Chapter 66: Schweinsteiger is unstoppable
The referee for this match is the famous Bundesliga referee Florian Meier, who was voted by thousands of fans as the most popular Bundesliga referee by Kicker magazine.
Meyer's enforcement standards are moderate, but his judgment is very accurate, and he rarely misses or misjudges.
The German Football Association shows how much importance it attaches to this game by arranging such a famous referee to referee.
I don’t know if Bayern was afraid of being whistled at home, so they used their connections in the German football world to invite him. In any case, Werder Bremen did not have this treatment before.
Both sides announced their starting lineups before the start of the game. The starting lineup for Werder Bremen was: No. 1 goalkeeper Milic, No. 22 center back Papastathopoulos, No. 15 center back Pledel, No. 8 left back Fritz, No. 23 right back Selassie, No. 16 defensive midfielder Junuzovic, No. 14 center midfielder Hunt, No. 6 center midfielder De Bruyne, No. 10 winger Lin Quan, No. 11 winger Elia, No. 7 center forward Arnautovic.
Their formation is 4141, which becomes 541 when defending and 433 when attacking, so they can attack and defend.
However, the disadvantages are also obvious. There are gaps on both sides of the ribs, which makes it easy for the opponent to hit the gap behind.
Bayern Munich's starting lineup is: No. 1 goalkeeper Neuer, No. 4 center back Dante, No. 17 center back Boateng, No. 28 left back Badstuber, No. 21 right back Lahm, No. 31 defensive midfielder Schweinsteiger, 30 defensive midfielder Gustavo, 7 left midfielder Ribery, 25 right midfielder Muller, 39 attacking midfielder Kroos, 14 center forward Pizarro.
Also sitting on the bench are a host of stars including Robben, Martinez, Gomez, Mandzukic, Alaba, Van Buyten and others.
The most terrifying thing about Bayern in the 12-13 season was not their starting lineup, but their bench.
There is a saying: I am not afraid of Bayern's tigers, but I am afraid of Bayern's substitutes!
Their bench depth not only leads the entire Bundesliga, but also the entire European football.
Such a rich reserve of players makes Bayern's style of play flexible and changeable, making it hard to defend against!
Bayern's formation in this game was 4231. They had two sweeping defensive midfielders in the backcourt, four attacking players in the midfield and frontcourt, and among the full-backs on both sides, Lahm was very good at providing assists.
In addition, having learned from the lessons of the previous game, Heynckes did not put Lahm at left back, but let Badstuber face Lin Quan.
Obviously, he hopes to use the latter's strong defensive ability to limit Lin Quan's attack on the right.
Seeing the opponent's formation, Shaf frowned.
Bayern has an absolute advantage in hard power, and yet it is so stable and has deployed a formation with a balanced offense and defense.
This made him a little speechless. The opponent's formation and deployment were too cautious, and the defense was too solid. It might not be so easy for Werder Bremen to launch a counterattack.
He glanced at Bayern's coaching bench and found that the old coach Heynckes was really difficult to deal with.
This season, Heynckes' coaching ability has been fully demonstrated.
He not only improved Bayern's offense and defense, but also greatly improved the atmosphere in Bayern's locker room.
Bayern's many stars were all subdued in his hands. Even a troublemaker like Robben sat obediently on the bench without daring to complain.
You know, Bayern was once known as the Hollywood of the Bundesliga, and the big stars in the team are not so easy to train.
Players from both teams were already standing in the player tunnel, waiting to enter.
At 15:25, the referee led the players of both teams into the field.
When entering the stadium, Pizarro, who had played for Werder Bremen for many years and is still the top scorer in Werder Bremen's history, leaned over and kissed the grass under his feet when he stepped into the Weser Stadium.
This move won him applause from the fans at the scene. Although the fans were dissatisfied with his betrayal by switching to a league rival, they could understand the other party's desire to achieve more honors.
Moreover, now there are players they like more in the team, so they have forgiven Pizarro.
When the live camera turned to the players of Werder Bremen coming 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, shouted his name!
Seeing that the young player on the opposite side was so popular at the Weser Stadium, Pizarro, who was not having a very good time at Bayern, was actually a little jealous of the other player.
If he had not chosen to leave, perhaps he would be the one enjoying the cheers and applause now.
…
In the coin toss before the game, Bayern guessed the coin, so they gave up the right to kick off and chose the field on the right side of the court.
Werder Bremen kicked off, De Bruyne kicked the ball to Arnautovic, who passed the ball back to Hunt and then immediately ran forward.
Hunt did not pass the ball to Arnautovic because the latter was double-teamed by Bayern before he had run far and had no chance to receive the ball.
