On April 1st, Schalke 04 went to Huocun.
The reason why it is called Huo Village is because Hoffenheim is just a village in the city of Sinsheim, and on the map of Germany, even Sinsheim is difficult to find, let alone Hoffenheim.
Hoffenheim has a train station, but the trains passing here are only old country lines, and the entire village has a population of only more than 3,000. However, as Hoffenheim was promoted to the Bundesliga and has a brilliant record, the team's home court also Moving to the Rhein-Neckar Arena in Sinsheim, the people of Sinsheim naturally regarded Hoffenheim as their home team.
This game touches the hearts of many people.
Dortmund ranked first with 63 points, Bayern Munich ranked third with 60 points, and Schalke scored 62 points.
If Schalke wins this game, it will be 64 points, directly surpassing Dortmund to reach the top; if it is a draw, it will be 63, and Dortmund can temporarily overtake Schalke with the goal difference; if they lose, they will not only be one point behind Dortmund, but also be ahead of Bayern. The lead is only two points, and it could fall to third place later.
The current Bundesliga only has two and a half Champions League places. The top two in the league can directly obtain the Champions League group stage seats for next season. The third place will also participate in the Champions League qualifying rounds, so even if it is just to maintain the suppression of Bayern, Schalke 04 This game must be won too.
No one could have imagined that Dortmund would be tied by Stuttgart. This is because God is helping Schalke 04.
In order to show his determination, Stevens even gave up the newly formulated rotation system, and almost all the main players came out.
Goalkeeper: 36 Onner Starr;
Defenders: 22 Uchida Atsuto, 14 Papadopoulos, 32 Matip, 23 Fuchs;
Midfielder: 12 Heger, 10 Holtby, 17 Farfan;
Forwards: Raul (C), 25 Huntelaar, 9 Yang Feng.
"Since the first captain Hwedes is still recovering from injury, Raul continues to wear the captain's armband; Hildebrand injured his elbow in the Europa League match in midweek, and Onnerstaal could only return early to guard the goal. ; In the midfield, neither Obasi nor Draxler played, and Stevens gave up flying on both wings; Yang Feng actually started the game, which many people did not expect before the game, because he played in the game three days ago. Just finished 90 minutes..."
It was not just Yang Feng who played the full 90 minutes three days ago. Most of the eleven players in the starting lineup played the full 90 minutes.
With double games in a row, including long-distance expeditions to Switzerland and the Netherlands, this team's physical fitness has long been a problem, but the weak lineup strength forced Stevens to use these people to death. That’s all.
Draxler sat on the bench depressed.
He just couldn't figure it out. There were obviously three people who made the "mistake", why was he the only one who was punished?
On the court, Raul solemnly reminded: "Yang! Distribute your physical strength! Maybe you feel that your whole body has endless strength now, but don't be fooled by this feeling. You are not used to playing the whole game. Today What you should actually do is take a good rest, it was a mistake for Stevens to let you play in this game!"
"...I'd love to hear what you say, but you know my style of play doesn't allow me to do that."
Yang Feng is well-known as a hard worker, but his physical fitness cannot support him from running so crazily throughout the game. He is a typical good guy who loves to show off.
"I remember telling you very early on that you must change your playing style before your physical fitness improves."
"I try my best."
Hoffenheim's lineup is very pragmatic, with a 4-2-3-1.
Two defensive midfielders and one forward are completely defensive and counterattack style of play.
After the game started, Hoffenheim coach M. Babel realized that he had been tricked by Stevens.
It's not that Schalke 04 doesn't fly with both wings, but the other wing is disguised as a winger.
After the game officially started, everyone discovered that Yang Feng did not stand on the front line at all, but stood at the full midfielder position, one on the left and one on the right with Farfan, forming the two wings of Schalke 04.
"Yang Feng is fighting in front of you? Are you messing around!"
"Do you have any misunderstandings about Brother Feng? You have speed and breakthroughs, why can't you play on the edge?"
"Yang Feng has a breakthrough? Are you kidding me?"
"Didn't you watch the last game? Listen to me, you need to make up lessons."
"I still hope to play forward, scoring goals is the way to go."
"Indeed, the forwards are more popular. I hope this adjustment is only temporary."
Hoffenheim's first attack hit the goal frame, and the ball bounced out and was obtained by Papadopoulos.
The Greek defender took the ball and kicked it directly to the left.
In this game, Yang Feng put Quaresma's star card on ball feel, and then set Gu Guangming as dribbling.
If Gu Guangming's ball feel can only allow Quaresma's dribbling to reach 80%, then Quaresma's ball feel can allow Gu Guangming to perform at 120%. In comparison, Quaresma's dribbling may still be more exciting, but the update of ball feel brings an all-round improvement, which cannot be compared with the improvement of dribbling ability alone.
Yang Feng stopped the ball lightly at his feet.
He may not be able to stop the ball past the opponent or into the goal yet, but he has no problem stopping the ball in high-intensity confrontations.
