The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills

Dortmund knocked out Bayern 2-0 in the DFB-Pokal semifinals, advancing to the final.

In the other semifinal match, a duel between two 2nd Bundesliga teams ended with a score of 2-1.

Duisburg defeated Cottbus to secure their spot in the final.

Thus, the two teams in this season’s DFB-Pokal final would be Dortmund and Duisburg.

After the match, almost all German media and fans believed that the Bumblebees already had the DFB-Pokal title in the bag.

Even the team’s head coach, Klopp, expressed his optimism about winning the final in an interview with the media.

But he also reminded everyone that they had to give it their all.

"Duisburg can’t be underestimated!"

Klopp made a point to praise Wang Shuo.

Wang Shuo hadn’t played in the first three rounds of the DFB-Pokal.

But starting from the match against Schalke 04 to the recent one against Bayern Munich, Wang Shuo had delivered excellent performances.

Especially in the last two games against Bayern, Wang Shuo had scored a total of five goals.

After the DFB-Pokal semifinal, in the press conference hall at the Allianz Arena, Klopp went as far as to declare on the spot during an interview, "In my heart, he’s the best player in the world!"

Klopp believed that the recent FIFA awards ceremony had been very unfair to his player.

"For certain special reasons, he can’t play for the national team and couldn’t appear on the World Cup stage, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t outstanding."

"On the contrary, we can see that he has delivered shocking performances, both last year and this year."

"What’s more, he’s only 20 years old and is still getting stronger!"

"I believe that as long as he keeps working hard, sooner or later, he will sit on the throne!"

After this decisive battle, a news story emerged from the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The Bayern executives held an emergency meeting to discuss whether Van Gaal should stay or go.

The Dutchman had been a subject of controversy ever since his first month with Bayern.

He had even heard boos from the Bayern fans during his very first match at the Allianz Arena.

Last season’s DFB-Pokal title and Champions League runner-up finish had bought him more time.

But his conflicts with Gomez and Ribery, as well as his clashes with Hennes and Nillinger, had never ceased.

Now, with the Bundesliga title out of reach and having been eliminated from the DFB-Pokal, only the Champions League remained.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed that the moment Bayern was knocked out of the Champions League would be the moment Van Gaal was sacked!

And back in the 25th round of the Bundesliga, Bayern suffered another crushing 1-3 away defeat to Hannover 96.

Bayern’s fans and pro-Bayern media outlets were even calling for Van Gaal’s immediate dismissal in the papers.

Dortmund had just come off a grueling match against Bayern, so Klopp once again arranged for a major squad rotation for this game.

Of course, Wang Shuo and the others were on the bench to serve as a safety net.

And in first-half stoppage time, a goal from Lewandowski helped Dortmund secure a narrow 1-0 home victory over Cologne.

Wang Shuo sat on the bench for 90 minutes.

As per Klopp’s pre-match instructions, his real task was in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 knockout stage next Wednesday.

After this round of matches, Dortmund had 73 points with a record of 24 wins and 1 draw.

Bayer Leverkusen was in second place with 49 points, still trailing Dortmund by 24 points.

Bayern, on the other hand, had dropped out of the top three, falling to fifth in the league, even behind Tuchel’s Mainz.

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「On the evening of March 9th, at Dortmund’s Westfalen Stadium.」

As the classic Champions League anthem echoed through the stadium, Wang Shuo and his teammates stood in the player tunnel, waiting to take the field.

Beside them were the players from AC Milan.

Goalkeeper: Abbiati;

Defense: Jankulovsky, Yepes, Thiago Silva, and Alaba;

Midfield: Kevin Boateng, Van Bommel, and Flamini in a holding role, with Robinho in front of them;

Forwards: Pato and Eevee.

Compared to the first leg, AC Milan had made some changes.

Allegri kept the three-man defensive midfield that had performed exceptionally well and proved very effective in the first leg.

And it looked like their formation wouldn’t change much.

In the first leg, Kevin Boateng and Antonini, along with Flamini and Abate, had teamed up to effectively shut down Dortmund’s attacks on both flanks.

This was especially true on the side with Flamini and Abate.

Both Grosskreutz and Reus were inverted wingers who liked to cut inside.

Although Kuba on the right flank wasn’t an inverted winger, he was also skilled at cutting inside to attack.

The overlapping runs from Schmelzer and Piszczek were a very important part of Dortmund’s attack.

The defensive cover provided on the flanks by Flamini and Kevin Boateng did an excellent job of stifling Dortmund’s wing play.

This was also the reason why Wang Shuo had been so isolated in the first leg.

But unlike the first leg, Allegri had replaced Antonini with the more experienced veteran Jankulovsky, a move that seemed intended to both stabilize the defense and strengthen the team’s attack.

Another very big change was using Robinho to replace Seedorf in the number 10 position.

In the second half of the first leg, Allegri had already substituted Pato for Seedorf, pulling Robinho back.

A major reason for this was that Seedorf was struggling with his stamina.

Facing Dortmund’s two defensive midfielders, Seedorf found it difficult to hold onto the ball.