Located in the Schalke region of Gelsenkirchen in the state of North Rhine-Wester** in western Germany, Gelsenkirchen 04 FC is a traditional powerhouse in German and European football.

The team was founded on 4 May 1904 because of the fact that Gelsenkirchen, located in the Ruhr industrial region, was once the center of European coal mining, so the team was nicknamed "The Miners", and because of the blue shirt of the home team, it was also called "Royal Blue".

Fairtings Arena, formerly known as Schalke Stadium, is the home of Schalke 04, officially put into use in August 2001, can accommodate 62,271 spectators, is currently one of the world's modern stadiums, one of the five-star stadiums selected by UEFA, with a retractable roof, and the turf of the stadium can be moved.

In 2005, in order to recover the cost of building the stadium, Schalke 04 sold the title of the stadium to the Fertings brewery, which expired in 2015 and the brewery renewed the contract for another five years.

As one of the giants of German football, Schalke 04 has won 7 German top football league titles, 5 German Cups, 1 German Super Cup, 1 German League Cup and 1 UEFA Cup.

After the German Football Association launched the youth training program, Schalke 04 has cultivated many stars and sent a large number of international players to German football.

For example, the current German national men's football team's main goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, the bread feeding master Mesut Ozil, the loyal iron gate Benedict Hevedes, the high-speed rail central defender Joel Matip, the talented rising star Julian Draxler, the "Professor" Olaf Thorn, the current Ralph Fellman, the defense panacea Sebastian Bernisch, the "tank" Seyad Kolasinac, the "crazy goalkeeper" Jens Lehmann and other famous players are all Schalke 04 youth training boutiques.

After a mediocre and chaotic last season, Schalke 04 brought in a new coach in June, 31-year-old Domenico Tedesco.

As a close friend of Hoffenheim coach Julian Nagelsmann, the youngest coach in the five major leagues, Xueba left Hoffenheim Under-19 in the second half of last season to coach Aue in the Bundesliga, and under his leadership, the team achieved relegation.

Who is Tedesco? Why can he enter the Bundesliga powerhouse Schalke 04 at the age of 31?

Tedesco, who has never played professionally, graduated from the German Football Association's Weissweiler Academy with Nagelsmann a year ago in charge of Hoffenheim's Under-16 team, where he was certified to coach teams in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga.

Tedesco's graduation score was 1.0, the best score on the German "5-point scale", the first of 23 graduates in the same period, and Nagelsmann was only second.

This Italian immigrant born on September 12, 1985 is not only a "scholar", but also a "top student in the college entrance examination". Hoffenheim's head of youth development, Dirk Mark, described Tedesco as "one of Germany's most outstanding young coaches", but Tedesco took these titles or graduation results lightly, saying: "The best results don't always equate to the best coach. ”

Similar to his friends, Tedesco is also a young coach who is very interested in pitch and attack, and he is not so focused on results, and he believes that his football philosophy is a combination of Italy and Germany, that is, the attitude towards defense is derived from Italy, and the attitude towards the sport is very German.

After helping Awe to relegate, Schalke 04 took the lead in signing the hot full-score young coach, and in the first game, they will face RB Leipzig, who created a goalkeeper sky-high price.

"Mr. Tedesco is Schalke's manager? I didn't expect that. Zhang Zhetian touched his chin and muttered to himself.

When Zhang Zhetian served as the main goalkeeper in various echelons of Menxing, his performance was good and bad, mainly because of his very risky defensive style, so the results of Menchenchen's youth teams of all ages can only be said to be average.

When Tedesco coached the U17 team in Stuttgart, he played against the Mönchen U17 team in Zhangzhetian, and in the past two years, the two sides have played each other 6 times, winning and losing half.

Rivals in the youth team, now in professional football, from the Bundesliga to the Bundesliga and from England back to Germany, the two will be fighting for victory on Saturday afternoon.

Tedesco knows who the opponent's starting goalkeeper is in this game, and he has spent a lot of time studying Zhang Zhetian's performance in Arsenal in all competitions in the first half of the year, and finally came to a conclusion: "If he can play the same performance against Bayern Munich in the first half of the year, we have no chance of winning this game, a draw is already the best result, but Leipzig must not score first." ”

Last season's Bundesliga runners-up and 10th place match, rarely attracted a lot of attention, and even the German TV 1 and 2 broadcasters of the game invited heavyweight guests to explain the game, because they wanted to know what kind of performance the "gilded" return to Germany in the Premier League would show to be worthy of the sky-high transfer fee of 100 million pounds.

Lothar Mateus, Oliver Kahn and Melmut Sauer, three football commentators from different TV stations and former German football legends, came together in a rare way to explain the game.

It is an international practice that a quarter of an hour before the game, the commentator will report the starting lineups of both sides to the spectators watching the game.

First of all, the starting line-up of the home team Schalke 04:

No. 1 Ralph Fairman (c), No. 5 Matija Nastasic, No. 20 Tilo Correr, No. 29 Naldo, No. 8 Leon Goretzka, No. 18 Daniel Caligiuri, No. 24 Bastian Ochipka, No. 10 Nabil Bentaleb, No. 25 Amine Harriet, No. 9 Franco Di Santo, No. 11 Yevhen Konoplyanka.

Subs: No. 35 Alexander Nübel, No. 2 Weston McKennie, No. 4 Benedict Hevedes, No. 6 Johannes Gais, No. 7 Max Meier, No. 16 Fabian Risse, No. 36 Breel Embolo.

Schalke 04's starting formation is 343, with four midfielders in diamond-shaped positions and three forwards in a two-sided forward and center-forward configuration.

Let's take a look at RB Leipzig's starting line-up:

No. 1 Che Jo Tian (c), No. 16 Lucas Kolosterman, No. 4 Willy Orban, No. 5 Dayot Upamecano, No. 23 Marcel Halstenburg, No. 27 Conrad Lemer, No. 13 Stefan Ilsanke, No. 7 Marcel Sabitzer, No. 8 Naby Keita, No. 9 Joseph Poulsen, No. 11 Timo Werner.

Substitutes: No. 32 Peter Gulacic, No. 33 Marvin Camper, No. 20 Benno Schmitz, No. 29 Jane Kevin Augustine, No. 24 Dominic Kaiser, No. 17 Bruma, No. 10 Emil Forsberg.

Leipzig's starting formation is 442, compared with the starting lineup of the last German Cup, a change has been made, that is, the midfield combination is Laimer and Ilsanke, Keita plays left midfield, and the starting left midfielder Bruma sits on the bench in the last game.

Forsberg, who missed the first round of the German Cup due to injury, returned from injury and Ralph Hasenhuttl did not start him just to be on the safe side.

Without the Swedes' organizational tandem, it is clear that Halsenhuttl is going to hand over this responsibility to Zhang Zhetian, but judging by the ability and characteristics of the starters, it is not so much 442 as 433.