Seven Crowns

Before the Hoffenheim-Udinese game started, several other German teams that started earlier on the same day had already played.

Stuttgart defeated Bulgaria's Chalomoli 2-1 away, Hamburg drew 0-0 with Romania's Uniria at home, and Wolfsburg quickly drew 1 with Bucharest, also from Romania -0, a small victory by one goal.

So far, five of the six German teams that have played in the third round of the UEFA Cup qualifying round have ended the first round, with four wins and one tie.

Now let's look at the performance of the last German team Hoffenheim.

After some appearance ceremonies and the captain's choice of sides, at 19:45 pm on September 18, Germany local time, and at 2:45 am on September 19, Beijing time, with the referee's whistle, the 2008/2009 UEFA Europa League Hoffenheim VS Udinese in the first round of the third qualifying round of the Cup officially began.

Hoffenheim won the kick-off. Amidst the excited cheers of the Hoffenheim fans, Lu Wenbin knocked the ball to Ibisevic, and then ran towards the opponent's half.

The game was broadcast live throughout Germany, and CCTV-5 also broadcast it to Chinese fans.

After all, this is a game in which one of the few Chinese players can play as a core player in European competitions.

Therefore, even though it is already midnight in China, there are still countless Chinese fans who pay attention to the European League and Lu Wenbin sitting in front of the TV to watch the game.

Of course, Lu Wenbin, who has already started the game at this time, will not think about those things. He just wants to score goals quickly, help the team beat Udinese, and gain the initiative to advance to the UEFA Cup group stage in the second round.

However, after the game started, Lu Wenbin found that the opponent did not send someone to guard him closely like the German team he met before.

This made Lu Wenbin quite surprised, but also a little happy, thinking that he would get a chance to shoot soon.

However, after 30 minutes passed, Lu Wenbin did not get even a chance to shoot.

Not only did he not have a chance to shoot, he didn't even touch the ball a few times. The few times he touched the ball, he was forced to pass back to his teammates.

It was only then that Lu Wenbin discovered that Udinese's defense was completely different from the Bundesliga teams he had encountered in the league before. It was also the first time that Lu Wenbin saw what an Italian-style defense is.

In the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim's opponents basically sent people to mark Lu Wenbin closely, and then other players assisted in the defense to prevent Lu Wenbin from kicking shots or causing damage, blocking gun holes, etc.

However, Udinese did not do this, and did not even send someone to mark Lu Wenbin closely.

They put a job into the overall defense.

Udinese used the chain defense and zone defense of seven or eight players in the midfield to almost cut off Lu Wenbin's connection with other teammates.

Others have to break through and shoot, and they don't face much pressure.

But as long as someone tries to pass the ball to Lu Wenbin, you will find that there are always Udinese players standing between them and Lu Wenbin, and there is almost no chance for them to pass the ball to Lu Wenbin.

As long as the ball is passed, nine times out of ten it will be intercepted or destroyed by the opponent.

Even if Lu Wenbin turned around and ran in various ways, it was useless to stop and turn, because they didn't send someone to follow Lu Wenbin at all, so there was no situation where Lu Wenbin used the emergency stop to get rid of the defender.

The defensive ability of the Italian team is indeed unique in football.

Although Udinese was passively defending and counterattacking, with seven or eight players huddled in the backcourt, they didn't have many chances to attack, but they managed to freeze Lu Wenbin, the first core of Hoffenheim.

This freeze is not a one-on-one man-to-man freeze, but the use of the Italian team's deep-rooted chain defense and zone defense to reduce Lu Wenbin's chances to get the ball and the threat of Lu Wenbin's kick shot.

Ralph frowned on the sidelines, and the German commentators in the commentary booth also changed from full of confidence to worried.

In fact, whether it is the national team or the league, Italy is relatively restrained from Germany.

Judging from the historical record, at the national team level, Italy has won most of the matches between Italy and Germany in recent years.

From the perspective of the league style, the German team focuses on offense, while the Italian team focuses on defense.

If it weren't for a team like Bayern Munich with too many superstars who can change the situation alone, the German team would lose more and win less against the Italian team.

Like in today's game, Udinese's tactic is quite obvious, which is to cut off the connection between other Hoffenheim teammates and Lu Wenbin.

Others can break through and shoot, but as long as they try to pass the ball to Lu Wenbin, they will be blocked by layers and it is difficult to succeed.

Of course, Salihovic, Eduardo and others did not fail to discover this situation, and they also tried to break through and score by themselves.

However, on the one hand, Udinese plays a defensive counterattack. There are a lot of defensive players in the backcourt, and there will not be too many gaps because of their defense against Lu Wenbin.

On the other hand, the shooting accuracy of Hoffenheim's other teammates is far from that of Lu Wenbin.

Within the first 30 minutes, Hoffenheim still created four or five shot opportunities.

However, all but one of their attempts was on target and was saved by the quick-witted Udinese keeper Samir Handanovic.

The situation is very difficult for Hoffenheim, which is playing at home, and it is not as easy as the German media commented before the game.

After watching for half an hour and finding that it was really difficult for Lu Wenbin to catch the ball and form the final blow, Ralph had to make tactical adjustments.

Taking advantage of a dead ball, Ralph called captain Salihovic to the sidelines to convey new tactical instructions.

Subsequently, Salihovic, Eduardo, Demba Ba and others began to increase the number of personal breakthroughs, trying to draw fouls from the opponent and create opportunities for Lu Wenbin to take free kicks in the frontcourt.

However, before Hoffenheim's free-kick tactic had an effect, Udinese instead scored a counter-attack goal in the 38th minute from their No. 10 striker Di Natale.

Udinese led Hoffenheim 1-0 away and scored a crucial away goal.

At that moment, the entire Karl Benz Stadium was almost silent, only the ecstatic cheers and screams of hundreds of Udinese fans spread throughout the stadium.

Lu Wenbin stood at the front of Udinese's penalty area, looking at the Udinese players who were running and celebrating on the court, his eyes were full of fighting flames.

The head coach is right. The European game and the league are indeed two different worlds. The Italians proved this to Lu Wenbin with their excellent overall defense and deadly counterattack.

To win the UEFA Cup and achieve the Triple Crown, Lu Wenbin must work even harder.

PS: Today's two chapters have been updated in advance. This is the last chapter of the public free version. The next chapter is the testimonials, and then there will be ten VIP chapters on the shelves in the early morning of April 1. Please subscribe and ask for monthly ticket support!