Three days later, on May 3, Hoffenheim faced Wolfsburg in the 30th round of the Bundesliga.
Originally, this match was supposed to be a peak showdown between the first and second place in the standings, but because the two League Cup semi-finals were too close, this league game was an away game, and the points lead in the league was too large, Ralph was fearless and directly rotated most of the main lineup and gave up this game.
Even Lu Wenbin, who had plenty of energy, did not start, but sat on the bench.
Although the German Football Association brought the championship salad bowl to Wolfsburg's home stadium, the Volkswagen Arena, Hoffenheim, who played with most of their substitute lineup, still lost 0-2 to Wolfsburg away and failed to win the championship in advance.
Although some fans were inevitably disappointed, there was no impact on Hoffenheim's team.
This game had been abandoned in the first place, as their minds had already been focused on the next UEFA Cup match against Hamburg.
It would actually be even more satisfying if we could advance to the final of the next UEFA Cup semi-final and then win the championship at the Rhein-Neckar Arena in front of tens of thousands of Hoffenheim fans when the league returns to our home ground.
After returning to the base, Hoffenheim took a day off, trained for two days, and then flew to Hamburg on the afternoon of the 6th to prepare for the second round of the UEFA Cup semi-final.
Before the match between Hoffenheim and Hamburg started, the second leg of the other semi-final had already been decided.
Two teams from the Ukrainian Super League, Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv, also staged a domestic civil war in the semi-finals. In the end, Shakhtar Donetsk defeated Dynamo Kyiv with a total score of 3-2 in two rounds and advanced to the final of this season's UEFA Cup.
The winner between Hoffenheim and Hamburg will compete with Shakhtar Donetsk in the final for the final UEFA Cup title.
In everyone's general impression, Ukrainian teams should be weaker than the teams in the top five leagues.
No matter which of Hoffenheim and Hamburg advances to the final, they have a great chance of defeating Shakhtar and winning the championship.
Therefore, even if they lost by three goals in the first round, Hamburg would not give up easily.
At 8:00 p.m. on May 7, the second leg of the 2008/2009 UEFA Cup semi-final between Hamburg and Hoffenheim was held at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg.
The total score of 4-1 allows Hoffenheim to choose tactics calmly without taking the risk of attacking the opponent.
Therefore, Ralph chose the 442 double defensive midfielder formation to strengthen the defense, lure the enemy out of their hole, and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack.
Hamburg had no choice but to press forward and attack.
90 minutes, a 3-goal gap, we must seize the time!
But the main central defender combination of Jancker and Nilsson, the double defensive midfielder protection of Gustavo and Wolsa, plus the two full-backs and the support of Eduardo and Salihovic, is not so easy to break through.
For a full 20 minutes, the Hamburg team, which was attacking aggressively, did not have a single threatening shot.
Only No. 9 striker Guerrero's long shot from outside the penalty area hit the goal frame, but it was weak and slow, posing no threat at all, and was easily caught by Ozcan, who held it in his arms.
On the contrary, Hoffenheim made a threatening shot within the goal frame through Lu Wenbin in the 14th minute.
However, Hamburgers should be thankful that their goalkeeper Rost performed well and reflexively used a Banks-style save to save Lu Wenbin's shot that was heading straight into the blind corner.
Otherwise, Hoffenheim would have scored first and eliminated Hamburg's away goal advantage.
However, Hamburg does have some advantages playing at home.
The familiar venue, the enthusiastic fan atmosphere, the referee's certain degree of favoritism, etc., all had a certain impact on the players' performance. The Hamburg team, which persisted in attacking, finally scored a goal.
In the 27th minute, Hamburg got a corner kick. The shorter De Jong asked Boateng to go to the penalty area to head the ball, and he only had to guard Lu Wenbin.
It was the 192cm tall Boateng who jumped high in the penalty area and headed the corner kick from his teammate Trochowski into Hoffenheim's goal.
The distance was too close, and Ozcan just dived reflexively, but still failed to catch the ball.
Hamburg scored a goal and tied the aggregate score to 2-4, just 2 goals away.
Tens of thousands of Hamburg fans at the scene cheered loudly, as if they saw hope of a reversal and advancement.
However, Hamburg was always behind, they had to continue attacking, and then the backcourt left Hoffenheim with too many counterattack opportunities.
In the 33rd minute, Hamburg's attack was interrupted. Wolsa made a flying tackle on Guerrero and passed the ball under his feet to Gustavo without any foul.
Gustavo passed the ball to Eduardo in the midfield before another opponent's player could come up to steal the ball.
The moment Eduardo received the ball, Lu Wenbin first approached Eduardo's position and pretended to receive the ball. After De Jong and Boateng caught up, he suddenly turned around and rushed towards the backcourt of Hamburg.
Eduardo, who cooperated well with the opponent, did not stop the ball. He turned around and made an overhead pass. The ball flew over the heads of De Jong and Boateng and landed in Hamburg's half.
Lu Wenbin was not offside, he successfully got the ball in the frontcourt and started to dribble forward.
However, Lu Wenbin's speed is a fatal flaw. De Jong and another central defender who turned and rushed over were almost catching up with Lu Wenbin.
Lu Wenbin knew that his speed was too slow and his opponent must be much faster than him when running without the ball.
Therefore, Lu Wenbin did not want to learn from Ronaldo to dribble past several players, pass the goalkeeper and then shoot the ball into the empty goal.
Besides, his dribbling skills are not good enough for the Bundesliga and UEFA Cup, so he doesn't dare to do those fancy moves and waste time.
Anyway, the strength brought by his 18/18 physique is enough for him to make powerful long shots outside the penalty area.
Therefore, when De Jong on the left had caught up with Lu Wenbin about 30 meters away from the goal and started to reach out to pull him, Lu Wenbin determined the position of goalkeeper Rost while running, swung his thighs, and kicked the ball out with all his strength, then lost his balance and was pulled to the ground by De Jong.
But the ball shot by Lu Wenbin dodged Rost's save like an arrow and flew straight towards the goal.
Because he was preparing to save Lu Wenbin's one-on-one shot, Rost stood a little forward, and Lu Wenbin's world-class shot from outside the penalty area was powerful and fast, giving Rost very little time to save the shot.
By the time Rost pounced on the ball, the ball had already passed his palm and flew towards the goal.
Then, under the desperate eyes of tens of thousands of Hamburg fans and the excited gaze of thousands of Hoffenheim fans, the ball flew directly into the net.