The 6-2 victory over Hannover 96 is not Hoffenheim's first big victory. Before that, they had defeated the stronger Dortmund 4-1. But this still surprised many people, because the saying "Hoffenheim is just a flash in the pan" is still very marketable. They think that defeating Dortmund by a big score is already considered the team's performance of the extreme luck. How could it be possible to win by a big score?

The score of 6:2 gave those people a slap in the face.

But the slap is not over yet.

On October 26, the ninth round of the league. Hoffenheim played against Hamburg at home.

This is a competition among the top two in the league. Whoever wins will be ranked first in the league. Before the game, the media predicted that Hamburg should be able to defeat Hoffenheim away because they are in good shape and just won the mid-week League Cup group stage. Although Hoffenheim defeated Hannover 96 in the last round of the league score, Hamburg is not Hannover and has a much stronger strength. As long as nothing unexpected happens, Hamburg should be able to defeat Hoffenheim.

Although the previous main goalkeeper Ozjan has returned from injury, Rangnick still did not let him start in this game, but let Haas continue to start. It can be seen that Rangnick is already very dissatisfied with Ozjan. Ozjan always makes mistakes in attacking mistakes. Rangnick has criticized him many times, but he always doesn't correct this. Rangnick simply gave up on him. There are rumors that Rangnick has fallen in love with German goalkeeper Hildebran who cannot play the main player in Valencia.

The opponents in this game are much stronger than the previous round, but the result once again surprised everyone - 4:0. The home team's score is in front, and the away team's one is in back... Hoffenheim beat Hamburg at home!

Within forty-five minutes of the first half, the audience could not see Hamburg's shots or attacks. They were suppressed by Hoffenheim so hard that they could not even pass the half. Hoffenheim's attack could threaten Hamburg's goal. In the seventh minute, Obasi scored a goal first, and in the thirteenth minute, Ibissevic scored his tenth goal of the season. In the thirty-sixth minute, Obasi scored twice and scored another goal, locking the score at 3:0.

Hamburg woke up as if he was dreaming in the second half, and his performance improved slightly. Rangnick rarely asked the team to strike a steady and counterattack. In the past, Hoffenheim gave people the impression that they were attacking in addition to offense. Whether they were leading or falling behind, they were always attacking. But today Rangnick asked the team to strike a defensive counterattack.

This may be a sign that his tactics are becoming diversified...

Hoffenheim, who fought a defensive counterattack, performed well. They tangled with Hamburg for 45 minutes, attacking and defending each other. Not only did they successfully defend the advantage of these three goals, but they also used the counterattack to score a goal for Hamburg. This counterattack was instigated by Chu Zhongtian again.

On the other hand, Hamburg, within 45 minutes of the second half, they had multiple shots, but they did not shoot within the goal frame.

When they defeated Hamburg, many people were shocked again. Because although Hoffenheim performed well recently, everyone felt that the gap between Hamburg and Hoffenheim should not be as big as four goals...

After this game, many German media praised Hoffenheim's big victory, and even praised him in a stingy way.

Although the score of 4:0 seems to be worse than 6:2, Hoffenheim's opponent in this game was stronger than the previous game, and he also had a goal difference of four goals. Rangnick's team has not yet allowed his opponent to score on them in this game. There is also a very interesting comparison - Hoffenheim is a small town or village with only 3,000 people, and Hamburg, which they defeated, is a big city with a population of more than 1.7 million.

German media are used to calling Hoffenheim by "country team", although the team is not a real "village".

Some media have already pressed the name of "New Kaiserslautern Miracle" on Hoffenheim, praising the country team for defeating Hamburg in the big city.

"Kickers" reported the game with the title "Hoffenheim Flying High Aerial": "... Hamburg's defense line could not stop the home team's crazy attack. They fell behind three goals in the first half. Although Hamburg's performance improved slightly in the second half, they were unable to make the situation come true."

The title after the game was "Hoffenheim seized the top spot". The article wrote: "After a suffocating crazy attack, Hoffenheim tore the opponent's defense line to pieces, and the promoted team made Hamburg look inferior in front of him. In this game, Hoffenheim taught the big brother a lesson and occupied the first place in the standings for the first time in club history. Hamburg, who won the League Cup in the midweek, performed collectively in this game, especially the defense line was almost useless. The national team head coach Löv also appeared in the stands. Although only Trokhovsky was a German international, Löv was still very interested in this Bundesliga top battle, and Hoffenheim's modern offensive style may also give him some inspiration."

It can be seen from the reports of these media that they are all impressed by Hoffenheim's performance.

