King of the Zone

On May 2013, 5, the final day of the UEFA Champions League in the 25/2012 season, both sides of the final are German teams, and it is also the German national derby of the UEFA Champions League final version.

This day is also Cheng Hai's 21st birthday. The temperature is around 15°C and the weather is cloudy, which is very suitable for the competition.

Wembley Stadium, before the start of the game, the starting 11 players gathered in a circle, and captain Sebastian Kyle was doing the final mobilization:

"Everyone, this is the second year in a row that we have reached the final of the Champions League. We may become the first team to successfully defend the title after the restructuring of the Champions League, making history."

"Our opponent is also Bayern Munich, which we have defeated countless times in the league in the past three years. We should not lose."

"But everyone must pay [-] percent attention to avoid capsizing in the gutter. Bayern Munich is capable of breaking our goal, and may score more than one goal."

"Also, today is Cheng Hai's 21st birthday."

"Let's use a Champions League champion as a birthday present for Cheng Hai!"

Everyone nodded and said, "Okay!"

Then put their hands together and shouted "come on" together, and then they all dispersed, and the game was about to start.

The same is true for Bayern Munich. After the final mobilization, the players return to their positions according to the formation.

At 20:45 local time in London, amidst the cheers of 9 fans at Wembley Stadium, following the referee's whistle, the 2012/2013 UEFA Champions League final between Dortmund and Bayern Munich officially began.

In this game, coach Heynckes really sought a change and came up with a 433 lineup that made Dortmund scratch his head: goalkeeper Neuer, defenders Dante, Boateng, Alaba, Ram, midfielder Van Buyten, Gustavo, Timoschuk, midfielder Franck Ribery, Schweinsteiger, Robben.

However, Ribery, Schweinsteiger, and Robben in this 433 formation are not forwards, but avant-gardes at the back, undertaking a large number of defensive tasks in the midfield.

Especially Schweinsteiger, who is a defensive midfielder himself, is now positioned a little earlier, and he has only become a central midfielder instead of a center forward.

When Bayern Munich was on defense, no one could see the frontcourt. Franck Ribery, Schweinsteiger, and Robben all withdrew to their own half to participate in the defense, instead of waiting for their teammates to pass the ball in the frontcourt to counterattack like a striker.

In the last match between the two sides in the league, Bayern Munich lost another 2-5, watching Dortmund win the championship two rounds ahead of schedule, and the fact that the two sides have played so many times in the past few years proves that Bayern Munich and Dortmund are absolutely impossible to play against each other.

But ordinary defense is not good. Even the ultimate 541 defensive counterattack formation cannot prevent Cheng Hai's impact.

So in this game, Bayern Munich offered such a lineup that they had never used before, and it really caught Dortmund by surprise.

Defensively, Bayern Munich used the method of retreating with all members to block Dortmund's passing and breakthrough possibilities in any direction.

Even for Cheng Hai, it is difficult to break through Bayern Munich's defense line, because the personnel are too dense.

If Cheng Hai's breakthrough ability has been upgraded to the master level, with balanced left and right feet, he can make any breakthrough moves according to the situation, and he can do whatever he wants, lifting weights with ease, then maybe he can still break through.

But now Cheng Hai's dominant foot is his right foot. As long as Bayern Munich's defensive players are vigilant enough to Cheng Hai's right foot, they can resolve many of his breakthrough moves.

Coupled with the intensive defense and assistance of personnel, Cheng Hai has no good solution.

With Robben, Franck Ribery, and Schweinsteiger all retreating to the vicinity of the penalty area, Cheng Hai couldn't even get a few long-range shots, let alone shots inside the penalty area.

Even if you get one or two shots occasionally, the threat is not great. Coupled with Neuer's top goalkeeping ability, he still can't open Bayern Munich's goal.

Dortmund were rarely able to score in the entire first half.

In Cheng Hai's first game, this was almost impossible to happen, but now it just happened.

Of course, Bayern Munich, who retreated and focused their energy on defense, also failed to score.

They are not incapable of fighting back.

Both Robben and Ribery are counterattack experts, but because they retreated too far, they had to rely on themselves to dribble the ball to counterattack, and the success rate was too low.

