On December 25, 2007, Cologne visited Dimat. Hope Arena away to Hoffenheim, which will be the focus of the 14th round of the Bundesliga this season, this is a contest between the top six teams in the standings, and it is also likely to be a temporary match to open up the gap between several teams in the standings, at least compared to other opponents, Hoffenheim and Cologne will have a team temporarily left behind.

Cologne fell into the Bundesliga for the first time in their history in 1998 and have been torn between the Bundesliga and the Bundesliga ever since. In the 2004-05 season, Cologne returned to the Bundesliga after finishing first in the Bundesliga, and Prince Podolski also topped the scorers' charts with 24 goals. However, the team still struggled to escape relegation in the next Bundesliga, and Podolski also switched to Bayern Munich. Although Cologne has not been able to complete the return to the first division since then, their quality is still good, and they are still quite competitive teams in the Bundesliga.

This game will be a new challenge for Hoffenheim after a good performance this season, after nine rounds of unbeaten and completely out of the trough of the early season, Hoffenheim is now back to a very good trajectory, but Hoffenheim must take advantage of the opportunity in this game, because once they make a mistake, then it is very likely to lose a good position in the standings, although they cannot be knocked to the bottom, However, in a short period of time, it is unlikely that the desire to move further in the standings will be repeated.

There were also some small changes to Hoffenheim's starting lineup in this game, but they were also very small, and it seemed that they were the team's main lineup in the future; The goalkeeper is Daniel Haas, of course, and at the back Perl Nelsson, Luis Gustavo, Matthias Jaisler and Christoph Jankel; midfielder Selim Teber, three attacking midfielders Eduardo, Copado and Seyad Salihovic; Edu and Xiao Qing on the forward line.

This is Hoffenheim's most attacking lineup now, and this is also the lineup that Hoffenheim needs to focus on observing, after almost half a season of observation, Hoffenheim's head coach Rangnick also has some understanding of the strength of his players, so at this time he naturally has some ideas in his heart; The current squad may still have some shortcomings, but it is definitely the most haode squad he can put out, maybe the team will make up for some deficiencies in the winter transfer, but now we still need to rely on this lineup.

Cologne also played this game without reservation, goalkeeper Fayed Mondragon; Kevin McKenna, Eret, Joseph Mohammed and Marvin Matip in the back line; In midfield, midfielder Loda Antar, forwards Aleksandar Mitreski and Adil Hihi, and a front three of Milivoye Novakovic, Namanja Vusisevic and Hermes.

Cologne played in an attacking 4-3-3 formation and it was clear that they knew that Hoffenheim's central midfield was not strong defensively, so they will attack aggressively and will give it their all to move up the table. There is no shortage of German internationals such as Hermes in the Cologne team, which also puts them ahead of many opponents, and it is understandable that they will upgrade their target positioning for this season, after two seasons of relegation to the Bundesliga, Cologne are not willing to continue to sink, they need to start sprinting.

Although Hoffenheim wants to win this game, but their psychological pressure is also quite large, because they can achieve good results, and because they are likely to go further in the standings, so the current Hoffenheim players are under a lot of pressure, and now they are not treating their team as a promoted polo team in the real sense, they want to create more results, so they can't lose this game at all, especially when this is the home field, It was the only crucial game of the season so far that almost filled the stadium, so the Hoffenheim players at this time did not want to lose.

Many times there is pressure means that there is motivation, but once the pressure is too much, then it will be counterproductive, it is very likely to make the players too stressed and look forward to the heavy psychological burden on their backs, and their performance on the field is also difficult to play their due strength, this game is like this, although the Hoffenheim players want to win this game, but they think too much, they simply can't find the rhythm of the game they are familiar with.

After all, Hoffenheim has just made a large-scale adjustment to the lineup, although the players have played more than a dozen games together, but at this time they need to slowly run in, and because they need to adjust the lineup from time to time, so there must be a certain tacit understanding, but compared to those teams that have been playing together, Hoffenheim still needs more familiarity; Although the Cologne team has also had some player turnover in recent seasons, they have basically ensured that the main lineup has not changed much, and the cooperation between the players is naturally more tacit. What's more, compared with the promoted polo team, the players of the Cologne team have a stronger psychological resilience, although they have not been promoted in the past two seasons, but they have also experienced a lot of tough battles; Hoffenheim, on the other hand, almost all of their main squad are playing in the second division for the first time, and the young players may not be very good mentally now.

