After winning Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim won Cologne again in the 14th round of the league on November 22.

However, this game caused Hoffenheim to lose a general... Chu Zhongtian accumulated two yellow cards in the game against Cologne and was expelled from the court by red cards.

This game started to be full of gunpowder after Hoffenheim took the lead. Cologne's players thought Demba Ba was offside. Although the replay of the TV broadcast slowed down, it showed that it was a good goal. But the players of Cologne didn't care about that. They believed that it must be the referee favoring Hoffenheim. Cologne's head coach Dom was even furious off the court, shouting loudly, scolding the head coach, for which he summoned the head coach's verbal warning...

In the second half, the smell of gunpowder became stronger and stronger. In the 52nd minute, Canadian defender Kevin_mckenna was directly shown a red card in the midfield. Four minutes later, Chu Zhongtian kicked down adil_chihi, who had already passed the football while fighting, and received his second yellow card in the game, and was also punished.

Although Hoffenheim won the game with a score of 2:1, the coaches of both sides continued to have a verbal battle at the subsequent press conference and after the game, and pushed Chu Zhongtian to the forefront.

At the press conference, Cologne's head coach christoph daum believed that the referee gave Hoffenheim "special treatment". "I think the media has praised Hoffenheim for too many recent times. The referees also like teams that play beautiful football. They are always exaggerated by the media as playing beautiful football. How cute they are, but they put pressure on the referee on the sidelines and demanded that the opponent be sent off. I told me that this is the most unfair scene I can see on the stadium, and it is a big stain on the image of clean people in the village." He refers to the scene of McKenna flying tackle Salihovic, which happened to happen in front of Hoffenheim's bench. At that time, the entire bench players of Hoffenheim rushed to the sidelines, accusing McKenna of flying tackles, and asked the referee to play cards with McKenna.

Then he changed his subject and pointed his finger at Chu Zhongtian: "Chu's violation of the rules is completely revenge! Xixi had already passed the ball at that time, but he kicked Xixi down from behind! I think he should be punished additionally!"

Currently, Chu Zhongtian is suspended for one round by default. If he really wants to be punished, he will definitely not be able to participate in the next round of the focus match with Bayern Munich. His words suddenly made the atmosphere on the scene tense.

Rangnick immediately fought back against Dom: "Whether we are treated preferentially, everyone can see clearly. I respect the referee's penalty, unlike some people who always complain endlessly, I think this is why they cannot get the 'preferential'. Of course, I want to say that we have never received preferential treatment from the referee. But for Chu, I want to say something. People remember McKenna's fierce flying tackle against Salihovic, but how many people know that Chu was violated eleven times in the first fifty-six minutes of this game, on average every five minutes! And what is the highest record of the frequency of violations in the Bundesliga now? Once in 19 minutes! Some of the referees did not yell, and some yelled. Every part of his lower body was violated by his opponent. Now he only violated the opponent once and was attacked. So should all the players in Cologne be punished collectively for additional punishment and suspended for three rounds?"

Rangnick is mostly gentle and looks like a real "professor", but it will be terrible if he gets angry. Daum was angered by his words on the spot.

After the press conference, he stood up straight and left the scene without even shaking hands with Rangnick.

Later, Daum defended himself in the media that he and Rangnik had no personal grudges, but no one believed it. The two of them must have disliked each other... There are many rumors surrounding whether Chu Zhongtian would be punished. Sometimes he said that Chu Zhongtian might be suspended for two rounds due to a retaliatory foul, which happened to miss the news with Bayern Munich. Sometimes he said that Chu Zhongtian would not be punished, and he had nothing to do and would definitely participate in the match against Bayern Munich.

In China, a big criticism of Daum was launched. Many Chinese media and fans believed that Daum was lying with his eyes open, and that the radicals on his mouth asked Daum to apologize to all Chinese fans and the Chinese people who had hurt his feelings - of course, Daum himself did not know that these things were there.

