fans also know that the team will most likely be relegated from the 2. Bundesliga to the 3. Bundesliga after the end of this season, and the German Cup has become the only honor they can strive for.
If they can get past Hoffenheim and reach the final, where their opponent is Bayern Munich, they will really be able to participate in the UEFA Cup as a third division team next season.
Therefore, a lot of Jena fans came, filling all 1,000 seats, and there were still many people outside.
Some Jena fans bought individual tickets at high prices to enter the stadium and cheer for the Jena team. Their momentum was no less than that of the more than 5,000 Hoffenheim home fans.
The Jena players were also quite excited.
They do have this tradition this season. The players lose their temper when playing in the league, but become excited when playing in the cup competitions.
So, in the round of 16 they were able to eliminate Bundesliga team Nuremberg, in the round of 16 they were able to eliminate Bundesliga team Bielefeld, and in the last quarter-final they continued to eliminate Bundesliga team Stuttgart.
In this game, Jena was not afraid of Hoffenheim, a 2. Bundesliga team that seemed to be of the same level on the surface.
Of course, fearlessness is only psychological, their coach will not attack against Hoffenheim.
Facing Hoffenheim, who could score four goals against Dortmund at the Westfalen Stadium, Jena's coach would have to be crazy to push forward and attack Hoffenheim.
Their tactics are defensive counterattack, and their focus is on defending Lu Wenbin, who scores goals in every game and has recently become the most famous shooter in the German second division.
In the 5th minute, Lu Wenbin received a wonderful pass from Salihovic in the penalty area and almost made a shot.
However, before Lu Wenbin raised his foot to complete the shot, Jena's No. 6 defender Gordon, who was following closely behind Lu Wenbin, fell to the ground and accurately poked the ball out, which was cleared by another defender.
Lu Wenbin missed a kick and lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Ibisevic, Salihovic, Eduardo and others rushed up immediately, scolding Gordon and shouting to the referee that it was a penalty. Gordon fouled and tackled Lu Wenbin in the penalty area.
However, the referee, who was very observant, shook his head and asked Lu Wenbin to stand up, indicating that Gordon's tackle was a beautiful defensive move, there was no foul, and there was no penalty.
Even at Hoffenheim's home ground, the referee would not make a random decision, let alone a penalty kick, which is the most likely to cause controversy.
Lu Wenbin got up and shook his head at Salihovic and others, signaling them to stop harassing the referee. There was no wrong call and he was not tackled by Gordon.
In fact, Salihovic and others didn't know whether Gordon committed a foul in this ball. They just habitually put pressure on the referee and wanted to make a judgment that was favorable to them.
After seeing that Lu Wenbin had gotten up to indicate that the other side had not committed a foul, Salihovic and others had no right to continue shouting for a penalty and they all retreated.
As the game continued, Hoffenheim, ranked second in the Bundesliga, was almost dominating Jena, which was second from the bottom in the standings.
Jena is indeed not very strong, and their road to advancement in the German Cup was actually largely due to luck.
In the round of 16, the round of 16 and the quarter-finals, Jena used defensive counterattacks to drag three Bundesliga teams into overtime. In the round of 16 and the quarter-finals, it even dragged Nuremberg and Stuttgart into penalty shootouts, and finally won the penalty shootout by chance and advanced.
In the three games, if the opponent had scored one more goal within 90 minutes, Jena would have been eliminated.
However, luck was on Jena's side, allowing them to survive all three games by relying on defensive counterattacks.
Therefore, in this semi-final, they naturally still firmly played their defensive counterattack tactics, hoping to drag the game into a penalty shootout again and eliminate Hoffenheim.
Although Lu Wenbin scored in every game, they were not afraid. They believed that they could stop Lu Wenbin from scoring by sending people to closely guard him and provide zone defense.
What's more, even if they lost the ball, they did not just defend it and they were not completely without any counterattack ability. In the previous few games, they did not keep the score of 0-0 until overtime and penalty shootouts.
Just look at it, 5 minutes into the game, Lu Wenbin's shot was blocked by Gordon, which was seen by the Jena players as a successful defense, which greatly increased their confidence in winning the semi-final.
However, the course of the following games made them understand why Hoffenheim was able to achieve nine consecutive victories in all competitions after the winter break, why Lu Wenbin was able to score in every game, and even performed a hat trick and an assist at the Westfalen Stadium.
In the 14th minute, Lu Wenbin received the ball outside the penalty area from Obasi who broke through from the wing.
At this time, Lu Wenbin was outside the penalty area, and Jena's defensive players focused on preventing Lu Wenbin from breaking into the penalty area. They did not expect Lu Wenbin to suddenly shoot outside the penalty area.
But Lu Wenbin did just that.
After he made a fake breakthrough, the Jena defender in front of him took a step back. Lu Wenbin suddenly pushed the ball to the right, created an angle and immediately shot with his right foot.
This ball had no run-up, little power, and slow speed. Jena's goalkeeper Ezekiel was able to react after seeing the ball. He ran two steps in the direction the ball came from before jumping into the air to make the save.
However, the angle of Lu Wenbin's shot was too tricky, and Lu Wenbin was aiming at the upper right corner of the goal.
With Lu Wenbin's 20/20 shooting attributes and no interference, the error of the shot is basically very small.
Although Ezekiel stretched out his arms to try to kick the ball out, the ball was really in a blind spot: the ball flew over Ezekiel's fingertips and went into the goal along the crossbar and the post in the upper right corner.
This is a true theoretical dead-angle shot.
Ezekiel saw the path of the ball, didn't need to guess the direction, and had time to run up and make a save, but he just couldn't reach it.