Hoffenheim midfielder Sebastian Rudy immediately came over to press closely, but Yang Feng pulled and buckled and quickly dodged.
Raul said he was playing as a forward, but in fact his position was more like an attacking midfielder, and he immediately stepped aside to provide support.
The two of them collided with each other while running and completed a position change.
Yang Feng came to the middle of the court and faked a shot near the top of the arc, knocking West high to the side before actually raising his foot to hit the goal.
The football flew straight to the left of the goal.
The ball successfully evaded Hoffenheim's defender, but did not evade one of his own. It hit Huntelaar's calf and refracted into the net.
Neither of them celebrated, but looked helpless.
The linesman raised the flag, indicating that Huntelaar was offside.
Huntelaar raised his hand to indicate that the pot belonged to him.
Although the ball was not scored, it still shocked Huo Cun into a cold sweat and made the miners full of optimism about the game. Schalke 04 started a frenzied attack mode.
In the 12th minute, Farfan midfielder stole Weiss and quickly broke into the penalty area along the left rib. Unfortunately, his shot from 15 meters away was blocked by Stark.
Six minutes later, Vestergaard slipped when he passed back to the goalkeeper. Huntelaar quickly moved forward to the front right side of the penalty area. Seeing Stark's attack, he chose to lob directly, but unfortunately the ball was slightly higher.
In the 22nd minute, Yang Feng took off from the wing and passed in. Raul grabbed the opportunity and missed the goal...
Duan Xuan's voice was full of optimism, "Yang Feng performed very well in his new position. If his teammates cooperate well, he is very likely to have passed and shot now. Schalke 04's advantage is obvious now. I believe it." It’s just a matter of time before the goal is broken.”
It was indeed just a matter of time, but unfortunately it was Hoffenheim who scored.
In the 29th minute of the game, Hoffenheim cooperated in a small area. Shiplock inserted into the left side of the penalty area and was knocked to the ground by Onner Starr.
The whistle blows, penalty kick.
Stevens covered his face in pain.
His original plan was to settle the battle in the first half, leading by at least two goals, and then quickly replace Yang Feng and Raul to prepare for the next Europa League game. Who would have thought that the team's offense would only bear fruit? , but let others get a penalty kick first.
Salihovich stood in front of the penalty spot and scored in one fell swoop.
1 to 0.
After taking the lead, Hoffenheim not only did not restrain, but began to attack actively. Even Yang Feng and Farfan had to start participating in the defense.
The two sides have offense and defense, but the quality is not high. Yang Feng did his duty on the wing, but he is still not used to cutting inside and hitting the goal in this position. The quality of the cross is only mediocre. Stevens is in At the beginning of the second half, he had to be put back on the front line.
The adjustment quickly took effect.
In the 56th minute, Farfan turned around from the left side of the penalty area and played the ball to the middle. Yang Feng stopped the ball with his chest and lightly picked the ball before it hit the ground.
The S-level ball feel is really exciting. Such a set of movements is as smooth as Dove. I can't imagine how incredible the ball feel of Messi and Ronaldinho is.
The football fell in front of Raul. Raul spread his left foot and was about to shoot the empty goal when he was brutally knocked down by Baker from behind.
The whistle sounded, and before the referee even took out the red card, Baker walked to the sidelines.
"Red dot package! Yang Feng passed the ball to Raul. Raul was tackled to the ground when he was about to hit the goal, winning a penalty kick for the team."
“For the second penalty kick of the game, both sides attacked very fiercely, but I didn’t expect that the outcome would be decided by a penalty kick.”
Yang Feng pulled Raul up and said, "Are you going to punish me?"
Raul shook his head.
He is the captain and has a high status in the world. If he wants to take a penalty kick, no one dares to deny him face. However, the team's first penalty kicker is Huntelaar, and the Dutch are competing for the league's top scorer, so even if he is Raul gave the penalty kick to Huntelaar.
Huntelaar himself had no intention of giving up the penalty kick. He stood in front of the penalty spot and deceived the goalkeeper and shot the ball into the lower left corner, 1-1.
The two sides once again stood on the same starting line. After being tied, Hoffenheim became more honest and began to retreat on defense.
Schalke 04 could not attack for a long time. In the 70th minute, Yang Feng and Raul were replaced by Draxler and Obasi respectively.
In the remaining time, neither side was able to score the other's goal, and the score of 1-1 remained until the end.
Dortmund, who had been paying attention to this game, breathed a sigh of relief.
Although Hoffenheim failed to defeat Schalke 04, which is a bit regretful, it is a great merit to be able to draw the opponent while being firmly at a disadvantage.
Dortmund and Schalke 04 continue to rank in the top two with 63 points, followed by Bayern Munich with 60 points.
There are still six games left in the league, and Schalke 04 and Dortmund will meet on a narrow road in the middle of this month. There are still variables everywhere.
After this battle, Schalke 04 immediately took back its energy from the league and fully prepared for the Europa League four days later.
