In the exit hall of Berlin Airport, hundreds of reporters surrounded Hoffenheim's coaches and players who had just got off the plane to interview them.
Among them, head coach Ralf Rangnick and team core Lu Wenbin were naturally the ones interviewed the most.
Especially those reporters from China were quite excited.
In fact, they had basically interviewed Lu Wenbin in Hoffenheim a long time ago.
Therefore, here, they did not gather around Lu Wenbin, but mostly filmed from the outside as Lu Wenbin was surrounded by foreign reporters for interviews.
The sight of Chinese people being welcomed by journalists from all over the world in the European football world makes them, as compatriots, feel proud and they also want to report these scenes back home.
Not only these reporters, but also many Hoffenheim fans who were stopped outside the airport security were holding up "TSG 1899 Hoffenheim" scarves to welcome the arrival of the team.
At the same time, there were also Chinese students and overseas Chinese holding small national flags to welcome Lu Wenbin.
After seeing Lu Wenbin appear, the fans and Chinese were extremely excited and shouted Lu Wenbin's name loudly, including some screaming female fans.
Since his outstanding performance in scoring goals in the first team, Lu Wenbin has faced interviews from reporters after every game. The only difference is that the number of reporters was not as many as it is today, and there were not as many foreign reporters as there are today.
Once Lu Wenbin calmed down, he was able to deal with them calmly with a panacea.
Reporter: "Lu, how are you doing? Can you start in tomorrow's game?"
Lu Wenbin: "I am in good shape, but whether I will play depends on the head coach's arrangement."
Reporter: "If you play tomorrow, can you continue to score against Bayern Munich and keep the record of scoring in every game?"
Lu Wenbin: "It doesn't matter whether I score in every game, as long as the team performs well."
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While dealing with interviews from reporters, Lu Wenbin followed his teammates out of the hall, boarded the team bus that the club had driven to Berlin in advance, and went to stay at the hotel arranged by the club near the Berlin Olympic Sports Center.
At the pre-match press conference that afternoon, Bayern Munich head coach and German coach Hitzfeld openly announced Bayern's starting lineup for the final, showing no fear that Hoffenheim would be prepared.
No matter how well Hoffenheim performs in the Bundesliga, or how amazing Lu Wenbin's consecutive goals are, in Germany, Bayern Munich has always been the leader.
Their opponents are not in Germany at all, but in Europe.
Hitzfeld announced the starting lineup without any hesitation, and Ralph did not play tricks and insisted on delaying the announcement until two hours before the start of the game when the starting lineup had to be submitted to the official website of the Football Association.
Although he coaches a German second division team, he himself is no unknown person.
Since Hitzfeld announced the starting lineup so openly, Ralph naturally would not be afraid of him, as if he was inferior to him before the game even started.
Therefore, Ralph also announced Hoffenheim's starting lineup in an open and honest manner.
After the starting lineup was announced, everyone knew what formation Hoffenheim would play without Ralph saying it: the same 442 midfield diamond formation that Hoffenheim used in the quarter-finals against Dortmund at the Westfalen Stadium.
That evening, major media and television stations analyzed the starting lineups and formations of both teams and speculated on the outcome of the game.
Of course, apart from the fans who support Hoffenheim, most "rational" people do not think that Hoffenheim can defeat Bayern Munich and win the championship, including the Chinese.
Even though Hoffenheim eliminated Dortmund at the Westfalen Stadium, and even though Lu Wenbin still maintains the record of scoring in every game and averaging more than 2 goals per game.
The inherent impression is that when people see the names of the two teams, they naturally think that Bayern Munich will be the winner in the end.
Even in China, most of Lu Wenbin's fans and fellow football fans predicted that Bayern Munich would win the championship, and Lu Wenbin only needed to score a goal and perform well.
CCTV-5 did not broadcast the German Cup final live, but it was broadcast live on the Internet.
At that time, fans from China and Lu Wenbin’s parents, relatives, classmates and friends will be able to watch the German Cup final in which Lu Wenbin participates through live broadcast on the Internet.
The next day, April 19, Bayern Munich and Hoffenheim were given some time during the day to familiarize themselves with the stadium.
As the venue for the final of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Berlin Olympic Stadium can accommodate 75,000 spectators and is larger and more majestic than the Westfalen Stadium.
Of course, this is a neutral venue, not Bayern Munich's home ground, and there are no standing seats for Bayern fans to stand throughout the game and cheer for the team.
Therefore, Lu Wenbin and others who had only seen the Westfalen Stadium in the quarter-finals simply sighed at the Berlin Olympic Stadium which was much larger than the Hopp Stadium, and then started training to familiarize themselves with the venue.
According to FIFA regulations, except for international matches, football fields used in ordinary leagues only need to be between 90 and 120 meters in length and between 45 and 90 meters in width, and must be rectangular.
Therefore, in football matches, the length, width and size of many football fields are not fixed. Some fields are larger, some are smaller, and the grass composition is even more varied.
Therefore, there is a process of warming up and familiarizing yourself with the venue before the game.
At the same time, most teams will perform worse in away games than at home, and sometimes even look like two different teams, which is the so-called home dragon and away worm.
Not only the pressure from away fans, but also the unfamiliarity of the venue, changes in the size of the stadium, etc., will cause some players to perform abnormally, which in turn affects the entire team.
After getting familiar with the venue, it’s time to wait for the competition to officially begin.
After lunch, there were fans who arrived early waiting outside the stadium. They had to eat their lunch in bars and restaurants around the stadium, or even just buy some snacks to fill their stomachs.
At 5 p.m., the stadium opened its entrance two hours in advance, and anxious fans could start entering with their tickets.
As time went on, the stadium seats were slowly filled.
Although this was a neutral venue, it was the first heavyweight championship decided in the German league in 2008, so there were a lot of people watching the game on site.
Bayern Munich's fans are all over the country. There are also quite a lot of Hoffenheim fans who are participating in the German Cup final for the first time. There are also fans of football stars from both teams, such as overseas Chinese and Chinese students who support Lu Wenbin.
Naturally, there were also local citizens of the capital Berlin and many neutral fans who came simply to watch the championship battle, as well as Football Association officials, celebrity politicians and so on.
Therefore, by the time the game was about to start, the entire Berlin Olympic Stadium was filled to the brim.
The last match of the 2007/2008 German Cup, the German Cup final between Bayern Munich and Hoffenheim, is about to begin!