Sports Weekly all-media reporter Huang Sijun
It was no surprise that Bayer Leverkusen, who were on the verge of winning their first Bundesliga title in their history, took another solid step towards their goal of a domestic double, beating neighbours Fortuna Dusseldorf 4-0 at home in their second German Cup semi-final on Wednesday night, bringing their unbeaten record this season to 40 games (35 wins, five draws)! Lost in 2009 and 2020), on the evening of May 25 at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin against Kaiserslautern, who are currently third from bottom in the Bundesliga.
The battle was over in an hour
Bayer Leverkusen's quarter-final at home to Stuttgart in early February was seen as an early final. After falling behind 0-1 and 1-2, Bayer Leverkusen eventually turned their opponents back thanks to a 90th-minute header from centre-back Jonathan Ta. Coupled with the fact that Borussia Mönchengladbach was later knocked out by Bundesliga side Saarbrücken, there is only one Bundesliga team left in the semi-finals, and it seems that there is nothing to prevent Bayer Leverkusen from winning the German Cup for the second time. Ahead of the semi-final against Fortuna Dusseldorf, Bayer Leverkusen extended their Bundesliga lead to 13 points, meaning they only need to win three more games in the remaining seven rounds to win the historic title.
Frimpong opened the scoring after just seven minutes.
Despite the good situation and the opponent is only third in the Bundesliga, Alonso has uncharacteristically not made a big rotation. In addition to replacing Hradecki with a Cup goal, he only rotated Inkapie and Jonas Hoffmann with Stanišić and Adley, which shows that he takes the game very seriously. You know, in the past, when dealing with midweek cup competitions or European competitions, Alonso often rotated more than half of the starting line-up in one go. In the previous two legs of the Europa League 1/8 final against Karabakh, "Brother Long" rotated as many as 8 people, and even the 1/4 final of the German Cup against Stuttgart, which was so crucial, also rotated as many as 5 people.
As it turned out, the decision to reduce the rotation of the starters was extremely correct, in exchange for the main players who started consecutive games could be rested early. When Wirtz seized on a mistake in the 35th minute and calmly shook off Andre Hoffmann's low left-footed shot into the net in the middle of the penalty area, the score was already 3-0. Just an hour into the game, Wirtz scored the first penalty of his career, making the game completely out of suspense. As a result, Alonso replaced Wirtz, Schick and Adley in the 65th minute, and the injured Boniface completed his return. On the 70th minute, Grimaldo clocked out and Xhaka was off at the 78th minute.
A lesson for the German and second neighbors
Such a one-sided game was completely expected, not that Fortuna Dusseldorf was really vulnerable, but mainly because of the style. With 59 goals in 27 league games, FC Dusseldorf is the most attacking team in the Bundesliga, scoring nine more than leaders St. Pauli and conceding 35 goals, nine more than St. Pauli. Fortuna Dusseldorf boasts Greek winger Tsolis, who currently leads the Bundesliga league with 17 goals.
In the process of qualifying for the German Cup, Fortuna Dusseldorf drew 3-3 with De Bingon Thachen in 90 minutes in the second round, and scored three goals in extra time to play a 6-3 tennis scoreline. In the past two rounds, they have eliminated Magdeburg (2-1 in the 92nd minute) and St. Pauli (1-1 in 90 minutes, 2-2 in stoppage time, 4-3 in penalty shootouts) in the away game.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to quickly switch from defense to attack, Adli changed the score to 2-0 in the 20th minute and led the German Cup scorer list alone with five goals.
Despite being a dead man at Bayer Leverkusen, Fortuna Dusseldorf did not put the bus uncharacteristically, but were aggressive from the start and took the lead with a shot on target in the sixth minute. But just one minute later, they conceded a goal. Fortuna Dusseldorf have only about 30 per cent of the possession, but once they have the ball, they will quickly move up front and have enough troops to attack, as was the case with Hoffenheim at Bayer Arena last Saturday, where they were left with just two or three men to counter-attack. The side effect was that once they conceded a goal up front, Bayer Leverkusen would be in their box 10 seconds later, and that was how Adli's goal came in the 20th minute.
