90 The Maker of Disaster
Lin watched the live broadcast of this game from home.
When the final score froze at 6:1, he was also quite shocked. Teams participating in the Champions League are from top-ranked leagues, they are not pushovers.
Even with differences in strength, such a huge score difference is rare. In a Champions League-level match, a 5-goal difference is already considered a disaster!
However, seeing such a score on the 12-13 season Bayern, it's not so hard to understand. After all, Bayern is known as the maker of disasters! It had to be them! Bayern!
The attacks were just too fierce! He curiously went online and indeed found intense discussions about the game.
"Wow, Bayern's offense is too strong!"
"Robben and Ribéry didn't even play and still tore apart the opponent. If they had played, I can't imagine how extreme the score would be!"
"Why do I feel like a certain team is going to face Barcelona or Bayern again this year?"
"Although you didn't say who, I just instantly understood…"
"Haha, kings of fourth place curse, starts strong, falters in the middle, collapses in the latter half, and then gets knocked out in the Champions League group stage when facing Real and Bayern."
"Three years Barcelona, five years Bayern, Gunners' fixed draw, I start to suspect UEFA is targeting our team!"
"Hehe, if Arsenal could top the group, they could avoid these strong teams, it's ultimately the Gunners' own fault!"
"Poor Nana, forced to draw with Schalke, if not for that, they could have topped the group, breaking the curse!"
At first, the online discussion was all about Bayern's terrifying firepower. Then the topic was led astray to Arsenal by who knows who.
Lin actually didn't quite agree with the mocking of Arsenal online. Arsenal's physical strength isn't strong, and their players are quite young.
The problem with young players' mentality is well-known. Wenger should have considered this using these young talents.
However, with such minimal investment in the transfer market every year, they can't afford big-name stars and can only buy bargain players.
Under such low investment, Wenger managed to lead Arsenal into the Champions League every year and even make it out of the group stage. This in itself is quite remarkable.
Of course, their luck wasn't great…
While Arsenal's fans were howling online, in a corner where no one was paying attention, Bremen's fans were also lamenting.
After watching this match, many fans who previously had confidence in the team felt that their match against Bayern was going to be difficult. Bayern's visible improvement in form made it very challenging to face them.
Furthermore, the opponent's raw strength was already stronger than theirs! This season, German teams continued to excel in the Champions League matches.
After this round of the Champions League group stage, three German teams remained undefeated. Schalke 04 drew 2-2 with Arsenal, securing first place with 8 points, making it very likely that they would advance.
The "group of death" Dortmund, just like Schalke 04, secured first place with 8 points as they surpassed Real Madrid.
Real Madrid, in the same group, with two wins, a draw, and a loss, secured 7 points for second place, and Ajax with a win, a draw, and two losses, secured 4 points for third place.
Manchester City, backed by Middle Eastern tycoons, performed poorly in the Champions League group stage, drawing twice and losing twice, thus essentially being eliminated.
It seems that just having money is not enough. Manchester City needs to find the right players and coach, and this will take a long time.
The Bundesliga's strong performance in this season's Champions League group stage demonstrated that after four rounds of matches, the three German teams had 7 wins, 4 draws, and 1 loss.
Aside from Bayern's one loss, the other two teams remained undefeated and secured first place in their groups, with an overall performance that outshone the entire Europe.
This made all the European countries realize the strength of the Bundesliga, and the attention on the Bundesliga continued to rise. Some top clubs have even begun to send people to scout for outstanding players in the Bundesliga.
They planned to wave their checkbooks and buy bargain players during the winter transfer window. As the team ranked second in the Bundesliga, Bremen also received much attention.
Whenever they trained, they could often see scouts from unknown teams observing them outside the training ground.
Lin and De Bruyne attracted the most attention. With Lin's €5 million termination fee and only half a year left on his contract, he seemed like a great catch.
All teams wanted to try their luck, but Lin did not pay attention to them. To avoid being bothered, he simply stayed in the club's dormitory and rarely went out during this time.
As for De Bruyne, he even publicly stated that he absolutely would not leave Chelsea, determined to return to Stamford Bridge to prove himself.
Not being able to buy them, many scouts began to focus on other players, such as the very young but impressive performer in this season's Bundesliga, Niclas Füllkrug.
He has already scored 5 goals this season, and the transfer market values Füllkrug at €3.5 million. For a substitute, scoring so many goals in just ten matches is very impressive.
So, his value is not high but rather quite cheap. Some top clubs may not be interested, but mid-level and lower-level teams are very interested in such a cheap and effective player.
As long as Werder Bremen is willing to let him go, many teams will be willing to pay to take him away.
In addition to Füllkrug, Werder Bremen's Dutch international Elia has also received attention from many teams.
Elia was kicked out by powerhouses like Juventus and has always wanted to return to a top club to prove his abilities.
He has performed well this season, but it would be more difficult to take him away than Füllkrug, because he is not interested in ordinary teams unless it's a top club recruiting him.
Otherwise, he would rather stay at Werder Bremen. Because Werder Bremen's defense is very unstable, basically no team is interested in their defenders.
Lin did not care about the attention from the outside world, as he had no plans to transfer during the winter break.
His contract with Barça will expire in six months, and by next year, he will be a free agent, so there is no need to create unnecessary trouble during the winter break.
So, the time came to November 10th, and the 11th round of the Bundesliga kicked off.
Second-placed Werder Bremen in the league traveled to challenge third-placed Schalke 04.
Both teams were high up in the rankings, and their match could likely determine the champions of this season's Bundesliga, making this game the most anticipated focal point of this round of the Bundesliga.
In the previous match, Bayern sat at home and won 2-0 against Frankfurt, kicking them down the standings and widening the gap between them and Werder Bremen.
Considering Bayern's current lead in the standings, if Werder Bremen draws with Schalke 04 in this match, the gap with Bayern will increase to 6 points.
If they lose, Bayern's lead over second place will also increase to 5 points.
Therefore, for Bayern, it's best for both teams to draw. If there has to be a win, then Schalke 04 defeating Werder Bremen, who holds second place, would be more beneficial to Bayern.
Schalke 04 is tough to play against, although they lost to Hoffenheim in the league before. However, the penalty awarded in that match was controversial, and they were scored against in the last minute of the game.
As the match is equally important to both sides, causing the home match tickets for Schalke 04 to be in great demand, once the 55,000 tickets were sold, it immediately sold out.
