Chapter 29 The 29th Round of the Bundesliga

The twenty-ninth round of the Bundesliga saw Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich finally playing their respective matches at different times.

Bayern Munich's away game against Augsburg was scheduled to kick off first, and Borussia Dortmund's home game against Wolfsburg would only begin after their match concluded.

Dortmund media mocked Bayern Munich, "They finally don't have to be affected by us during the game. But if they slip up again this time, what excuse will they come up with?"

However, although Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were not playing at the same time, their match time still clashed with Schalke 04's game, so Bayern Munich's game had to be broadcast on the pay-per-view Fengyun Football Channel.

The free sports channel was made available to broadcast Schalke 04's away game against Werder Bremen.

Such treatment was rare for Bayern Munich in the past. Bayern Munich used to be synonymous with the Bundesliga, and most of the Bundesliga broadcasts featured Bayern Munich's games.

But since Borussia Dortmund had Zhou Yi, the number of Dortmund's televised games skyrocketed, surpassing Bayern Munich and becoming the team most frequently broadcast by CCTV.

Later, Yang Muge also made a name for himself at Schalke 04, and as a result, Schalke 04's broadcasts also increased, pushing Bayern Munich's status down to third. Only when their game time didn't conflict with these two teams could they get some screen time on the free sports channel.

This, of course, made Bayern Munich fans in China very unhappy.

But they were helpless; their anger couldn't change CCTV's broadcast strategy, which was linked to advertising revenue.

Games featuring Chinese players were naturally more popular and attracted more attention from the majority of fans. Bayern Munich's games were only watched by Bayern Munich fans, while Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund's games could attract many fans who didn't usually watch the Bundesliga but cared about the performance of Chinese players abroad.

So Bayern Munich, without Chinese players to attract eyeballs, had to give way to the Ruhr Valley rivals, Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund.

Advertisers were naturally happy to place ads during the live broadcasts of games featuring Chinese players.

At 9:30 PM Beijing time on April 5th, during prime time television.

CCTV's sports channel broadcast Schalke 04's away game against Werder Bremen live. Yang Muge once again started without any doubt. He was a fixed starter unless he was injured or received a card. Speaking of which, Yang Muge hadn't been injured so far. Since playing for Schalke 04's first team, he had only been suspended twice due to accumulated yellow cards and had never received a red card in a game. As a defensive midfielder, Yang Muge played very cleanly.

After losing the Ruhr Derby to Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04 defeated Hertha Berlin 2-0 at home in the previous league round, maintaining their third place in the league.

Now, after twenty-eight rounds of the league, Schalke 04 had fifty-three points, leading fourth-placed Bayer Leverkusen by five points, which was relatively safe. As long as they didn't make continuous mistakes, they shouldn't lose their third place in the league.

However, in this round, they were unable to win their away game against Werder Bremen.

They drew 1-1 with Werder Bremen.

Fortunately, in yesterday's game, Bayer Leverkusen lost 1-2 to relegation-threatened Hamburg away from home, so Schalke 04 didn't allow Bayer Leverkusen to close the gap.

But besides Bayer Leverkusen, there was another team that could pose a threat to Schalke 04. That was Wolfsburg, who were one point behind Bayer Leverkusen.

If Wolfsburg defeated Borussia Dortmund in the next game, they would have fifty points and become fourth in the league, also five points behind Schalke 04.

Conversely, if Borussia Dortmund could defeat Wolfsburg, there would be no problem...

In another game played at the same time, Bayern Munich, although playing away, easily defeated Augsburg 3-0, once again demonstrating their strength. It seemed that the draw against Hoffenheim in the previous league round was just an accident, and they had now recovered from the disappointment of the draw.

This was not good news for Borussia Dortmund.

The pressure was like a soccer ball, kicked to Borussia Dortmund, who were about to start their game.

When competing for the championship at the end of the league season, the team that plays first in each round actually has a slight advantage, because they are not affected by the other competitor's game.

Conversely, the team that plays later faces pressure from their opponent. Especially if the opponent has completed a remarkable game.

Previously, in the twenty-fifth round of the league, Borussia Dortmund's injury-time comeback victory over Borussia Monchengladbach directly affected Bayern Munich's subsequent game against Bayer Leverkusen, and Bayern Munich narrowly defeated their opponent 2-1.

