Back to the team itself, everyone in Hoffenheim breathed a sigh of relief after winning the Bundesliga championship ahead of schedule.
Now we can put the league aside and devote all our energy to the Champions League.
The players are obviously more motivated for the Champions League than winning the Bundesliga title.
They won the Bundesliga championship once last season, but have never won the Champions League.
Moreover, the Champions League is recognized as the competition with the highest technical and tactical level in football. For many weak players in national teams, they treat the Champions League as the World Cup.
After winning the Bundesliga title, they returned to Hoffenheim and celebrated for one night, took a day off the next day, trained at their own base for a day on April 16, and then went to Munich on the 17th to train and prepare for the game at the training base of Bayern's arch-rival Munich 1860.
In the Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich, Hoffenheim will play away first and then at home, which gives them the advantage of the schedule.
Just as Hoffenheim was preparing for the match at the 1860 training base in Munich, the first leg of another Champions League semi-final was over on April 18.
Due to the influence of the Icelandic volcanic ash that filled the sky over the European continent, European flights were suspended one after another. Barcelona was unable to take a plane and could only take its own bus to reach Italy by land. The players were tired and exhausted from the journey.
Mourinho's Inter Milan was well rested at home and gave it their all.
In the end, Inter Milan defeated Barcelona 3-1 in the first leg of the semi-final, giving Guardiola his biggest defeat in two years since taking office, while also gaining an advantage on the road to the final.
Next, it will depend on the performances of Hoffenheim and Bayern Munich.
Hoffenheim was not affected by the volcanic ash.
Also in Germany, Hoffenheim is only more than 3 hours' drive from Munich, so there is no need to take a plane.
What's more, Hoffenheim arrived in Munich two days in advance on their own bus and had enough time to rest.
Hoffenheim will not have the problem of fatigue from long-distance car journeys like Barcelona did.
On the evening of April 19, the Allianz Arena in Munich was packed with more than 10,000 Hoffenheim fans, but only more than 5,000 bought tickets to enter the stadium. The others could only gather outside and watch the live broadcast on the big screen in the square.
Except for the more than 5,000 seats occupied by Hoffenheim fans, all other seats were filled with Bayern Munich's home fans and neutral spectators.
The war is about to break out.
After the entrance ceremony, handshakes, group photos and side selection, at 19:45 in the evening of April 19, with the referee's whistle, the first round of the 2009/2010 Champions League semi-final between Bayern Munich and Hoffenheim officially began at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
As expected, Bayern Munich adopted the same 541 defensive counterattack formation as Lyon, completely disregarding their status as the Bundesliga overlord and the face of playing at home.
Van Gaal deployed seven experienced players, Demichelis, Van Buyten, Contento, Badstuber, Lahm, Schweinsteiger and Van Bommel, in the backcourt for defense, while there were only two wingers, Ribery and Robben, and one striker, Thomas Muller, in the frontcourt.
This is the revelation that the first round of the quarter-final between Lyon and Hoffenheim gave us.
In that game, Lyon successfully froze Lu Wenbin in the open play, and in the end Lu Wenbin helped Hoffenheim equalize the score with a free kick by some luck.
Although Lyon suffered a crushing defeat in the second round, that was largely due to the sudden improvement in Lu Wenbin's dribbling ability that caught them off guard.
In particular, the wonderful goal scored by Lu Wenbin after dribbling past six players in 9.67 seconds at the start of the game dealt a great psychological blow to the Lyon players, leaving them stunned and leading to the final 1-6 defeat.
But Lyon's defense was quite successful in the first round, and the score of 1-6 in the second round was not a true comparison of the strength of the two sides.
The conclusion everyone came to was that Lu Wenbin's personal ability was indeed outstanding, but the defending side could use more people to defend.
In particular, the 541 defensive counterattack formation can pile more players within 30 meters of the backcourt, leaving no space for Lu Wenbin to run and break through near the penalty area, which can greatly limit Lu Wenbin's performance.
Although there were teams that played defensive counterattacks in the past, none of those teams had the strength of Lyon and could carry out the defensive counterattacks so thoroughly, so they could not limit Lu Wenbin.
Therefore, the first round of the Champions League quarter-final between Lyon and Hoffenheim is very worthy of reference.
Bayern Munich copied this formation.
Moreover, the individual strength of their backcourt players is much higher than that of Lyon.
Demichelis, Van Buyten, Contento, Lahm, Van Bommel and others are all famous defensive stars. Although Schweinsteiger plays as an organizing midfielder, he also has certain defensive capabilities.
At least, there is no problem in blocking and interfering.
When Bundesliga giants like Bayern Munich had to lower their dignity and launch a 541 defensive counterattack, the defensive intensity that Lu Wenbin and Hoffenheim faced increased by more than one level.
Although Lu Wenbin's personal breakthroughs were still extremely sharp, he was unable to break through Bayern's entire defense line, and Eduardo and others were even less able to do so.
In the 8th minute, Lu Wenbin broke through Van Bommel and Contento in succession and was about to enter the penalty area, but Van Buiten fell to the ground and tackled the ball that Lu Wenbin had dribbled away.
Even with Lu Wenbin's full dribbling ability, he couldn't control the ball to an exact level. In a split second, his pass was sometimes blocked by his opponent if he took a little too far.
Bayern's defense, the players' individual strength and coordination are much better than Lyon's.
Hoffenheim could only look for opportunities by passing the ball back and forth on the outside, and Lu Wenbin's occasional breakthroughs were unable to penetrate Bayern's defense and form a shot.
It was not until the 16th minute that Hoffenheim completed its first shot.
As a result, Lu Wenbin's shot was blocked by Demichelis with his legs in the penalty area and hit the post, posing no threat to goalkeeper Butt.
In the subsequent corner kick, Hoffenheim failed to get the first point and was headed out of the penalty area by Bayern players.
However, although this corner kick did not result in an initial shot, Lu Wenbin felt that he had found a way to break through the dense defense.
He has just added a heading attribute, and his off-ball running, physique, and jumping ability allow him to compete for headers in the penalty area as well as other players, so there is a possibility that he can score a goal from a corner kick.
Therefore, in the following time, Lu Wenbin reduced the number of dribbling breakthroughs and increased the number of long shots outside the penalty area.
As long as he has the ball, he doesn't need to dribble past two or three opponents, as long as he dribble past one or two, or even if he doesn't dribble past anyone, he will take a long shot as long as there is an angle.
On the one hand, try to get the probability of scoring from long shots, and on the other hand, try to get corner kicks.
(asking for monthly ticket)