Leverkusen is not Cottbus, nor is it the newly promoted Borussia Mönchengladbach. They were seventh in the Bundesliga last season.
Therefore, Lu Wenbin's goal in the 13th minute not only did not defeat them, but made their counterattack even more fierce.
The weakness of offensive football lies in insufficient manpower in the backcourt and insufficient defensive strength.
As a result, Hoffenheim was scored a goal by Leverkusen's crazy counterattack in the 22nd minute. The goal was scored by No. 9 striker Simes.
Next, both sides continued to play very openly, with neither side showing weakness or shrinking their defense.
In the 31st minute, Lu Wenbin ran out of the penalty area and received a pass from Eduardo, causing tension among Leverkusen's defense and goalkeeper.
However, Lu Wenbin made a fake shot and passed the ball to captain Salihovic who cut into the penalty area diagonally.
Salihovic shot the ball, and the ball went into the goal under the armpit of Adler who was rushing back, and Hoffenheim led 2-1.
However, the tenacious Leverkusen equalized the score a few minutes later and the two sides returned to a 2-2 draw.
Then, until the 44th minute, when the first half was about to end, both sides were still tied 2-2.
It looked like the two sides would enter the halftime break with a score of 2-2.
Just when everyone thought that the first half would enter the halftime break with a score of 2-2, Lu Wenbin, who had never given up running, created a short gap in the penalty area, and Eduardo's pass after the breakthrough was about to reach Lu Wenbin's feet.
At this time, Lu Wenbin was only more than 10 meters away from the goal, which was almost the same as taking a penalty kick, except that he was a little bit off the penalty spot.
But even so, this distance is enough to make Leverkusen players nervous.
Compared with other forwards in the league, Lu Wenbin's shot hitting the goal frame and final goal rate are really too high.
If Lu Wenbin scored a goal at this time and in this position, wouldn't we have to go into the halftime break with a trailing score
So, the No. 5 defender Friedrich behind Lu Wenbin subconsciously pushed Lu Wenbin, intending to make him lose his balance and unable to successfully receive the ball and shoot.
Unexpectedly, Friedrich thought that his strength was not great, but it pushed Lu Wenbin forward and made him stagger. In the end, he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Friedrich immediately raised his hands and looked at the referee with a mixed expression of shock and innocence, indicating that he did not push Lu Wenbin at all.
However, the referee who was watching the scene clearly nearby didn't care about all that. He blew the whistle decisively, pointed his finger at the penalty spot, and awarded Hoffenheim a penalty.
Friedrich immediately became anxious and complained to the referee: "He was faking a fall, I didn't push him at all!"
Other Leverkusen players also gathered around and complained to the referee that Lu Wenbin was diving, and Friedrich did not commit any foul at all.
Hoffenheim's players testified that they saw Friedrich push someone.
At this time, Lu Wenbin had also stood up unscathed. Friedrich pointed at Lu Wenbin and said to the referee excitedly, "Look, he is totally unscathed. How can he be fouled by me?"
The referee shook his head and said, "A foul is not determined by whether the opponent is injured or not. It is a fact that you reached out and pushed Lu. I saw it with my own eyes. There is no need to say more!"
Then, the referee made a gesture as if he was about to pull out a card, signaling to the Leverkusen players that if they surrounded him again, he would pull out a card.
As a last resort, everyone could only grumble and disperse. Friedrich passed by Lu Wenbin and cursed, "Liar, you're faking it. I didn't use much strength at all!"
Lu Wenbin ignored him, picked up the football from the ground and walked to the penalty spot.
He knew that Friedrich didn't use much strength. In fact, it was because his physical attributes of 13/13 were still a bit low compared to professional players, especially strong defenders, that he was easily pushed down by Friedrich.
But it is a fact that Friedrich pushed him from behind. He was neither faking a fall nor did he have the subjective intention to deliberately get a penalty. He would not act like a saint and tell the referee that Friedrich did not commit a foul and fell because he lost his balance.
He is only responsible for scoring goals for Hoffenheim and taking the lead, even if it is a penalty.
For Lu Wenbin's 20/20 shooting attribute, penalty kicks are foolproof.
Lu Wenbin kicked the penalty kick steadily into the dead corner. Although Adler jumped in the right direction, he was out of reach and could only watch the ball fly into the goal in front of him.
In the 45th minute of the first half, Lu Wenbin scored a penalty, completing his second goal and also had an assist, helping Hoffenheim lead Leverkusen 3-2.
Shortly after Lu Wenbin scored the penalty, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half of the game.
After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and continued the game.
Lu Wenbin was closely guarded by Leverkusen players. Even if they left the opportunity for others, they would not allow Lu Wenbin to get another chance to shoot.
Because other people's shots still have the problem of success rate, but Lu Wenbin's shot is almost a sure thing.
Therefore, they chose to guard against Lu Wenbin.
But the result of this is that Demba Ba, Ibisevic and others have greatly increased shooting opportunities.
Although their goal rate is not high, but with more shots, they can always score, right
In the 68th minute, Lu Wenbin broke into the penalty area, causing a commotion in Leverkusen's defense. Then Baker, who dribbled forward from the wing to assist, passed the ball to Demba Ba outside the penalty area.
Demba Ba fired a powerful shot at the goal, and the ball hit Leverkusen defender Enrique who risked his life to block the shot, causing a refraction and flew into the net from the opposite direction of goalkeeper Adler's save.
Demba Ba scored again and helped Hoffenheim lead Leverkusen 4-2 away from home.
Seeing this score, Ralph made a prompt decision and replaced Demba Ba with No. 17 Weiss, who was switched from a forward to a defensive midfielder, and changed to a 442 formation to make the formation more balanced and strengthen the defense.
But Lu Wenbin did not leave the field, which made Leverkusen's defense cautious and afraid to press forward to help the attack.
Therefore, in the following game, although Leverkusen wanted to make a comeback, they only scored a goal in the 86th minute and failed to equalize the score until the end of the game.
Of course, Lu Wenbin's luck was not very good either. He failed to score any goals in the second half despite a free kick and two shots in open play.
After two minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the game.
Hoffenheim defeated Bundesliga powerhouse Leverkusen 4-3 away from home, winning the third round of the Bundesliga, which was also Hoffenheim's three consecutive Bundesliga victories.