In the first half, Hoffenheim led Schalke 04 2-0 at home thanks to Lu Wenbin's two goals, taking the lead in victory and advancement.
However, Schalke 04, unwilling to be eliminated, would not surrender even though they were already trailing 0-2.
They also took advantage of the loopholes in the new central defender combination of Komper and Jancker to launch a fierce attack and scored a goal in the 42nd minute, making the score 2-1 and Hoffenheim leading by 1 goal.
Afterwards, both sides entered the halftime break with this score.
In the second half, Lu Wenbin continued to run over a large area, but the forehead collision in the first half still affected Lu Wenbin's feeling of playing football.
In the 73rd minute, Lu Wenbin had a shot in the penalty area. Although he avoided Neuer's save, the shot hit the post and bounced back into the penalty area and was cleared by the opponent's defender.
Lu Wenbin thought he could score the goal, but unexpectedly it went a little off in the end. This made Lu Wenbin realize that the injury on his forehead still affected his shooting feeling.
Therefore, Lu Wenbin then began to consciously move the two Schalke defenders Ernst and Krstajic who followed him to both sides, leaving space in the middle for Eduardo, Copado, Parjic, Demba Ba and others.
In the 84th minute, Lu Wenbin received the ball at the corner of the penalty area on the left and pretended to break into the penalty area, which attracted Ernst, who was marking Lu Wenbin, to rush into the penalty area in advance to block him. However, Lu Wenbin passed the ball horizontally to the top of the penalty area.
Eduardo received the pass from Lu Wenbin and made a shooting motion, which once again attracted the attention of most people. He shook Neuer and the Schalke defender in the penalty area, leaving Demba Ba who rushed into the penalty area on the other side completely unguarded.
Then, Eduardo, who was faking a shot but actually passing the ball, pushed the ball to the corner of the small penalty area on the other side.
Demba Ba rushed into the penalty area from the right and shot without stopping when there was no one guarding him. The ball went straight to the near end of the goal. Neuer, who was shaken by Eduardo, reacted quickly and still jumped to the ball, but failed to catch it.
Demba Ba's shot was fast and powerful. Although the ball was touched by Neuer's fingertips, it still rolled towards the goal.
The ball finally bounced off the inside post and rolled into the net.
In the 84th minute, Eduardo's assist and Demba Ba's goal helped Hoffenheim lead Schalke 04 3-1.
With a two-goal lead and little time left, Ralph replaced Lu Wenbin, who had a forehead injury, with Weiss, changed to 442, and began to balance the defense.
Although there were no goals or assists in the second half, the fans still gave Lu Wenbin a warm round of applause when he left the field, paying tribute to the new captain who continued to fight despite a minor injury.
In the end, Hoffenheim, with everyone working together, successfully defended the score of 3-1 until the end. Hoffenheim defeated Schalke 04 3-1 at home and advanced to the semi-finals of the 2008/2009 German Cup.
Lu Wenbin also received 2 goals 4000 + wins 4000, a total of 8000 experience points for the German Cup single game reward, and the experience increased to level 15 861,000/1 million.
After the game, Lu Wenbin's injury touched the hearts of many Hoffenheim fans and his fans.
Fortunately, after a more detailed examination, it was confirmed that Lu Wenbin only had skin injuries and was fine, so everyone was relieved.
In addition to Lu Wenbin's injury, the outside media and fans were also very concerned about Hoffenheim's situation in this game where the main players were fully fielded despite being full of injured players.
Is this an attempt to win the German Cup
To this question, Ralf, who has advanced to the semi-finals of the German Cup, gave a positive answer.
In the German Cup, where all matches are decided in one go, after reaching the semi-finals, there is only one semi-final and one final left to win the championship. What team would say they don't want to win the championship after advancing to the semi-finals
That doesn't fool anyone.
Once a competition reaches the semi-finals, there is no talk of giving up, even for Ralph and others who originally wanted to give up.
After all, it is a championship title. Even if the team won it last season, the coaching staff can only start to do their best to plan for the semi-finals and finals and strive to win the championship.
Therefore, regarding the German Cup, Ralph gave the reporter an affirmative answer that Hoffenheim will definitely strive for the championship.
However, as for the UEFA Cup, Ralph threw a smoke bomb, claiming that Hoffenheim, who is now full of injured players, does not have the ability to advance on three fronts at the same time and can only give up the UEFA Cup.
It would be best if we could paralyze the opponent in the next game.
What Ralph didn’t know was that his words actually fooled Zenit St. Petersburg, their opponent in the quarter-finals.
After all, the UEFA Cup has only entered the 1/8 finals, and it is a home and away double round-robin tournament, so it is still a long way from the championship.
Hoffenheim, who is full of injured players, now has to fight not only for the league championship, but also for the German Cup. It would be unreasonable to take the UEFA Cup into consideration as well.
Therefore, the players and coaches of Zenit St. Petersburg who saw the news were secretly delighted, thinking that they would get a bargain and could easily advance to the quarterfinals of this season's UEFA Cup.
Although training and preparations are going on as normal, the coaches and players are indeed a little lax in their mental focus.
Three days after the match with Schalke 04, Hoffenheim faced the 23rd round of the Bundesliga.
Because the next game is the first round of the UEFA Cup round of 16, Ralph rotated many players in this league match against Werder Bremen.
Center forward Paljic was replaced by Sanogo, forward Demba Ba was replaced by the returning Obasi, midfielder Copado was replaced by Teber, and defender Sotlau was replaced by Ibertsberg.
Only Lu Wenbin remains the unshakable main force.
Rotating so many players in the midfield and frontcourt naturally reduced the team's offensive power.
Fortunately, Eduardo and Lu Wenbin, who had the best cooperation, were still on the court. With the two of them cooperating in a small area in the penalty area in the 59th minute of the second half, Lu Wenbin assisted Eduardo with a fake shot and a real pass, scoring Hoffenheim's only goal.
In this game, Komper played very well, withstanding Werder Bremen's attack and with the help of his teammates, he did not allow the opponent to score a goal.
Komper is getting better and better as a guest center back.
In the end, Lu Wenbin only had one assist and no goals, and Hoffenheim only managed a difficult 1-0 victory at home, but at least they got 3 points.
However, even though Hoffenheim won by a narrow margin of 3 points, the price they paid was not small.
Not only did Obasi not perform well in his first start after his comeback, he also failed to last the entire game. In the 74th minute, he strained his muscles again. After the game, it was confirmed that he needed to rest for at least another month.
Having said that, no one has much hope for him because of his recurring muscle strain. It is estimated that like Ibrahimovic, he will not be able to contribute anything to the team by the end of the season.