For players, a victory in a game can make them happy for a week until the next game comes. For the head coach, a victory in a game may only make them happy for a night, and they have to consider dealing with the next opponent as soon as they open their eyes the next day.

Hoffenheim will challenge Bielefeld away from home in the middle of this week. This is not a strong opponent, but at this time, it is a difficult opponent, because Bielefeld is currently fighting for relegation, and such a team is very, very difficult to deal with.

In addition, Rangnick has another difficulty, that is, the strength of the forward line has been greatly reduced.

Ibissevic was absent. Although everyone said that there was no Ibissevic and we were here, Hoffenheim was a whole, not a team of a certain person. However, the player who can score the most was injured and the attack strength was not affected.

As can be seen from the first half with Cologne, Chu Zhongtian and Salihovic created many opportunities for the strikers at that time, but neither Demba, Obasi, nor Sanogo seized these opportunities. They often seemed too impatient and lacked confidence when they got the opportunity.

This is the biggest difference between Ibissevic and them. Because of his crazy goal-scoring state, Ibissevic always seems very calm and confident in the game, so he can score repeatedly. And because he scores repeatedly, he is more confident and more calm in handling balls... This has become a virtuous cycle.

Now it is a vicious cycle for Sanogo. He has been in a goal drought since he scored in Hoffenheim's first game. The huge pressure has made him become impatient in his performance on the court. The more impatient he is, the less he scores, and the less he scores, the more impatient he becomes, so that he can have a weird thing about shooting three posts in one game.

When dealing with Cologne, if Salihovic had not used set pieces to win the first goal, it would be hard to say what the final result would be. But we can't always expect Salihovic to step up and use his free kick to help the team when the team can't start the situation. This is unrealistic. Although set pieces are a scoring method that any team attaches importance to, it does not mean that any team will put all bets on set pieces.

So in the next three rounds of the league, scoring ability will be the key to determining whether Hoffenheim can win the championship.

Rangnik must find a way to recover the impact of Ibisevic's injury.

The players have a simple idea, just play well. As for how to play well, that is the problem that the head coach considers. So they can always smile and joke in training. When the league is over three rounds, they return to the top position in the standings, which makes everyone feel very good, and it seems that victory is already in sight.

Now everyone regards the game against Bayern as the final decisive battle. As for Bielefeld, they don’t take it seriously at all. Although the opponent is a relegation team, we are also a team that works hard for the championship. They have motivation, don’t we?

When everyone is motivated, it depends on who is stronger. In terms of strength, Hoffenheim is obviously better. So Bielefeld is not a problem.

※※The match with Bielefeld is held in the middle of the week, Thursday night. The match with Bayern Munich is held on Sunday night.

Before the game against Bielefeld, Rangnick made adjustments to the starting lineup and was already preparing for the match against Bayern Munich. He gave up the 433 he had been insisting on. Sanogo was in poor form and became a substitute, adding a midfielder Gustavo to the midfield.

Rangnick has always had an idea to make Chu Zhongtian a free man, but a pure defense person is often needed around him to protect him. This season, because Hoffenheim's three forwards performed too well before, Rangnick was reluctant to win any of them, so he could only play 433. In this way, without a protector around Chu Zhongtian, he would no longer have the conditions to be a free man, because if he intervened too frequently, it would lead to empty defense. The opponent would pass him directly behind him and face the central defender.

But now Ibissevic's injury gives him a chance. The last game proved that the three forwards were no longer able to do it, and Sanogo could not replace Ibissevic at all. He took him down in this game and then gave Chu Zhongtian a defensive midfielder Gustavo in the midfield. He has few opportunities to play this season, and this game also made him look for form.

This is a coincidence. In the first half of the season, before Hoffenheim played against Bielefeld, Gustavo got the opportunity to start after he was out of the game. The result was outstanding, allowing Rangnick to decide to put him on the starting lineup with Bayern, so that Chu Zhongtian could be liberated to play against the right forward and be responsible for curbing Ribery.

It seems that Gustavo has another chance to play in the match against Bayern this time.

In most teams, being a substitute goalkeeper is the most miserable, because basically you can't get any chance to play. However, the substitute goalkeeper at Hoffenheim is happier than Gustavo. Last season, Gustavo was the absolute main force in the team. This season, because Chu Zhongtian came to him, he became a substitute. Chu Zhongtian's physical fitness and role in the team determined that he had few opportunities to get out of the field early or be absent. After receiving a cumulative yellow cards or occasionally red cards, he played all the time of Hoffenheim's game.

