In Europe, in addition to the media and football legends such as Gerd Muller who came out to congratulate Lu Wenbin on his achievement, even the German Football Association published a congratulatory message on its official website, congratulating Lu Wenbin on breaking Gerd Muller's record.
Of course, in addition to congratulating Lu Wenbin, the Football Association also announced additional penalties for Eduardo's elbowing of his opponent and Daniel Haas' malicious pulling down of the opponent's forward during the game.
Eduardo was given an additional five-match domestic suspension, and Haas was given an additional three-match domestic suspension.
Suddenly, Lu Wenbin’s joy of breaking the record was diluted, and the whole team was filled with gloom.
It doesn't matter for goalkeeper Haas, as he has the better-performing Ozcan and Hildebrand to support him, but Eduardo's additional five-game suspension has dealt a big blow to the team.
A direct red card would have automatically resulted in a one-match suspension, but now he has been suspended for an additional five games, which means Eduardo will be suspended for six games.
According to the schedule of the Bundesliga and the German Cup, Eduardo will not be able to return until more than a month later on May 16, when Hoffenheim plays at home against Bayern Munich in the 33rd round of the Bundesliga.
The suspension of six games and more than a month is too heavy a blow to Hoffenheim.
Eduardo's performance in the attacking midfielder and forward positions is even better and more important than captain Salihovic.
Because Eduardo is a Brazilian player with excellent small skills, his breakthroughs often create many shooting opportunities for himself and his teammates.
Even if he couldn't break through, he would sometimes use dazzling feints to cause the opponent to foul and create free kick opportunities for Lu Wenbin.
Therefore, after the additional penalty was issued, fans of other rival teams secretly gloated over it, which was a bit difficult for Hoffenheim to accept.
General Manager Rothaus immediately initiated the appeal procedure, hoping that the Football Association would reduce or even withdraw the punishment.
However, everyone knows that there is little hope, and Hoffenheim is just making its last effort.
Not to mention whether the decision made by the Football Association will be easily changed, Eduardo's behavior of deliberately elbowing his opponent in the head is too bad.
Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with Grote after the game. If Grote was injured, Eduardo might face a heavier punishment.
Regardless of whether the appeal is successful or not, it is certain that Eduardo will miss several domestic games.
Fortunately, the second round of the UEFA Cup quarter-final against Werder Bremen, although a civil war between two Bundesliga teams, does not belong to the German domestic league and is not under the jurisdiction of the German Football Association.
Therefore, Eduardo can still play in this UEFA Cup match. If Hoffenheim can beat Werder Bremen and advance, he can also play in the semi-finals.
This is not good news among bad news!
In addition to the good news that Eduardo can play in the League Cup, Lu Wenbin also used up his remaining two skill points.
The speed of 12/13 could not be improved to 13/13 through training after all, and could only be increased directly using skill points.
The physique was increased to 18/18 and the speed to 13/13 in order to increase the chances of defeating Werder Bremen in the second round of the UEFA Cup and advancing.
Werder Bremen is a famously nervous team. They can beat Bayern Munich by a large margin at the Allianz Arena, but they can also lose by a large margin to a relegation team at home.
The 2-2 score in the first round of the League Cup did not make Lu Wenbin feel safe and have great hope of advancing in the second round home game.
Therefore, just after a month, he added points to his physique and speed and used up the remaining two skill points, not caring whether others would notice anything unusual.
No matter what, at least more than a month has passed, and it has been gradual progress without adding any points all at once. The outside world may at most wonder if Lu Wenbin's progress is a little too fast, but they will not suspect anything else.
In the match against Bochum, Lu Wenbin received a reward of 30,000 experience points for scoring 3 goals and 20,000 for the team's win, for a total of 50,000 experience points. The experience increased to level 16, 251,000/2 million.
After improving his physique and speed attributes, Lu Wenbin began preparing for the League Cup.
During the training, Lu Wenbin's good physical fitness, confrontation and speed after his full recovery made his teammates feel a little strange, but not obvious.
Moreover, the club's appeal against Eduardo was of no avail. It was ruthlessly rejected by the Football Association right after it was submitted. The fact that Eduardo would be suspended for a total of six domestic matches could not be changed.
Under such circumstances, no one paid much attention to Lu Wenbin's improvement in physique and speed.
The day before the game, on the afternoon of April 14, the entire Werder Bremen team arrived in Rhine-Neckar County.
At the pre-match press conference, head coach Schaff expressed his confidence in winning, and captain Baumann also said that if they could equalize in the last minute of the first round, they would be able to win the second round.
Hoffenheim was naturally not willing to be outdone. Ralph said that he had two away goals in hand and the victory would definitely belong to Hoffenheim.
Eduardo said he will be suspended for more than a month in the upcoming domestic games, so he will focus all his energy on the match against Werder Bremen.
As for ordinary Hoffenheim fans, there is no doubt that they are all proud to have Lu Wenbin, the Bundesliga's single-season top scorer.
When interviewed randomly by reporters, fans expressed confidence that as long as Lu Wenbin is there, Hoffenheim will definitely win and advance.
Moreover, Lu Wenbin will break Gerd Muller's record of 67 goals in a single season in the top five leagues.
The next evening, after 7 p.m., with still dozens of minutes before the game started, the Rhine-Neckar Arena was already full.
There were still thousands of Hoffenheim fans outside without tickets, and they could only ask around if there were any scalpers selling tickets or other fans asking for refunds.
Especially those personal fans who admire Lu Wenbin, there are quite a lot of people coming to this game.
After the match with Bochum, Lu Wenbin not only broke Gerd Muller's single-season Bundesliga goal record, but his total number of goals for the season also reached 66, which is only one goal away from Gerd Muller's single-season total goal record of 67 goals in the top five leagues.
If Lu Wenbin scores one goal in this game, he will tie the record.
If he scores twice, he will break the record.
In the last game, Lu Wenbin scored 41 league goals and became the top scorer in the Bundesliga in a single season. In this game, Lu Wenbin may become the top scorer in the top five leagues.
Therefore, many fans who missed Lu Wenbin's record-breaking battle in the previous game were obviously more positive about this game.
Even many female fans who originally liked Lu Wenbin and were heartbroken when they saw Lu Wenbin and Kate confirmed their relationship, couldn't help but come back to watch the game and Lu Wenbin's record-breaking performance.
Relatively speaking, the football circle is purer than the entertainment circle.