Unfortunately, Hamburg, who had just ushered in the longest five-game winning streak of the season, suffered Waterloo in the 23rd round of the away game against Hannover 96. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

For some unknown reason, after the victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach, nearly 10 players of the Hamburg team were hit by the flu virus.

So much so that in the away game against Hannover 96, more than half of the team's main players were absent. Especially at the back, only Janssen and Dickmere were the two main full-backs who could start.

In the end, despite Son Heung-min and Best scoring a goal each in the game, Hamburg still ended the team's five-game winning streak with a score of 2-4, and conceded the "third place" in the Bundesliga after only sitting for a week.

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Although the team lost the game, Fink gave the team a day off as usual.

Because Fink knows very well that with more than half of the team's main players unable to play, his players have done their best. Therefore, he does not have the slightest intention of blaming the players for not being able to stay in third place in the table.

And, as if God was helping Hamburg, in the 23rd round of the Bundesliga, among the top six teams in the standings, except for Bayern Munich at the top of the table, the other four teams actually drew with their opponents.

As a result, although the defeat of the Hamburg team temporarily dropped them to fourth place in the table, the negative impact of the defeat was minimized by the collective draw of the rivals.

In the quarter-finals of the German Cup on February 27, Hamburg, who had the home advantage, welcomed the challenge of Mainz.

Although the core of the midfield, Van der Vaart, and the striker Rudneves, the two main players of the team, have not fully recovered from the attack of the flu virus. However, with Son Xingmin's brace and Westerman's corner kick, the Hamburg team, which has the advantage of home field, still entered the semifinals of the German Cup with a score of 3-1.

Although Feng Quan did not score or assist in this game. However, in nearly 60 minutes of playing time, his sharp breakthrough on the left flank still caused great problems for the Mainz team.

Westerman's opening goal for the team was a corner kick opportunity created by Feng Quan's forced breakthrough on the left wing.

At the same time, Bayern Munich, who have already reached the semi-finals of the German Cup with 17 points, are not in the same half as Hamburg, as they are ahead of second-placed Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga standings.

There is no doubt that Bayern Munich will win the Bundesliga this season. So, in a sense, as long as Hamburg can advance to the final of the German Cup, then they will basically lock up a place in the Europa League. And their head coach Fink will be able to complete the goal set for him by the team to enter the European arena ahead of schedule.

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On March 3, in last week's away game against Hannover 96 pairs, the Hamburg team that encountered Waterloo won a hearty 4-0 victory at home against the league's "vice-captain" Fürth team.

Compared to the team's four goals, head coach Fink prefers to see the team's "clean sheets". If you count it up, the last time Hamburg kept a clean sheet in a game was back on December 12 last year, when they played Freiburg in the third round of the German Cup.

In the seven games since, Hamburg have conceded 15 goals. For a team that has been known for their defensive solidity in previous seasons, the average number of goals conceded in seven games is more than two, which is a bit unreasonable. If it weren't for the horrific 21 goals scored by the team in these seven games, I am afraid that the Hamburg team would have been mired in relegation, let alone ranked fourth in the standings.

That's why head coach Fink focused his team's training on defense after they eliminated Mainz in the quarter-finals of the German Cup. Moreover, in order to stabilize the team's defense, even Feng Quan, who had not been involved in the team's defense before, was asked by Fink to "retreat to your own half of the court and be responsible for marking the opponent's full-backs when the opponent is attacking".

If it had been placed in the past, Fink would never have let Feng Quan participate in the defense. Because in his opinion, the physical condition of the "King of Sprints" is not enough to support him, and he participates in the team's offense and defense at the same time, and with his defensive ability, he will not provide much help to the team. In this way, it is better for him to focus more on the attack in order to improve the team's strong offensive firepower.

However, as the wind was able to improve and defend (though not much), Fink decided to get him involved in the team's defense.

In fact, the reason why Fink did this, in addition to hoping that Feng Quan could increase the team's defensive thickness a little, the main reason was to provide him with more offensive space through Feng Quan's "strategic retreat".

Because as other Bundesliga teams continue to deepen their understanding of Feng Quan's technical characteristics, the defensive strategies against him in the game, and the defensive players frequently stop his offense at the cost of fouls, have led to a certain downward trend in Feng Quan's influence in the game.

