Football: Invincible starting from krypton gold

Chapter 28 German Cup Semi-Finals
The second half of the match between Mainz and Duisburg officially began. The Mainz players on the field completely followed Klopp's deployment during the intermission. They fought fiercely with Duisburg in the midfield. Lopp played such a rogue with himself when he was in the lead.

However, he didn't make any changes. He just made a matchup substitution based on the consumption of the players on the field.Because as the new head coach of Duisburg, the current Duisburg has no needs or hopes for the team's performance. The only goal is not to lose too badly so as not to affect his coaching position.

In the 75th minute of the game, seeing that the situation on the field was still the same, and that the opponent had no desire to attack, Klopp immediately replaced Chen Xiao and Dopoulos. After all, Chen Xiao was only 16 years old and still lacked some physical fitness. Fortunately, at the end of the season, the physical fitness of the opponents he encountered was not much better.

Substitute Chen Xiao and give Chen Xiao some rest. The next game is the German Cup semi-final the day after tomorrow. Although Klopp decided to give up the German Cup before reaching the semi-finals, after unexpectedly winning the match against Bayern, Mainz reached the semi-finals of the German Cup for the first time in history. Now that they have reached the semi-finals, they are only one step away from facing the championship trophy.

Mainz and Duisburg's dull second-half match also ended at the referee's whistle.

In the end, Mainz relied on Chen Xiao's brace to beat Duisburg 2-0.

After the 31st round of the Bundesliga Bundesliga, Mainz is still 2 points behind Nuremberg, but the third-ranked Cottbus and the fourth-ranked Bielefeld both lost in this round, so at the end of the 31st round, Mainz leads No.

At the end of the game, Klopp still did not allow Chen Xiao, who performed well, to appear at the press conference. After a simple wash in the locker room, Chen Xiao and his teammates returned to Mainz.

Back in Mainz, the first thing Chen Xiao did when he got home was to turn on the computer to check the situation of today's German Cup. He wanted to see which team the opponent was.

The top four teams in the German Cup this season are Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen, 1860 Munich and Mainz of the Bundesliga. The weakest of the three Bundesliga teams is 1860 Munich. This season, 1860 Munich has already fallen into the relegation zone. If there is no miracle, the relegation is a foregone conclusion. Dortmund ranks sixth. With only 4 rounds left in the league, there is still a chance to enter the European war. The last opponent Mainz wants to meet is Werder Bremen , Werder Bremen ranks second in the league this season. With Bayern winning the league championship in advance, Bremen is very serious about the championship of this cup. In the last round of the league, Bremen has already begun to prepare for the semi-finals of the German Cup. Most people in the outside world think that Bremen is the most popular team for the German Cup champion this season.

The draw for the semi-finals has ended, and the results made Chen Xiao and the Mainz fans and coaches who checked the results very happy. They were very lucky to meet Munich 1860, which is in the relegation zone of the Bundesliga.

Munich 1860 and Bayern Munich are in the same city, but the fate of the two teams is very different. Munich 1860 is one of the founding members of the Bundesliga in 1963.The team performed very well in the early days of joining the Bundesliga, winning one Bundesliga championship and one German Cup championship. However, the team's performance has slowly declined since the 70s. It was not until 2000 under the generous acquisition of the team chairman that the season achieved the fourth best result in the league. possible relegation.

The reason why Munich 1860 in the German Cup this season was able to reach the semi-finals is that they are actually in the same situation as Mainz. It is more luck. In all previous German Cup matches, the opponents they have encountered have always been lower-level teams that are weaker than themselves.However, the difference from Mainz is that Mainz has basically secured the place for promotion, and has reversed Bayern's two-game winning streak with the German Cup.These are also the reasons why Mainz felt lucky after knowing that their opponent was 1860 Munich.

This semi-final also aroused fans' pursuit in China, because there was also a player from Xia Guo in Munich 1860—Shao ​​Jiayi, and the gimmick of the Xia Guo Derby also made CCTV temporarily decide to broadcast the game live.Now Chen Xiao is already a well-known star in China because of the game against Bayern. On some domestic websites, Chen Xiao’s performance in these two games has also become the focus of fans’ attention. This is also because the current Mainz is still a Bundesliga team.

Mainz, who finished the 31st round of the game, returned to the team's residence. Although there was no game the next day, they still devoted themselves to intense preparations. Although 1860 Munich, which is deep in the relegation zone, is the easiest opponent for Mainz, it is a Bundesliga team after all, and its strength should not be underestimated.For Mainz, which is only a few steps away from the German Cup final championship trophy, Klopp still carefully deployed and trained the team.

The time soon came to the day of the semi-finals. The most unfavorable thing about this game for Mainz was that the match was arranged by the German Football Association at the Allianz Arena. Although it was the home of Bayern Munich, this stadium was also the home of 1860 Munich, and last time Mainz just eliminated another opponent in the same city here, so everyone in Mainz understood that when the game came, Mainz would become the least popular team in this stadium.

(End of this chapter)