Tottenham Hotspur is a Premier League team located in the British capital of London. The match with Arsenal is the famous North London Derby.
Last season, Tottenham ranked 11th in the Premier League and did not enter the European competition zone, but they defeated Chelsea in the English League Cup final to win the championship and qualified for the UEFA Cup.
This time in the UEFA Cup group stage, Tottenham went to Germany to challenge Hoffenheim, which is ranked first in the Bundesliga. It is considered to be a crucial battle between the two strongest teams in Group D for the top spot in the group. The British media has high hopes for Tottenham.
Because of World War II, the matches between England and Germany, whether national teams or clubs, were always full of sparks.
The game has not even started yet, but the media of both countries have already started hyping up this group match.
British media said that Hoffenheim lost to Udinese at home, proving that the Mercedes-Benz Stadium they rented is not Hoffenheim's blessed land for European competitions.
Moreover, in a friendly match before the start of the season, Hoffenheim lost to Blackburn, another Premier League team, proving that Hoffenheim is not good at competing against Premier League teams.
Tottenham will definitely win this group match!
However, the British media reports were ridiculed by the German media: because Tottenham is currently ranked last in the Premier League.
The schedules for the Premier League and Bundesliga this season are similar, and 8 rounds have passed so far.
But after 8 rounds, Hoffenheim has 7 wins in 8 games and is at the top of the Bundesliga standings, while Tottenham has 2 draws and 6 losses in 8 games and only 2 points, ranking last in the Premier League. There is a huge difference.
The last team in the Premier League, who had not won in 8 games, played against the top team in the Bundesliga, away from home, and declared victory. I wonder where the British got their confidence from.
The German media even claimed that Hoffenheim, who was able to stage a miracle comeback in the Italian chain defense, would not win unless they slaughtered Tottenham by more than three goals.
In addition to the overall condition of the two teams, the battle for the golden boy title between two rising football stars is also quite interesting.
Hoffenheim's Lu Wenbin currently ranks first in the Bundesliga scorer list and also performed a hat trick in the UEFA Cup. He is quite famous and has attracted the attention of all mainstream sports media and giants in Europe.
There is also such a person in Tottenham's lineup, named Gareth Bale, who was born in 1989 and is one year older than Lu Wenbin.
Bale is extremely fast, good at breaking through the wing, cutting inside and shooting, and has a good free kick skill. He is the offensive core of Tottenham.
Although the club's performance has not been good recently and Bale's performance has been greatly affected, Bale became famous much earlier than Lu Wenbin.
As early as the age of 16, Bale had already played for the Welsh national team, setting the record for the youngest international player to appear for the Welsh national team.
Before Lu Wenbin came to Europe, Bale had already attracted strong attention from countless European giants.
Everyone predicts that Tottenham will definitely not be able to keep Bale, and Bale's future will definitely be among the top clubs in Europe.
The British media are used to being arrogant. Even though Bale's personal performance is far inferior to Lu Wenbin's at present, they still believe that it is because the competition in the Premier League is too fierce.
If Bale participated in the Bundesliga, he would definitely perform better than Lu Wenbin.
This UEFA Cup group match is a head-to-head confrontation for Bale to prove that he is better than Lu Wenbin.
Lu Wenbin doesn't care about the so-called golden boy competition between him and Bale. As long as the team can win, it's the best.
However, the moment Lu Wenbin saw Bale's photo at the team's internal tactical meeting, he burst out laughing.
Everyone in the conference room looked at each other. Ralph looked at Bell's photo and asked, "Lu, is there anything wrong with this photo?"
Lu Wenbin suppressed his smile and shook his head, “No!”
Ralph asked again, "Then what are you laughing at?"
Lu Wenbin looked at Bell's photo and tried to suppress his smile, saying, "He looks a lot like someone I know. It reminds me of that person right away!"
After hearing what Lu Wenbin said, no one asked any more questions. Ralph continued the meeting, analyzing Tottenham's overall style, the strengths and weaknesses of each main player, and so on.
Only Lu Wenbin, looking at the photo of Bale, slowly confused his image with that of the Monkey King Sun Wukong.
Lu Wenbin felt that Gareth Bale looked very similar to the Sun Wukong he was familiar with.
Perhaps, we can call Bell "The Great Sage" in the future
…
As time passed and the match day approached, more and more fans gathered near the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, including many British fans who came from across the sea.
Mannheim police began to increase police patrols to prevent conflicts between the two sides.
On October 22, Tottenham Hotspur arrived in Mannheim, and head coach Juande Ramos stated at the press conference that he would lead Tottenham to defeat Hoffenheim.
However, Ramos's bold words were scoffed at by German reporters.
How ridiculous it sounds that a head coach who led Tottenham, a traditional Premier League powerhouse, into an eight-game winless streak and last-place ranking in the league, wants to lead Tottenham to defeat Hoffenheim, the leader of the Bundesliga, away from home.
On the afternoon of October 23, when both sides were warming up on half of the field, Lu Wenbin took a closer look at Gareth Bale, and his face really looked like Sun Wukong.
He is truly the European version of the Monkey King!
In the stands, more than 1,000 Tottenham fans were isolated in a corner by the police, and they cursed at each other with Hoffenheim fans across the police.
Although there is a strong match between Schalke 04 and Paris Saint-Germain in this round of the UEFA Cup group stage, it is obvious that German fans want to watch the England-Germany battle more.
Therefore, the match between Hoffenheim and Tottenham Hotspur at home was selected by the German Sports TV as a live broadcast and broadcast nationwide.
Of course, television stations in the UK, China, and the home countries of some of the two teams' star players also broadcast the game live.
The England-Germany battle at club level is about to begin!
After warming up, we returned to the locker room to change jerseys and prepare for the game.
At around 18:20, both teams came out under the leadership of the referee, played the League Cup theme song, took photos and shook hands.
When Lu Wenbin shook hands with Gareth Bale at close range, he stared at his face for two seconds, which made Bale look confused.
People who don’t know may think that Lu Wenbin is concerned about the competition between him and Bale for the Golden Boy title, but in fact, Lu Wenbin is trying to hold back his smile while looking at the real-life version of the Monkey King.
After shaking hands, the captains of both teams tossed a coin to choose the side under the supervision of the referee. Hoffenheim got the right to choose the side, and Salihovic chose the goal where his loyal fans were as the direction of attack.
At that time, as long as you score a goal, you can celebrate with the fans immediately.
Tottenham Hotspur got the right to kick off and had the advantage of opening the attack.
However, in fact, things like choosing sides and kick-off rights have little impact on the overall game. Everyone still competes on overall strength and luck.
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