Xiao Qing completed the penalty kick in one fell swoop, and Hoffenheim also won the first half of the game with a 2-1 reversal victory over Schalke 04; Putting aside the Hoffenheim's manager's doubts about Schalke's rough tactics after the game, of course, Schalke must have thought that the referee's penalty scale was worth disagreeing with. Anyway, this game is over, Hoffenheim also ended their first half of the game, and it was an incomparably perfect first half for them.

Although Hoffenheim is indeed limited because of its own strength, so they are really powerless for the League Cup, and the division of multiple fronts is definitely more than worth the loss for Hoffenheim, who is relatively weak on the bench, especially now Hoffenheim's situation in the league is getting better and better, and now they have every chance to compete for a Champions League qualification or even a league title! So it's not unacceptable to drop the UEFA Cup, as Hoffenheim now have bigger goals.

While the UEFA Cup is indeed a big stage, for Hoffenheim, as long as they can continue to be competitive enough in the league in the second half of the competition, then they will naturally get more crazy attention, if not worse than the teams that have qualified for the Champions League final!

At the end of the 08-09 Bundesliga halfway season, Hoffenheim defeated Schalke at home to continue to dominate the Bundesliga standings, which is definitely the most haode gift for Hoffenheim fans! And now Hoffenheim after a series of victories, they now have more and more points, and now their advantage in the standings is becoming more and more obvious!

While the myth of Kaiserslautern in the Bundesliga created by Rehhagel in the 1997-1998 season faded into oblivion, the 08-09 season was led by the "football professor" Rangnick as a country team Hoffenheim. At the end of the seventeenth round, he stood at the top of the Bundesliga. It's just compared to the 39 points in the halfway of Kaiserslautern and beating Bayern Munich by as much as a quarter. Hoffenheim is now doing even better and incredible!

Thirteen wins, two draws and two losses. Hoffenheim are at the top of the table with 41 points after 17 rounds, and now they are further behind their pursuers, and they can temporarily secure their place after the draw with Bayern Munich!

And Bayern Munich has some tragedy, nine wins, six draws, two losses and 33 points, they were originally six points behind Hoffenheim, but now it's okay, the tragic Bayern Munich is not having a good Christmas this time. After drawing with Stuttgart again and again before the half-time race, they are now reluctantly relegated to second place in the standings, and most importantly, they seem to be being left behind by Hoffenheim.

In fact, Bayern is sitting unstable even in the second place in the standings, Hertha Berlin has ten wins, three draws and four losses with 33 points, and the Hamburg team also has this result, but he is only one goal difference less than Hertha Berlin; Bayern look to be occupying the second place in the standings with an eight-goal difference!

In fact, except for Hoffenheim, who seems to occupy the top position of the standings with a large advantage, the gap from second to ninth place is not so obvious, and they still have a great chance to fight for Champions League qualification or League Cup qualification; If Hoffenheim lose their magic in the second half of the game, then they may have a chance to fight for the league title!

Bayer Leverkusen, who are fifth in the table, have 32 points from 10 wins, 2 draws and 5 defeats, and they have a chance to qualify for the Champions League at any time. Dortmund, with seven wins, eight draws and two losses, is also only one win behind Bayer Leverkusen with 29 points; And behind them. Bremen, Wolfsburg and Schalke 04 all have 26 points from seven wins, five draws and five losses, while Stuttgart behind them also has 25 points from seven wins, four draws and six losses.

Hoffenheim are 16 points ahead of 10th-placed Stuttgart. So the current Hoffenheim basically as long as they don't fall to the bottom without warning in the second half of the race, then their results will not fall out of the top 10 no matter how bad they are; Hoffenheim are still eight points away from third-placed Hertha Berlin, so as long as they work hard in the second half of the game, then Champions League qualification seems quite realistic; Don't forget that the third and fourth places in the standings are actually the same points as Bayern, who are second in the standings!

The gap of eight points is enough to make Hoffenheim breathe a sigh of relief, with 17 rounds left in the league, Hoffenheim is actually ahead of the gap of nearly three wins, which is for those teams who want to chase points in the second half, they are likely to have to see hope in 14 rounds of games to get up and chase points!

Promoted Hoffenheim overtook Bayern Munich by eight points to win the Bundesliga in the 08-09 season, and this game also marked the end of the first half of the 08-09 Bundesliga season. This will be followed by a six-week winter break, with the 18th round of the league even taking place in Zuihou in January.

