Chapter 271: The Fragile Van der Vaart
In the first 40 minutes of the first half, the high-spirited Hoffenheim team was blinded by Feng Quan's thunderous free kick. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info
In first-half stoppage time, Hoffenheim's midfielder Daniel Williams made a mistake similar to that of Hamburg's Shelbray.
Son Heung-min, who received Williams' "big gift", did not be greedy after bursting into the penalty area, but passed the ball to Rudneevs, who was in a better position, after a false shot.
Rudneves, who was lying in ambush near the penalty spot, swept the ball into the bottom left corner of the Hoffenheim goal without making any adjustments.
After the rematch in the second half, the morale-boosting Hamburg team launched a fierce attack on the home team from the beginning of the game.
With 59 minutes to go, the wind on the right flank broke free from Baker's defence and burst into the box along the baseline.
Facing the central defender Mathieu Delpierre (Mathieu Delpierre), Feng Quan calmly slammed the ball with his right foot, and then sent an inverted triangle pass to the right of the penalty area.
Before the football could roll to his feet, Badelli, who was ambushed outside the penalty area, quickly swung his right leg backwards and put on a posture of shooting directly from a distance.
However, as soon as the ball was in Badelli's control, he suddenly flicked the ball sideways with the outside of his right foot, dodged Chris, who was pounced on, and then fired a powerful volley slightly to the right of the penalty line.
Before Wiese could react due to being blocked by his teammates, the ball had already grazed the post on the right side of the goal and drilled into the net.
Ten minutes later, Hoffenheim's goal kick went straight to Hamburg's 30-metre zone. Centre-back Westerman pressed Derdyyok to head the ball straight into the centre circle.
Scherbre, who gave Hoffenheim a big gift in the first half, took advantage of the terrain ahead of Salihovic. And when the ball flew into his control, he first lightly touched the ball with his head, and then jumped over the heads of himself and Salihovic with his right foot, while quickly turning around behind the opponent.
Immediately afterward, Shelbrai stopped the ball and dribbled forward for almost 10 metres before Daniel Williams pounced to defend.
Seeing that he was being targeted, Shelbre did not risk continuing to advance, and after a quick stop, he distributed the ball to the left flank, which was relatively empty in defence.
As early as Scherbre picked the ball past Salihovic, Feng Quan, who had been cruising near the halfway line, began to move forward along the left wing. Then, when Daniel Williams started rushing towards Shelbray, Feng Quan realized that his teammate was likely to pass the ball to him.
As a result, Feng Quan first symbolically moved two steps towards the middle, allowing Fabian Johnson, who was guarding him, to think that he was going to lean into the middle to respond.
However, just as Johnson reflexively followed and moved two steps to the middle, Feng Quan suddenly made a sudden stop and rushed back to the direction of the left side.
The next moment, Feng Quan received the ball from Shelbre on the left side of the front court very calmly.
Although Johnson's turning speed was not bad, when he turned around and started to chase back, Feng Quan, who was advancing with the ball, was already 5 meters away from him.
Immediately afterwards, Johnson, who was full of helplessness, watched as Feng Quan first easily passed Del Pierre, who stepped forward to make up for the defense, and then shook off Wiese, who abandoned the goal, and pushed the ball into the unguarded goal......
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Despite scoring Hamburg's fourth goal, Hoffenheim fans did not abandon their team. However, the home team's players seem to have given up on the game early.
Hoffenheim will travel to the strong Borussia Dortmund in the final round of the league next week. Therefore, if it weren't for the news at halftime that Fortuna Dusseldorf, who are in the bottom two of the table (one point behind Hoffenheim), they would have been two goals behind, and the players of "Hochon" would have been ready to play in the Bundesliga next season.
But even so, when Feng Quan widened the score gap by four goals, the soldiers of "Huo Village" finally surrendered in advance.
After seeing that the Hoffenheim team has lost its fighting spirit, Hamburg coach Fink is also ready to "call the gold back". As a result, in the remaining games, the two sides ended the game very "tacitly".
In the end, with Feng Quan's excellent performance after coming off the bench, he took a thrilling victory from the Rhein-Neckar Arena and took the lead in the battle for third place in the league.
Although there will be a tough clash with Bayer Leverkusen in a week's time, after the "Huocun" got a victory, Fink still gave the team a day off as usual.
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After a day off, the Hamburg first-team players are back on the training pitch in good spirits.
With the lead in the race for third place in the league, the Hamburg players were very relaxed on the training ground.
Perhaps, because the players were a little too relaxed, when the team practiced in groups, there was an unexpected situation that no one wanted to see.
In the middle of the group confrontation practice, Van der Vaart, the playmaker of the red team, was about to take a long-range shot after taking the ball past Kachar in front of the court, but was knocked over on the turf by Rajkovic from the side behind.
At first, everyone didn't pay attention to it, after all, such a level of collision has long been commonplace on the training ground.
However, it was only when Van der Vaart got up from the turf and then clutched his right knee in pain that he collapsed back onto the training pitch that the crowd realised something was wrong.
Although Rajkovic's foul was not at all "savage", it was just when he made contact with Van der Vaart's body that the Dutchman picked up his left foot and prepared to shoot from distance.
Therefore, when the two bodies collided, Van der Vaart's entire body was pressed against his right leg, which had suffered many injuries......
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After seeing Van der Vaart collapse in pain on the training ground, the team doctor rushed to his side as soon as possible. After some simple handling, Van der Vaart was barely able to stand up, but could not continue to participate in the rest of the training.
As it was uncertain what Van der Vaart's injuries were, the team doctor recommended that he be sent to hospital for further examination.