After scoring two goals in a big win over Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 22nd round of the league, the two games in a row without a goal (with just one assist) are the best example of this.

As a result, Fink came up with the idea of having Feng Quan take a "strategic retreat" in order to widen the distance between him and the defenders, so as to fully display his superior speed advantage when the team switched from defense to offense.

At the same time, Fink also asked Feng Quan to disrupt the opponent's defense by switching positions more in the game. Moreover, it is important not only to limit yourself to switching positions on the left and in the middle, but also to try to switch positions with players on the right side when appropriate. This makes it difficult for the opponent to come up with a highly targeted defensive strategy.

Sure enough, after some changes, Feng Quan's performance in the game was significantly better than the previous two games. Although he still failed to score a goal against Fürth FC, his two assists still helped Rudneves and Son Heung-min each score a goal.

And, if it weren't for the bad luck (three shots, two hits to the post), Feng Quan would have scored at least one goal in the game.

However, in the 25th round of the league away to Stuttgart a week later, Feng Quan finally "fell silent" for three weeks and then ushered in an explosion.

Just five minutes into the first half, Feng Quan, who switched to the middle with Van der Vaart, broke through two defenders in succession and distributed the ball to right wing-back Dickmeier.

Dickmeier stopped the ball, looked up at the box and sent a quick cross.

Then, due to the loss of Stuttgart central defender Serdartasci defence, Rudenev fired a powerful right-footed volley into the net from 13 meters out. 1 to 0.

Twenty minutes later, Van der Vaart made his way to the edge of the box after a succession of delicate links between the middle and Son Heung-min and Baderi.

Van der Vaart caught the attention of several Stuttgart defenders before sending a through ball into the box in a very covert manner.

Feng Quan, who helped Rudeneves open the scoring, once again relied on his outstanding explosiveness to get rid of the marking of the opponent's right full-back and enter the penalty area.

Feng Quan first took advantage of the situation to stop Van der Vaart's through ball with his left foot, then flicked the ball with the outside of his right foot, dodged a little angle, and then directly used the inside of his right foot to shoot a curling ball into the top right corner of the goal. 2 to 0.

In first-half stoppage time, Van der Vaart's corner kick was headed out of the box by the opposing centre-back Geniedermeier. However, the football, which was pushed out of the penalty area by Niedermeier, flew towards the location of Fengquan like a ghost.

So, Feng Quan first unloaded the ball with his chest, and then without waiting for the ball to land, he directly swung his right foot and completed a volley on the left outside the penalty area.

Although Stuttgart's starting goalkeeper Svenulreich accurately judged the direction of Fengquan's shot and flew towards the right side of the goal at the first time.

It's a pity that when the football flew to a position about 6 meters away from the goal, a big mistake was made at the beginning of the game, which caused the Stuttgart team to quickly fall into a passive situation, and Tashcher, who quickly fell into a passive situation, actually appeared on the line of the football, and what is even more incredible is that in the case of teammate Ulreich shouting: "Give me the ball to ......", Tashcher still "resolutely" used his head to push towards the football.

In fact, if Tashcher had used a "clearing" header with his head tilted back, he might have done his duty as a centre-back. I don't know why, he actually chose the action of "shaking his head" like a ghost......

If Tashcher, who was in the penalty area, was wearing the black away shirt of the Hamburg team at this time, his "shaking his head to clear the siege" was even enough to make the German media exclaim: "Tashcher at this moment is simply Inzaghi's possessed ......."

However, it is a pity that Tashcher's "header clearance" did not help Stuttgart eliminate the threat of conceding a goal, but "helped" the enemy to complete a brace.

In this way, both the coaches and players of the Hamburg team, as well as the visiting fans who followed them to the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart, all entered the break with happy faces......

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Less than 10 minutes into the second half, Feng Quan scored his first hat-trick in the Bundesliga.

At that time, Feng Quan, who switched to the middle again, broke through the defense of Martin Harnik, but was caught between Christiangentner and Raphaelholzhauser.

Although he was able to get rid of the two defenders with his individual ability, he decisively gave up after a vicious foul on Holzhauser in the first half, and was once again regarded as a "big tree".

