After the game resumed, Shakhtar Donetsk, who were trailing 0-2, paid more attention to marking Lu Wenbin who scored twice, while also launching a desperate counterattack in the midfield and frontcourt.
The Shakhtar Donetsk were able to reach the UEFA Cup final, having eliminated top five league teams such as Tottenham Hotspur and Marseille along the way. This shows that they are not a soft persimmon that can be bullied by anyone.
In the 39th minute, the Miners launched an efficient counterattack.
Their No. 18 organizing midfielder Lewandowski (not the striker Lewandowski) intercepted Salihovic's dribbling and launched a counterattack. No. 17 striker Luis Adriano dribbled into the penalty area, dodged Jancker's interception and shot into the far corner.
Shakhtar Donetsk pulled one point back and is now only one point behind Hoffenheim.
Suddenly, both the players on the field and the Shakhtar fans in the stands, as well as the Fenerbahce and Galatasaray fans who were cheering for Shakhtar, broke into warm applause and cheers.
Just one goal behind, they can see hope.
However, not long after the Miners scored a goal, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half.
During the half-time break, the commentators explained and analyzed the situation of the final. Most people still believed that Hoffenheim would win and might even resolve the battle within 90 minutes.
Hoffenheim, which has super shooter Lu Wenbin, will make teams like Shakhtar Donetsk basically have one less player before the game even starts, because they have to send at least two people to closely guard Lu Wenbin.
Coupled with the overall strength gap of other players, it is almost impossible for the Shakhtar team from the Ukrainian league to make a comeback.
Even though they are only one goal behind now, there is not much hope.
Because, while they had the possibility of scoring in the second half, Hoffenheim might have scored more goals.
Sure enough, after a 15-minute break, when the two sides changed sides and started fighting again, the Miners inevitably gave other Hoffenheim players more opportunities when they were more closely guarding Lu Wenbin.
In the 57th minute, Salihovic dribbled the ball on the wing, and Lu Wenbin pretended to go forward to meet him, leading the two players who were guarding him closely away from the center.
Then Salihovic made a long pass to the other side of the penalty area, which was received by Eduardo.
Eduardo first used his gorgeous dribbling skills to get past defender Rath who came up to defend and entered the penalty area. Then he made a fake shot in the penalty area, shook the other central defender and the goalkeeper hard, and then passed the ball to the empty space on the other side of the small penalty area.
The unmarked Demba Ba rushed in from outside the penalty area and volleyed the ball into the goal of Shakhtar Donetsk at the corner of the small penalty area before defender Srna who wanted to clear the ball.
Goalkeeper Piatov was shaken by Eduardo and was unable to save the ball in time. He could only watch helplessly as the ball went into the net.
In the 57th minute of the second half, Eduardo assisted striker Demba Ba to score another goal. Hoffenheim led Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1 and regained a two-goal lead.
Hoffenheim fans in the stands were already holding up models of the League Cup and shouting for the championship.
However, as the overlord of the Ukrainian league, Shakhtar Donetsk is not the kind of team that will collapse if it falls behind by two goals, even when facing Bundesliga champions like Hoffenheim.
And they also want to win the championship and win the first European trophy for Shakhtar and Ukraine.
Therefore, the Miners players continued to press frantically, and finally in the 76th minute, midfielder Fernandinho intercepted the ball from Lu Wenbin, who had poor dribbling skills, and launched a successful counterattack.
After Fernandinho intercepted the ball, he passed it to attacking midfielder Judson. As a Brazilian player, Judson also has excellent skills and is the midfield brain and offensive core of the Miners.
Gustavo's attempt to steal the ball was fooled by Judson's bull tail, and then before Nelson came up to steal the ball, Judson made a fake move to pass to forward Adriano, tricking both Nelson and Gustavo towards Adriano's direction.
As a result, Jadson passed the ball horizontally to midfielder Isiño who came in from the other side.
After receiving the ball outside the penalty area, Isigno dribbled past Yaisle and broke into the penalty area. Facing the attacking goalkeeper Ozcan, he calmly shot into the far corner.
Ozcan, who anticipated the near corner, could only sit down without his feet touching the ball.
The ball rolled accurately into the far corner of the goal, and Shakhtar Donetsk once again tenaciously scored a goal, and was only one point behind Hoffenheim.
They saw hope again.
Amid the crazy celebrations of the Miners players and fans, Lu Wenbin in the frontcourt clenched his fists.
The goal that was lost just now started when Fernandinho intercepted the ball, so he is partly responsible for it.
Although no one would blame him, he felt that he should use a goal to make up for the loss and at the same time, completely secure the victory for the team.
It is now the 76th minute and there is little regular game time left. As long as Hoffenheim can score one more goal and regain a two-goal lead, they will definitely secure the victory.
Next, Lu Wenbin increased his running speed and range.
The 19/19 off-ball running gave him the first-mover advantage, and the 14/16 speed was barely enough. Lu Wenbin's running made it even more difficult for the Miners to defend him.
In the 85th minute, Lu Wenbin successfully ran out of the penalty area and received a pass from captain Salihovic and made a powerful long shot.
Fortunately, goalkeeper Piatov performed well and saved the ball from going out of bounds.
Hoffenheim got a corner kick and Shakhtar Donetsk breathed a sigh of relief.
Trailing by only one goal, even if there are only a few minutes left, there is always hope.
If we fall behind by two goals, we can basically declare failure.
Eduardo, who is only 170cm tall, took the corner kick. Taller players such as Salihovic, Parjic, Demba Ba, Jancker and others entered the penalty area to compete for headers. Lu Wenbin stood outside the penalty area as a spectator and had no intention of competing for the corner kick.
Knowing that Lu Wenbin was not good at heading, the Miners did not use two people to guard Lu Wenbin in this corner kick. Only the defensive midfielder Fernandinho was there, and the central defender Kuchel went to the penalty area to guard his colleague Yankel.
However, Eduardo, who was preparing to take a corner kick, looked at the positions of the players from both sides inside and outside the penalty area, then raised his hand and extended four fingers.
This is a corner kick backup tactic that Hoffenheim has never used in a game. The first target is Lu Wenbin.
Because Lu Wenbin is not short now and is very strong, he can hold his position in the penalty area, so Ralph has trained a corner kick tactic with Lu Wenbin as the first landing point.
But after all, Lu Wenbin's heading attribute is only 8/9, and it is difficult for him to score a goal even if he gets the first point, so he didn't practice it much in training, and never used it once in the game.
However, after seeing that the Miners did not guard Lu Wenbin closely during this corner kick, Eduardo wanted to try a new tactic with Lu Wenbin as the first landing point.
On the one hand, the defense Lu Wenbin faced was very loose, and on the other hand, they also wanted to see if Lu Wenbin, who had already scored twice, could score another goal and perform a hat trick in the League Cup final.
Scoring a hat trick in the UEFA Cup final is a remarkable achievement. In the decades of UEFA Cup finals history, only Heynckes in the Borussia Mönchengladbach period has done it.