Because of Daum's words, Chu Zhongtian also attracted the attention of many media. In some people's eyes, Chu Zhongtian was indeed a move that had lost his calmness. At that time, Xixi had already passed the football, but he kicked from behind and directly swept Xixi down. Some people defended Chu Zhongtian, believing that Chu Zhongtian was just a little slower, he did not kick people on purpose, and Xixi's movement to fall to the ground was too exaggerated, "He fell almost one person high, and the screams were loud enough to hear it in the audience." Others believed that before accuse Chu Zhongtian, they should first see what Cologne did. They quoted the data provided by Rangnick at the post-match press conference to indicate how unfair Chu Zhongtian was.

But no matter what, everyone still wants to hear how Chu Zhongtian himself views this matter.

"That was indeed a foul." Chu Zhongtian admitted, "but I felt that the other party was a little exaggerated when he fell down. I kicked him, but it was not cruel. His scream made me think I kicked him off." Then he defended himself again.

His subtext is actually that the red card has already punished me, so don’t throw dirty water on my head anymore, I’m not a person to bully.

Although Daum is a senior in German football, Chu Zhongtian will still be unhappy when he says this. Since he is unhappy, he will fight back. Chu Zhongtian was not there at the press conference, otherwise he would definitely defend himself.

Daum did not continue on this topic, and he then stopped talking. News about this game in the media quickly disappeared, and more people set their sights on... On December 5th, Hoffenheim challenged Bayern Munich away. If nothing unexpected happens, it will be a competition for the top two in the league.

※※In fact, the media's hype about Hoffenheim and Bayern Munich has not only started recently. As the league started, these two teams were often compared. At that time, Bayern Munich had a bad start, while Hoffenheim made great strides. The best and the worst were always easy to be compared together. As a Zebra, Hoffenheim was originally optimistic, but people believed that Bayern Munich would be the league champion this season. After Hoffenheim emerged, all this changed.

When everyone talks about Hoffenheim, they always mention Bayern Munich - "The dark horses performed well, and they will launch a strong impact on Bayern Munich!"

"Hoffenheim's boss's assets can buy Bayern Munich, but he chose to invest in an amateur team!"

"Ibisevic scored more goals by himself than Bayern Munich's three forwards combined!"

"...As of now, Hoffenheim beat Bayern Munich in various technical statistics!"

"Bayern takes a nap, Huo Village rises!"

"The small village team is actually one year older than Bayern Munich!"

...Bayern Munich was quite angry at that time, "I was shot while lying down!" So when Ribery asked Hoffenheim's score in the locker room, he would get many teammates' eyes rolled. Bayern players were very dissatisfied with the constant mention of Hoffenheim's name in front of them and used Hoffenheim as evidence to denounce their bad performance. In their opinion, Hoffenheim is Hoffenheim, and they are them. It is of course a good thing to play Hoffenheim well, but what does it have to do with themselves? Why do people always use Hoffenheim to praise Hoffenheim while also scolding Bayern Munich?

This emotion has accumulated after long-term media hype, which has caused some deviations in Bayern Munich's views on Hoffenheim. Many people have no good feelings for Hoffenheim, and they will express contempt when they mention Hoffenheim.

Now the media is hyping even more crazy, and all German sports media are talking about this game that will not start in two weeks.

First, the media began to make a very attractive guess - "Can Ibisevic, who scored 17 goals in the 14th round of the league, scored 40 goals in one season?"

Note that the "forty" here does not refer to the league. All the goals in the cup matches are added together, but refers to the league goals alone.

Such awesome result was set by Germany's famous bomber Gerd_muller in the 1971-1972 season, and the Bundesliga goal record - forty goals - set in 34 games in a single season.

In modern football, which pays more and more attention to defense, this is almost impossible miracle. But why are the media suddenly interested in this? Because some media made a horizontal comparison - Ibissevic scored seventeen goals in the 14th round of the league, which is a very amazing result and a very terrifying goal efficiency: the average goal rate is greater than one. Such a high goal rate is the top of the four major European leagues, leading Barcelona scorer samuel_eto’o (samuel_eto’o) who scored 13 goals in 12 games.