In the European arena, it has never been a long-term place for second-rate Bundesliga teams. On the Champions League front, Schalke 04 not only failed to pass the qualifying round, but was also eliminated from the round of 32 of the League Cup. With Werder Bremen moving to the UEFA Cup again in the group stage, Bayern Munich is already the only surviving seed in the Champions League; Although Hoffenheim, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04 and Hertha Berlin have been eliminated in the qualifying and group stages, there are still four teams that continue to defend the dignity of the Bundesliga, with Wolfsburg, Hamburg, Werder Bremen and Stuttgart continuing to compete in the UEFA Cup.

Compared with Europe's top leagues, the Bundesliga has almost no shortage of dark horses year after year; With the support of big boss Hope, Hoffenheim triple jumped for three years, played a low-key game, and did not even have a big star, but now they are at the top of the league table and have a good chance of recreating the myth of Kaiserslautern in 1997-1998.

Of course, not all the promoted horses are powerful, the other lift Cologne is currently in 11th place with 22 points, nine points ahead of the relegation circle, as long as there are no major accidents in the second half, there is more hope of being left again this season.

At the other end of the standings, promoted Mamenchen and Bochum are tied on 11 points. The other two teams, Ivbus and Karlsruhe, who are tied on 13 points, are third and fourth from bottom respectively, but only one point short of Bielefeld outside the relegation ring. Even Eintracht Frankfurt, who are sixth from the bottom with 17 points, and De Frankfurt, who are seventeen from the bottom, have less than six points difference compared to the third-to-last relegation lap. In the future, these seven teams will become the relegation camp of the Bundesliga.

Last season's Borussia Mönchengladbach also battled Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga, where they only lost the Bundesliga title in Zuihou; However, at the beginning of the season, they also spent a lot of money on recruitment, but they are currently at the bottom of the eleventh point and may return to the Bundesliga again. Borussia Mönchenchen, who is also a promoted horse, is hell and heaven compared to Hoffenheim!

Halfway through the Bundesliga season, the new season presents a very different character. In the standings after seventeen rounds, the top six teams in addition to Bayern and Hamburg, the remaining four teams belong to the freshman Liliang, they squeezed Schalke and Bremen out of the top six ranks, they are promoted Hoffenheim, Hertha Berlin, Bayer Leverkusen and Dortmund, of which Hoffenheim is the most surprising and shocking promotion horse, their offensive ability ranks first in the Bundesliga, the number of away goals is the first, the number of goals conceded at home is six, and the former Bundesliga team leader Bayern, the home team has also conceded sixteen goals, Such a data ranking at the top of the list is absolutely worthy of the name!

The two youth teams of Berlin and Borussia Dort have matured after two or three seasons, and their early success has been driven by the momentum of young players. It is commendable that Dort and Berlin colleagues fought on two fronts in the league and the League Cup, and did not affect the league results. Bayer Leverkusen's excellent early performances were due to the steady and productive goals of Augusto, Kiessling and Helmers up front.

The rise of this new Liliang has increased the scale of the middle and upper reaches of the Bundesliga, making the competition in the Bundesliga fierce, and they are the spoilers of the Bundesliga!

With the rise of the "new Liliang", there is a short-term decline of the old powerhouse, the championship favorites Schalke and Bremen at the beginning of the season are both 26 points after 17 rounds, ranking seventh and seventh and eighth respectively behind Dort, Schalke's problem is that the attack is not effective, and Bremen is too porous in defense; It's hard for them to find a balance on both ends of the pitch, and it's hard for them to help their teams win more in what they're good at; Even the promoted Hoffenheim's defensive problems are indeed bigger, but their offensive ability can completely cover up these shortcomings!

In terms of winning the championship, Bayern is the most likely to defend the title, although Hoffenheim now has a greater advantage, but Bayern's strength in the Bundesliga is unparalleled, the new coach and the team's run-in has been basically formed, and their future force is obviously quite sure.

Now it may be the dark horse team Hoffenheim, Hoffenheim's eight-point lead is his biggest certainty! Secondly, there is the Hamburg team that has played steadily, they are actually not to be underestimated, their large transfer investment during the summer has made their squad relatively strong, they have gone through the first half of the run-in, in fact, there is still a lot of room for sprint in the second half of the game.

Of course, the most prominent point of the Bundesliga in the first half of this season is that the gap in the strength of the middle and upper reaches of the team is narrowing, so in the second half of the game now, no one dares to make any team out of nowhere! (To be continued......)