Chapter 66 The irresistible Bastian Schweinsteiger

The referee of this game is the famous Bundesliga whistler Florian Maier. He is the most popular Bundesliga referee voted by thousands of fans by Kicker magazine.

Meier's law enforcement scale is moderate, but his judgment is very accurate, and there are few missed judgments and misjudgments.

Arranging such a famous whistler to enforce this game shows the importance the German Football Association attaches to it.

I don’t know if Bayern was afraid of being blown the home whistle, so they used their connections in German football to invite him. Anyway, Werder Bremen didn’t have this treatment before.

Both sides announced their starting lineups before the start. Werder Bremen’s starting lineup is:

No. 1 goalkeeper Militz, No. 22 center back Papastathopoulos, No. 15 center back Pledel, No. 8 left back Fritz, No. 23 right back Selassie, No. 16 defensive midfielder Yunuzovi Qi, No. 14 central midfielder Hunter, No. 6 central midfielder De Bruyne, No. 10 wide midfielder Lin Quan, No. 11 wide midfielder Elia, and No. 7 center Anautovic.

Their formation is 4141. When defending, it will become 541. When attacking, it will become 433. They can attack and defend.

But the shortcomings are also obvious. There are gaps in the ribs on both sides, making it easy for the opponent to hit the space behind.

Bayern Munich's starting lineup is: No. 1 goalkeeper Neuer, No. 4 center back Dante, No. 17 center back Boateng, 28 left back Badstuber, 21 right back Lahm, and No. 31 defensive midfielder Schwei Insteiger, 30 midfielder Gustavo, 7 left midfielder Ribery, 25 right midfielder Muller, 39 midfielder Kroos, 14 center Pizarro.

Also sitting on the bench are Robben, Martinez, Gomez, Mandzukic, Alaba, Van Buyten and many other stars.

The scariest thing about Bayern in the 12-13 season was not their starting lineup, but their bench.

There is a saying that goes well: If you are not afraid of the Bayern Tigers, you are afraid of Bayern being on the bench!

Their bench depth not only leads the entire Bundesliga, but even leads the entire European football.

Such a rich reserve of players makes Bayern's play style flexible and unpredictable!

Bayern's formation in this game is 4231. They have two sweeping midfielders in the backcourt and four attackers in the midfield and frontcourt. Among the full-backs on both sides, Lahm is also very good at assisting.

In addition, after learning the lessons from the previous game, Heynckes did not put Lahm on the left back, but asked Badstuber to face Lin Quan.

Obviously, he hopes to use the latter's strong defensive ability to limit Lin Quan's offense on the right.

Seeing the opponent's formation, Shaf frowned.

Bayern has an absolute advantage in terms of hard power, and the results are so stable, with such a balanced offensive and defensive formation.

This left him a little speechless. The opponent's formation and formation were too cautious, and the defense was too solid. Werder Bremen's counterattack may not be so easy.

He glanced at Bayern's coaching bench. The old coach Heynckes was really difficult to deal with.

This season, Heynckes' coaching ability has been fully demonstrated.

Not only did he improve Bayern's offense and defense, but he also greatly improved the atmosphere in Bayern's locker room.

A lot of Bayern's stars have been made submissive in his hands. Even Robben, who is a thorn in the side, just sits on the bench and doesn't dare to complain.

You know, Bayern used to be called the Hollywood of the Bundesliga, and the big stars in the team are not so easy to train.

Players from both sides were already standing in the player tunnel, waiting to enter.

At 15:25, the referee led the players from both teams into the stadium.

When entering, Pizarro, who has played for Werder Bremen for many years and is still the top scorer in Werder Bremen's history, leaned over and kissed his feet when he entered the Weser Stadium. lawn.

This move won him applause from the fans at the scene. Although the fans were dissatisfied with his betrayal of switching to a league rival, they could understand the opponent's desire to achieve more honors.

Moreover, now that the team has a player they like even more, they have forgiven Pizarro.

When the live camera showed the Werder Bremen players on the field, the audience burst into warm applause and cheers.

And when Lin Quan appeared in the camera, the audience, led by the host, chanted his name!

Seeing that the young player opposite was so popular at the Weser Arena, Pizarro, who had not been so happy at Bayern, felt a little jealous of him.

If he had not chosen to leave in the first place, perhaps he would be the one enjoying such cheers and applause now.

…

In the coin toss before the game, Bayern guessed the coin correctly. They gave up the right to kick off and chose the right side of the court.

Werder Bremen kicked off, De Bruyne kicked the ball to Arnautovic, who passed the ball back to Hunter and immediately ran forward.

