The Bundesliga was settled a week before the Champions League final, and they were the first league in European football to finish. Hoffenheim successfully defended the title four rounds ahead of schedule, and Li Huan once again became the league's Golden Boot winner with 30 goals, once again writing a record for defenders to become the top scorer. Rangnick also led the team to defend the title, reached the Champions League final and became the best coach in the Bundesliga.

Wolfsburg surprisingly beat Bayern Munich to second place in the standings, Bayern Munich finished third, needed to play in the qualifying round of the Champions League, and before the league ended, Bayern began to search for a manager again.

Among the three relegation teams, there are two that have a close relationship with Li Huan, one is his former parent club Karlsruhe, a team with a passionate style of play, which was finally relegated again after struggling in the Bundesliga for a season. The other is Ketbus, Li Huan's compatriot Shao Jia's team, they have been in the last round of thrilling relegation for three consecutive years, this time they finally lost the luck of previous years, fell into the abyss of relegation, and from next season, the Bundesliga will have no Eastern European teams.

There are still two competitions in German football, one is the German Cup at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, where Hoffenheim and Bremen, who have already won the Bundesliga, will fight for the final title. The other is the Champions League final at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, where Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga and Barcelona in La Liga compete for the highest honour in European football.

The German Cup final was already considered a no-brainer in Germany, with Hoffenheim beating the Bundesliga rivals and Bremen being unable to snatch food from Hoffenheim's claws.

Now the whole German football world is talking about the match between Hoffenheim and Barcelona, and this game is definitely a heavyweight match that attracts the attention of fans all over the world. Super Dark Horse vs. Prince Charming, Steel Chariot PK Art Master, Little Jump Scratch Challenge Xiao Li Flying Knife, all of which are eye-catching duels. With both teams likely to win the treble, this Champions League final is once again a battle for the European treble.

Lineker, one of Britain's best strikers, once said: "Football is a game of 22 men running around the pitch and the Germans winning." But with the decline of the German team and the Bundesliga, the phrase is becoming more and more like a joke. In the quarterfinals, the old Bundesliga hegemon was swept 5:1 by Barcelona over two legs, and now the new hegemon is standing in front of Barcelona again, but the European media is not optimistic about Hoffenheim, thinking that Hoffenheim wants to beat Barcelona It is almost impossible, Barcelona and Arsenal, Manchester United are not the same kind of team at all, Hoffenheim is only afraid that a game will not even touch the ball for ten minutes.

European bookmakers are also not optimistic about Hoffenheim winning the title. In the odds of winning the Champions League final offered by Bin, Barcelona is 1.50 to 1, while Hoffenheim is 2.30 to 1, and Barcelona is ahead of Hoffenheim by a large margin. In terms of the odds of the results of the 90 minutes, Barcelona also have the upper hand, their odds to win are 2.10 to 1, the odds of a draw are 3.25 to 1, and the odds of Hoffenheim to win are 3.35 to 1.

Bin also offered over/under odds for the final, with a 2.5 goals cut-off, and the odds of scoring less than 3 goals in 90 minutes of the final are 1.65 to 1, apparently the bookmaker believes that the total goals in the final are most likely to be 0-2, while the odds of scoring 3 or more goals are 2.10 to 1.

After more than 20 days of careful study of Barcelona, Rangnick and the coaching staff believe that the European media is not exaggerating and that Hoffenheim really has less than 10 minutes of possession against Barca. There are countless ways for Barcelona to beat Hoffenheim, and there is only one way for them to beat Barcelona, and that is to put up a bucket formation, and it has to be Mourinho or Chelsea.

Mourinho, who has always been considered by Rangnick to be different and incompatible, has now become the main object of Rangnick's research, and Rangnick's bedside has the video of Mourinho's team's game, and Mourinho's tactical arrangement and command. Rangnick doesn't like Mourinho and thinks he's anti-football, and Rangnick thinks he can build an attacking team like Barcelona if he is given enough time, but now his time is too short. Now if he wants to win the title, he has to follow the path of Mourinho.

