In the 43rd minute, Leverkusen full-back Kadlec snatched the ball from Copado and passed it to midfielder Kroos.
Kroos dribbled the ball straight into the wing, broke through Jaisler and made a cross from the bottom. Leverkusen's center forward Kiessling grabbed the first point in the competition with Hoffenheim center back Jancker and headed the ball to the back post.
No. 9 forward Helmes broke away from Gustavo's defense, followed up with a shot from the middle and scored the ball into Hoffenheim's goal.
Leverkusen equalized the score, with the score at 1-1.
A few minutes after Leverkusen scored a goal, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, and the two sides entered the halftime break with a score of 1-1.
After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and Lu Wenbin was still closely guarded by his opponent.
Although Lu Wenbin's various attributes improved in the second half of the season, due to the attention of his opponents, Lu Wenbin's goals did not increase compared to the first half of the season, but decreased instead.
However, it just decreased, not disappeared.
No one can really completely defend Lu Wenbin, who made 19/19 of his off-ball runs, for 90 minutes, and not give him any chance to shoot.
Not long after the start of the second half, in the 53rd minute, Gustavo intercepted Augusto's ball and passed it to Salihovic, and Hoffenheim launched a counterattack.
Lu Wenbin broke away from the close defense of Rolfes and Friedrich, and received the pass from captain Salihovic in an offside position to get a one-on-one chance.
However, Lu Wenbin received the ball near the midfield, still far from the penalty area line, and goalkeeper Adler did not leave the goal, so Lu Wenbin could not make a lob shot and could only dribble forward.
But Lu Wenbin’s speed is really a flaw, not to mention he is carrying the ball.
Therefore, when approaching the top of the penalty area, Lu Wenbin was caught up by Friedrich, whom he had just left behind. A side-rear tackle was about to break Lu Wenbin's attack.
When Lu Wenbin saw Friedrich out of the corner of his eye, Friedrich's foot was about to touch the ball.
Without time to think, Lu Wenbin could only move the ball forward and then prepare to jump up to avoid it.
But time passed too quickly. Lu Wenbin had just dribbled the ball out and hadn't jumped up completely when Friedrich's foot arrived.
Lu Wenbin's toes were hanging on Friedrich's legs, his body lost balance and fell forward, looking like he was about to fall.
Commentator Dickenson immediately said with regret: "Friedrich caught up with Lu and tackled him! Lu was about to fall, and Hoffenheim lost a one-on-one opportunity."
Hoffenheim's other players and fans in the stands also showed regret, feeling that the opportunity was lost.
The referee also picked up the whistle and was ready to blow the whistle for Friedrich's foul because he did not tackle the ball but instead tackled the opponent's player.
However, just when everyone thought that Lu Wenbin was going to fall to the ground and Friedrich was going to be called for a foul, Lu Wenbin, who fell to the ground, did not give up.
He felt that he could still catch the ball and make a successful shot.
So, as he fell, he pushed his hands against the ground, staggered two steps on the ground, exerted force with both hands, then suddenly stood up and continued to chase the ball.
The referee who was blowing the whistle saw this and immediately gave up blowing the whistle and raised his hands to signal that the game should continue.
Enrique, the central defender who was chasing back at the same time as Friedrich, saw that Lu Wenbin was about to be tackled by Friedrich, so he slowed down and prepared to stop. Unexpectedly, Lu Wenbin did not give up and the referee did not blow the whistle.
Enrique was immediately horrified and quickly accelerated to catch up, but he could only keep pace with Lu Wenbin who was already running. He pulled and collided with him, but could not get ahead to destroy the ball.
Goalkeeper Adler was so frightened that he ran out of the goal, trying to grab the ball before Lu Wenbin.
But Lu Wenbin's actions were so unexpected that Adler and Enrique were a little slow to react.
Otherwise, they should have been able to grab the ball when Lu Wenbin was knocked down by Friedrich and staggered for two steps.
The result was that Lu Wenbin's unexpected persistence and misjudgment led to the loss of the ball.
Lu Wenbin rushed into the penalty area despite Enrique's collision, fell to the ground before Adler, and poked the ball with his toes. The ball went under Adler's crotch and rolled into the goal.
Enrique, who wanted to imitate Friedrich's tackle from the side, failed to tackle the ball. The ball was poked away by Lu Wenbin before he could get his foot to it. Instead, his own instep was kicked by the tip of Lu Wenbin's toes after he poked the ball.
Then Lu Wenbin, Enrique and Adler fell into a ball, and Enrique was holding his instep and screaming in pain.
The referee pointed to the center circle and blew the whistle to signal that the goal was valid.
“Toooooooooooooooooooor…”
Dickenson let out a long roar, and then explained excitedly: "Lu was not tackled by Friedrich. His persistence paid off. He scored the ball before Enrique and Adler, and Hoffenheim regained the lead!"
On the sidelines, in the stands, and in front of the TV, countless Hoffenheim supporters cheered.
Parjic, Demba Ba, Salihovic and others rushed into the restricted area, pulled up Lu Wenbin who was pinned down by Adler, and celebrated wildly.
As for Enrique, who was still holding his instep and groaning, he was no longer within the concern of Hoffenheim players!
Anyway, Lu Wenbin did not commit a foul, so Enrique could only blame himself for his bad luck.
However, after Hoffenheim celebrated for a while, Enrique stood up. In fact, he was not seriously injured, but just wanted to trick the referee to see if Lu Wenbin could be convicted of a foul.
Seeing that his little idea didn't work, he could only stand up quickly and prepare to tee off.
After all, it is Leverkusen who is behind now, and they have to hurry to equalize the score.
After Leverkusen restarted, they launched an attack on Hoffenheim's goal in an attempt to equalize the score.
But Nilsson did perform very well today, and with Copado and Salihovic in the front occasionally retreating to participate in the defense, several of Leverkusen's attacks were disrupted before they could even form a shot.
Even though he had three successful shots, only one hit the goal frame and was saved by Ozcan.
Of course, Lu Wenbin’s role cannot be ignored.
Although he failed to score any more goals, if he stayed in the front, he would have diverted the defensive attention of at least two or three opponents and would not have been able to press forward to assist.
Coupled with the involvement of Paljic and Demba Ba, Leverkusen's defense line did not dare to move forward, resulting in insufficient offensive power.
In the last few dozen minutes, Hoffenheim failed to score again, but Leverkusen failed to equalize the score, dragging the game into overtime.
After 90 minutes, the referee blew the whistle to end the game. Hoffenheim defeated Leverkusen 2-1 away from home in the German Cup semi-finals with goals from Lu Wenbin and Demba Ba, and advanced to the 2008/2009 German Cup final.