61. Chapter 61
"Under the guidance of the referee on duty, the players of Borussia Dortmund and Schalke entered the Westphalian Stadium and we could see that there was no communication between the players of both teams while waiting in the tunnel before. โ
"In the period leading up to the game, I'd like to introduce you to the starting line-ups of both sides!" Dicker was on hand with his partner Martin Faye this time, and the restless atmosphere in the stadium also made him raise his voice, "The home team Dortmund, they sent their strongest lineup today!" They have adopted the 4-2-3-1 formation that has been excellent this season, with Weidenfeller in goal, Dede and Lichtsteiner at wing-back, Thiago Silva and Thuram at centre-back, and Shaheen and Yaya Toure in midfield, with Franck Ribery in front of them, Sneijder and David Silva, and Spaniard Villa up front as a lone striker. โ
In the last Champions League game against Chelsea, Yan Jing started Metzeld, who had returned from injury, but Yan Jing watched him throughout the game and found that his form had not yet returned to his best level.
Metzelder was the team's preferred captain, but Yan Jing opted to start the better-in-form Thiago Silva for such an important derby.
Martin Feye introduced the Schalke 04 line-up in a bland manner: "Schalke 04's starting goalkeeper is Rost, Abel, Kolstadzic, Raphinha and Pandel are lined up at the back, Ernst, Kobiaswili, Altentop and Ozil in midfield, and in the attack, Slomka chooses Asamoah and Kuranyi. โ
Ozil, who was in the stands, couldn't help but look at the big screen on the pitch when he heard the name, and the camera swept over the young Ozil as the players shook hands, and the opponent's trademark big eyes immediately made Gotze remember.
Oh my God, he's played against this Ozil before when he was in the youth team!
Another of the former youth team opponents has been promoted to the first team and even started the Ruhr derby, leaving Gotze to complain about his age again.
The Ruhr derby was not destined to be flattened, with Borussia Dortmund finishing a dangerous effort just three minutes into the game.
Franck Ribery dribbled the ball down the flank, and Schalke's full-backs Abel and Ernst stepped forward to finch Ribery.
But even with the double bag, they couldn't stop the Frenchman. Ribery forced his way down the flank, glanced at the box and got up to cross with his feet.
Schalke 04's two centre-backs, Kolstadzic and Raphinha, are a perfect combination of their team, one tall and the other agile.
The pair of defenders were a perfect match, and they often frustrated the opposition forwards in practice, but today they met Villa who were particularly cunning.
Spanish striker Villa fell into the encirclement of the two, and he kept an eye on the movement of Ribery on the wing.
The moment Ribery delivered his cross, Villa leapt high before Kolstadzic, the whole action was aimed at Kolstadzic's slowness and Raphinha's shortness, and then pressed Raphinha's header into the net.
Sandwiched between two defenders, Villa's header wasn't very powerful, but he was very close to goal, only three or four metres away.
Coupled with this tricky angle, although Schalke's goalkeeper Rost subconsciously jumped up and stretched out his arms to save with his body's reaction, it was obviously too late.
"Villa's header hits the goal!"
Just when Dortmund fans thought the team was about to take the lead, a blue figure suddenly flashed in front of the post.
Seeing that the ball seemed to have jumped over the goal line, Raphinha was quicker than Rost, appearing in time for the post and risking his body to hit the post and head it out.
"Oh! Raphinha saved Schalke 04 by keeping the ball out of the goalkeeper's failed to save!"
The Dortmund fans in the stands let out a cry of regret, while the Schalke fans breathed a sigh of relief that Villa's header had really scared them out.
Five minutes later, Yaya Toure cut the ball off Altentop and knocked the ball to Franck Ribery in front of him, and Dortmund were back on the move.
This time, however, their attack was not so easy to break through the Schalke defence, and before Ribery could get close to the box, Ernst brought Ribery down with a straight leg.
Ribery fell to the ground clutching his ankle in pain, the referee's whistle went off and the Dortmund fans were unhappy with Ernst's rough foul, and the stadium burst into boos.
"Ernst was also too big to see in the video replay that he didn't touch the ball at all, but went straight to Ribery. It's dangerous, and you can see that he doesn't mean to hold his feet at all!"
This action was supposed to get a yellow card, but the referee did not mean to take the card, but only verbally warned Ernst.
The Dortmund players around Ribery saw Ernst's rough movements, Sneijder protested to the referee in displeasure, and Shaheen ran to Ribery's side.
"Frank, are you alright?!"
