On February 18, 2009, the entire Hoffenheim team flew to Poland to prepare for the match against Lekpsna of the Polish Super League.
At 18:00 on the afternoon of February 19, the 2008/2009 UEFA Cup 1/16 final Hoffenheim away game against Lekpsna officially began.
In order to ensure the safety of the back line, Ralph still sent out a balanced 442 formation in this game, and it was not a diamond formation, but a parallel formation.
In front of Komper, midfielders Gustavo and Wolsa both started to protect him. The other two midfielders were Salihovic and Eduardo on each side. The forward line was still Lu Wenbin and center forward Paljic.
After a few days of adaptive training, with the help of two defensive midfielders, Komper's performance on the defensive line was much better than in the previous game.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that Lekepsner's strength is not as good as Leverkusen.
Even so, Komper is still the weakest link in Hoffenheim's defense and the opponent's main attack point.
Overall, Hoffenheim's defense is not as stable as in the first half of the season, and it is still easy to lose the ball even when facing teams from the Polish league.
The offensive power of the front line also declined a lot due to Ibrahimovic's absence, changes in formation, reduction in the number of attackers, and loss of tacit understanding.
In the 9th minute, Paljic received a pass from Salihovic on the left frontcourt. Lu Wenbin made a timely forward move and tried to get past the offside position and shot after receiving the pass from Paljic.
As a result, Paljic did not think the same as Lu Wenbin and was a step slow to react.
By the time he reacted and passed the ball in front of Lu Wenbin, Lu Wenbin was already offside and missed the chance to shoot.
In the 17th minute, Lu Wenbin received a wonderful pass from Eduardo in the penalty area after he dribbled past two players and shot. However, the opponent's goalkeeper played bravely and saved the shot from going out of bounds.
Hoffenheim's corner kick did not pose any threat and was cleared by the opponent's defender.
After continuous attack, Hoffenheim finally scored a goal in the 22nd minute.
Lu Wenbin, who was closely guarded by two opponents, received a pass from Salihovic at the front of the penalty area and feinted a shot. Instead of forcing a shot, he faked a shot and passed the ball to Eduardo who was running in from the back row.
Eduardo shot the ball into the opponent's goal. Hoffenheim led Lekepsna 1-0 away and scored an away goal.
However, Lekpusna, who are playing at home and top of the Polish Super League standings, are no pushovers. They also want to win and advance to the round of 16.
By continuously attacking Komper's weakness, in the 33rd minute, Lekpsna scored an equalizer through their No. 8 striker Duleski, and the score between the two sides was 1-1.
Afterwards, both sides fell into a stalemate.
Lu Wenbin failed to score with several shots despite being closely marked by two opponents. Lekpsner was also a bit unlucky, and several shots failed to break Hoffenheim's goal. The two sides entered the halftime break with a score of 1-1.
After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and continued the game.
In the 48th minute, Salihovic broke through the wing and his shot hit the crossbar, causing Lekpusna home fans in the stands to exclaim.
In the 56th minute, Lekpsna got a corner kick. Central defender Kigut jumped high to grab the first point and headed the ball, but Ozcan was lucky and positioned perfectly, and directly blocked Kigut's close header. The ball was then cleared by Komper with a long kick, causing sighs from the home fans.
The two sides exchanged blows, and although Hoffenheim's number of attackers decreased, they did not reduce their offensive football style.
Lekpsnaz, who played at home, would not shrink their defense against Hoffenheim, whose back line had loopholes. The offensive battle between the two sides was equally exciting.
In the 67th minute, Lu Wenbin received the ball outside the penalty area and was about to take a long shot, but was pushed down from behind by the opponent's midfielder Tajevis who was guarding him, and the referee awarded a free kick.
Lu Wenbin, who had already used up his system skills in the first half, took the penalty kick himself this time. He was lucky and kicked the ball into the dead corner of the goal with a standard arc shot.
The goalkeeper was unable to catch the ball and could only watch it go into the net.
However, knowing that the away game in the second round was likely to be dangerous and that they could only hope to win at home, Lekepsner did not give up. They continued to attack Hoffenheim, whose defense was unstable.
Finally, more than ten minutes later, in the 82nd minute, Lekpusna's attack paid off. Their midfielder Muroski scored a long-range goal, tying the score to 2-2 again.
Including the extra time, there were only about 10 minutes left until the end of the game.
The draw result was acceptable to Hoffenheim's head coach Ralph. After all, it was an away game with a short supply of players. Hoffenheim was obviously a winner by getting a draw and two away goals.
However, Lu Wenbin will not give up the pursuit of victory.
Because of the draw he will not get the winning bonus, and the winning bonus for the UEFA Cup is as high as 80,000, which is equivalent to four Bundesliga games for one game.
For Lu Wenbin, every League Cup victory is invaluable at a time when promotion is becoming increasingly difficult.
What's more, if we win the away game, the second round at home will be much easier.
Therefore, even if there are only 10 minutes left, Lu Wenbin will not stop attacking, and he will call on his teammates to continue attacking.
Lu Wenbin’s current achievements have earned him a high reputation within the team, and with his own leadership aura, he has a great influence on his teammates.
Therefore, under the leadership of Lu Wenbin, Hoffenheim continued to attack.
Lekpusna, who are playing at home, will naturally not shrink their defense, as they also want to win.
If they can't win at home, then they will have even less hope in the away game in the second round.
In the last 10 minutes, both teams, wanting to score the winning goal, continued to play offensive football, and it all depended on which side would score first.
In the 85th minute, Lekpusna had a shot in the penalty area that hit the goal post, which made Lu Wenbin's teammates and hundreds of away fans in the stands who had traveled with the team break into cold sweats.
But Lu Wenbin didn't care about that. He continued to call on everyone to attack.
Finally, in the 89th minute, Salihovic broke through the flank and made a cross, and Paljic got the first point and headed the ball into the goal.
However, the ball was saved by Lekpsna goalkeeper Durina.
Just when the home fans and players breathed a sigh of relief, Lu Wenbin appeared in front of the ball in the penalty area like a ghost, stretched out his foot and poked the ball into the empty goal where the goalkeeper had already fallen to the ground.
Lu Wenbin ran without the ball 19/19. Even with two people closely guarding him, there were still times when he was careless and gave him opportunities.
This time, Lu Wenbin relied on his own feeling to find the first landing point of the ball blocked by the goalkeeper, completed the shot first and scored a goal.
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