So, after Feng Quan feigned a breakthrough to the left side with a false shot, he immediately made an emergency stop, and then quickly dunked the ball to the right side of his body with his left foot, and then sent a diagonal pass to the right side, passing the ball to the feet of Son Heung-min.

As he completed the pass, Feng Quan suddenly accelerated, quickly passed between Gentner and Holzhauser, and then struck diagonally towards the left side of the penalty area.

At the same time, after seeing the wind move forward diagonally to the left, Van der Vaart, who had previously switched to the left side, quickly came to the top of the arc of the penalty area.

Cruising on the right flank, after stopping the football, faced the left wing-back Cristianmolinaro's marking, he first made two pedals, and then suddenly changed direction and burst in the direction of the bottom line. Then, with about 5 meters from the baseline, he sent a fast cross into the box.

Despite his best efforts to reach out his right foot and touch the ball with his tiptoes, Molinari did not really change the trajectory of the ball's flight, only to make its flight path slightly higher.

However, Molinari's block, instead of helping Stuttgart's defense, allowed Antonio Rudiger, who was in extremely poor form to replace Tashcher in the second half, and caused his misjudgment to rise to the top when he was scrambling for a header.

Although Rudenevs, who has a keen sense of smell in front of the goal, grabbed the first point in front of the goal area, but because he did not expect Rudiger to rise to the top, he shook his head in a hurry and failed to hit the goal.

However, it was precisely because Rudenevs' header attack failed to hit the target that he completed his teammate.

The ball that was originally going to be pushed towards the top right corner of the goal flew in the direction of the back point because of Rudenevs's "mistake". And goalkeeper Ulreich, who had already risen to his feet and pounced in front of the goal, ready to block Rudneves's rush to the goal, could only watch the football fly in front of him.

Since Rudneves and Badelli were both ambushed in front of the goal, and Van der Vaart, who returned to the middle, was ambushed near the penalty spot, the attention of the defenders in the Stuttgart team was all focused on the three of them.

Therefore, when the football flew to the back of the goal, there was not a single Stuttgart defender there.

The next moment, when the Stuttgart defenders finally came to their senses and desperately pounced in the direction of the back of the goal. But I was surprised to see a figure wearing the black jersey of the Hamburg team, who had jumped high in the air, stretched out his arms and tried to maintain the balance of his body, and then his body suddenly tilted to the left side, and quickly swung his right leg backwards......

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Just as the ball flew parallel to the left post of the goal, Feng Quan quickly swung his right leg forward.

Then, when his right foot slammed into the upper middle of the ball, the ball was "banging——! After a muffled sound, he flew directly to the turf. After bouncing off the turf, it grazed the post on the left side of the goal and burrowed into the net.

In the 10th minute of the second half, Feng Quan not only scored a brilliant sideways volley, but also completed his first hat-trick in the Bundesliga. At the same time, it also helped the team completely kill the suspense of the game.

Five minutes later, Hamburg's head coach Fink once again replaced Feng Quan with Lin Zhijian in advance.

What is somewhat surprising is that when Feng Quan was substituted, nearly half of the home team fans in the stands of Mercedes-Benz Arena stood up and gave him a warm applause for his wonderful performance in this game.

Seeing this, Fink let his players play possession and stopped putting pressure on their opponents.

Moreover, because Westermann, the core of the team's defense, has accumulated 4 yellow cards in the previous games (according to the Bundesliga regulations, if you have accumulated 5 yellow cards, you will be automatically suspended for one game).

So, as the game was about to enter injury time, Fink allowed Westman to "deliberately" pull the opponent's Vedadibivivic to the ground in the penalty area.

In this way, not only can you "give" the opponent a penalty, but also give the opponent a chance to save face. At the same time, Westermann will be automatically suspended for one game against underdogs Augsburg next week in order to "whitewash" the four yellow cards he has accumulated.

In the end, Hamburg, who were playing away, won 4-1 against Stuttgart.

At the same time, because Bayer Leverkusen lost to the strong Bayern Munich team at their home stadium. Therefore, after the end of this round of the league, Hamburg has returned to third place in the Bundesliga standings with a two-point advantage...... (To be continued.) )