You should know that in the past, Alovs, Wolfart and Bobic won the Bundesliga top scorer, their results were only seventeen goals the whole season.

So who are better than him in history? There is only one person. "Bombard" Ged Muller, who scored 19 goals in the 14th round of the 1967-1968 season, and twenty goals in the 14th round of the 1968-1969 season. Another legendary shooter, Borussia Mönchengladbach's striker Pitt Meyer also scored 17 goals in the 14th round of the 1967-1968 season, which was no match for Ibissevic.

And Gede Muller only scored eleven goals in the first fourteen rounds of the crazy season when he scored forty goals. Ibisevic's starting point is much higher than that of him. If he keeps such a crazy state, forty goals in a season is not an impossible luxury.

Even the bomber who coaches Bayern Munich B, Gad Muller, stood up to praise Ibisek, believing that the Bosnian shooting player could completely break the record he had maintained for 38 years.

After Hoffenheim defeated Bielefeld, Ibissevic scored another goal in the game. Now he has scored eighteen goals in the fifteen rounds of games. The legend himself came out to support Ibissevic, "Everything is possible. If he continues, it will definitely reach the forty goal mark, and I will congratulate him." In an interview with German Sports Channel, Gede Muller said. In the view of the former Golden Ball winner, "the goal instinct cannot be learned. Some people have it, some people don't, and Ibissevic undoubtedly has it."

Everyone focused on Ibissevic, and the legend also spoke in person, believing that Ibissevic can inherit his mantle, and that the visible and invisible pressure were all concentrated on Ibissevic. In order to relieve the pressure on his disciples, Rangnik had to "speak badly" Ibissevic: "I don't think it's easy to score forty goals in a season. Now we are not considering that he can score forty goals in a season, but to win the next game."

Ibisevic himself is also quite smart. He said that he was flattered by the legend himself, but he did not think he could score so many goals. If you analyze it simply from the goal rate, it might be possible, but football is not that simple.

When interviewed by reporters, he also joked. "I heard that there is another person who has performed this way, but his situation was not very good later? I don't want to be him..."

Ibisevic is talking about the one mentioned earlier who is incomparable to him - Mönchengladbach's scorer Pit Meyer. The shooter scored 17 goals in the 14th round of the 1967-1968 season, second only to Ged Muller, who scored 19 goals in the 14th round of the same period. This is an amazing result. However, after scoring 19 goals in the 18th round, this unlucky brother was in a slump due to training injuries. He broke his leg bone in the winter break and retired two years later.

Hoffenheim seems calm, but Bayern Munich is unwilling to let Hoffenheim be in a calm preparation environment.

Bayern Munich actively cooperates with the media to put pressure on Hoffenheim. The club and legendary figures in German football history, the legendary legend Beckenbauer, stood up to predict that Hoffenheim can win the league's winter championship.

The club's current chairman, Karl-heinz_rummenigge, simply said that Hoffenheim could win the Bundesliga title this season.

This can be regarded as a shocking remark, not to mention it was said from the mouth of the chairman of the Bundesliga overlord Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich has always regarded it as their own backyard like the Bundesliga, where they can dominate the king. As long as they do not make mistakes, the league championship will not be able to escape.

Faced with these remarks, Rangnick quickly came out to relieve stress: "Even if we win Bayern Munich in this game, it doesn't mean we can win the league championship..."

Rangnick knows that this is a psychological battle between Bayern and Munich. They have always been like this. Whenever they meet a strong opponent, they will use this psychological battle. The team always thinks about some off-court attracting psychological pressure on the opponent. However, they used to use Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen, but now they have changed to the newly promoted Hoffenheim.

And don't think they can only "support and kill their opponents".

Some people sing red faces, but naturally some people sing white faces.

The person who rushed out to be the striker in this regard was Bayern Munich's general manager Uli_hoenes. Henes first said: "It's obvious that we can easily shake them off. Hoffenheim is only worthy of stopping at our heels!"

