Grass roots glory

Chapter 147 Recovering in status, welcome to the Ruhr Derby

Slomka's statement will naturally make many people unhappy, especially the phrase "the biggest enemy is only yourself". Many reporters feel that their home team has been ignored.

Slomka thinks he has the confidence to say this. He knows better than anyone that the loss is not due to the player's state, and it is indeed just bad luck.And luck is something that sometimes doesn't just look at one side.Schalke 04's luck in this game is indeed relatively bad, but compared with the general situation in the standings, they are the lucky ones.The second-ranked Dortmund was tied 1:1 by Leverkusen at home. Although Schalke's lead was only one point, they temporarily kept the top position.

At the same time, Stuttgart, which is ranked fourth, defeated Borussia 2-0 at home, and once again overtook Wolfsburg, who was tied, in the standings.At present, Schalke 04 has 38 wins, 3 draws and [-] losses to maintain [-] points, and the gap between the top three in the standings is only [-] points.Moreover, Stuttgart, Wolfsburg, including fifth-ranked Bayern are on the verge of qualifying for the Champions League. Not surprisingly, the Bundesliga will only have three Champions League places next season (including a play-off place), so the No.[-] competition Worse than the top of the list.

For Bundesliga teams, participating in the Champions League is not just a face-saving project to show their face in the intercontinental arena. UEFA's real Champions League participation bonus is not a small temptation.As long as they enter the Champions League, they will be rewarded with 170 million euros, and the group stage will be paid 34 euros for each game. If they win a game, they will be rewarded with an additional 34 euros. For a tie, they will be rewarded with 17 euros. Like Schalke, they won all the group matches this season. , you can get a bonus of 600 million euros.

Taking a step back, even if all six games are lost, there will be a bonus of 340 million euros.That's enough cash-savvy Germans to buy some high-potential utility players.Because of the bonus policy of the Champions League and the financial environment of the Bundesliga, new faces from the Bundesliga often appear in the Champions League.

Schalke can't wait to see these teams tearing each other up. This kind of situation where you only need to be yourself and don't need to look at other people's faces has long been the patent of Bayern in the past. Few other teams can experience this kind of high ground. cold feeling.

After returning from the away game in Hannover, Schalke got a fuller rest than several other championship opponents. Dortmund, Stuttgart and Wolfsburg were also distracted by the German Cup. In this sense, they were upset early. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Although Zhou Tiancheng did not have the task of the German Cup, he paid close attention to it, because every time before the German Cup, Ming Tao and Chen Pengfei would show their faces in the group, and even worked hard to find some live broadcast links to post in the group , the meaning is naturally obvious, let Zhou Tiancheng cheer for the two of them more.

At first, Zhou Tiancheng was just talking about encouragement, but now that his vision is higher, he is actually not very interested in this game, but as Darmstadt has reached the quarter-finals of the German Cup as a German second team team, every time the German Cup match day, the media They will give this dark horse a high degree of attention. Ming Tao and Chen Pengfei, as key figures on both ends of the offense and defense, have many opportunities to appear in newspapers. Even national newspapers such as "Bild" and "Le Monde" have mentioned them both.Of course, Zhou Tiancheng will definitely be pulled together for comparison. Often he will receive inexplicable interview calls, but the content is all about Ming Tao and Chen Pengfei. Such calls make Zhou Tiancheng embarrassed, and finally faced with similar calls, He simply solved it in one sentence: I don't know these two people!
Of course Zhou Tiancheng was not afraid of the misunderstanding between the two, at least Ming Tao should understand himself.

Under the attention of Zhou Tiancheng, Darmstadt defeated Cottbus 2:1 at home. In the same "Chinese Derby", Shao Jiayi opened the scoring for Cottbus. Chen Pengfei directed a pass and a shot to reverse the game. Later, he won the best of the game.

The most excited about this result is the Chinese media. The Bundesliga and Champions League have attracted the attention of the media on Sunday, and the German Cup is seeing Chinese players want to write dark horse legends.This season can be said to be a prosperous age for Chinese players to explode in the European arena.And judging from this momentum, it is only the beginning.

Of course, for Zhou Tiancheng, he was naturally happy for his buddies' consecutive upsets, but looking back, he had to help the team get back on the winning track as soon as possible.

Schalke 04 will play against Werder Bremen at home in the No.19 round of the league. The focus of last season, this season has lost a lot of suspense due to the different situations of the two teams.Bremen had six wins, five draws and seven losses in the first eighteen rounds, ranking only tenth in the league.Although their strength on paper, they should not be underestimated, but the state is obviously unable to compete with Schalke.

As a guest at the Schalke Stadium, Schaff pragmatically chose the 4-5-1 anti-reverse tactics.Today is different from the past, and now Bremen really does not have the confidence to attack Schalke in the away game.

Werder Bremen was not as sharp-edged as they were against Schalke 04 at home in the first half, but the scene was not ugly. After all, there were two midfield engines, Ozil and Diego Jr.Returning to the old place, Ozil was very excited throughout the game, and several long-range shots with the ball in a quick counterattack really tested Neuer.

"Schalke seem to be stuck in the same cycle as the last game. They have the advantage on the field, but after an hour of the game, it is the few attacks of Werder Bremen that are more impressive. Slom If Ka can't solve the problem of breaking the dense defense, it will be Schalke's deathbed in the championship."

Marcel Leff said with some concern.Because of Zhou Tiancheng's outstanding performance, he is now half a Schalke fan. On the premise of not violating the neutrality and fairness of the commentator, he mixed some personal emotions.

But this time Schalke did not repeat the same mistakes.Before the end of the game, Zhou Tiancheng steals the ball from the midfield and drives forward, passing Diego, Frings and Mertesacker, and breaks into the penalty area with a low shot to complete the lore.Surprise and near misses kept Schalke's top three points firmly.

The moment Slomka scored the goal, he was so excited that he knelt down and made a gesture of worship to Zhou Tiancheng. This is how he can speak boldly in front of the media without worrying about being slapped in the face.

At the same time, this victory greatly stimulated the state of the team.In the No.20 round of the Bundesliga, Schalke 04 beat Bochum 2:0 away.The score did not reflect the overwhelming advantage of Schalke at all.Rakitic, Kuranyi and Pulier, who just joined in Dongchuang, all missed at least one must-go goal.

The Schalke media breathed a sigh of relief, this state is like Schalke 04 this season.The next round is the derby in the Ruhr area that has attracted the most attention. It must be a great challenge to be a guest at Dortmund's Westfalen Stadium, but the media in Gelsenkirchen are confident that this may be the first time in four seasons for Schalke The best chance to conquer the Westphalian stadium.

(End of this chapter)