Legend of Fengshen

Chapter 124 Returning to the Arena
When Schalke 04 broke through the group stage and was drawn to Porto, everyone was unanimously optimistic. The shedding phoenix is ​​not as good as a chicken. The story of Porto is a matter of those years. After a lot of blood loss, everyone must have lost their strength. The first round of the knockout round surprised everyone, it was difficult to deal with, and finally Schalke 04 advanced, and everyone understood that Schalke 04 was lucky enough to win, but the strength is really not good enough. Facing Barcelona naturally let the The German media is out of breath.

For Schalke 04, successfully advancing to the quarter-finals of the Champions League is a victory in itself. Facing the unfavorable situation outside, everyone doesn’t care at all. Now the performance in the Champions League is to kill one to make enough money and kill two to earn a double. It's time, the pressure from top to bottom is far from being as pessimistic as the outside media imagined.

On the contrary, they also won two consecutive victories in the league. In the 25th round, Schalke 04 challenged Hertha Berlin away. Hertha Berlin has always been a mid-level team after being upgraded. The media is generally optimistic about Schalke 04, and the fact is the same. In the away game, Schalke 04 defeated Hertha Berlin 2:1 without any risk, and the points reached 44 points.

After this discussion, Leverkusen, Werder Bremen, and Schalke 44 have the same 04 points. The No.2 Hamburg only has 46 points, a wave of three consecutive victories, Schalke 04 has narrowed the distance with the previous teams, but Slomka's position cannot be determined without results. The idea of ​​a more capable coach came about only at the beginning of the second half of the season. In fact, Slomka has proved his ability last year, but the top management will always be dissatisfied. They think that last season should win the championship.

Now after a three-game losing streak, there is another three-game winning streak, and the Champions League has also entered the quarter-finals. The club executives are embarrassed to talk about dismissal.

These are the secrets of the club's top management. The players don't know it at all, and neither does Zhang Yuan. He thought that Slomka's position should be relatively stable now, but he didn't know that the club was just looking for a suitable opportunity.

On March 3th, the 29th round of the league, away game against Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe was only promoted to the first division last season, the new team started, which surprised everyone, and now has accumulated 26 points, ranking No. Nine, the distance from Schalke is only 37 points.

It is very common for a newly promoted Bundesliga team to play well in their first season. On the one hand, the newly promoted team is not familiar with their style of play, and they are easy to be cut by the opponent's three-axes; Apart from Bayern Munich and a few strong teams, there is not much difference between the teams. In the third aspect, the newly promoted team has played smoothly, and the more they play, the more they have experience and the more they have rules, they are not so easy to deal with.

Schalke 04 suffered a loss in the away game. After Schalke 04 came to Zhang Yuan, they had more offensive options and richer styles of play, but the problem of weak front always existed. Kuranyi, Asamo Abou is not a prolific shooter. Kuranyi has only scored 9 goals so far, and he is already the top scorer in the team. No one else has scored as much as him. Schalke 04's biggest reliance is from the Bundesliga. It will be defense, but they haven't been very good defensively this season.

Facing the newly promoted team, Schalke 04 still had old problems. The front was weak, and there were opportunities, but no one could grasp them. In the end, they had to score a goalless draw with the home team in the away game.

The 0:0 draw with the newly promoted club is not acceptable to the club's executives and fans. The away fans called for Slomka's dismissal without any suspense. However, it is obvious that the executives dismissed Slomka because of a draw. Not enough.

Of course, Slomka knows his situation. He is eagerly looking forward to Zhang Yuan's return as soon as possible, but Zhang Yuan is still unable to return, and he has not even done recovery training. He still stayed at home all day to recover from his injuries, and he was able to walk on the ground, but for the sake of safety, he didn't dare to move around.

Raiola specifically called him and said that he must fully recover before he can play, and he must not be forced to play.Slomka also called Zhang Yuan and asked about Zhang Yuan's injury. When he heard Zhang Yuan said that he still needed to recuperate, he seemed a little disappointed, but Zhang Yuan couldn't hear his disappointment, and thought that Slomka was injured. I care about him very much. Of course, Slomka cares about Zhang Yuan very much, but I also hope that Zhang Yuan can return to the team as soon as possible.

与卡尔斯鲁厄的比赛过后，沙尔克04在4月1日主场迎来了欧冠1/4对手巴萨罗那。

Although Barcelona's current state has declined compared with previous years, there is no doubt about their strength. What really affects them is the conflict in the dressing room. This season, they have fallen behind Real Madrid by 8 points in the league. It is hopeless to win the championship. The Copa del Rey was eliminated by Valencia. The only honor left is the Champions League. Regardless of the conflicts within the team, Rijkaard really wants to win this laurel.

