Chapter 144: Montpellier

On September 28, in the sixth round of the Bundesliga, Schalke 04 went away to challenge the newly promoted Dusseldorf.
Düsseldorf is very close to Gelsenkirchen, which is more than half an hour's drive. This is convenient for Schalke 04, without the need to travel long distances. After all, it will be the Champions League again in midweek.
There are three newly promoted teams in the Bundesliga this season, namely Fürth, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, which are relatively rare.
Because there are only 18 teams in the Bundesliga, the annual promotion rule is that the Bundesliga champions and runners-up will be promoted directly, and the third place in the Bundesliga will have to play a two-round promotion playoff with the penultimate third place in the Bundesliga.
However, due to the stronger overall strength of the Bundesliga team, the annual relegation playoffs are basically won by the Bundesliga team, so the third place in the Bundesliga often means that it is difficult to upgrade.
Düsseldorf was the third place in the Bundesliga last season, but they defeated the third-to-last Bundesliga Hertha 4:3 in two rounds in the promotion and promotion play-offs, thus successfully rising to the Bundesliga.
Since Dusseldorf is very close to the Ruhr area, there are also many Schalke fans in the local area. Lee Chenglong heard cheering when he played away.
In the guest scene against a newly promoted horse, Schalke 04 is obviously the more dominant side.
In the 12th minute of the first half, Li Chenglong received a pass from Uchida Atsushi in the penalty area and scored a goal to help the team take the lead.
In the 28th minute, Huntelaar also got an assist from another full-back, Fox, and scored a goal.
In the first half, Schalke 04 had a 2-0 lead away, and it was no problem to win the game.
But after 70 minutes of the second half, Huber Stevens was making substitutions and adjustments to prepare for the Champions League in midweek. At this time, the team made a series of defensive mistakes and was scored by the opponent's Shahin within 10 minutes. Two goals directly equalized the score.
This Shaheen is not the talented midfielder who became famous in Dortmund, this is Dani Shaheen, who is a center.
Dusseldorf scored a point at home with only two shots in the field.
Because after equalizing the score, the opponent started to defend very pragmatically, and they did not even hit the frontcourt once in the last ten minutes of the game.
But in this way, they still managed to hold a draw.
In the end, Schalke 04 lost a good game with a 2:0 lead away. He could only shake hands with the opponent 2:2 and only scored one point.
After being tied at the away game, Schalke 04 finished with 3 wins, 3 draws and 12 points. He still ranked third in the Bundesliga standings. However, the two teams in front of him opened some gaps. Currently Bayern and Frankfurt are both 16 points, and Dortmund behind him also caught up, currently 11 points, only one point behind Schalke.
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The away game was tied by newly promoted horses, but Schalke 04 had to continue to look forward and turn his attention to the Champions League.
On October 3, in the second round of the Champions League group stage, Schalke 04 played at home against the defending French champion Montpellier.
In this group where Schalke 04 is located, Montpellier should be the biggest competitor of Schalke 04 group qualifying, so this direct confrontation with the opponent at home can be said to be crucial.
Montpellier probably thinks the same way. They lost to Arsenal at home in the first round of the group stage. If they lose to Schalke 04 again, it may be difficult for them to qualify for the group.
At 8:45 in the evening, the game between Schalke 04 and Montpellier officially began.
"Montpellier was the Ligue 1 champion last season, but in the summer, Olivier Giroud, the most important player in their team, had switched to Arsenal, which damaged their strength to a certain extent. But as the defending champion of Ligue 1, Schalke 04 still needs to deal with it carefully." The German commentator was making the opening remarks.
Standing on the court, Jackie Lee looked at the opposing lineup and couldn't think of how such a lineup could overpower Paris to win the Ligue 1 championship.
Even if you add a big Giroud, it won't be a championship lineup.
There is a big Giroud on the front line. The Monegasque Belhanda, the core of the midfielder, suddenly broke out to reach his peak state last season. He relied on these two men to lead the team. The others were all ordinary players and he just overpowered the local tyrant Greater Paris won the Ligue 1 championship.
Even their head coach, Rene Girard, is not a famous coach. He is the same as Stevens, a Ligue 1 veteran Youtiao coach, who is constantly floating in the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 teams. An old fried dough stick that has been mixed for many years.
The most intuitive manifestation is that after the upset Ligue 1 championship last season, only Giroud and Berhanda in the Montpellier team are more popular in the transfer market, and the other players are basically no one. Ask for interest.
However, after the game started, Montpellier was very aggressive.
This is the first time their team has participated in the Champions League. They obviously don't want to just come and go.
In just 10 minutes of the opening, Montpellier leaned on the full-back Stambouli to pass, Senegal center Camara flew the header, and winger Fana followed up with a push and broke Schalke 04's goal.
"Seriously, the one who is keeping an eye on yourself!!" The goal was broken at the beginning, which made Hubb Stevens on the sidelines very unhappy and began to shout from the sidelines.
Schalke 04's defense seems to always go wrong recently.
At the beginning of the game, Schalke 04 was also beaten to wake up~EbookFREE.me~ and then began to attack.
If Giroud in Montpellier is still there, they may have some strength to compete with Schalke 04, but last season's winning core Giroud went to Arsenal, and their strength has indeed declined seriously.
In the 24th minute, Li Chenglong took the ball on the right and made a false move to force the French full-back Stanbury to retreat. However, Li Chenglong dialed the ball to speed up and went down quickly along the side.
Get rid of Stanbury, but then another Brazilian defender Hilton followed up again. Lee Chenglong stopped in a quick dribble, knocked the ball back with his right heel, and threw the opponent directly away, and then took the ball and cut in one step. , Rushing to the point of the other people coming, the left toe stabbed the ball diagonally to the point behind the goal.
Draxler clapped his horse and rushed to the goal with a relaxed push to help Schalke 04 equalize the score.
"Bruce Lee, a very beautiful continuous breakthrough, after losing two opponents in a row, he sent out assists."
"It's a nanny-style assist. Draxler only needs to run into position and score a goal with his foot."
"But this is indeed a very clever connection. Two 19-year-old players cooperated to score goals on the field. I have to say that Schalke has an infinite future."
Schalke 04 evened the score. Draxler, who scored a goal, rushed towards Lee Chenglong very excited and hugged him and shouted loudly.
Li Chenglong knew that this was the opponent's first goal in the Champions League, so he was a little too excited.
After the celebration is over, the game continues.
In the 43rd minute, Li Chenglong himself took the penalty after creating a free kick in the frontcourt, but the ball finally hit the post. This was the most threatening attack of the next two teams in the first half.
In fact, both teams played unconservatively, but they just failed to find a chance.