Even Robben, Peter Pan, can't dribble the ball and shoot several people in succession every time.Even Cheng Hai can't do it, let alone him?

When the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, the two sides scored a goalless draw and entered the intermission with a score of 0-0.

For Dortmund, it was a natural failure.

In the first three matches between the two sides this season, Dortmund has scored 5 goals.As a result, the first half of the game was played without a goal, which was really frustrating.

On the other hand, Bayern Munich is a little elated.

Even if it wasn't the whole game, being able to keep Dortmund clean in the first half without allowing Cheng Hai to score is definitely something to celebrate for Bayern Munich.

This proves that Heynckes' tactics are effective, at least in the first half.

Therefore, Heynckes affirmed the performance of the Bayern players in the first half during the intermission, and asked everyone to continue to maintain, and strive to continue to keep a clean sheet for Dortmund in the second half.

Even if no goals are scored, it would be a huge success for Bayern Munich if it can be dragged to a penalty shootout with a score of 0-0.

It was also better to shoot penalties than to be beaten by Borussia Dortmund in 90 minutes and take the trophy.

On the other hand, in Dortmund's locker room, the atmosphere is much more solemn.

Bayern Munich's tactics were unexpected before the game, including Klopp.

Unexpectedly, Bayern Munich, as a world-class giant, could lose face and use such an extreme no-front defensive tactic on the stage of the Champions League final, and implement it so resolutely that Dortmund, who has Cheng Hai, a big killer, failed to score a single goal in the first half.

How long has it been since Dortmund did not score a goal in the first half of the first half?

Everyone forgot, it must have been a long time anyway.

However, as a coach, you cannot lose confidence at this time.His existence is to find a way to lead the team to victory in such difficult times.

Now that Bayern Munich has come up with such tactics, Klopp must also make changes.

He first made the decision to make a substitution, replacing the midfielder Sebastian Kyle with the high center forward Santana who rarely got the chance to play, and let Santana and Lewandowski partner with double forwards, nailed in Bayern Munich's penalty area, and catch the high ball.

Santana's skills are not very good, and his scoring efficiency is not high, so he doesn't have many opportunities to play, but his height has reached 194cm, much taller than goalkeeper Weidenfeller, and he is the tallest in the Dortmund team.

In terms of fighting for the header, Cheng Hai's full bounce is not as high as Santana's jump, because Cheng Hai himself is only 180cm tall, and his full bounce can't make up for the 14cm height gap.

Therefore, in today's crowded game, Cheng Hai's position grabbing, running, jumping, and header skills in Bayern Munich's penalty area were of little use. Santana had a more obvious advantage in fighting for headers.

So Klopp replaced Santana and joined Lewandowski in Bayern's penalty area.

Bayern Munich can play without a striker, and Dortmund can also play a double center!
As for Cheng Hai, he retreated to Kyle's midfielder position.

Although Cheng Hai's passing attribute is only 18, which is not full, but his physical fitness, steals, short passes, crosses, through balls, vision, creativity, long passes in the air, etc. are all full.

Under such circumstances, Cheng Hai's midfielder can not only avoid Bayern Munich's intensive backcourt defense, but also use his physical fitness, speed, and stealing ability to intercept Bayern's counterattack, and then use his pass to hoist the ball into the penalty area during the attack.

Now that the ground attack is blocked by Bayern Munich, pass the ball in the air.

The purpose of going to Santana is to let Cheng Hai pass the ball in the penalty area more, so that Santana and Lewandowski can compete for the top.

Just one success can end the game.

Originally, if someone else could achieve Cheng Hai's ability to pass the ball in the air, and let Cheng Hai use his physique, jumping, grabbing points, and heading the ball to compete for the top in the penalty area, the effect would be better.

It's a pity that no one can reach it, even Gundogan is far from it.Therefore, the best thing to do is to let Cheng Hailai act as a passer and deliver aerial shells to Santana, who is 194cm tall.

In addition to substitutions, Klopp also encouraged the players, reminding everyone to prepare for overtime and even penalty shootouts.

This game will be very difficult.

The second half of the game was indeed very difficult.

Although Bayern Munich put too much energy into defense, there was no decent counterattack. Even if there was a counterattack, it was intercepted by Cheng Hai, Hummels and others.