Even after losing 0-3 quickly, Fortuna Dusseldorf did not back down. Just before half-time, centre-back Andre Hofmann, who had assisted the assist, had one of the most dangerous shots of the game, but it was a little lacking in strength and was denied by a brilliant side save from Kovaj. With possession on the ball, Fortuna Dusseldorf had five shots and three on target in the first half and eight and five on target at full-time. For comparison, Hoffenheim had just six shots on goal and two on target here last Saturday and were shot wildly 36 times.
Wirtz shook off Hoffman (No. 3) and fired a left-footed shot to make it 3-0.
While you might argue that Fortuna Dusseldorf was not playing this way, and could even say that it was playing right for Bayer Leverkusen, the crowd at large must be thankful for making the game open enough that it didn't devolve into a boring half-time. In fact, even if Fortuna Dusseldorf were to defend it, they probably wouldn't have the ability. Goalkeeper Karsten Meyer admitted that their game plan did not work out and that "from the first minute it was completely counterproductive and we can only blame ourselves." Today the opponent was several levels higher than us. Captain Hoffman said: "We played with a brave style, but I don't feel like everybody on the pitch is rooting for it. When we press up front, we can't keep up at the back. ”
For Fortuna Dusseldorf, who are expected to return to the Bundesliga, this is undoubtedly a vivid teaching lesson. "We wanted to be very brave, but in the end Bayer Leverkusen decided the game. If you give Wirtz 10 meters of space, then it's your fault. Then after 10 seconds, you're going to tee off again on the halfway line. ”
Even his opponents praised Wirtz
With the "connivance" of Fortuna Dusseldorf, Wirtz scored two goals, plus an assist for Adli's second goal, and Kicker magazine gave him a perfect score of one after the game. Wirtz has now scored 13 goals and assisted 18 times in club competitions this season. During the international break, he opened his account for the international goal by scoring from distance just eight seconds after the opening eight seconds against France. Now in his 141st official club game, the 20-year-old superstar has scored his first brace. In fact, in the semi-finals of the 2021 U21 European Youth Championship against the Netherlands, Wirtz also scored a brace.
Wirtz converted a penalty in the 60th minute to score twice for the first time in a club competition.
Bayer Leverkusen Sporting General Manager Rolfes praised Wirtz: "He's a very, very special player. He shows not only in the game, but in every training session. He's passionate, he wants to win, and he has this desire, this greed. Big brother Xhaka also said: "He is a threat when he has the ball and a threat when he is not on the ball. He runs a lot and is very smart even off the ball. He's definitely at the top. Even his opponents were full of praise for Wirtz. When asked if Wirtz was the best player he had ever faced, the Dusseldorf goalkeeper replied: "Yes, absolutely." You don't need to say anything. His stats, his one-on-one, his big-picture ...... I could go on for another hour. ”
With Alonso announcing on Friday that he will continue to coach Bayer Leverkusen next season, the focus of attention has also been on whether the core players led by Wirtz will follow Longo to stay. In this regard, Leverkusen's Spanish CEO Carlo made it clear in an interview with the Spanish radio station "Zero Microwave" last weekend: "He (Wirtz) will definitely stay here 100% this year." One of the reasons is that Alonso "is a coach who can make players better".
Bayer Leverkusen players join fans in celebrating their march to Berlin.
Bayer Leverkusen were the 'Sanya kings' of the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League in the 2001/02 season. As a result, after that season, the two core players Ballack and Ze Roberto were poached by Bayern, and the team collapsed in the following season, and finally ended up in the fourth from the bottom of the thrilling relegation. In Carlo's view, Bayer Leverkusen will not only not repeat the mistakes of the past this year, but will also build on this season's efforts to make it to the top 16 clubs in Europe and become a regular in the Champions League. The immediate goal, of course, is to win the Bundesliga title as soon as possible. Carlo said: "We need three more wins in the Bundesliga. That's what we want to achieve. ”
In addition to the Bundesliga and German Cup titles at hand, Bayer Leverkusen have another pursuit – the Europa League. A week later, they face the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final final at home to West Ham United. Alonso already led his side to the semi-finals of the Europa League last season and will certainly want to go one step further this year. And with the league situation already relatively relaxed, and the return of the main centre-forward Boniface who has been out of action for nearly four months, the unstoppable Bayer Leverkusen have reason to tilt their strategic focus slightly towards European competition in the coming weeks in order to have an even greater season.
#勒沃库森4比0杜塞尔多夫#