In the 23rd round of the Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen, in addition to Obasi's injury again, Eduardo was also shown a yellow card in this game and will be suspended for one game in the next league match against Frankfurt due to accumulated yellow cards.
The road to the triple crown that Lu Wenbin insisted on was indeed hellishly difficult.
Fortunately, although it was a hard win, we won in the end and got 3 points.
After this round of the league, Hoffenheim continued to top the Bundesliga standings with 55 points, followed by Hertha Berlin, which also had 46 points, and Wolfsburg and Hamburg, which came from behind and had 42 points each. Bayern Munich dropped to fifth with 40 points.
Hoffenheim continues to lead the second place by 9 points, and the championship seems to be getting closer as the number of league rounds decreases.
However, after this round of the league, Hoffenheim still has a first-round match in the UEFA Cup round of 16 before the next round.
This match is where Lu Wenbin has a chance to advance to level 16.
In the match against Werder Bremen, Lu Wenbin received 1 assist 5000+ and 20,000 wins, a total of 25,000 experience points as a reward. The experience points increased to level 15 886,000/1 million, and he only needs 120,000 experience points to reach level 16.
In the League Cup, winning a game is worth 80,000 and scoring a goal is worth 40,000. As long as Lu Wenbin scores a goal and leads the team to victory, he can upgrade and receive skill point rewards to increase his physical attributes.
By then, Lu Wenbin's physical fitness, confrontation, etc. will be able to reach a higher level, and he will be able to persist until the end of the season without rotation.
Hoffenheim played at home in the first round of the UEFA Cup round of 16, and the schedule was relatively unfavorable.
On March 11, when Zenit St. Petersburg arrived in Rhine-Neckar County, head coach Advocaat expressed the team's confidence in eliminating Hoffenheim and advancing to the quarterfinals at the pre-match press conference.
Advocat's confidence is multifaceted.
First of all, Zenit St. Petersburg was the UEFA Cup champion last season, and it eliminated Bayern Munich 5-1 in two legs in the semi-finals to advance to the final, which was regarded as a shame in European competitions by Bayern.
At that time, Bayern Munich was also the first in the Bundesliga, and the coach was also Advocaat. He led the team to beat Bayern by a large margin, advance to the final and eventually win the championship.
Later, Advocaat led Zenit to defeat the Champions League champions Manchester United in the European Super Cup, which made him even more famous.
Therefore, Advocaat's confidence in defeating Hoffenheim, who are at the top of the Bundesliga standings, and advancing to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup has its source.
Add to that the continuous injuries of Hoffenheim's main players, Ralph's remarks about giving up the League Cup, Obasi's injury again after his comeback in a game, and the more favorable schedule for Zenit of playing away first and then at home, and it is no wonder that Advocaat is full of confidence.
Ralph took advantage of Advocaat's remarks, pretended to be unhappy, said a few words in a hurry and left without even announcing the starting lineup.
It was not until one hour before the game that the starting lineup had to be submitted to UEFA for broadcast by live broadcast agencies and announced on the official website of the League Cup that everyone realized Ralph had lied.
In this game, all of Hoffenheim's main players, including Lu Wenbin, Demba Ba, Eduardo, Beck and Gustavo, played. How could they look like they were going to give up the UEFA Cup
Journalists who support Hoffenheim are naturally worried. They fear that if Hoffenheim insists on fighting on three fronts under the current circumstances, it will eventually lead to a total collapse and lose all four.
The media and fans who support other Bundesliga teams are gloating, hoping that Hoffenheim will focus its main energy on the League Cup, which would lead to the collapse of the Bundesliga and the loss of the championship.
In particular, the media and fans of Hertha Berlin, Wolfsburg, Hamburg and Bayern Munich, which are in the second tier of the standings, are most hoping to see Hoffenheim collapse so that they can reverse the situation and overtake Hoffenheim in the league.
As for Zenit St. Petersburg, they were indeed surprised after receiving Hoffenheim's starting lineup and had no time to make targeted tactical modifications.
However, they were not scared.
Because they also defeated Bayern Munich, the top team in the Bundesliga, last season, and Hoffenheim had some objective shortcomings in this game that could not be solved by Ralph lying.
For example, the coordination between Komper and the back line, the coordination between Paljic and the front attack line, etc., are all objective shortcomings and there is no way to lie.
Therefore, Advocaat told his players not to be afraid of Hoffenheim, because Zenit is the defending champion and they don't have to be afraid of anyone.
The players just took advantage of Komper's weakness and bombarded him as much as possible, trying to score as many away goals as possible. It would be even better if they could win away in the end.
At 9 p.m. on March 12th, local time in Germany, with the referee's whistle, the first round of the 2008/2009 UEFA Cup quarter-final between Hoffenheim and Zenit St. Petersburg officially began at home.
Hoffenheim continued to play offensive football under the leadership of Lu Wenbin. Zenit St. Petersburg, who wanted to take advantage of Komper's weakness to score an away goal, also played offensive football.
The two sides fought a fierce offensive battle in the Rhine-Neckar Arena, which was full of passion and made the neutral fans quite excited.
After all, Hoffenheim was playing at home, so they had a greater advantage and were the first to enter the game and score a goal.
In the 13th minute, full-back Baker made a forward pass and cut inside about 20 meters from the baseline. He made a fake move to pass the ball to Lu Wenbin but passed the ball to Demba Ba instead.
Demba Ba fired a powerful long-range shot from outside the penalty area and penetrated the goal guarded by Russian goalkeeper Malafeev.
Hoffenheim led 1-0 at home through Demba Ba's goal.
However, Zenit did not panic. Losing the ball away from home was within their expectations. They still persisted in seizing the opportunity and launched a fierce attack on Komper.
However, they have not been able to make any progress with Compere.
On the one hand, Komper has made great progress in the central defender position in terms of personal ability and tacit understanding with teammates. On the other hand, after Zenit St. Petersburg won the UEFA Cup last season, core players such as Arshavin and Shchuk left the team at the end of the season and landed in the top five leagues. Zenit's offensive power has declined a lot compared with last season.
In the 21st minute, they had a chance to shoot after breaking through Komper, but striker Pugn's shot was blocked by Ozcan, causing laughter from Hoffenheim fans in the stands.
It has to be said that Zenit's success last season relied more on the outstanding performance of the golden generation such as Arshavin.
After these core players left this season, it would be really difficult for Advocaat to lead Zenit to defeat Hoffenheim, the first in the Bundesliga, and replicate the brilliant results of last season.
Even if Hoffenheim itself is in a bad situation, it will be difficult for the Russian team to eliminate the Bundesliga's number one team.
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