This sentence was said before Hoffenheim played against Bielefeld at home. As a counterattack against him, Hoffenheim fans made such a banner in the game: "How can Audi run over Mercedes-Benz in Mannheim?" The score of Hoffenheim defeating Bielefeld 3-0 is very powerful.

Audi is the sponsor of Bayern Munich, while Mercedes-Benz's headquarters is in Mannheim. Hoffenheim's temporary home stadium is also called "Karl-Benz Stadium". Fans use Audi to refer to Bayern Munich and Mercedes-Benz to refer to Hoffenheim. This metaphor is quite vivid and interesting. The humor also reveals a toughness of not admitting defeat.

Then Heness criticized Hoffenheim for being too expensive. This sentence was refuted by Rangnick. He said that Hoffenheim spent 27 million euros every year, of which Chu Zhongtian had the highest salary, which was 3 million euros after tax (author's note: I wrote before the three million before tax, which was a typo...), and he was the first level. Obasi, Salihovic, and Ibicevic were the second level, and their annual salary was 2 million euros. As for midfielders like Eduardo, his annual salary was only 1.3 million euros. What about Bayern Munich? The annual salary of the three superstars, Ribery, Tony and Klose, was at least 15 million euros, which is not counting the high salary of other stars.

Hones' accusation was a bit stupid. Hoffenheim's manager, Jan_schindelmeiser, hit back: "Ribery alone, the income of Tony and Klose can support our entire team. Hoffenheim's salary level is really light-years away from Bayern!"

Then the Munich media "inadvertently" revealed Rummenigge's ridicule of Hoffenheim at the Bayern club annual meeting last month: "Since their name is 'Hoffenheim 1899', where have they been in the past hundred years?" The media reporting on this matter also specifically described it after this sentence: "After speaking, I laughed at the dinner."

Former Bayern legend Ogenthaler expressed some contempt for Hoffenheim and Ibicevic's performance. He believed that Hoffenheim was not qualified to compete for the championship, and Bayern Munich would easily win the weekend game.

For a time, there were more sarcastic articles about Hoffenheim in the media, as if they were back to the beginning of the season. At that time, Hoffenheim became the first to be the target of public criticism, which made people feel scared and disgusted.

Even Hoffenheim's boss, Hope, who is on vacation in Florida, USA, made his own response to the messy remarks in the media during this period: "I have a good relationship with Bekenbauer. I thought Heness and I were good friends, but now I have to re-examine the relationship with him. I am dissatisfied with Bayern's recent series of provocations. First, Rummenigge ridiculed him for not knowing what we have been doing in the past hundred years, and then Heness began to use our investment to make a fuss. Next time I have the chance to see him, I must point out his mistakes in person."

After defeating Bielefeld in three goals, Hoffenheim's players also made their counterattack against Bayern Munich's arrogant attitude.

"This (three-goal victory over Bielefeld) made it clear to Bayern that we are the favorites for the Winter Championship. They should understand this very well now," said Comper, a team's main centre-back.

Another German international, midfielder Weiss, said: "We go to Allianz Stadium to prove to the whole of Germany how outrageous it is for those who say Bayern can easily defeat us!"

Teber, who appeared in the game against Bielefeld and put on the captain's armband again, also said: "We are full of respect for Bayern, but we don't think they can beat us easily..."

Chu Zhongtian next to him came up and interjected: "Maybe it's difficult for them to defeat us." The camera shot quickly pointed at him. Chu Zhongtian smiled at the camera and said, "Bayern Munich thought they could win? The suspense was just a few goals? Then let's give them a try."

Bosnia and Herzegovina scorer Ibisekic, who broke out this season, scored another goal against Bielefeld, and scored 18 goals after fifteen rounds, which also made him feel confident: "I hope to score in the game against Bayern! I am in good shape now, why not?"

Rangnick tried very hard to keep his team calm, but now it seems that he has failed... It is getting closer and closer to that game, and in the battle of words between the two sides, everyone can see the rolling smoke and smell the strong smell of gunpowder from the air.
Chapter completed!