However, at Schalke 04's home court, the unstressed Schalke 04 players performed at a very high level. Although facing the legendary Dream II Dynasty, the players did not panic. Slomka The solid defense and the long-ball counterattack style created a lot of trouble for Barcelona. Although they still lost 0:1 at home in the end, the German media unanimously praised Schalke 04's performance after the game. , think that the fighting spirit of Schalke 04 is worth learning from other teams. The other teams here are referring to Werder Bremen and Stuttgart who returned home early.

With a little regret, Slomka was interviewed by reporters after the game and believed that the players should not miss so many opportunities and played too kindly. As he said, in this game, Schalke 04 had a lot of shooting opportunities, but They were all missed.

Slomka also implicitly criticized goalkeeper Neuer. Henry's not-so-threatening shot Neuer actually missed the ball. The ball was more like a shot than a pass. As a result, Barcelona's young teenager Bo Yang picked up a missed shot and scored an empty goal.

In any case, a loss is always a loss. Although the players are a bit regretful, it did not dampen their confidence. After all, it was a one-goal loss to Barcelona, ​​not to Karlsruhe. On the contrary, playing like this in the first round gave everyone a little bit Confidence, "Buffalo" Asamoah said that there is still a chance to play in the next round, and Schalke 04 still has a chance to advance.

After losing this game, the club has not fired Slomka. The main reason is that on the one hand, the media is full of praise, and public opinion is not conducive to dismissing Slomka. On the one hand, the club also hopes that Slomka can lead Schalke 04 to comeback in the away game. Although the chance is relatively small, it is not after all.

On April 4th, in the 5th round of the league, Schalke 27 welcomed Rostock at home. Rostock has now accumulated 04 points and is a member of the relegation team. Now that the game is at this stage, the relegation work should start. Nuremberg is only 24 points away from them, and Rostock is now in the stage of grabbing points.

Rostock was also promoted last season, but they were a former East German team with a weak foundation, so it was very difficult for them to get along in the Bundesliga, and they failed to play as a surprise as Karlsruhe.

In this game, Rostock's defense was very tight, using the tactics Schalke 04 played against Barcelona. Schalke 04 consumed a lot of energy because of the midweek game, and the state was not particularly good. In the 85th minute Relying on Kobia Shivili's goal to solve Rostock, it was difficult to get 3 points.

After this game, Schalke 04 came to the second position in the standings. The draw with Karlsruhe in the last round benefited from the fall behind Leverkusen and Werder Bremen. Schalke 04 also advanced One, which is one of the reasons why the top management has never been able to fire Slomka. In this round of the game, Hamburg lost 0:1 away to Stuttgart and fell behind. In this way, Schalke 04 surpassed Hamburg and came to the second place in the league.

This is good news. The other good news is that Zhang Yuan has returned to the team and can finally participate in training.

The return of Zhang Yuan undoubtedly gave Slomka a sigh of relief. Schalke 04 will usher in two away games, both of which are crucial games. The away game against Barcelona on April 4 is a matter of whether One more step forward in the Champions League, away to Werder Bremen on April 9th, this is a direct contest between the two teams competing for a place in the Champions League, worth 4 points.

In fact, Zhang Yuan only returned to the team on April 4th. The team training is also a recovery training. He has not played a game for more than a month. Although he has hopes of entering the Champions League squad, he himself understands that It is unreasonable to enter the list.

But what is surprising is that Slomka asked Zhang Yuan in private if he could play, and Zhang Yuan was stunned and quickly replied that he had no problem and could play, so Zhang Yuan was still selected into the 18-man squad for the away game.

Zhang Yuan wasn't mentally prepared, but he wasn't unprepared either. At least the video learning he had devoted himself to studying during this period of time could come in handy.

Barcelona has his favorite star Ronaldinho. He learned many extraordinary tricks from Ronaldinho's videos. If he can play this time, he plans to find Ronaldinho after the game. Cardinho exchanged jerseys. Of course, he also wanted Henry's jersey if possible, but it should be very difficult. There are many players who want to exchange jerseys with the opponent's top superstars in Schalke 04.

After more than a month of injury, Zhang Yuan will finally return to the football field he is familiar with. This period of time is too long for Zhang Yuan, and he is full of expectations.

(End of this chapter)