On March 7, after winning the German Cup 2-0 against Red Bull Leipzig, the Wolfsburg team went to the SGL Arena in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany to challenge their opponent Augsburg in the 24th round of the Bundesliga away from home.
Augsburg is currently ranked fifth in the league with 35 points, only one point behind Leverkusen in fourth.
After returning from the winter break, Augsburg's performance was even stronger than in the first half of the league.
Since the start of the second half of the Bundesliga, they have achieved an unbeaten record of 4 wins and two draws. They are one of the only unbeaten teams in the Bundesliga.
At 15:30 Berlin time, the game officially started.
After the game started, Augsburg took advantage of their home court to quickly launch the wing attack they are best at and rely on.
Augsburg has scored a total of 32 goals so far this season, most of which come from their two wing attacks and set pieces, which are directly related to wing crosses.
In particular, their two full-backs have extremely strong assist capabilities.
Therefore, Dieter Heijing's tactics in this game were very obvious, using heavy troops on both sides to contain Augsburg's powerful side attack.
He learned it from Hertha Berlin.
Because in the last round of the league, Hertha Berlin used this trick against Augsburg.
In that game, Hertha Berlin's defensive tactics of heavily deploying troops on the wing allowed Augsburg to do almost nothing offensively for 90 minutes.
On the field, Dieter Heijing's tactics were also very effective.
Especially on the Chu Zheng side.
He continuously cooperated with Rodriguez and Gustavo, plus the retreating Caligiuri and others, and time and time again caused Augsburg's right back Feina and right midfielder Bobadilla to fall into one-to-many confrontations.
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After containing Augsburg's offensive side attack, Wolfsburg began to attack Augsburg's center.
In 23 league rounds this season, Augsburg conceded a total of 30 goals, 16 of which were due to their central defense being breached.
This is because their defense on the wings and center is uncoordinated.
Augsburg often leaked large gaps under the impact of the opponent's center, and the two central defenders were successfully beaten and lost the ball again and again.
In addition, the weakness of the left defensive position is also fully exposed.
This was due to Augsburg's left back Baba Rahman being weak in attack and defense.
In fact, Wolfsburg also has this problem, that is, on Rodriguez's side, sometimes this guy won't be able to come back.
But the problem is not big, there is Chu Zheng.
Augsburg does not have a central defender of Chu Zheng's level.
Therefore, Wolfsburg took advantage of Augsburg's two major pain points today, and soon after the game started, they turned away and started an offensive frenzy.
In the 6th minute of the game, Rodriguez took a left corner kick.
De Bruyne grabbed a shot from the right side of the penalty area.
But because he was too hasty and his posture was too awkward, the ball slipped past the goal.
Two minutes later, Rodriguez took another corner kick from the same side.
On the left side of the penalty area, Schürrle unloaded the ball with his right foot in front of his left foot, and then quickly followed up and shot with his left foot.
The ball flew past the feet of two Augsburg defenders, but was rejected by the goal post. The ball hit the outside of the goal post and rolled out of the baseline.
In the following time, Wolfsburg's offensive wave became higher and higher, forcing Augsburg to play in their own half.
In the 14th and 15th minutes of the game, De Bruyne fired a series of cold arrows from outside the penalty area.
His two long-range shots were of high quality and very threatening, but he was very unlucky. One hit the crossbar, and the other made Augsburg goalkeeper Schitz save it.
Wolfsburg's offense was so vigorous that Chu Zheng, Naldo and others almost had nothing to do behind the scenes.
Although he was very leisurely, Chu Zheng did not relax his vigilance.
His defensive nerves were as tense as ever.
Soon Chu Zheng came to life.
In the 19th minute of the game, Wolfsburg got another corner kick.
This time De Bruyne went against the routine and suddenly took a tactical corner kick and handed the ball to Caligiuri on the right side of the penalty area.
Caligiuri quickly hoisted the ball to the center of the penalty area without any defense, allowing Dost to compete for the top.
As a result, the ball was pushed towards the top of the arc by Augsburg's left center back Klavan.
Suddenly the two sides started a fierce fight at the top of the arc.
The ball went to the strong Nardo, who dunked his left foot to his right foot in an attempt to shoot.
But Naldo was quickly double-teamed by three Augsburg players and lost the ball.
