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The league is over, Hoffenheim's training base is deserted compared to usual, all echelons have begun to take holidays, and the entire training base is only used by the first team. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

But the atmosphere outside the training ground was more lively than usual. Journalists from all over the world flocked to the training base adjacent to the cattle shed to film interviews and report to fans around the world about the team's preparations for the Champions League final.

Hoffenheim's press officer, Markus. Siegel became one of the busiest people during this time. Every day, he receives more than a dozen news outlets from all over the world and organizes press conferences to satisfy the curious press. He knew that this was a good opportunity to expand Hoffenheim's influence and visibility around the world, and he had to do it well no matter what.

The press conference, which could only accommodate 25 people, was often crowded into more than 50 people.

However, he could sense the contempt for Hoffenheim from the media from different countries around the world - after all, Hoffenheim's opponent in the final was Barcelona, the most glamorous Barcelona in football today. No one would have any hope for Hoffenheim.

Even if it's from the Chinese media. Chu Zhongtian played for Hoffenheim for three seasons, bringing a lot of Chinese media to the team, and Siegel has been able to accurately distinguish the differences between Chinese reporters and Japanese and Korean reporters, and he even learned a few simple Chinese dialogues from Chu Zhongtian to express friendship to Chinese reporters. For example, "Hello", "Thank you", "Goodbye", and "Awesome".

In the past, the Chinese media were Hoffenheim's most die-hard fans, but now they are also full of doubts in their words and questions, and they don't believe that Hoffenheim can beat Barcelona.

Even with Chu Zhongtian, who they call a "national hero", this is an impossible task.

Chu Zhongtian had already attended a press conference, and he expressed confidence at the press conference. But there was little reaction below. Everyone thought it was just a morale boost, not that they were really going to beat Barcelona.

It's one thing to be cowardly before you fight, it's another thing to be able to beat Barcelona.

Catalan media reports in recent days believe that Barcelona's victory is a foregone conclusion.

The German media also thought that Hoffenheim was too reluctant to challenge Barcelona for supremacy, and all they could do was lose a little better in the final.

The Chinese media only cares that Chu Zhongtian became the first player in Chinese football to stand in the Champions League final, and the result is not important, but this significance is significant enough. Even if he doesn't win the championship in the end, Chu Zhongtian is enough to remember the annals of history, not to mention that he may also win the Golden Boot award in the Champions League, and now he has nine goals, and Messi has eight. In the eyes of the Chinese media, Hoffenheim's loss to Barcelona is no big deal, as long as Chu Zhongtian can score in the final, open the gap with Messi, and win the Golden Boot award, it is enough to make the Chinese people happy.

※※※ Regardless of what the media thinks of them, after Hoffenheim's speech in Chu Zhongtian, the whole team has set the goal of striving for the championship, and the whole team is training according to Rangnick's plan.

One would think that getting fourteen days off before the final would be a good thing for Hoffenheim. But that's not the case.

If given the choice, Rangnick would prefer the league to end on May 22, leaving the team with just enough time to rest for a week. Taking too long a break will only cause the players to lose their form of play. Fatigue in a season is not something that can be recovered in just 14 days.

In order to avoid losing the rhythm of the game, Rangnick scheduled three games in the 14 days, two of which were scheduled in the evening, exactly the same time as the Champions League final, in order to allow the players to get used to the games played in the evening and get into the rhythm of the game as soon as possible.

Of course, the opponents in these three games are not strong, and they are all amateur teams from the Rhine-Neckar region. The Bundesliga season is over, the teams are all disbanded, and the rest of Europe is still in the middle of the season, they have to play their own league, and it is impossible to play a warm-up game against Hoffenheim, so there is no enough warm-up opponent to find at this time. Take the amateur team to practice your hands, the main thing is to maintain your condition and accumulate confidence. Such a warm-up match does not care about the opponent's gold content, and another important requirement is that injuries are absolutely not allowed.

If you get injured before the Champions League final, the impact on the team's combat effectiveness is too great.

Hoffenheim's bench depth is not deep, and to be able to play to this point, it is all up to the main players to overdraw their own energy to persevere. It can be said that everyone is actually tired of playing this part, but in the last game, we have to grit our teeth and persevere, no matter what.

Therefore, before the warm-up game, Rangnick had to repeatedly tell the opposing head coach not to hurt the Hoffenheim players.

This is not difficult to do. Hoffenheim are now the pride of the Rhine-Neckar region, and it is too late for the amateur teams in this region to adore and love them, so how can they be injured?

※※※At the end of the day's training, the teammates took a shower in the locker room, changed their clothes, and said goodbye to each other and left. Today is May 24th, and there are less than four days left until the final.