After an MRI, Van der Vaart's knee was not fractured, but the anterior cruciate ligament was damaged. Although it is not very serious, it will take at least about 20 days to recover.
As a result, not only will Van der Vaart not be able to play against Bayer Leverkusen, but even in the German Cup final in June, it will be difficult to ensure that he will be able to play.
As a result, the Hamburg team's training ground, which was still "happy and peaceful" on Monday, suddenly became tense after Van der Vaart was confirmed to be out of action against Bayer Leverkusen.
After the last round of the Bundesliga, Le Monde, which believes that Hamburg has "one foot in the group stage of next season's Champions League", is no longer optimistic that Hamburg will finish third in the league after learning that Van der Vaart will be out of action due to injury. “…… Without Van der Vaart, the core of the midfield, Hamburg may not be able to withstand the impact of the Bayer Leverkusen team......"
And the pro-Bayer Leverkusen "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" is even more resolute that "Bayer Leverkusen, which has the league's top scorer Stefan Kiessling, will take away a winning ...... at the Northern Bank Arena"
However, Bild, which is known for its "professionalism", did not think that the Hamburg team had no chance of winning because of Van der Vaart's absence due to injury. "Although the Dutch star is the heart of this Hamburg team, it is clear from the results of the last league game that the most threatening attack of the Hamburg team is their 'Asian pair', not Van der Vaart, who is often out of action due to injury......
In addition to several major mainstream media in Germany, the majority of fans are also clearly divided into two camps for Hamburg's home game against Bayer Leverkusen.
Of course, the two camps, which were still in an "evenly divided" situation before, with Van der Vaart's injury in training, many fans of the "Hamburg camp" have switched to the opposing camp......
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Although the outside world is not optimistic that Hamburg can eventually retain their third place in the league, as the coach of this team, Fink still has great confidence in his team.
After all, a draw is all it takes for Hamburg to beat Bayer Leverkusen to finish third in the Bundesliga and qualify directly for the Champions League group stage.
As long as they can keep the goal in the game, then the goal of the Hamburg team has been achieved.
Therefore, after Van der Vaart's injury, Fink was ready to play a defensive counter-attacking style against Bayer Leverkusen.
Fink's intention to make such a choice was not out of necessity. After all, Feng Quan, whose speed is unbeatable, is indeed very suitable for the tactical play of defensive counterattacks. Moreover, even his "Asian partner" Son Heung-min can "crush" most Bundesliga defenders in terms of speed.
However, before Wednesday's training began, when Fink told the assistant coach that he was ready to play a defensive counter-attacking style against Bayer Leverkusen, Lars Bittencourt immediately objected.
'That's right, we only need a draw to finish third in the league. But have you ever thought about it, Tosten, if we had only set the goal of a draw, we would have ended up with a loss? Lars-Bittencourt said with a serious expression.
"So you mean I should choose to play Bayer Leverkusen at the weekend and try to win?" Fink said, spreading his hands.
In fact, Fink, who was known for his courageous style of play when he was a player, was definitely not a "soft egg". If it weren't for the overall strength of the Hamburg team, it would indeed be slightly inferior to the Bayer Leverkusen team.
It is precisely because of this that Fink will choose a relatively "safe" defensive counterattack tactic to ensure that he can get a draw.
Listening to Fink's words, Lars Bittencourt couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head: "Tosten, of course, I also know very well that with the strength of our team, if we fight against Bayer Leverkusen, it is likely to die ugly." ”
After a pause, Bittencourt continued: "However, if we tell the players before the game that we are underdogs, we can only use defensive counter-attacking tactics. Well, it is likely that before the game has even started, our players have already lost to their opponents in terms of morale. ”
"But if we choose to play against them, without Rafael's midfield, who will be responsible for organising the attack?" Fink spread his hands and said helplessly.
"Tosten, have you forgotten? Didn't Rafael also recover from an injury in the hospital when we faced Bayer Leverkusen in our final game of the winter break? When we were at their home stadium, we were able to draw with them in attacking tactics, so now that we are on our home turf, what reason do we have to 'fear' them? ”
As he said this, Lars-Bittencourt's eyes were full of determination. Especially at the end, when he said "scared", there was even a hint of fanaticism in his eyes.
That's right! In the opponent's Bayer Arena, they can retreat with powerful attack power, and what reason is there to be "afraid" when they return to their own turf?
"You're right, Lars. We really have nothing to fear. After being "excited" by Lars Bittencourt, Fink's eyes were also full of fire.
Moments later, however, Fink realised a problem: Van der Vaart was unavailable, so who would replace him in the playmaker's place?
If Badelli is placed in the position of the forward midfielder, with the Croatian's passing ability, although there is a gap between Van der Vaart and Van der Vaart in the ability to pass the ball, he can barely be qualified for this position.
But the move forward of Badelli also brought another problem.
While Badelli has been playing in a central midfield position in previous games, he has actually taken on the role of a 'metronome in central midfield' during the game. So, once Badelli's position is moved forward, who will take his place?
Arslan? His ball handling skills at his feet are really good, and his passing accuracy is enough to earn Fink's trust. However, in terms of the overall situation and the grasp of the offensive rhythm, there is a big gap with Badelli.
Kachar and Rajkovic, on the other hand, are more suited to take on the role of midfield engineers. As for Shelbre? See the big gift he gave to Hoffenheim in the last round of the league...... Forget it.
Perhaps seeing through Fink's hesitation, Lars-Bittencourt coughed lightly twice before speaking, "Ahem, Tosten, I know you're hesitating. However, if ......"