After scoring in the 83rd minute, Lu Wenbin celebrated with the fans and teammates for a long time before returning to the field due to the intervention of the referee.
After the game resumed, both sides became extremely cautious.
At this time, there were only a few minutes left before the end of regular time, and anyone who scored a goal could end the game.
But whoever concedes a goal may say goodbye to the League Cup.
Therefore, everyone became very cautious and did not dare to give their opponents any chance.
Lu Wenbin could hardly run anymore and in the end he didn't get any shooting opportunities.
Not long after, the referee blew the whistle to end the regular game.
Hoffenheim and Udinese tied 3-3 in the regular time of the two-legged third round of the UEFA Cup qualifiers in the 2008/2009 season, and both teams scored the same number of away goals, making it a complete draw.
Therefore, the game had to go into overtime.
The referee gave everyone a few minutes to rest.
After walking to the sidelines, other Hoffenheim players were still able to hold on, except Lu Wenbin, who looked like he was about to collapse at any time. The team doctor quickly asked him to lie on the grass and gave him a leg massage.
Coach Ralph asked worriedly, "Lu, can you still hold on?"
It’s not that Ralph doesn’t want to replace Lu Wenbin, but given the current game situation, Lu Wenbin has to stay on the court as much as possible.
As long as Lu Wenbin is on the court, even if he is just walking on the court, he can distract most of the energy of Udinese's defense.
Once Lu Wenbin leaves the field, Udinese's defense can launch a massive counterattack, which will be more dangerous to Hoffenheim's goal.
Of course, if Lu Wenbin really couldn't hold on, Ralph wouldn't really let him stay on the court, so he asked this question.
Lu Wenbin panted and nodded, "I'm fine, coach. If I can't hold on any longer, I'll call you!"
Ralph nodded, and then began to assign tasks for the overtime to the players.
According to UEFA's rule that goals scored in extra time also count as away goals, Hoffenheim now only needs to score one more goal to almost kill the game.
Therefore, no matter how difficult it is, Ralph wants to end the battle in overtime.
Because penalty shootouts rely too much on luck and are unreliable.
What's more, as a goalkeeper, Handanovic is stronger than Ozcan, so Ralph doesn't want to play a penalty shootout even more.
Hoffenheim must try their best to resolve the battle in overtime.
Given Lu Wenbin's physical condition, it would probably be very difficult for him to run around in open spaces, receive the ball and shoot, and create goals in open play as he does in regular game time.
But Lu Wenbin is still a great threat. As long as he is on the court, Udinese players must focus on defending Lu Wenbin and cannot relax for a moment.
In this way, the pressure on Hoffenheim's goal will be much less.
Lu Wenbin also has a good free kick technique. Sometimes, set pieces are also a weapon to break the balance of the game.
Therefore, Ralph asked the others to make more breakthroughs and shoot more, on the one hand to see if they could score a goal. If they couldn't score a goal, they would see if they could make the opponent commit a foul and create a free kick opportunity for Lu Wenbin.
At the same time, Ralph's reminders to the defense line are also indispensable. Ralph repeatedly reminded everyone on the defense line to be alert.
No matter how tired you are, you have to persevere until the end of the game and cannot relax for a moment.
After resting for a few minutes, Lu Wenbin stood up again after being massaged by the team doctor and played in the game with his teammates.
There were three games on Wednesday, and this one even went into overtime. It was true that both sides were very physically exhausted.
Therefore, after entering the overtime, not only Lu Wenbin was taking a walk, but other players on both sides also reduced their running, and the number of errors in passing and receiving the ball increased.
However, people's ability to seize opportunities is also declining.
In the 97th minute of extra time, Salihovic had an excellent chance to shoot in the penalty area.
As a result, his shot seemed weak and was easily caught by Handanovic, which made Hoffenheim fans very sorry.
On the other hand, in the 104th minute, when the first half of extra time was about to end, Udinese's No. 10 striker Di Natale also had a good counterattack opportunity.
Perhaps because he was too tired, his movements were deformed when he entered the penalty area, and he dribbled the ball a little wider, and then the quick-eyed and quick-handed Ozcan caught the ball in his arms.
Di Natale missed a good chance, causing sighs from the Udinese home stands.
Then the first half of overtime ended, both sides took a short break, and then changed sides to continue the game.
It seemed that the second half of overtime was not much different from the first half.
However, just when everyone thought the game was going to go into a penalty shootout with a total score of 3-3, in the 108th minute, Eduardo was cycling with the ball outside the left side of Udinese's penalty area and was tripped to the ground by Udinese defender Domizzi.
Hoffenheim won a free kick, but the angle was off, so Lu Wenbin took the penalty.
Lu Wenbin looked at his free kick system skill and saw that the cooldown time had not yet expired, so he had to take the penalty kick.
However, if he took the penalty, he would not be very confident of taking the free kick directly towards the goal, let alone a free kick at such an off angle.
However, when seeing Handanovic nervously directing his teammates to form a human wall at the near end, Lu Wenbin remembered that he had scored more than 10 free kicks in the professional league.
Although he hasn't scored any free kicks in recent games, it's clear that his opponents know how good he is, so Handanovic was so nervous.
All his previous free kicks were from the air, arcing around the wall and hitting the upper corner of the goal.
This time I don't have any system skills, so I'm not sure. But can I do the opposite and hit them under their feet
Perhaps, the Udinese players would think that I would hit them on the head like before, and then they would jump up, so wouldn't there be space under their feet
The more he thought about it, the more chances Lu Wenbin felt he had.
Anyway, he was the one taking the penalty kick, and with such an angle and having to go around the wall of players, his chances of scoring were quite low.
But if he can get under the wall of players without having to make a curve, then his 20/20 shot will definitely go in as long as he aims at the blind corner of the goal.
Although this was a bit of a gamble, luck is important on the football field. If the opponent's wall really jumped up, Lu Wenbin would be able to score a winning goal.
After making the decision, Lu Wenbin stood in front of the ball, waiting for the referee to blow the whistle, and from time to time looked towards the upper corner of the goal, making Udinese players think that Lu Wenbin was going to shoot in the upper corner.
After a while, the referee blew the whistle for a penalty kick. Lu Wenbin took a few steps and kicked the football.
At the same time, Udinese's wall all jumped up in unison, intending to see if they could block the free kick sent by Lu Wenbin and block it from going out of bounds.
However, after they all jumped up, they found that the ball hit by Lu Wenbin did not fly up, but instead flew towards their feet along the grass.
Everyone was shocked, but the Udinese players who were already in the air couldn't stop the ball.
The ball passed under the feet of the jumping central defender Andre Coda and went into the near corner of the goal in front of the desperate eyes of all Udinese players.
Although Handanovic rushed from the far end, he failed to prevent Lu Wenbin's unexpected shooting method and goal.