But Dortmund also failed to score.

Cheng Hai's passing skills are indeed superb. He retreated to the midfielder position and no one could stop him from passing the ball. Therefore, in the second half, a lot of threatening balls were passed into Bayern Munich's penalty area, allowing Santana and Lewandowski to compete for the top.

However, Santana has height, physique, ability to grab points, header skills, etc. are not at the same level as Cheng Hai.

Throughout the second half, Cheng Hai made 8 air passes to find the vicinity of Santana, but he only managed 4 times.

In these 4 header fights, 3 headers flew out of the goal, and only [-] header was within the range of the goal frame, and the angle was too straight, which was easily confiscated by Neuer.

With a height of 194cm, he can only play as a substitute and cannot get much playing time, which makes sense.The reason is that apart from his height, Santana's other skills are too bad.

Soon, the 90-minute regular game time ended, and the two sides scored a goalless draw, still 0-0.

This result greatly exceeded everyone's expectations.No one expected that in Cheng Hai's first game, there would be a 90-0 result within 0 minutes.

Of course, the fans of the two teams have different acceptance of this result.

The fans of Bayern Munich were overjoyed, feeling that they had finally found a way to contain Dortmund's offense and blocked Dortmund.

The fans of Dortmund are extremely disappointed and even a little scared.

Fearing that the game will be dragged into a penalty shootout, and then defeated by Bayern Munich on penalties, losing the glory of the defending champion.

Klopp was also scratching his head on the sidelines to find a way, but he couldn't think of any way.

If Dortmund wants to win, they can only rely on Cheng Hai and find a way on Cheng Hai.

But in the first half, Cheng Hai was allowed to play forward, and Bayern Munich's no-forward tactics blocked all the space for breakthroughs and shots.

In the second half, Cheng Hai was used as the offensive engine in the backcourt. As a result, Santana and Lewandowski, who were competing for the top, were not strong enough and failed to score a single goal.

Klopp is also in vain.

Is it really going to be dragged through overtime by Bayern Munich, dragged into a penalty shootout, and then beat Dortmund with a penalty kick to win the championship?
At this moment, Klopp saw Hummels walking to the sidelines to drink water, suddenly a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and immediately called the players to form a circle around him and said to Hummels:

"Hummels, in the extra time, you mentioned to go to the front, form a three-center forward with Lewandowski and Santana, and give me my best to fight for the overhead ball."

Everyone was stunned.

Although Hummels, as a central defender, sometimes goes forward into the opponent's penalty area to compete for the header when fighting for the header, this is a routine operation of the central defender, and there is nothing strange about it.

But what kind of operation is it to let Hummels, an authentic central defender, play as a striker?
Before everyone could react, Klopp said to Cheng Hai again: "Hummels went to the forward line ahead of time, Cheng Hai, you retreated to the back line, and the central defender, together with Subotic, protected the penalty area to avoid being counterattacked by the opponent. However, your more important task is to organize the attack with the ball, hang the ball into the opponent's penalty area, and let the three of Hummels compete for the top. Your task will be very heavy. You must not only protect the defense line, avoid being counterattacked, but also organize the attack to win for the team. Can you do it?"

This time, everyone understood that the central defender Hummels, who is good at heading the ball, was brought up to the forward line to compete for the header. Cheng Hai retreated to fill the position left by Hummels again!

But the problem is that Cheng Hai has never played a central defender, so doing so is very risky.

And in this way, Cheng Hai had to defend and organize offense, which would consume a lot of physical energy, and most people would definitely not be able to bear it.

Fortunately, Cheng Hai's physical fitness has always been very good, even if he is not afraid of overtime.

The only thing that is uncertain is whether Cheng Hai and Subotic can help Weidenfeller defend the goal, avoid being attacked by Robben or Ribery, and also take into account the offense.

After retreating to the back line, Cheng Hai will be farther away from the frontcourt. Can he still make such accurate aerial passes?

Facts have proved that Cheng Hai can.

After the start of extra time, Dortmund's change of formation surprised Bayern Munich and all the audience, but when the score remained unchanged, Heynckes did not dare to change the formation casually, so he could only continue to maintain the original style of play.