At the moment of being tackled by Ernst, the pain was so severe that Ribery felt like his ankle was going to die, but the pain was only gone after a while.
With Saheen's support, Ribery stood up, and he bent his joints to move, feeling that there should be no major problems.
"I'm fine, I just hurt so much. โ
Ribery stood up without danger and finally put the hearts of Yan Jing and Dort fans at ease, and since the start of the season, Ribery has scored 15 goals in the league, well ahead of second-placed Gomez.
The importance of the Frenchman to Borussia Dortmund is self-evident, and if they get injured at this time, they will definitely hunt down that damn Ernst after the game!
Schalke's movements are getting louder and louder, and every time a Dortmund player breaks through with the ball, they don't want to bump into them, stretch out their feet to tackle or deliberately trip the ball carrier.
In such a well-known game, which must be extremely hot, the referee on duty today was quite lax in his decision, and so far only Schalke defender Kolstajic has been given a yellow card.
The referee's lax penalty scale added to the arrogance of the Schalke players, and their rough actions again and again simply challenged the limits of Yan Jing and the players' patience.
Schalke 04's players indiscriminately interrupted Dortmund's attack with foul tactics, and it was only halfway through the first half that Dortmund's jerseys were already stained with mud.
When Altentop stopped David Silva's breakthrough with another hug-and-arm throw, Yan Jing finally couldn't help but walk to the sidelines and shake his hand at the fourth official.
"Sir, are you sure this is a football game and not a rugby game?!"
The fourth official raised his eyes and glanced at Yan Jing, he also saw the referee's decisions just now, he could understand Yan Jing's feelings, so he answered Yan Jing's tone politely.
"I'll write this into the report, Mr. Jing, please go back. โ
Complaining to the fourth official never had any real effect, and Yan Jing just wanted the referee to see his actions and make him realize that his penalty scale was too lax.
Inside the Westphalian Stadium, fans booed their displeasure with the decision.
And in the midst of such boos, a bad move by the Schalke player almost made both sides move.
Ribery was pressing forward with the ball on the flank, and Ernst, who was pestering him, couldn't keep up with Ribery, so he had to stealthily pull his shirt to try to slow down the Frenchman.
But that didn't have much effect, so in order to prevent Ribery from rushing over, Ernst stretched out his arm to try to intercept, and his hand hit Ribery in the face, intentionally or unintentionally.
Prior to this, Ernst had already violated Ribery with a number of rough movements, but he had not even received a yellow card until now.
This already made Ribery very unhappy, and this time Ernst fell on his face and made him unbearable. Ribeiri was stunned, and turned around and pushed away Ernst, who had been being fussy with him.
Ernst, who was pushed away, did not feel weak at all, but as if Ribery had committed an intolerable foul on him, he trotted forward to Ribery without saying a word, his eyes widened.
"What do I โกโก want to do!"
"I'm going to ......!"
The referee blew the whistle several times, but Ernst and Ribery didn't hear it.
They slammed into each other with their chests, and such a collision must not be light, but neither of them would glare at each other weakly, and even had a tendency to move.
Seeing that the two big men were about to fight like this, the players of the two teams around them hurriedly ran over and grabbed them.
"Frank, calm down!"
Ribery was held from behind by David Silva, but he tried to break free from his confinement, pointing angrily at Ernst with angry eyes, and muttering quickly the French that Silva did not understand, but when he heard it, he knew that he was cursing.
The footage faithfully replays Ernst's small gestures to Ribery, which also caused Dortmund fans to angrily "greet" Ernst and the referee who did nothing.
"Shit! How did you get out of the trash can after you got a fetus!"
"Your face is like sneakers! I want to step into it and see if it's soft enough!"
Amid the spitting in the sky, the clash between Ribery and Ernst seemed to finally make the referee realize that if he didn't be ruthless, the situation might not be able to be controlled.
So he hurriedly walked up to Ribery and Ernst, showed them the Topaz God of War cards, and sternly warned them that they would be sent off with a red card next time.
When the referee sent a yellow card to Ernst, the Dort fans were a little relieved, but they didn't expect the referee to immediately give Ribery a yellow card, which made Yan Jing and the Dort fans very incomprehensible.
Ribery, what's wrong with him?!Can't you still get angry when you're violated by Ernst like this?!Let's take a good look at who has been provoking!Fuck you garbage referee!
This is Westphalia! This is our home stadium of Borussia Dortmund! Even if there is no home advantage, why are you still so biased towards Schalke 04?!