After Chu Zhongtianjia finished shooting, he returned to the locker room, there were few people in it, he said hello to the few remaining teammates, took off his essence, and dragged his bath towel into the bathroom.

There's already a man there, it's Luther. Van Nistelrooy.

Seeing this respected Dutch veteran, Chu Zhongtian raised his hand and greeted him: "Hi, Luther." ”

"You're done, Chu?" Van Nistelrooy didn't look back, he continued to rub the foam from his hair.

"Hmm." Chu Zhongtian answered, then walked over to the sprinkler next to Van Nistelrooy and turned on the faucet.

The warm water sprinkled on his body, and his body, which was tired from a long day of training, relaxed, and an indescribable comfort crept into his heart.

Van Nistelrooy washed the foam off his head and was ready to pack up and leave.

Chu Zhongtian was rubbing shampoo on his head.

Van Nistelrooy turned off his dragon head, turned around and walked out, and when he reached the door, he suddenly stopped, and said to Chu Zhongtian as if he had just remembered something: "That's right, Chu." I forgot to thank you. ”

Chu Zhongtian was a little surprised: "Thank you?" Thank you for what I do? ”

"If you hadn't worked so hard, how could I have been in the final year of my career in the Champions League final?"

Chu Zhongtian smiled: "This has nothing to do with my efforts alone, right?" What can I do alone without everyone? ”

"Of course, there are many people I want to thank, but the person I want to thank the most is you. You can see your role in this team. Are you Chinese always so modest? ”

Chu Zhongtian decided not to be modest, he shrugged with a smile.

"It's the last game of my career and whether I play or not, I'm going to cherish it. Thank you, Chu. See you tomorrow. ”

He waved his hand and said goodbye to Chu Zhongtian.

"Goodbye, Luther." Chuzhong Heavenly Dao.

He started applying shampoo to his hair again. Rubbing it, he suddenly remembered something - this was the first time in his career that Ruud van Nistelrooy, the king of the small penalty area, had participated in the Champions League final!

Despite Ruud van Nistelrooy's reputation for many years, he was always the world's top centre-forward at his peak, winning the Golden Boot in the Eredivisie, the Premier League and La Liga. But such a world-class player has never played in a Champions League final...... At PSV Eindhoven, his team was unable to reach the Champions League final due to the quality of the team. Moving to Manchester United, Manchester United also fell into a low ebb after the treble in '99, and their performance in the Champions League was mediocre. Later, he went to the Champions League giants Real Madrid, but encountered the darkest years of Real Madrid in the past 20 years, and stopped in the round of 16 in the Champions League year after year.

In the end, he came to Hoffenheim, intending to "spend his old age in peace", but he did not expect that the first Champions League final of his career would be played in the last season at the age of almost 35...... No wonder he has to thank himself...... There will always be regrets of one kind or another in one's career. Ruud van Nistelrooy has many regrets, including the World Cup, the European Championship and the Champions League, which he never had the chance to make up. It is definitely impossible for him to participate in the European Championship and the World Cup, and the Champions League was also unplanned...... Maybe his goal of winning the championship will also arouse some resonance with him, right?

It's fitting to say goodbye to your career with a Champions League trophy.

It seems that there is one more reason to win the championship...... ※※※ The next morning, Chu Zhongtian met Van Nistelrooy in the parking lot of the training base.

"Hi Luther, good morning."

"Good morning, Chu."

After greeting him, Chu Zhongtian asked him, "Luther, what do you think...... Well, how about a Champions League trophy as a commemoration of retirement? ”

Van Nistelrooy stared at Chu Zhongtian for a few moments, then nodded: "I think it's pretty good!" ”

Chu Zhongtian grinned: "Ha! That's it! ”

In Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, it is also a busy scene.

All the journalists around the Hoffenheim training base add up to less than half of what it is. Barcelona is the center of the world's attention. In recent years, Barcelona have been recognised as the number one team in the world, and their football is a delight to watch and has inspired countless fans. The Spanish national team formed with them as the team swept European and world football, and won the European Cup and the World Cup successively. It also made Barcelona's football popular all over the world.

The whole world is talking about Barcelona, about Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pep Guardiola.

There are many opponents who are even timid before the fight, and they raise their hands and surrender before the game is played.

China's "Art of War" has a cloud: Therefore, a hundred battles are won, and those who are not good are also good; The soldiers who surrender without a fight, and the good ones are also good.

Barcelona's football has reached the realm of "surrendering without a fight".

Despite this, Pep Guardiola and his aides still study each opponent carefully and maintain enough respect for each opponent. It's so perfect that you can't pick a single bone.

Now he is watching the footage of the Hoffenheim game with his assistant coach Villanova. It's been three days in a row that they've been doing the same thing.

