On December 6, the entire Wolfsburg team went to the HDI Arena in Hannover, the capital of Lower Saxony, for the 14th round of the Bundesliga. It was also Wolfsburg's first regional derby this season.
Hannover 96 is considered the mortal enemy of Wolfsburg, both teams are in Lower Saxony.
This team is also the first Bundesliga club in the history of German football to win the German Cup.
In 2002, Hannover 96 scored 75 points in the Bundesliga 2 that season and advanced to the Bundesliga.
Since then, Hannover's results have been mediocre, and they are the kind of mid-tier Bundesliga team that can't touch the ceiling or reach the ground.
But after entering the second decade of the 21st century, in the 2010-11 season, Hannover 96 made a lot of progress and made Bundesliga fans shine. They dominated the league and once suppressed Bundesliga hegemon Bayern Munich in the standings.
When the season ended, Hannover 96 ranked fourth in the standings and entered the European competition for the first time.
But in recent seasons, Hannover's 96 score has begun to decline again.
Hannover is currently ranked 6th in the standings this season, with 19 points, which is a very good result.
Due to a draw with Schalke 04 in the 11th round, there is now only a 4-point difference between Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg.
Therefore, after a week-long break for this game, Dieter Heijing fielded Wolfsburg's best full lineup.
In this game, Guilavoji and others all returned from injury and made their starting debut.
Just as the media expected before the game, it was a derby match. After the game started, the two teams started to attack at a fast pace.
In the 3rd minute of the game, Hannover right midfielder Brian received a long pass from left half forward Stindl, took a few steps forward and suddenly made a 45-degree cross into the middle of the penalty area.
Hannover forward Stindl turned his back in front of the penalty spot and stopped the ball with his foot raised to attract the attention of Nardo, Sebastian Rong and Chu Zheng, but he suddenly missed the ball.
The ball bounced continuously in front of Hiroshi Kiyoshi in the rib area on the left side of the arc.
Sebastian Rong quickly turned around and stepped forward to block the ball.
Kiyotake Hiroshi was not slow in his movements. He raised his left foot to intercept the ball, made a slight adjustment and quickly swung the ball.
The ball passed under Sebastian Rong's crotch, and he hit the ground with his kick.
Although Benaglio's view in front of the goal was blocked by Sebastian Rong, he was wary of this kind of crotch ball.
Seeing the ball coming, he quickly sat down on the ground, stretched out his left foot and blocked the ball.
The ball rolled towards the center, and Hannover forward Joselu was on the end line.
However, at the moment when he was actively making up for the empty goal, Chu Zheng suddenly appeared on his right front and picked up the ball first.
Seeing that Chu Zheng successfully completed a rescue right after the game started, thousands of Wolfsburg fans who came to the scene with the team put their arms around each other's shoulders, jumped continuously in the stands, and collectively shouted Chu Zheng's name.
Soon, Hannover took a corner kick, looking for Hiroyuki Kiyoshi from behind.
But unfortunately Chu Zheng was at the back.
Facing the 172cm, 66kg Qingwu Hongsi, Chu Zheng used his body to directly squeeze him away, and then used his toes to clear the ball.
Seeing this scene, He Wei and Huang Jianxiang in the live broadcast room burst into laughter, and the barrage was also full of joy.
Because Chu Zheng proved with actual actions that he didn't even need to jump to prevent a short guy like Qing Wu Hongsi from hitting him, he just needed to step on his toes.
Soon, Wolfsburg responded with a more efficient attack!
At 5 minutes and 9 seconds of the game, Benaglio took a goal kick.
The ball went straight into the center circle area.
Chu Zheng didn't intend to go up and compete for the ball, but he suddenly found that almost all Hannover's players in the front, middle and backcourt were concentrated near the center circle, with a grassland running freely behind him.
So he suddenly started to rush towards the ball landing point slightly in front of the kick-off point and took off brazenly.
Chu Zheng was so high off the ground that countless Hannover fans were stunned and stared at him. It was also in sharp contrast to Qingwu Hiroshi who was standing on the ground.
One looks like a giant and the other looks like a dwarf in the Snow White story.
The next second, Chu Zheng hit Benaglio's pass with a strong forehead, and in the alley-oop, he directly headed the ball towards the center of Hannover's backcourt.
The moment Chu Zheng passed the ball, De Bruyne, who was between Hannover's two central defenders Schultz and Antonio, suddenly turned around and sprinted back.
Successfully countered offside!
"pretty!!!!!"
"Chu Zheng, passed the ball forward with an alley-oop. He created an excellent scoring opportunity for Wolfsburg with a single goal!!" Huang Jianxiang suddenly shouted in the live broadcast room, scaring the hands of He Wei next to him.
A shake.
On the court, De Bruyne caught up with Chu Zheng's header pass from outside the top of the arc.
Facing the attacking Hannover goalkeeper Ziller, he also hit the ground and calmly pushed the shot into the lower right corner, helping Wolfsburg lead 1-0.
“Beautifully delivered!!”
“It’s a beautiful cumshot too!!!”
"This is the connection between the two cores of Wolfsburg's offense. This is the spark from the collision between geniuses!!!" He Wei also shouted, "This is Chu Zheng's fourth assist so far this season!!
"
On the field, this goal made Dieter Heijing on the sidelines fall into deep thought. He felt as if he had discovered something very remarkable.