Hoffenheim's performance is indeed excellent. Hamburg previously ranked first in the standings for three consecutive rounds, while Hoffenheim was always under the control of Hamburg. This is the best result of the Hamburg club since 1983. However, Hoffenheim dominated everything in this game, and they took advantage of their opponents in just half a game. Faced with Hoffenheim's crazy pressing, Hamburg's team's pass error rate was as high as 25%, almost twice that of Hoffenheim.

There is a data that can reflect the difference between the two teams in the game: Hoffenheim had 23 shots in the whole game, far ahead of Hamburg's thirteen. In terms of shooting efficiency, Hoffenheim not only scored four goals, but also hit the post with seven shots, but was saved by Hamburg's Frank Roster.

Hamburg defender Joris_mathijsen said after the game: "I don't know what they ate before the game, they performed so wildly on the court, Hoffenheim obviously played better than us, they ran like a group of savages..."

Hamburg's head coach Martin Yoll was impressed by Hoffenheim's midfield core No. 8 Chu Zhongtian. When he was still coaching at Tottenham Hotspur, he led the North London team to fight with Chu Zhongtian. That time, it can be said that his team was almost completely defeated by Chu Zhongtian alone in the situation of dominance. Since then, he has paid attention to Chu Zhongtian. There was a time when he was rumored that he was interested in buying Chu Zhongtian for Tottenham.

Unexpectedly, the mountains and rivers did not turn around. After a few years, the two sides met again in the Bundesliga. This time was no exception. Yoer's team lost to the team led by Chu Zhongtian again.

In this game, Chu Zhongtian was very high-level, not a midfielder, but a libero in the frontcourt. He used his excellent physical fitness and interception skills to continuously press Hamburg players in the midfield. Under his leadership, Hoffenheim players used clamps against Hamburg players in the midfield. A easy-to-hand player would always be double-teamed by multiple Hoffenheim players when he got the ball. Therefore, Hamburg players could only kick off with big feet, so there were naturally many such pass mistakes. Once Hoffenheim midfielders got the ball, they would find the trident of the forward line through quick passes - Obasi, Ibisevic and Demba. Ba. The three goals scored by the three goals were won by speed.

During the game, Martin Yoll stood on the sidelines and had no solution to Chu Zhongtian. After a few years, Chu Zhongtian performed more maturely and more powerfully...

Although none of these three goals were directly assisted by him, without him in the midfield, he would be unable to make Hamburg's midfield peaceful like a blender, Hoffenheim would definitely not win so easily.

So at the post-match press conference, when the media asked him to talk about which Hoffenheim player was the most impressed by, he blurted out without thinking: "No. 8, Chu."

Originally, the reporter thought he would score two goals in this game, and he was elected as the best in the game, Obasi, who was the best in the game. Unexpectedly, he said to Chu Zhongtian as soon as he came up.

"His performance in the midfield is the key to Hoffenheim's ability to beat us, and I'm very impressed by him. I think he is a very good player and he has the potential to be a world-class star."

This evaluation is quite high, and it is also the highest evaluation that Chu Zhongtian has received since his debut - specifically referring to the evaluation from his opponents.

Although Chu Zhongtian helped the team win the League Cup championship at Metz, no one thinks he is a "world-class star". At most, he is considered a quasi-first-class star. Because he has never proved himself in the best league in Europe, more importantly, he has never proved himself in the UEFA Champions League. What is a world-class talk about when a player who has not participated in the UEFA Champions League? It is a terrible laugh to say it out.

The root cause of many Chinese fans' dissatisfaction with Chu Zhongtian's transfer to Hoffenheim is because Hoffenheim is not qualified to participate in the Champions League - most Chinese fans have a "Champion Cup complex", so they really hope that players from their own country can participate in the Champions League, perform well in that highest-level football event today, prove their abilities, and also make them feel satisfied.

※※※

After the match against Hamburg, Hoffenheim surpassed his opponent and rose to the top spot in the league. Since they lost the first place in the third round of the league, they have won the first place in the league again.

For a time, the team attracted everyone's attention, and rumors about the players were also rumored in the media.

For example, Salihovic has recently received temptation from Hertha Berlin. Some media reported to Hertha Berlin and are now very interested in Salihovic and hope to bring the old general back to the capital.

Salihovic lived in Berlin for 16 years and played for Hertha Berlin for seven years. But in two seasons he played for the first team, he only played five games in total. In 2006, he transferred to Hoffenheim, who was still in the German Southern Regional League at the time, for a net worth of 250,000 euros.

Now his contract with Hoffenheim will expire in July next year. Hertha Berlin hopes to take him away from Hoffenheim without spending a penny at that time.

There are many rumors in the media that Salihovic and Hertha's two players, Patrick_ebert and Sofian_chahed, have a close relationship, so there are rumors that he told the two friends that he is willing to return to Hertha Berlin.