He passed the ball to Lin Quan on the wing. After Lin Quan received the ball, he saw that Bayern's defense was moving quickly and several Bayern players were stuck in his breakthrough route.
If he rashly chooses to break through with the ball, there is a high possibility that he will be intercepted by the opponent.
There were not many good opportunities, so Lin Quan passed the ball back to Junuzovic to attract Bayern players to rush out and widen the defensive space behind them.
However, Bayern was obviously prepared for this. Their three lines of defense maintained a reasonable distance and cooperated with each other tacitly, and never revealed any flaws.
Sure enough, Bayern Munich has become stronger defensively this season. It is very difficult to find loopholes in their defense and break their goal in positional warfare.
After Werder Bremen's players passed the ball a few times in the backcourt, they were immediately pressed by the opponent.
As a last resort, they could only take the risk and pass it forward.
Bayern's players did a good job defending against Bremen's front players. Their pressing and interceptions limited Bremen's passing.
The skills of Werder Bremen players were not so delicate, and they soon lost control of the ball in the fierce physical confrontation.
Fortunately, they didn't think about engaging in a positional battle with Bayern. After losing the ball, they obediently retreated to their own half and started parking the bus.
Seeing the opponent parked the bus in their home stadium, Heynckes' face twitched slightly.
If Werder Bremen wasn't playing against Bayern Munich, their actions would definitely be booed by the fans at the scene, right? The opponent has started to park the bus, so Bayern naturally can't just stand by and watch.
So he waved his hand, signaling the team to press forward and launch an attack.
Here we come!
Coach Scharf immediately sat up straight and stared at the court intently.
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When he parked the bus, he guessed that Bayern would press forward to attack, but he wanted to know how the opponent would attack?
Bayern has too many attacking points in the frontcourt. Before their tactics are implemented, you can never guess where their offensive focus will be!
In the fifth minute, Bayern's right winger Muller dribbled the ball all the way to the baseline, and when the defender thought he was going to cross the ball, he suddenly passed the ball back.
Bayern's midfielder Schweinsteiger started moving before Muller passed the ball and quickly appeared on the passing line.
His attack from behind caught the defenders off guard, and they failed to send someone to interfere immediately.
After receiving the ball outside the penalty area, Xiaozhu kicked the ball directly and fired a powerful shot towards the goal.
Fortunately, the angle of this kick was not controlled and the football was slightly higher than the crossbar.
Schweinsteiger's long-range shot made the Bremen players sweat.
The opponent's forward attack was too sudden, and Werder Bremen's players were unable to react in time, resulting in a loophole in the team's defense.
Schaff stood up quickly and asked the players to pay attention to strengthening the protection outside the penalty area so as not to let the opponent shoot so comfortably.
But is Schweinsteiger so easy to defend?
In the 13th minute, Kroos broke through with the ball, attracted the defender and then passed the ball diagonally to Ribery.
Ribery cut inside and rushed directly into the penalty area. The Bremen defenders immediately double-teamed him, blocking his shooting angle and preventing him from shooting.
But Ribery had no intention of shooting at all. He dribbled the ball diagonally, leading away the defender, and after creating space, he suddenly passed the ball out of the penalty area.
It was Schweinsteiger again. He ran to the front of the penalty area again without knowing when and received the ball.
Yunuzovic immediately stepped forward to block the opponent from taking a long shot.
But this time Xiaozhu did not choose to take a long shot, he chose to dribble forward.
Because Junuzovic rushed too fast, he was easily passed by Schweinsteiger, and Schweinsteiger had already entered the penalty area.
Because of Ribery's cut-in, Werder Bremen's defense line tilted to the right to a certain extent.
This kind of flaw is difficult for ordinary players to find, but who is Schweini? He is the top midfielder in the Bundesliga, and he caught this loophole in the first place!
When he saw Junuzovic stealing the ball, 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 Schweinsteiger.
As soon as he moved, Schweinsteiger immediately passed the ball to Muller who was in an open position.
The latter received the ball and passed it back, trying to make a wall pass to get past the captain of Werder Bremen.
At this time, the piglet had already gotten rid of Fritz's entanglement and ran into the open space. As long as he could receive the pass from Muller, he would be able to get a one-on-one chance.
Fortunately, Muller's pass was cleared by Elia who retreated to the back line to defend, thus disrupting the opponent's attack.
Although Bayern's attack this time failed to result in a shot, it created a greater threat than before.
Schaff clenched his fists. He realized that the core of Bayern's attack was Schweinsteiger!
(End of this chapter)