From Barcelona's games in the last five years, Rangnick found that the only thing that could restrain Barcelona was Mourinho's defensive counterattack. Jose Mourinho's side did not rely on ferocious scrambling and fouls to stop Barcelona, but relied more on reasonable defensive positions to compress Barcelona's attacking space. This is especially evident in Xavi's defence, where Jose Mourinho's side almost never take the initiative to steal Xavi's own way, but instead focus on blocking Xavi's passing routes, which has led to a lot of opportunities for Barcelona's brain to get the ball, but it is difficult to pass dangerous key balls.

If you want to win against Barcelona, you must first freeze Xavi and Little White Iniesta, and secondly, you must freeze Messi, and Mourinho has done a good job in freezing Messi. Messi is always up against a defender and a wall behind him. This multi-layered defence not only reduces the chance of being penetrated by the opponent using individual ability or small range of combinations, but also avoids free-kicks in dangerous areas, so that despite the unsightly appearance, it can actually stifle much of Barcelona's attack. So Messi hasn't scored a goal so far against Jose Mourinho's side.

In addition to studying how Jose Mourinho's Chelsea dealt with Barcelona, Rangnick also watched videos of last season's Manchester United and Guus Hiddink's Chelsea and Barcelona this season, hoping to brainstorm ideas, after all, Mourinho is not the same as him, and Mourinho's Chelsea is also different from Hoffenheim. Rangnick will have to find a counter-attack that suits Hoffenheim.

In terms of defensive ability, Hoffenheim has improved a lot this season, but it is certainly not as good as Chelsea, and it is not as good as Manchester United last season.

However, the main reason why Rangnick wants to set up an iron bucket formation is that Barcelona's ability to break through the dense defense is too poor. In the match between Barcelona and Chelsea, Barcelona had a lot of crosses from the wings, but the threat was almost zero, because there were no players in the front line who were good at heading the ball. Needless to say, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Messi are the three dwarfs, Samuel Eto'o can still be a bit of a boss in La Liga, and he's a little kitten in front of the tall and stout Chelsea defenders.

Another way to break down a dense defence is long-range shots and set-pieces, but this is also Barca's tactical shortcoming. Pep Guardiola is not interested in the attacking method of attacking from long range, only likes the ball to move from the left side of the box to the right and from the right side to the left, and the Barcelona players keep passing the ball, passing and passing, but no one wants to force the opponent to expand the defensive range and take the initiative to create gaps through long-range shots. In terms of Barcelona's set-piece statistics, Rangnick is even more happy, because Barcelona only scored one goal in 60 corners, and only scored one corner in last season's even more pitiful season. In the face of such a team, it is simply a shame for the gods and Buddhas not to set up an iron bucket formation.

And in terms of counterattack, Hoffenheim's counterattack is sharper and faster than Chelsea, and Hoffenheim also has an advantage that other teams cannot match, that is, Li Huan's free kick is invincible in the world, as long as Li Huan is given a free kick within 30 meters of the front of the penalty area, it will inevitably form a goal. This kind of deterrence has constrained all the teams that have played against Hoffenheim before, and although Barcelona is very strong, I am afraid that it will also be afraid of Li Huan's free kick. This is also the capital of Rangnick who wants to play defensive counter-attacks.

The German media also began to give advice to Hoffenheim, and the "Bild", known as the British "Sun", tried its best to arrange unfavorable news such as Barcelona's scandals and civil unrest to disturb Barcelona's military morale. For example, the rigorous and pragmatic "Kicker" and "442" use their own way to find Barcelona's weaknesses and explore Hoffenheim's approach to Barcelona.

"Bild" believes that the dressing room problem is a major hidden danger for Barcelona, the renewal of goalkeeper Valdés has not been resolved, and Valdés' butter hand is also a good for Hoffenheim, strikers Eto'o and Messi compete for the position of boss, Cameroonians do not know when the big mouth will often make their team's morale suffer a major blow, "Bild" hopes that Eto'o will come again at this time, so that Hoffenheim's hope of winning the championship is greater.

