After sending away Loew, a short-term "student", Hamburg ushered in the 15th round of the Bundesliga away game against Wolfsburg, and Makoto Hasebe faced his old club.
Wolfsburg has not been in very good shape this season. They lost to Borussia Monchengladbach 0:2 in the last round. After 14 rounds, they are only 15th in the standings with a record of 4 wins, 3 draws and 7 losses.
position, which is just 3 points more than the team in the relegation zone.
However, under the crazy cheering of 30,000 fans in the Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg burst out with amazing energy in this game.
They set up a tight defensive posture at home and withstood one wave of Hamburg's attacks.
Although in the 25th minute, Hamburg scored from a classic connection between De Bruyne and Vardy, allowing Hamburg to take a one-goal lead in the first half.
But in the 66th minute of the second half, Wolfsburg's core midfielder Diego took advantage of a gap in Hamburg's backcourt and hit Dutch striker Dost, who equalized the score.
In the end, Wolfsburg tenaciously tied Hamburg one to one at home.
After the game, "Bild" pointed out that Hamburg did show a completely different tactical characteristics and mental outlook from last season this season, and it was obvious that it could compete with the traditional Bundesliga powers such as Dortmund, Schalke 04, and even Bayern Munich.
momentum.
However, if they cannot steadily score points against weaker opponents, it will still be difficult to achieve greater results.
"Kicker" magazine pointed out that what deserves more attention than Hamburg's "rob the rich and give to the poor" attribute is actually their "dragon at home and worm on the away" characteristics.
In the past 15 games, Hamburg played 7 home games at the People's Park Stadium, with an astonishing 6 wins and 1 draw!
But in the 8 away games, they were much worse. Their record of 3 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses was obviously a hindrance.
Therefore, whether it is "robbing the rich and giving to the poor" or "dragons at home and insects on the road", they all reflect the obvious advantages and disadvantages of Hamburg's young army.
When they face strong opponents and amidst the singing and cheering of the home audience, they are often able to stimulate the potential in their bodies and then perform at their best.
But if they go to an away game and are greeted with boos instead of cheers, the players will not be excited enough on the court and their performance will naturally decline.
Of course, both "Bild" and "Kicker" still expressed their approval of Hamburg's overall performance.
Because in any case, Hamburg's performance this season has far exceeded expectations. They are already the second-best team in the Bundesliga after Bayern Munich.
Bayern also did not win this round.
In this round of competition, the Bundesliga ushered in the national derby, with Bayern Munich hosting Dortmund.
Since Bayern has been defeated five times by Dortmund in the past two seasons and lost two Bundesliga championships, everyone at Bayern is eager to get revenge and avenge their previous disgrace in this game!
But perhaps because this mentality has affected the performance of Bayern players on the court, they did not show the ability to stabilize their opponents in this game.
It wasn't until the 67th minute of the second half that Toni Kroos helped Bayern open the scoring with a long shot.
But Dortmund soon retaliated, and in the 74th minute, young player Mario Gotze equalized the score.
The 1:1 score remained until the end. This was also the first time Bayern failed to win at home this season.
In other words, in terms of home record, Hamburg is currently tied with Bayern!
How difficult it is to have the same home record as this "New Universe Team".
But even so, after 15 rounds, Bayern still tops the Bundesliga standings with a record of 12 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, with 38 points, followed by Hamburg with 31 points.
Now in third place is Bayer Leverkusen with 30 points!
Their results in the last four rounds were 2:0 Schalke 04, 2:1 Hoffenheim, 4:1 Werder Bremen, and 1:0 Nuremberg. This wave of four consecutive victories has allowed them to directly
Jumped up from the middle of the standings!
Ranked fourth is Dortmund with 27 points, followed by Schalke 04 with 25 points and Frankfurt with 24 points.
The gap between first place and second place is 7 points, and the gap between second place and sixth place is also 7 points. This is the current situation of the Bundesliga this season.
The competition for Champions League qualification is extremely fierce!
In the next two rounds, Hamburg's performance seemed to confirm what "Kicker" said.
They first easily defeated Hoffenheim 2:0 at home. Wu Lei and Lin Zhijian, who came on as his substitute, each scored a goal to help the home team win.
Then head to the away game to challenge Bayer Leverkusen, who have been in excellent form recently.
Playing away games triggers the debuff of Hamburg’s “away bug”;
But the opponent was Leverkusen, and Hamburg's "rob the rich and give to the poor" buff was triggered...
Therefore, under the influence of these two somewhat contradictory states, Hamburg actually achieved a neutralized record.
They drew with their opponents with a score of 2:2.
Leverkusen's powerful center Kiessling scored twice in the 26th and 66th minutes, while for Hamburg Vardy and Son Heung-min each scored a goal, and De Bruyne assisted and scored twice.
This is also the last game before Christmas. After this game, the Bundesliga has just completed half of the game and will also usher in the winter break.
Since the head-to-head confrontation between the second and third places ended in a tie, Hamburg still has a one-point advantage over Leverkusen in the standings, while Bayern Munich, who is ranked first, is also still 7 points ahead of Hamburg.
!
This is because in the 16th and 17th rounds, Bayern also scored four points.
They failed to take advantage of the "suffering host" Monchengladbach at home. Shaqiri and Marx made contributions to the two teams respectively, and the game ended in a 1:1 draw.
This also allowed the Bundesliga hegemon to rank first with 42 points with 13 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss after the halfway period.
As a result, the situation has become quite clear before the Bundesliga's winter break.
Bayern Munich continues to be a one-man show, leading the standings with a seven-point advantage.
Hamburg followed closely with 35 points. Although they experienced a trough in the October game, they still scored a lot of points later.
Their performance is at least better than Leverkusen and Dortmund, so they can still rank second in the Bundesliga.
However, the fifth and sixth names have undergone some changes.
Frankfurt is now in fifth place, with Freiburg in sixth place.
This is because Schalke 04 has been in decline since losing to Hamburg. In the last four games, they actually handed over a poor record of 1 draw and 3 losses, which also caused them to temporarily withdraw from the Champions League and fell to eighth place.
This ranking was even behind Mainz, and led to the dismissal of Schalke 04 coach Stevens.
In the media's half-way summary, everyone knew that at least based on the current situation, Bayern Munich's Bundesliga dominance is almost difficult to shake, and Hamburg has become the biggest dark horse this season.
If Hamburg wants to challenge Bayern, it needs to perform better in the second half.
At the same time, their second position is not so stable.
Leverkusen and Dortmund, two traditional Bundesliga teams, are chasing Hamburg closely and may overtake at any time!
Considering both the thickness of the lineup and the overall strength of the team, this situation is actually very likely to happen in a long season.
The media also believes that the adjustments made by each team during the winter break, including signings and reinforcements, will greatly affect the progress of the second half of the season!
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PS: Starting from Chapter 200 tomorrow, I will post a big chapter every day. The reason is very simple. Thinking about the title makes my head hurt...