As a result, as a player in the team whose header ability is second only to Cheng Hai, although Hummels is not good at his feet, it is definitely impossible for him to dribble and break through, but standing in the penalty area to grab points and compete for the top is much better than Santana.

Coupled with the cooperative cover of Santana and Lewandowski, and the configuration of three high center forwards, Bayern Munich suddenly didn't know which one to defend.

Even though Cheng Hai couldn't accurately deliver the ball to their heads every time because of the distance, there were quite a few times.

After several failures, finally, in the 112th minute of extra time, Cheng Hai dribbled the ball out of Robben's press in midfield and then sent an exquisite long pass in the air, and the ball went straight into the Bayern Munich penalty area.

Under the interference of Santana and Lewandowski, only one Bayern player, Alaba, followed Hummels.

Both are central defenders, but Alaba lost to Hummels this time.Moreover, it was not just a top fight that was lost.

With countless fans watching on the scene and in front of the TV, Hummels took the spot, jumped up before Alaba and made a diving jump to the top, hoisting Cheng Hai from the midfield into the penalty area to the Bayern Munich goal.

Moreover, Hummels made a tricky angle and went straight to the upper left corner of the goal.

This time Neuer failed to save the team because Hummels' header was too angled.

In the end, Neuer, who was in the air, could only watch the ball fall into the dead corner of the goal, and his fingers missed the ball a little bit.

Dortmund finally broke through Bayern Munich's frontless iron barrel formation in the 112th minute of the second half of extra time. Cheng Hai assisted Hummels to score the first goal of the game, leading Bayern Munich by one goal.

This goal instantly ignited the enthusiasm of Dortmund fans and Cheng Hai fans at Wembley Stadium. Countless people jumped up and celebrated Dortmund's goal crazily.

In the commentary booth, the commentators from various countries also yelled like crazy:
"Toooooooooooooooooooooooooooor..."

"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

"The ball is in!"

"Central defender Hummels' goal, he was transformed into a center forward by Klopp in this game, and he really received a miraculous effect, scoring the only goal so far in this game."

"The one who provided the assist for Hummels was Cheng Hai, who was constantly retreated by Klopp and retreated from the forward position to the central defender position."

"In the position of central defender, Cheng Hai not only successfully blocked several counterattacks of Bayern Munich, but also sent out continuous air passes, allowing Hummels, Lewandowski and Santana to compete for the top."

"After countless attempts, Hummels finally grasped Cheng Hai's aerial pass, overwhelmed Alaba, and headed the ball into the dead corner of Bayern Munich's goal. Neuer couldn't do anything about it."

"Dortmund's 1-0 lead is only 8 minutes away from the end of extra time. Bayern Munich is in trouble."

Indeed, the conceded goal at this point in time is a very big blow to Bayern Munich.

Originally, everyone thought they could be dragged into a penalty shootout, but Cheng Hai's pass turned into an assist and helped Hummels score a goal.

After the game restarted, Bayern Munich's overall formation pressed forward and became a real 433 offensive formation, trying to quickly score a goal to equalize the score.

But Dortmund is no fool here.

After scoring the goal, Klopp immediately let Hummels return to his own central defender position, and Cheng Hai played the midfielder in advance.

Moreover, both Lewandowski and Santana were strictly ordered to participate in the return defense and organize Bayern Munich's offense.

As time passed, Bayern Munich's players became more and more anxious, but they were still unable to break through Dortmund's goal.

Cheng Hai spared no effort to run and sweep, causing Bayern Munich's offense to stop firing when it hit the front of the penalty area most of the time, unable to form a shot.

Bayern Munich also made substitutions, replacing top offensive players such as Gomez and Manju`Kic to strengthen their offense.

But there was too little time left for Bayern Munich, and they still failed to perform a miracle after all.

补时2分钟后，主裁判吹响了全场比赛结束的哨声，多特蒙德凭借加时赛第112分钟程海空中长传助攻胡梅尔斯取得进球1-0击败拜仁慕尼黑，获得了2012/2013赛季的欧冠冠军。

This is the second consecutive year that Dortmund has won the Champions League after last season, and it is also the first team to successfully defend the Champions League since the restructuring of the Champions League in 1992.

Dortmund are kings of Europe once again.