"Kicker" summarizes Barcelona's two major shortcomings: one is that Barcelona's central axis from defense to offense is known for its skills, and their height is their shortcoming! Therefore, the Germans' height advantage can be advantaged in free kicks, especially corners. In particular, the tenacious willpower of the Germans was the nemesis of the Spanish tragedy.

The second is the competition between the head coaches. Although it is the first time to play in the Champions League, Rangnick's coaching experience is far more abundant than Guardiola's, and Rangnick's on-the-spot coaching ability is completely above Guardiola's.

In addition, "Kicker" believes that Hoffenheim's technical style of play is not exactly the same as that of ordinary German teams, Hoffenheim's main lineup has basically overcome the cancer and stubborn diseases of the German tank, the midfield conductor Arshavin has both technology and strength, and Eduardo has excellent skills, and most of them can take charge of themselves and help the German tank run over the Iberian giants.

What's more, Hoffenheim also has a super defender like Li Huan, even if Barcelona's speed is stronger than the Germans who turn slower, Hoffenheim will not be at a disadvantage, and Li Huan's recovery speed is very fast.

Cruyff, who single-handedly shaped the technical and tactical style of La Masia and Barcelona, is also helping Barça, and the Dutchman has spoken in detail about the game in his column. Cruyff thinks Barcelona have a better chance of winning the title, but Hoffenheim also have a 40% chance of winning.

The Dutch flyers believe that Li Huan, Arshavin and Ruud van Nistelrooy in the Hoffenheim squad are the biggest threat to Barcelona, Cruyff especially mentioned Li Huan, saying: "Everyone knows what a great player Li Huan is, but we can only see this greatness when the ball is at his feet, if we can keep him away from the danger zone or he sleepwalks on the pitch, then we will minimize his threat!" Although we don't know how many times Li Huan can touch the ball on the court? 20 or 30 times? If we could limit that number to 10 times, I think we could at least reduce his danger by 50%, but we can't take it lightly, because once we succeed it will be a fatal blow! It's the same with Arshavin, he's also a player with the ball at his feet, and we have to deal with him like we did with Li Huan. ”

Cruyff said of his compatriot Ruud van Nistelrooy: "Ruud van Nistelrooy doesn't need to keep the ball, as long as the ball is at his feet or above his head, he can even create scoring opportunities through his own strength, there is no doubt that we have to appoint someone to guard such an air bully, but the most important thing we need to pay attention to is to try to control him outside the penalty spot in the penalty area, such a danger will be greatly reduced, as long as we control the rhythm of attack and defense to ensure that we do not concede goals, Then we will be able to win the trophy for the third time at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. ”

Finally, Cruyff also reminded the Barcelona boss to beware of the German's German spirit, which is in the blood of the German team, and no matter how many foreigners there are, tenacity is always their characteristic.

The media have been proactive in giving advice to the team, and the players and managers of both teams have not been idle during this time, Hoffenheim won the championship four rounds ahead of schedule, and it ended early, at this time, Rangnick has secretly gone to Spain to watch two La Liga matches of Barcelona. Hoffenheim's scouts also gathered at the Camp Nou and La Masia camps to watch Barça's training footage and help Rangnick gather information.

Barcelona played very nervously in the league, and Guardiola couldn't pull away, but Barcelona's youth team coach Enrique recorded the Hoffenheim game without leaking, and the videos of Li Huan and Arshavin were edited separately. Barcelona has also put a lot of effort into Hoffenheim, and they did not dare to underestimate this super dark horse that has beaten invincible opponents in Europe in the past year.

At this time, Barcelona club officials also launched a psychological battle like Bayern, Laporta first signaled Barcelona's mouthpiece "World Sports" to say that Barcelona wanted to buy Li Huan and Arshavin at a price of 150 million, and then pretended to say on TV that this kind of thing can only be talked about after the Champions League final, and now it is disrespectful to Hoffenheim.

(To be continued)