After Klavan got the ball, he saw that Wolfsburg had nine players inside and outside the attacking third, so he kicked the ball towards the midfield without saying a word.
Wolfsburg's half-time mark in front of the arc.
Chu Zheng and Augsburg's left midfielder Dajuan Werner rushed to the landing point at the same time.
Because Chu Zheng was too fast, he seized the position first and got Dajuan Werner stuck on the back right side.
Dajuan Werner is a small and quick player, 174cm, 70kg. He is not as good as Chu Zheng in terms of height and physical confrontation.
But he also has his own advantages, which are flexibility and quick feet.
However, just when he was about to wait for Chu Zheng to stop the ball at his feet before using his special fighting skills, Chu Zheng started acting pretentious again.
Dajuan Werner followed Chu Zheng's right side, waiting left and right, but the ball fell without a hit.
So he glanced up, and then he saw the ball bouncing over Chu Zheng's head, again and again, but never came down.
Arriving at the end line of the penalty area, Chu Zheng headed the ball directly to Benaglio for the fourth time.
Benaglio took off the ball that flew over with both hands. He looked dumbfounded and sighed that Chu Zheng's heart was really big.
Next to him, Dieter Heijing also had a smile on his face when he saw Chu Zheng spinning Dajuan Werner around.
This was what he admired most about Chu Zheng. He always made some fantastic defensive moves, and the results were very good.
Of course, he would definitely criticize Chu Zheng's behavior after the game.
On the field, Chu Zheng heard the nearly 30,000 Augsburg fans booing him, and he smiled brightly.
He had done his homework before the game, and he knew very well that Dajuan Werner's characteristics were his flexibility and excellent winding skills.
He's quite good at protecting the ball, so he luckily didn't let the ball fall. Let's see how this little dwarf can grab it after hitting it.
The Wolfsburg fans who came to watch the game at the SGL Arena in Augsburg were also amused by Chu Zheng's cool defense.
In their view, Chu Zheng's defense this time was clearly bullying, just like an adult holding down the head of a three-year-old child and making the opponent punch.
However, these Wolfsburg fans soon stopped laughing and fell into the abyss.
During injury time in the first half, De Bruyne was suddenly intercepted by an Augsburg player on the right side of the center circle.
Then Augsburg immediately launched a wing attack.
The ball was handed to the feet of Baba Rahman on the wing. This guy and Augsburg midfielder Cole played a one-two and quickly broke through Wolfsburg's heavy attack on the wing.
Then Baba Rahman broke through Vierinha's defense stuck on the inside on the right and broke into the penalty area from the left side of the penalty area.
Naldo quickly moved over to cover and press closely, and his left knee directly hit Baba Rahman's right thigh.
So Baba Rahman fell naturally.
The referee Gryffi blew the whistle directly and pointed his right hand at the penalty spot.
It was this penalty that ruined Wolfsburg's good situation.
After Dajuan Werner converted the penalty kick, it was obvious that Wolfsburg was in a hurry.
But the more urgent it is, the harder it will be to get in.
Even from time to time, Augsburg counterattacked due to aggressive pressure.
Fortunately, Chu Zheng was at the rear and once again used phenomenally efficient defense to resolve Augsburg's counterattacks time and time again.
But it’s useless no matter how good Chu Zheng’s performance is.
Because Wolfsburg's frontcourt was plagued with bad luck today, and it once again fell into the old habit of not scoring when it was in a good position.
No matter how hard I attack, I can't score.
In the second half, Dieter Heijing replaced three offensive players including Bendtner in succession.
However it still has no effect.
In the end, Augsburg defeated Wolfsburg 1-0 at home.
This upset caught everyone's expectations.
After this game, the results of the game between Hannover and Bayern that were held at the same time were also announced.
Bayern easily defeated Hannover 96 3-1 away from home.
The defeat and win between Wolfsburg and Bayern directly pushed Wolfsburg fans into the abyss.
Although Bayern has recovered three points and is tied with Wolfsburg on 58 points, they scored 53 goals.
Wolfsburg only scored 36 goals, a full 17 goal difference behind them.
Although Wolfsburg fans had a vague premonition that the team's three-point score would be tied by Bayern, they did not expect that this day would come so suddenly.