The two German Cup semi-finals were played over two days, on 19 March and 20 March, starting with Hoffenheim's home semi-final against Jena.

Although it was a duel between two unexpected Bundesliga teams, it was the semi-finals of the German Cup, and there were no other matches at the same time.

Therefore, German sports television still broadcast the semi-final of Hoffenheim vs Jena to the whole country.

At 20:30 p.m. on March 19, the first match of the 2007/2008 German FA Cup semi-finals Hoffenheim vs Jena officially kicked off at the Dietmar Hope Arena, Hoffenheim's home stadium.

Because this game is a winner-or-lose cup competition, it is not a league, but the venue is chosen at Hoffenheim's home stadium, and there is actually no home and away difference.

As a result, the Football Association has allocated 1,000 seats to Jena's fans in the Hope Stadium, so that Jena's players will not be too lonely when playing away from home.

Jena fans also know that the team will likely be relegated from the Bundesliga to the Bundesliga at the end of the season, with the German Cup becoming the only honour they can strive for.

If they can get past Hoffenheim and reach the final, which is against Bayern Munich, they can really play in the UEFA Cup next season as a Bundesliga team.

So a lot of the fans from Jena came, and the 1,000 seats were filled, and there were quite a few people outside.

There were also some Jena fans who bought bulk tickets at a high price to cheer for the Jena team, which was no worse than the Hoffenheim home fans of more than 5,000 people.

The Jena team members were also quite excited.

They do have that tradition this season, the players don't have a temper when they play in the league and they come up in the cup.

So, in the 1/16 final, they can eliminate the Bundesliga team Nuremberg, in the 1/8 final they can eliminate the Bundesliga team Bielefeld, and in the last 1/4 final, they continued to eliminate the Bundesliga team Stuttgart.

And in this game, facing Hoffenheim, a German second team that seems to be of the same level on the surface, the Jena team is even more fearless.

Of course, fearlessness is just a psychological one, and their coach is not going to play against Hoffenheim.

Facing Hoffenheim, who could score four goals at Borussia Dortmund at Westfalen, Jena's manager was crazy to press out and play against Hoffenheim.

Their tactics are defensive counter-attacks, focusing on Lu Wenbin, who has scored goals every game and has recently become the most famous scorer in the German Second Division.

In the 5th minute, Lu Wenbin received a wonderful pass from Salihovic in the penalty area and almost formed a shot.

However, Lu Wenbin raised his foot and didn't finish the shot, but Gordon, the No. 6 defender of Jena who was next to Lu Wenbin, fell to the ground and stabbed the ball out accurately, and was cleared by another defender.

Lu Wenbin had a bye, lost his center of gravity and fell to the ground.

Ibisevic, Salihovic, Eduardo and others immediately rushed forward, shouting at the referee that it was a penalty while scolding Gordon, and Gordon fouled Lu Wenbin in the penalty area.

However, the discerning referee shook his head, asked Lu Wenbin to get up, and signaled that Gordon's tackle was a beautiful defense, and there was no foul, let alone a penalty.

Even at Hoffenheim's home stadium, the referee can't give a penalty indiscriminately, let alone the penalty that is most likely to cause controversy.

Lu Wenbin got up, shook his head at Salihovic and the others, and signaled not to pester the referee, no one made a mistake, he was not tackled by Gordon.

In fact, Salihovic and others don't know whether Gordon has fouled this ball, they just habitually put pressure on the referee and want to favor their own decisions.

After seeing that Lu Wenbin himself got up to signal that the other party had not fouled, Salihovic and the others had no position to continue to shout for penalties and retreated.

The match continued, and Hoffenheim, who finished second in the Bundesliga, almost pressed Jena, who was second from bottom in the standings.

Jena did not have a lot of quality, and their way to qualifying for the German Cup was actually a lot of luck.

The 1/16 finals, 1/8 finals, and 1/4 finals Jena all used defensive counterattacks to drag the three Bundesliga teams into extra time, and the 1/16 finals and 1/4 finals even dragged Nuremberg and Stuttgart into penalty shootouts, and finally won the penalty shootout and were able to advance.

All it takes is one more goal in 90 minutes for Jena to be eliminated in three games.

However, luck was on Jena's side and they survived all three games with defensive counter-attacks.

Therefore, in this semi-final, they naturally still firmly played their defensive counter-attacking tactics, hoping to drag the game into a penalty shootout to eliminate Hoffenheim again.

Although Lu Wenbin scored every game, they were not afraid, and they thought they could stop Lu Wenbin's goal by sending people to close marking and regional defense.

What's more, even if they conceded the goal, they were not completely dead, not without the ability to counterattack at all, and they did not keep the score of 0-0 until extra time and penalty shootouts in the previous games.

No, Lu Wenbin's shot was disrupted by Gordon in the opening five minutes, which was seen by the Jena players as a successful defense, which gave them a big confidence to win this semi-final.

However, it was the next game that made them understand why Hoffenheim were able to win nine consecutive games in all competitions after the winter break, and Lu Wenbin was able to score every game and score a hat-trick and add an assist at Westfalen Stadium.

In the 14th minute, Lu Wenbin received a ball from Obasi after breaking through from the side outside the penalty area.

At this time, Lu Wenbin was outside the penalty area, and Jena's defenders focused on preventing Lu Wenbin from breaking through into the penalty area, and did not expect Lu Wenbin to suddenly shoot outside the penalty area.

But Lu Wenbin did just that.

After he made a breakthrough feint, causing the Jena defender in front of him to take a step back, Lu Wenbin suddenly flicked the ball to the right, dodged an angle and immediately hit the goal with his right foot.

The ball did not run, the power was not great, the speed was not fast, and Jena's goalkeeper Izikir could still react after seeing the ball, and ran two steps in the direction where the ball flew before taking off to make a save.

However, Lu Wenbin's kick was too awkward, and Lu Wenbin aimed at the upper right corner of the goal.

In Lu Wenbin's 20/20 shooting attribute and the shot made without interference, the error is basically very small.

Although the soaring Izqui Kiel stretched out his arms to flick the ball out, the ball was really a dead corner: the ball flew over the tips of his fingers and drilled into the goal against the crossbar and post in the upper right corner.

This is a real theoretical blind shot.

Itzikiel saw the ball and didn't have to go in the way, and he had time to run and save, but he just couldn't reach it.