Xiao Qing was a little depressed, his previous performance must have been noticed by his opponents, scoring six goals in eight league games, plus the hat trick completed in the German Cup, Xiao Qing scored nine goals in nine appearances in Hoffenheim this season, which is definitely a very good result, even if this is a relatively low level of the second division, Xiao Qing's goal efficiency is quite amazing; So at this time, even if I don't know Xiao Qing very well, I think Xiao Qing's opponents will also have some targeted understanding of Xiao Qing before the game, and they will definitely limit Xiao Qing's play as much as possible in terms of tactical arrangement. The Cologne team did a good job in this game, and they didn't give Xiao Qing a chance.

Although Xiao Qing can retreat to get the ball, dribbling Jishu is only a beginner after all, so Xiao Qing is obviously beyond his power to stage a long-distance run now; Although he can occasionally burst into the box in front of the box in search of opportunities, he still relies more on passing from his team-mates. Now, Cologne are also mindful of limiting Hoffenheim's midfield and front, and they will cut off the passing line as much as possible, and they will limit Hoffenheim's attacking tempo.

So Xiao Qing, who couldn't comfortably receive the pass, began to decline, although he was able to create a certain amount of chaos by relying on his strong physical fitness in the penalty area, but when the Cologne team arranged a special person to mark the defense, Xiao Qing's threat would naturally decline further, because he couldn't get the ball, so Xiao Qing began to perform a little inaction on the field.

Although Xiao Qing tried his best to get out of his current situation, it was far from enough to rely on him alone; First, the pressure on Hoffenheim's players is relatively high, secondly, the defensive strength of the Cologne team is still quite good, and thirdly, Hoffenheim's defense is relatively insufficient, so when the offensive momentum of the Cologne team gradually rises, Hoffenheim is more restrained on the offensive end.

In the twenty-first minute of the game, Loda. Antar broke through in the middle, and his long-range shot in front of the box was blocked by Hoffenheim goalkeeper Haas with both fists; But this is not a good sign, because in this defense Hoffenheim's defence was almost completely torn apart, and this is only the beginning.

In the 27th minute of the game, Hermes, who was at the level of a German international player, and Antar easily entered the front court after colliding with the wall, and after the continuous change of direction attracted the attention of Hoffenheim's defense, Hermes picked up a cross into the penalty area; Cologne striker Vusisevic stopped the ball and volleyed hard, although Haas did a good job of saving the ball, but the liliang of the ball was too big, so Haas saved the ball. Although Novakovic's follow-up shot was deflected, such a threatening attack still caused a burst of pumping sound at the Di Mathope Stadium.

Hoffenheim's players wanted to get out of such an unfavourable situation, but they simply didn't play to their quality in this game; And because they have been unbeaten in nine rounds, although Hoffenheim's players are still more or less underweight, they are not so prepared for this game, so when the team falls into adversity, they seem to be a little anxious and anxious.

Eduardo used his excellent individual ability to break through hard, but Eduardo, who failed to observe the opponent's defense at all, fell into a lot of interceptions in the front court; Eduardo, who was forced to stop, was a little embarrassed, but he had no choice but to pass the ball to the feet of Xiao Qing, who retreated even more.

Xiao Qing was also very unhappy at this time, so he made a big mistake when he thought he could make another contribution; Ignoring the traps that had been set up by the Cologne defenders, Xiao Qing didn't raise his head and just broke through with the ball; But he crashed headlong into the Cologne defence in front of the penalty area, and when he and Mohammed were looking for an opportunity, Cologne defender McKenna quietly slotted the ball in, and he was very clever in sliding the ball.

In the 31st minute of the game, the Cologne team chose to make a long pass after the ball was broken at the back, because Hoffenheim's side defense was actually more unbearable, so Cologne forward Millerreski crossed the bottom; Cologne striker Novakovic jumped high to head the goal, this time Hoffenheim goalkeeper Haas failed to block the ball, Hoffenheim was broken by the Cologne team in the 31st minute of the game, and this game basically entered the rhythm of the Cologne team!