The moment the whistle blew, the Borussia Dortmund players, who had been under immense pressure in the final moments, collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thankfully, we held on..."
In contrast, the Wolfsburg players all showed expressions of regret.
"What a shame, we were so close to beating them..."
It's worth noting that in the last ten minutes of the match, Wolfsburg had completely pinned Borussia Dortmund in their own half, giving them no time to breathe.
Unfortunately, they still couldn't break through Borussia Dortmund's goal again to secure the victory.
Ultimately, thanks to De Bruyne's low shot in the final moments of the match, Wolfsburg drew 2-2 with Borussia Dortmund at the 'Devil's Home Ground', the Westfalenstadion, earning a valuable point!
And this point allowed them to surpass Schalke 04, who were tied on points, due to a superior goal difference, and rise to third place in the League!
After the match, both head coaches immediately went to each other and shook hands.
Klopp and Hecking had coached in the Bundesliga for many years and were old acquaintances.
Klopp grinned and said:
"Dieter, your team has an incredible talent!"
Hecking was startled at first, then immediately became wary.
"You won't take him away!"
Hecking's reply made Klopp burst into laughter:
"Haha, I didn't even say who it was, how did you know?"
"You think I don't know what you're up to!"
"Don't worry, I'm not like those bastards in Munich who only eye the outstanding young players domestically..."
"Of course, Marc plays with great flair, especially his dribbling, which is a joy to watch. He might not be able to fully showcase his abilities under you, how about we discuss it?"
Facing Klopp's teasing, Hecking, who was three years older than him, just smiled and retorted directly:
"Get lost!"
"Hahaha... We didn't decide a winner this match, we'll see each other again soon, that's it..."
On the way back, music was playing inside Wolfsburg's green bus.
It's worth mentioning that every team has a dedicated locker room DJ.
These individuals are specifically responsible for playing music in the locker room to energize their teammates.
Therefore, those generally voted for are individuals whose musical taste is widely recognized.
And at Wolfsburg, the Brazilian Gustavo is the team's exclusive DJ.
At this moment, he was playing energetic South American music on his phone while dancing the samba.
As he danced, he came to Marc's seat and invited him to a dance-off.
Marc didn't hesitate and immediately stood up and joined in the dancing.
And he danced quite well!
However, this wasn't his first time dancing the samba.
As early as his first time using samba as a goal celebration, Gustavo had offered to teach him to dance.
Since then, this elder brother truly kept his word and privately guided him on how to dance the samba.
The essence of samba is actually just two words: free-spirited!
Just do whatever feels comfortable and natural.
Of course, for Wolfsburg, they had reason to be happy.
By drawing with Borussia Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion, they overtook Schalke and moved up to third place in the League.
Moreover, they had already opened up a six-point gap on fifth-placed Leverkusen, getting closer and closer to Champions League qualification!
However, with five matches remaining in the season, they couldn't afford to be complacent.
After returning to the team's base, Hecking gathered the players in the locker room and emphasized again:
"Congratulations everyone, you played a good match at the famous Devil's Home Ground."
"However, the season is not over yet!"
"With five matches remaining, we only need to win three of them to secure our spot in next season's Champions League!"
"So, don't relax!"
After the League match against Borussia Dortmund, Wolfsburg had a week-long break.
During this week, Marc primarily focused on extra training for stamina and crossing.
According to the team's arrangements, his playing time had already changed from being a substitute at the beginning to a rotational starter.
And he had delivered better performances than Caligiuri and Vieirinha.
Now, what limited him from getting more playing time was his physical fitness!
As long as his stamina was sufficient to last the entire match, he could continue to be a starter.
Secondly, given that he spent much more time as a right winger than a left winger in each match.
Therefore, to better assist (and pad his stats for) his teammates, he also trained extra on crossing according to the coach's arrangements.
Whether it was a curving high cross or a low triangular pass, these were standard skills he needed to possess in the right wing position.
It's worth mentioning that the horse stance and Sanyishi Standing Meditation taught at the Jingwu Martial Arts Academy were starting to show results.
In just over ten days, he actually found that both his [Balance] and [Flexibility] attributes had increased by 1 point!
[Balance] rose from 75 to 76, and [Flexibility] rose from 73 to 74.
This meant that dedicating two hours daily to practicing these two fundamental martial arts skills was well worth it.
As long as he continued to practice these two fundamental martial arts skills, he could enhance his balance and flexibility.
In this way, he could save a lot of potential points on the [Balance] and [Flexibility] attributes!
This was simply killing two birds with one stone!
...April 12th, Saturday.
The Bundesliga League reignited.
Wolfsburg hosted Nuremberg, who were ranked seventeenth and at the bottom of the table.
Before the match, almost everyone believed that this game would not be easy for Wolfsburg.
Because Nuremberg was deep in the relegation zone, with only 26 points after twenty-nine rounds.
However, they were only one point away from Stuttgart, who were on the edge of the safe zone.
If they could win one or two of the next five matches and then have more points than the other three teams in the relegation zone, there was still a good chance of avoiding relegation.
Relegation teams are always a tough nut to crack!
However, what no one expected was that Wolfsburg, this fierce wolf, would bite Nuremberg, this 'hard bone,' into bone fragments in the first half alone!
In this match, Marc once again earned his fourth start of the season.
And he was simply unstoppable on the right wing!
Fullbacks were repeatedly toyed with by Marc's exquisite footwork and deceptive feints that were hard to distinguish from real moves... Starting for sixty-seven minutes, Marc attempted twelve dribbles, succeeding eight times, achieving an astonishing success rate of sixty-six percent!
His eight successful dribbles also equaled the single-match successful dribble record held by Bayern's king, Ribéry, this season.
In other words, in terms of dribbling, Marc was on par with a superstar like Ribéry!
Besides repeatedly tearing apart Nuremberg's defense, he created three yellow cards and four set-piece opportunities in a single match.
Two of those set-piece opportunities led to goals for the team!
In the first half, Wolfsburg had already established a 3-0 lead!
Ultimately, Wolfsburg defeated Nuremberg 5-1 at home!
And Marc, who had neither a goal nor an assist, was named Man of the Match due to his strong presence on the field and his immense contribution to the team's goals!
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