Hunter did not pass the ball to Arnautovic, because the latter fell into Bayern's double-team before running far and had no chance to catch the ball.

He passed the ball to Lin Quan on the wing. After Lin Quan received the ball, he saw Bayern's defense moving quickly. Several Bayern players were stuck on his breakthrough line.

If he recklessly chooses to break through with the ball, he is very likely to be intercepted by the opponent.

Without a good chance, Lin Quan passed the ball back to Yunuzovic to attract Bayern players to rush out and widen the defensive gap behind them.

However, Bayern was obviously well prepared for this. Their three lines of defense maintained a reasonable distance and cooperated with each other tacitly, never revealing any flaws.

Sure enough, Bayern Munich has become stronger defensively this season. It is too difficult to find loopholes in their defense and break their goal in positional battles.

After Werder Bremen's players passed a few balls in the backcourt, they were immediately pressed by the opponent.

As a last resort, they can only risk moving forward.

Bayern's players did a good job defending Werder Bremen's frontcourt players, and their pressing and interceptions limited Werder Bremen's passing.

The Werder Bremen players' skills are not that delicate. In the fierce physical confrontation, they quickly lost the ball.

Fortunately, they never thought about having a positional battle with Bayern. After conceding the ball, they honestly retracted into their own half and started to set up the bus.

Seeing his opponent setting up a bus at his home court, Heynckes' face twitched slightly.

If Werder Bremen were not playing Bayern Munich, their behavior would have been wildly booed by the fans, right?

Opponents are starting to set up their buses, so Bayern naturally can't just watch.

So he waved his hand, signaling for the team to press forward and start attacking.

coming!

Coach Schaaf immediately sat up straight and stared at the field intently.

When he set up the bus, he guessed that Bayern would press forward and attack, but he wanted to know how the opponent would attack?

Bayern has too many attack points in the frontcourt. Before their tactics come out, you will never guess where their offensive focus is!

In the fifth minute, Bayern's right midfielder Muller dribbled the ball all the way to the bottom line. Then when the defender thought he was going to pass, he suddenly passed the ball back.

Bayern's midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger started before Muller passed the ball and quickly appeared on the passing line.

His late attack caught the defenders off guard, and no one intervened immediately.

After receiving the ball from outside the penalty area, Xiaozhu directly kicked the ball and hit the goal with a heavy shot.

Fortunately, this kick did not press the angle, and the football was slightly higher than the crossbar.

Bastian Schweinsteiger's long shot broke the Werder Bremen players into a cold sweat.

The opponent's forward attack was too sudden, and Werder Bremen's players were unable to react in time, causing holes in the team's defense.

Schaff quickly stood up and asked the players to pay attention to strengthening protection outside the penalty area and not to let the opponent hit the goal so comfortably.

But is Bastian Schweinsteiger so easy to defend?

In the 13th minute, Cross broke through with the ball, attracted the defender and then passed it diagonally to Ribery.

Ribery cut inside and rushed directly into the penalty area. Werder Bremen's defensive players immediately double-teamed him, blocking his shooting angle and preventing him from hitting the goal.

But Ribery had no intention of shooting at all. He dribbled the ball diagonally, taking away the defender. After opening up the space, he suddenly passed the ball out of the penalty area.

It was Bastian Schweinsteiger again. He didn't know when he ran to the edge of the penalty area again and received the ball again.

Yunuzovic immediately stepped forward to block the shot, preventing the opponent from taking a long shot.

But Xiaozhu did not choose a long shot this time. He chose to dribble forward and break through.

Yunuzovic rushed too fast and was easily passed by Piggy. Bastian Schweinsteiger had already broken into the penalty area.

Because of Ribery's inward cut, Werder Bremen's defense shifted to the right to a certain extent.

This kind of flaw is difficult for ordinary players to find, but who is Xiaozhu?

He is the top midfielder in the Bundesliga, and he caught this loophole immediately!

When he saw Yunuzovic attacking, he had already figured out how to complete the attack.

Werder Bremen's left back Fritz immediately gave up marking Thomas Muller and rushed towards Bastian Schweinsteiger.

As soon as he moved, Piggy immediately passed the ball to Muller who was in the open position.

The latter received the ball and passed back, trying to hit the wall and pass Werder Bremen's captain.

At this time, Xiaozhu has got rid of Fritz's entanglement and ran out of space. As long as he can receive Muller's pass, he can form a single goal.

Fortunately, Muller's pass was cleared by Elia who retreated to the back line to defend, destroying the opponent's attack.

Although Bayern's offense failed to form a shot this time, it created a greater threat than before.

Schaff clenched his fists. He could see that the core of Bayern's offense was Bastian Schweinsteiger!