Gustavo didn't even have the chance to get some playing time at the last moment of the game... So Gustavo always wanted to get the chance to play. Although Hoffenheim had the opportunity to win the Bundesliga championship this season, Gustavo wanted more the chance to play. For individual players, perhaps the league championship is not the most important thing, the most important thing is to have a chance to play. After all, in this world, there are not many professional players who are willing to sit on the bench and do nothing to get a salary.

In this game against Bielefeld, he regained the starter and started at the same time as Chu Zhongtian, which made him realize that this might be an opportunity... As long as he performed well in this game, Coach Rangnick could make up his mind to use this method in future games. He wanted to prove that he could play with Chu Zhongtian at the same time and coexist. Since Demba, Obasi and others can use their outstanding performance to make Rangnick give up 442 and play 433, why can't he use the same method to change Rangnick's tactics?

So Gustavo was very active and excited in the game, and even overexcited.

Ten minutes into the game, he used an unnecessary midfield flying tackle to get a yellow card for himself.

This foul made Rangnick very dissatisfied off the court because it was completely unnecessary. Chu Zhongtian was already waiting in front of the opponent's route of dribbling. His tackle was nosy.

Chu Zhongtianxia also shrugged and spread his hands to Gustavo, expressing his incomprehension.

Gustavo didn't take Chu Zhongtian's statement in his eyes. He now had the idea of ​​doing well in the game, which impressed coach Rangnick. He was like Gascoin in the 1991 FA Cup final... In that game, Gascoin, who played for Tottenham Hotspur, seemed very excited when he warmed up the game. Later, he tackled Charles of Nottingham Forest in the game, not only gave his opponent a direct free kick that caused a goal, but also injured himself and was carried down, ending his own FA Cup final early, which was also his last game at Tottenham.

In the seventeenth minute, when Gustavo was driving forward in the midfield, Bielefeld's midfielder Katongo came up to defend him and pulled his jersey. Gustavo, who was completely selfless, seemed to have forgotten the rules of the football game. In order to get rid of Cartoongo's entanglement, he suddenly waved his right elbow and then hit Cartoongo's face hard.

Cartoon Go let go of Gustavo's jersey, but he was also knocked down on the court by Gustavo's fierce elbow, motionless!

"Oh, God...what happened on the field? Gustavo's elbow foul was very bad! And Cartoongo... It looked like Cartoongo was in shock..."

Gustavo did not stop after the elbow, but continued to dribble as if nothing had happened. Perhaps in his opinion, the opponent must have fallen, and this was not a serious foul. Until he heard the referee's whistle, he was still a little dissatisfied and thought that the referee's penalty was wrong.

But soon he found that everyone was running behind him.

In addition, some Bielefelder players rushed towards him, and the expression on their faces looked bad. He suddenly realized that the situation was not good and felt a little scared... In his eyes, the Bielefelder player closest to him seemed to want to punch him. At this moment, Chu Zhongtian stood in front of him.

"Okay, okay!" he shouted, "Everything is calm! All are calm... Calm..." He is not afraid of fighting, he doesn't want to make his team fewer people because of fighting. You know, now is the critical moment for the championship. Everyone on the court is Hoffenheim's main players. No matter who is missing, it will be a loss. What's more, judging from Gustavo's foul just now, he is destined to be sent off. We really can't have fewer people. If two people are missing, facing a team that is vowing to relegation, it's really hard to play in this game... So he hopes that everyone will be calm, mainly for the interests of their own team. It is unwise to have conflicts with the other party at this time.

After stopping Bielefeld's player, Chu Zhongtian asked his teammates to drag Gustavo out and not to get involved in the crowd, as this would only anger the opponent's players. "Push him away!"

After hearing him speak, Salihovic pulled Gustavo out. Of course, he had not forgotten to complain a few times: "What are you doing, Gustavo? That's an unnecessary action!"

Before Gustavo could react, he defended himself in a daze: "He pulled my jersey..."

"That wouldn't be an elbow strike!"

"I just wanted to get rid of him..."

"You tell the referee this, but I guess it's useless..." Salihovic held him tightly, then shook his head. One person was missing, this game was difficult to play... The conflict finally didn't happen under the control of Chu Zhongtian and others. When Cartoongo came out for treatment, the referee also showed Gustavo a red card, calming the anger of the Bielefeld player.

However, Rangnick was even more angry off the court. He was not angry that the referee sent him alone, but was angry at Gustavo's performance - I finally let you play and give you a chance, and you will repay me like this?

Gustavo looked up at the referee's red card holding high, and a bang in his mind. He knew he was finished... It was not until this time that his brain suddenly woke up and realized what he had done.

He turned his head mechanically to look at the coaching seat off the field, and happened to see Rangnick kicking the mineral water bottle away.

