After the Golden Boy Award ceremony, at 17:00 on the afternoon of December 14, with the referee's whistle, the 17th round of the 2008/2009 Bundesliga season, the last round of the league before the winter break, Hoffenheim's home game against Schalke 04 officially began.
Schalke 04 is a strong and established Bundesliga team with a long history. Before this round of games, it was ranked 7th in the Bundesliga standings this season, which is a good ranking.
In addition to Bayern Munich's demonstration of how to freeze Lu Wenbin, Schalke 04 head coach Rutten shouted before the game that he could also freeze Lu Wenbin and lead the team to defeat Hoffenheim.
However, the fact is that the two players he sent out were not as defensively strong as Bayern's Oteri and Demichelis.
After the game started, although Schalke 04 also sent out No. 8 midfielder Ernst and No. 20 defender Krstajic to jointly mark Lu Wenbin, the effect was not as good as Bayern Munich.
Sacrificing two people to specifically guard Lu Wenbin will definitely have an effect, but it cannot achieve the same effect as Bayern's Oter and Demichelis in guarding Lu Wenbin, which allowed Lu Wenbin to get many opportunities to receive the ball and shoot.
Facing Lu Wenbin's 19/19 off-ball running, Ernst and Krstajic's man-marking awareness, defensive cooperation, etc. were somewhat different from the combination of Oter and Demichelis.
If Schalke 04 didn't have a goalkeeper, Hoffenheim would have scored a goal long ago.
In the 8th minute, Lu Wenbin broke away from the defense of Entes and Krstajic in the corner of the penalty area and received a header from Ibisevic. He volleyed the ball without stopping and almost scored a goal.
Fortunately, Schalke 04 goalkeeper Neuer made a world-class save like a goalkeeper, and Lu Wenbin's volley shot that was within the goal frame went out of bounds.
Otherwise, Lu Wenbin would have scored a goal in the 8th minute.
In the last round of the league, the team failed to win the away game against Bayern as they failed to score a single goal. Many people believed that they had found a way to freeze Lu Wenbin and deal with Hoffenheim, which in itself made Lu Wenbin full of fighting spirit and want to prove himself in this round of games.
In addition, since he received the Golden Boy Award in front of so many people before the game and his girlfriend Kate was sitting in the stands, Lu Wenbin could not tolerate being laughed at.
In today's game, Lu Wenbin really wanted to score a goal and lead the team to victory, proving that their tactics against Hoffenheim and himself were ineffective.
The minimum goal is to help the team win.
Lu Wenbin has confidence in his teammates on this point.
After a year of getting along, Lu Wenbin has no doubts about his teammates' abilities. Even without him, these teammates are capable of gaining a foothold in the Bundesliga, as evidenced by the two goals they scored at the Allianz Arena in the last round of the league.
The opponent will heavily guard him, which will inevitably create loopholes and gaps in other places, creating shooting opportunities for Lu Wenbin's teammates.
He doesn't believe that Schalke 04 has the defensive and offensive strength of Bayern Munich, and can concede fewer goals when outnumbered, and can also counterattack, and finally tie with or even defeat Hoffenheim.
No matter how great Neuer is, he is just a goalkeeper, not a bus, and he cannot completely block the goal that is more than 7 meters wide.
He was able to save Lu Wenbin's first sure goal, so Lu Wenbin looked for the next opportunity and assisted his teammates in the attack.
Anyway, after this game, it will be the winter break, so there is no need to conserve any energy. Lu Wenbin released all his energy in this game without hesitation.
Next, he not only took Ernst and Krstajic around to disrupt Schalke 04's defense and create opportunities for his teammates, but he also occasionally got shooting opportunities by running without the ball 19/19.
As Ralph said, Hoffenheim is not Lu Wenbin's team alone.
When Lu Wenbin's shooting chances were greatly reduced under the defense of two opponents, other Hoffenheim players began to get more opportunities to perform.
Eduardo, Salihovic, Ibisevic, Demba Ba, Gustavo, Beck and others launched wave after wave of attacks on Schalke 04's defense amid the cheers of the home fans, with an average shot every four or five minutes.
However, what is unexpected is that Hoffenheim has not scored a goal despite such a powerful offensive.
In the 11th minute, Demba Ba successfully made an offside move and almost got a one-on-one opportunity by receiving a through ball from Salihovic, but unfortunately Neuer made an early move and kicked the ball out of the sideline outside the penalty area.
In the 14th minute, Lu Wenbin had a chance to shoot from outside the penalty area, but this time the shot was blocked by Entes' body and missed the goal post.
In the 19th minute, Hoffenheim's full-back Beck dribbled the ball to the bottom and made a cross. Ibisevic got the first point, but unfortunately his header from close range was miraculously deflected over the crossbar by Neuer.
In the 21st minute, Hoffenheim won a free kick in the frontcourt. Lu Wenbin activated the system skill and kicked the free kick straight into the dead corner of the goal, but Neuer predicted and moved in advance to save it.
In the 23rd minute, Ibisevic received a wonderful pass from Salihovic in the penalty area, turned around and shot, and the ball went straight to the dead corner. Unfortunately, Neuer, who reacted quickly, made a world-class save and the ball went out of the baseline.
In the 26th minute, Lu Wenbin successfully made an offside move at the front of the penalty area and had a one-on-one chance, but before he could shoot, the ball was saved by Neuer who had made an early attack.
…
Hoffenheim had not scored a single goal until the 40th minute of the first half.
Schalke 04's 22-year-old goalkeeper Manuel Neuer performed brilliantly today, making many wonderful, even world-class saves and keeping all of Hoffenheim's shots out.
Neuer's performance reminded everyone of his performance in Porto's home game against Schalke 04 in the Champions League last season.
In that game, Schalke 04 performed poorly and was beaten by Porto.
But Neuer stood in front of the goal and blocked many of Porto's sure goals, dragging the game into a penalty shootout.
In the penalty shootout, Neuer saved two penalties from the opponent, completely eliminating Porto. At the same time, he led Schalke 04 into the quarterfinals of the 07/08 Champions League, creating the best record in the team's history in the Champions League.
Today, Neuer seemed to be in an extraordinary state due to Hoffenheim's endless attack. He made a series of amazing saves, which made the commentators think of Neuer's famous battle at Porto's Dragon Stadium.
The commentators in the commentary booth were all discussing that after the Lion King Kahn, German football might have another world-class goalkeeper.
Lu Wenbin, the sharpest spear who ranks first in the Bundesliga scorer list, will not only be marked by two opponent's defenders, but will also encounter the best goalkeeper and the toughest shield in all the games he has participated in.
Everyone is full of doubts and curiosity as to whether Lu Wenbin, the sharpest spear in the Bundesliga, can break free from the defense of Enters and Krstajic and break through Neuer's strong shield.