As soon as the media disclosed this incident, it attracted attention in Hoffenheim. Hoffenheim fans ran outside the training ground to play banners during the team's training, begging Salihovic not to leave the team. There were also discussions about Salihovic in the locker room.

Chu Zhongtian is not a deaf and blind man, and he can hear all these things. He thinks it is not a good atmosphere. So he took the time to talk to Salihovic once and told him that if he disdained to deal with the media, he would at least explain to his teammates in the locker room. Is this really true? The team has just achieved good results and someone came to poach, which made everyone panic, as if Hoffenheim's miracle will only last for one season, and the team fell apart after this season.

As the captain, he has such power and qualifications, and he has the obligation to maintain the team's locker room.

Salihovic also feels that there are more and more discussions about him now, which is not a good thing.

So he accepted the advice of the captain Chu Zhongtian.

After a training session, he specifically explained his teammates - it was just a rumor. He did have a good relationship with Albert and Schached, but he had never talked to them about going back to Hertha Berlin. His contract will indeed expire next year, but his agent is discussing with the club, so he is not convenient to disclose the specific matters. However, staying in Hoffenheim should be no problem.

"I like Hoffenheim very much. I think it's great to stay here. We have an excellent team and the results are good now. I can't think of any reason to leave here. My agent is in negotiations for renewal with the club, and I hope it will be done as soon as possible. My wish is to stay in Hoffenheim."

Salihovic explained the recent rumors, and everyone accepted his explanation, and the matter was over.

The team continues to be in preparation.

But this incident woke up Rangnick - Hoffenheim is currently doing well, so he must beware of those who like his players and try to poach him. Salihovic's contract club is in talks, and he has told Hope that he must keep Salihovic, who is an important player in the team.

Hope is also considering another thing - is it necessary to provide Rangnick with a longer term contract? Rangnick has proved his coaching ability with actual results. In order to give the team a long-term plan, it is necessary to renew Rangnick, which must be at least five years.

※※※

On October 29, in the tenth round of the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim defeated Bochum 4:1 away.

Bochum scored the goal less than two minutes into the game, but the goal attracted Hoffenheim's crazy revenge. From the second half, Hoffenheim scored three goals in five minutes, rewriting the score to 3:1.

By the last moment, Hoffenheim scored another goal, 4:1. But at this time, Bochum was powerless to resist.

Bochum is not Hoffenheim's opponent at all. Even from the scene, Bochum and Hoffenheim are not the same team. They lost no temper at all. Bochum's head coach Marcel_koller told reporters after the game: "We did have some mistakes, but Hoffenheim perfectly used our mistakes. This is amazing. They deserve to win..."

Karlsruhe did not stop Hoffenheim from continuing to move forward. Hoffenheim defeated his opponent with a 3-1 score with cheers from more than 20,000 fans at home. Ibissevic scored his thirteenth goal of the season in the game and continued to top the scorer list.

Karlsruhe was the dark horse team last season, but they lost convincingly against the dark horse Hoffenheim this season.

Karlsruhe head coach Becker (ralf_becker) can only sigh that he met Hoffenheim: "When facing a team like Hoffenheim, you must do your best from the beginning, keep the defense stable and not make mistakes, but unfortunately we cannot do this. I must say that Hoffenheim's performance is worthy of the victory of this game."

Five consecutive victories!

When Chu Zhongtian said in an interview with reporters that they would win one by one in the next game, some people thought he was talking big. Now all of these people were slapped loudly, and they had to desperately praise the team that slapped them.

"Hoffenheim is definitely a 'phenomenon' team!"

"Who is stronger with the dark horse Bayern?"

"The terrifying frontcourt trident!"

"Ibisevic! Football Jesus!"

...

Hoffenheim has achieved achievements that others thought were impossible before. Eleven rounds of the Bundesliga season have passed, and they have scored 32 goals, ranking first in the Bundesliga goal list, and are the team with the strongest attack power in the Bundesliga.

Such performance made them sit at the top of the league, and no one dared to question it. The voices that had previously expressed doubts about Hoffenheim have now disappeared.

Even the Chinese fans who were not optimistic about Hoffenheim before had to reexamine the team. They had hoped Hoffenheim was re-established, but judging from Hoffenheim's current performance, this team may have to wait for another season if they want to be re-established...

Not only that, Chinese fans began to fantasize about whether this team will win the league championship and win the UEFA Champions League in one fell swoop in May next year?

Of course, it doesn’t matter if you can’t win the league championship. As long as you can get the qualification for the Champions League next season, it’s enough. Fans don’t have high requirements, so you have to be able to participate in the Champions League, right?

If this is true, then Chinese fans can see Chinese players in the top European arena - Chu Zhongtian is not the first Chinese player to participate in the UEFA Champions League, but he is definitely the Chinese player who has the most high expectations.
Chapter completed!