It seems that he has indeed left a very deep impression on the head coach, but this impression may not be a good impression... He walked off the field silently with his head down, and overwhelming booing sounded in Bielefeld's Sügge Arena, all for him to see him off.

After Chu Zhongtian had just communicated with the referee on the court, he turned his head and saw Gustavo leaving. He lowered his head and hunched his back. He looked like a complete loser. With those boos, he would not be popular here for a long time. But I don’t know if he was on the blacklist in Rangnick’s heart...※※ Gustavo’s foul angered Bielefeld’s players, and they launched a fierce offensive to Hoffenheim’s penalty area in the subsequent game. After judging the situation on the court, Chu Zhongtian decided to avoid the edge and use defensive counterattack to deal with the opponent.

So he directed the team to retreat and put on a defensive counterattack, hoping to seize the opponent and put a big push on the attack.

His decision was right.

In the 27th minute, Chu Zhongtian passed the ball in the backcourt to find Demba. The intention of this pass was obvious and it was not difficult to defend, so the opponent's central defender Mijatovic planned to stop the football with his chest in the penalty area and then pass it. Unexpectedly, when the football hit his chest, he felt that it was not what he imagined. The power of the football was greater than he estimated, so the football was not stopped obediently by him, but hit his chest hard and bounced out.

This happened to give Demba Ba the next to him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He inserted the ball from behind and then stepped on the ball and pushed the ball!

Bielefeld goalkeeper Eilhoff did not expect his central defender to make such a low-level mistake. He was not prepared for a sudden shot against Demba Ba, so he could only watch the football flew into the goal behind him...1:0!

Hoffenheim, who had one less fight, was ahead!

The shouts of Bielefeld fans who had been cheering for their teams have suddenly become weaker.

Hoffenheim fans cheered, their voices temporarily overwhelmed the home team fans who had the advantage.

Until the end of the first half, the score did not change. Although Bielefeld later strengthened the offensive, after Chu Zhongtian's several accurate long passes created a chance to counterattack for his teammates, they also restrained a lot.

During the intermission, everyone saw Gustavo in the locker room. He seemed to have not recovered from the blow of being sent off by a red card. He sat alone in his position, lowered his head, looking very frustrated.

Rangnick also criticized Gustavo without mercy. Although the team is leading now, the game is not over yet. No one knows what impact Gustavo's red card will have on this game. If the team loses because of his red card, no matter how fierce the criticism is, no one will stand up and speak for him.

After criticizing Gustavo, Rangnick made adjustments to the team's tactics. The team still had to attack in the second half because one goal was not safe. If you attack, Chu Zhongtian was naturally the key figure. He had to go forward to participate in the attack, because if the opponent went too far, the threat he could bring was limited. But when he went up, the back was empty, so Rangnick asked Weiss to make up from the wing to the middle and temporarily played a guest midfielder.

In fact, Rangnick is already preparing for the next game. Gustavo will definitely not be able to play in the next game. If he wants to persist in 442, he will have to let Weis play the midfielder. It just so happens that he can use this second half to test and practice troops.

Before he went on the court, Chu Zhongtian comforted Gustavo specifically. He put his hand on Gustavo's shoulder and patted him gently, without saying anything. Of course, he knew the feeling of being a substitute for himself. It was not good to waste time on the bench even though he was able, but what could he do?

※※※In the second half, Bielefeld strengthened his offensive in order to relegate. Hoffenheim did not regain his defensive defense, but instead used Bielefeld to press the gap behind the attack and continued to attack.

Both sides attacked each other for more than 20 minutes, and both got some opportunities, but they were not sure. The score was still 1:0, and Hoffenheim, who played away, led the way.

Chu Zhongtian had several attacks, but Weiss did not make up for defense in time, but the opponent seized the opportunity to counterattack. It made Chu Zhongtian go up, nor did he not go up, so he had to constantly communicate with Weiss and tell him when he would come to fill his position... Rangnick shook his head slightly off the court. It seemed that Weiss and Chu did not have such a tacit understanding. It was only three days before Bayern's game. Is it too late?

In the end, Rangnick saw that the team's offense still had no improvement and could not lose in this game, so he simply replaced Obasi with Vosa and strengthened his defense, intending to keep the advantage of this goal.

Bielefeld attacked with all his strength, hoping to equalize the score before the end of the game. For relegation teams, even one point is very important. Because sometimes when the relegation situation is in the last round of the season, perhaps this point plays a key role... But their wishes were not realized. When the referee blew the whistle at the end of the game, the score was frozen at 0:1. International practice, the home team is in front and the visiting team is in the back.

Hoffenheim still took three points away without one player.

Now they can breathe a sigh of relief and prepare to face Bayern Munich on the weekend... The sprint stage for the league championship has begun.
Chapter completed!