Ever since Hoffenheim knocked out Bayern Munich to reach the final, Pep Guardiola has instructed scouts to collect footage of Hoffenheim's Champions League games this season.

He didn't ask for a video of the league game because the league schedule was too long, and the team's performance was up and down, so it didn't have much reference value. The Champions League is a condensed game, and the teams participating in the Champions League would rather give up their respective leagues in advance, and they must be prepared to play in the Champions League in the best form - except, of course, those games that have already qualified early to retain their strength.

None of Hoffenheim's games have already qualified ahead of schedule to retain their strength. They have to give 200 per cent in almost every game to move forward. From the initial group of death to the later knockouts. On several occasions, they faced very unfavorable situations, but in the end, they were able to save the day and make the cut.

Pep Guardiola has long written the key words about Hoffenheim in his next book.

"Fighting spirit" is one of them.

Now Pep Guardiola, they are watching the first leg of the match between Hoffenheim and Bayern Munich.

Hoffenheim had a terrible start and didn't even know what to do after being scored two goals by Bayern Munich.

"This team is not consistent enough." Bilanova said from the side.

'It's a common problem with all young teams, they lack experience. Pep Guardiola said.

"Is that their trait?" Villanova asked.

Guardiola thought for a moment, then bowed his head and wrote in his notebook. Nodding his head, he said, "Forget it, the uncertainty of the young team." Sometimes they can beat everything, and sometimes they can break everything with anything. ”

'I think we can learn from Bayern Munich and put pressure on them from the first second of the game and break them down when we can score goals as quickly as possible. As long as we can establish a two-goal lead in the first half, Hoffenheim will not be able to recover no matter how hard they try in the second half. We're not Bayern Munich. ”

Vilanova was very proud when he said this, and he did have the capital to be proud of. Barcelona is really not Bayern Munich, in terms of strength, Barcelona is stronger than Bayern Munich. On a tactical level, Barcelona's strong midfield and team-wide ability to control the ball ensure that they always have a firm grip on their side when they are ahead.

Just put them two goals ahead and the game is over. Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid were so good that they were close to collapsing after being led by Barcelona by two goals. There is no team in the world that can come back from two goals behind Barcelona.

Pep Guardiola has also considered such a suggestion from Vilanova. In the first half, we had to try to seal the win, which of course was the safest thing to do. But the game doesn't always go the way you expected, so be prepared for a few more possibilities.

"We could also be behind first." He reminded his assistant.

"It doesn't matter. Our opponents are not Inter Milan last season, and Rangnick is not Mourinho. Even if Hoffenheim score first, their characteristics will not make them shrink defensively, and they will continue to attack. As long as they keep attacking, we have chances to score. In terms of attack power, we are stronger than them. ”

Villanova said this with confidence. He is still very right, there is no one in the world who can surpass Barcelona in attack.

In addition, although Barcelona are known for their attack, they are also solid defensively. Their defense does not rely on a few powerful defenders to fight alone, but the whole team as a whole. Barcelona's football actually has the imprint of Dutch all-attacking and all-defensive football, and it is very deep. Barcelona have conceded the fewest goals in La Liga, which speaks volumes about how good their defence is.

When many people saw Barcelona win the championship, they shouted that this was a victory for offensive football and that defensive football had no future. However, they all ignore that if there is no solid defense, no matter how sharp the attacking football is, it will never win the championship. In the more than 50 years of the Champions League, no team has been beaten into a sieve at the back and won the championship.

Any team that wins a championship must be balanced offensively and defensively, perhaps a little more starry on the offensive end, but the role of the obscure defenders is just as important, if not more important.

Historically, many awards have only been given to offensive players. I have to say that this is the sadness of football, and Barcelona's back line is very solid. Hoffenheim will have a tough time breaking down this backline, and their own backline is not solid. Simunich was too old and slow to turn around, Comper was too young and too young, and Comper's strength was not top-notch in the first place. Both full-backs are attacking full-backs and attacking is their specialty. Defend? What's that?

In the goalkeeper position, Valdés is also a few streets ahead of Enyema. Although he has been a substitute in the Spanish national team for a long time, it is because Casillas is so godly, and it is a very sad thing for any goalkeeper to substitute Casillas.

Therefore, when Hoffenheim and Barcelona play, they may encounter such a situation - their own defense cannot hold the offensive of Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro and Villa, and their attacking lineup is not the same as the defense composed of Puyol, Pique, Alves, Abidal and Valdés.

Isn't this a loss?

That's right, in many football analysts and evaluations, Hoffenheim really loses. Their fate was decided from the moment they reached the final, it was predictable, and it was not difficult to predict the outcome of this match, but it was difficult to predict the score.

(To be continued)