At the moment when Chu Zheng passed the ball, he caught the light that had been flashing through his mind for the past three months.
Imagination! Creativity! Offensive sense! Vision!
He finally discovered Chu Zheng's extraordinary talents in imagination, creativity and offensive sense in the game.
If Gustavo and Giravogui were to handle the goal kick that Benaglio took just now, they might not be able to discover this hidden excellent offensive opportunity.
But when he thought of Chu Zheng's barely passing footwork, he stopped thinking about giving Chu Zheng more authority.
Not yet!
On the field, Wolfsburg's morale soared after taking the lead. Coupled with the heated atmosphere of the derby, De Bruyne and others quickly entered the game state.
Although Hannover had the advantage of home court, they still could not withstand the impact of the wolfpack tactics created by Dieter Heijing.
In the 7th minute of the game, De Bruyne moved the ball from the center circle on the right half to the left half.
After taking the ball, Perisic advanced along the ribs and came to the penalty area to challenge Hiroki Sakai.
After Rodriguez came from the wing, he took advantage of Hiroki Sakai's distraction and suddenly passed the ball with his left foot and hit the goal post.
His pass was just looking at the forehead of Olic who was outflanking him from behind.
Olic leaned over and made a low-altitude bomb, and effortlessly headed the ball into Hannover's goal.
2-0!
However, this was not over yet. In the 15th minute of the game, Perisic and De Bruyne made a wonderful continuous pass on the left.
After attracting four Hannover players to the wing, De Bruyne suddenly knocked the ball back with his heel to Perisic, who was running diagonally towards the center behind him.
Perisic went all the way to the intersection of the penalty arc and the end line on the left side of the arc and suddenly stuffed the ball to the right side of the penalty area.
Sebastian Yong came in from the right rib and hit the ball with no defender and shot.
Hannover goalkeeper Ziller faced such a sudden shot from close range. He didn't even have the chance to react before the ball went in.
In the end, Wolfsburg, which had ended the battle at halftime, won the derby 4-0.
Although Chu Zheng did not win the best of the match in this game, Chu Zheng was still the player with the second highest score.
Hannover launched a counterattack in the second half, but almost all of it was stifled by the excellent performance of Chu Zheng, Nardo and others.
Especially Chu Zheng!
He destroyed half of Hannover's offensive by intercepting, attacking, and clearing, which left a deep impression on everyone.
Although this game was a hearty win, Wolfsburg fans felt that it was a fly in the ointment.
Because Bayern won 1-0 against Leverkusen at home, it seems that they failed to expand their points again.
In the Bundesliga, there are actually only a few teams that can threaten Bayern. The other teams are just little fleas to Bayern.
Five days later, the Wolfsburg team set off for Lille, France, to play away in the final round of the Europa League group stage.
Because Wolfsburg has advanced to the knockout rounds, Dieter Heijing made a large-scale rotation in this game.
But Chu Zheng, who needed to accumulate competition experience, was an exception. Dieter Heijing still brought Chu Zheng with him.
Before the game, the media thought that Lille, with 3 points and hope of promotion, would fight back and defeat Wolfsburg at home.
As a result, after the game started, Lille was stunned by Wolfsburg.
Chu Zheng did not start this game, but rested for half of the game and did not appear until the second half.
Originally, Lille could still counterattack from time to time on the court, but when Chu Zheng came on the stage, their counterattacks were completely strangled by Chu Zheng.
No exception!
When the final whistle sounded at the end of the game, the score was 3-0 on the big screen.
No one expected this result.
In another game held at the same time, Everton slaughtered Krosnodar 6-0 at home.
Since then, the Group H Europa League group stage has come to an end.
Wolfsburg and Everton joined hands to advance to the 16th knockout round of the 2014-15 Europa League.
After returning from France, the 15th round Bundesliga opponent Paderborn came to attack.
Fortunately, this round Wolfsburg is playing at home, so there is no need to travel back and forth.
Paderborn had very good results at the beginning of this season, hovering in third or fourth place for a long period of time.
However, Paderborn has recently suffered four games without any left, with two draws and two losses, and has fallen directly to 10th place in the standings, with 17 points.
Wolfsburg fans thought that their team would have no problem winning Paderborn, who was in sluggish form.
However, after the game started, it was discovered that Wolfsburg's old problem had relapsed intermittently.
Gain the upper hand and score no points!
Although Chu Zheng was sitting in the backcourt, he stabilized the defense and kept the goal.
But he still couldn't stand up to the happy football played by the frontcourt players, who frantically squandered a lot of opportunities.
Wolfsburg suffered retribution in the second half. Naldo gave Paderborn a penalty kick to help Paderborn lead 1-0.
Fortunately, in the injury time at the end of the game, De Bruyne hit the ball with a long shot.
Although the game was not lost 1-1, the mood of Wolfsburg fans was still very low.
Because Bayern, playing away from home in this round of the league, once again showed its fangs as the Bundesliga hegemon and gave Augsburg a bloody defeat 4-0.
This draw and one win directly resulted in the points difference between Wolfsburg and Bayern being only two points.
This makes Wolfsburg fans panic!
Seeing that the half-season of the league is coming, if the half-season championship is lost at this time, it will have a huge impact on the morale of the team.