Now it was Borussia Dortmund's turn to taste such a flavor.

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Looking at the starting lineup announced by Borussia Dortmund before the game, Klopp had indeed made some adjustments to the starting lineup for this game.

For example, Reus didn't start in this game; Grosskreutz replaced him. Similarly, Sven Bender didn't start either; Sebastian Kehl replaced him. In addition, Yan Min, who performed well in the previous game, didn't start either, because he was too active, consumed a lot of energy, and needed to rest well. So Mkhitaryan replaced him and started on the left wing.

In addition, Mark Wagner didn't start either; Aubameyang was the starting center forward.

Klopp even made some adjustments to the formation, not playing the previous 4-4-2, but switching to 4-2-3-1, adding a defensive midfielder in the midfield, with Sahin taking the role. He replaced Mark.

These adjustments were actually not small, unlike what some people predicted as minor adjustments.

So as soon as the starting lineup was released, it was interpreted by many as "Klopp plans to give up the league and focus on the Champions League! This is a very unwise move!"

"Has Klopp gone crazy? Bayern Munich must be the happiest with this! No wonder Bayern Munich players were in such good form during the game today, playing so easily, it turns out it's because they knew Borussia Dortmund's starting lineup..."

"Although the direct confrontation with Bayern Munich is coming up, what's the point of a direct confrontation if they lose to Wolfsburg before that? No, they don't even have to lose to Wolfsburg, as long as they are held to a draw by Wolfsburg, they will be at a disadvantage—the Bundesliga doesn't look at the head-to-head record; they look at goal difference first. In this regard, Bayern Munich has an absolute advantage. Even if Borussia Dortmund defeats Bayern Munich away and ties them on points, they will still be runner-up with a disadvantage in goal difference..."

Everyone thought Klopp was being too unwise.

However, some people were not surprised by this: "What kind of person is Klopp? He's a madman! It doesn't seem strange for a madman to do such a thing..."

"That's right, Klopp's brain circuits can't be viewed with normal standards..."

"From this arrangement, it can be seen that Klopp is very dissatisfied with the team's first-leg loss to Paris Saint-Germain, so he would rather give up the league to seek revenge on Paris Saint-Germain..."

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Bayer Leverkusen's defeat greatly boosted Wolfsburg's morale. As long as they could win, they could become the fourth-placed team in the league, which is a Champions League spot.

So after the game started, Wolfsburg's players worked very hard, pressing aggressively, and running actively...

On the Borussia Dortmund side, because of the relatively large adjustments made, even the formation was changed, and the whole team needed an adaptation period.

During this period, they were forced into a somewhat embarrassed state by Wolfsburg.

In the tenth minute, Wolfsburg player Perisic dribbled past Hummels on the right wing and then crossed to the bottom line. Forward Olic responded with a shot only three meters from the goal, but under the close interference of Sokratis Papastathopoulos, he shot the ball high.

Not long after, Wolfsburg got another chance to attack. They got a direct free kick twenty-five meters from the goal.

Wolfsburg's free kick was given to Brazilian center-back Naldo to take.

This Brazilian center-back, who is over 1.9 meters tall, has a powerful long-range free kick skill.

Borussia Dortmund was naturally very aware of this, so they attached great importance to this free kick defense.

In the end, Naldo's direct free kick was blocked by Borussia Dortmund's wall and did not threaten Weidenfeller's goal.

In the twentieth minute, Wolfsburg continued to launch an attack, crossing from the wing into the penalty area. De Bruyne ran to an unmarked position at the far post and prepared to shoot!

It caused an exclamation in the stands of the Westfalenstadion.

But De Bruyne ultimately miscued and didn't hit the ball properly, missing this excellent scoring opportunity.

Although Wolfsburg missed this opportunity, they still broke the deadlock in the thirty-fourth minute through tireless attacks.

Rodriguez crossed from the left wing, and Malanda jumped up at the far post to head the ball, which was parried by Weidenfeller.

But the ball was not pushed far away, but fell to the other side, where the unmarked Olic took advantage of the opportunity to insert into the empty space, slotting the ball into the empty net with ease.

1-0!