Chapter 1 The Second Goal!

"The second goal! Stuttgart has scored their second goal! They are now leading Borussia Dortmund by two goals!"

The game was underway, and nothing particularly unusual was happening when suddenly a huge cheer erupted in the Allianz Arena.

No one was surprised; they all knew what that cheer meant.

At the same time, on the Bayern Munich coaching bench and among the substitutes, everyone knew the latest news from the Mercedes-Benz Arena, and their faces lit up with joy.

"God is still on our side..." Someone even felt like joking, bringing up the famous meme from last season.

Last season, the Bayern Munich commentator repeatedly stated that God was on Bayern Munich's side during their matches against Borussia Dortmund.

The result was that Zhou Yi slapped them in the face with a last-second, game-winning goal.

Later, the media publicized and reported on the matter, making it widely known and turning it into a famous joke to mock Bayern Munich.

Now, the people of Bayern Munich could joke about it, which precisely demonstrated their confidence and strength—they no longer cared about self-deprecating humor.

Television cameras captured the scene of the Bayern Munich substitutes covering their mouths and chatting. Although they covered their mouths, it was impossible to know what they were saying. However, their smiles and relaxed expressions revealed that the Bayern Munich players were in good spirits. They seemed to feel that the championship was within their grasp.

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Klopp on the television screen could only be described as bristling with rage. His eyebrows were raised high, his eyes were wide like copper bells, his teeth were clenched tightly, and his expression was ferocious.

He was very dissatisfied with the score and the situation on the field.

Survival teams were tough to play, but not to the point where we concede two goals in twenty minutes!

It was like being beaten without any ability to fight back!

The Borussia Dortmund players on the field were also hit hard.

Could it be that all the hard work of the season was going to be buried here?

Goalkeeper Weidenfeller, who had conceded two goals, got up from the ground and roared angrily at his teammates: "Why is no one tracking back to defend the center?!"

No one answered his question. Everyone turned away blankly, unwilling to make eye contact. Their mood was extremely depressed.

After the game started, Stuttgart intended to press their advantage, taking advantage of the fact that the Borussia Dortmund players were in a daze, and launch an attack on the Borussia Dortmund goal. If they could score another goal, the game could end early...

Faced with Stuttgart's fierce attack, Zhou Yi could only act as a defensive midfielder, helping the team defend to avoid conceding more goals. He had almost no way to organize any decent attacks.

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Just as Borussia Dortmund was struggling to withstand Stuttgart's attack, Bayern Munich was still immersed in the joy of their title rivals being two goals down.

But in the twenty-third minute, when Bayern Munich pressed forward with their entire team, Hoffenheim intercepted the ball and launched a counterattack.

Their midfielder Volland took the ball in the center and drove forward. The Bayern Munich defense did not quickly retreat at this time, but instead pushed forward, seemingly wanting to intercept Volland's ball and then counterattack Hoffenheim's counterattack.

Even their center-back Dante stepped forward, crossing the halfway line. As a result, in the entire half of the field, besides goalkeeper Neuer, there was not a single Bayern Munich player left.

At this moment, Volland sent a through ball, passing the ball from next to the pressing Dante. Just as Dante's attention was focused on the ball, Hoffenheim's forward Modeste quickly darted past him like a ghost on the other side, running past him and receiving the ball behind him!

"A beautiful offside trap!" the commentator shouted.

Neuer had originally wanted to come out, but seeing that Modeste's speed was very fast and he had completely controlled the ball, he quickly retreated.

Retreating to the penalty area, so he could use his hands to save the ball.

Seeing that Neuer was retreating, Modeste decided to shoot directly!

So, before entering the penalty area, he shot low!

The ball drilled towards Neuer's crotch.

Neuer reflexively retracted his leg and fell to the ground, blocking the ball for a moment, but the ball stubbornly penetrated his body, slowed down, and rolled towards the goal...

Neuer turned around and saw that there was still room to save the ball, so he scrambled up from the ground, wanting to chase the ball.

Modeste, the black player's explosive power was fully displayed at this moment. Seeing that Neuer still had a chance to stop the ball, he started again from the spot, rushed past Neuer in two steps, strode to catch up with the ball, and after leaving all the Bayern Munich players behind, he caught up with the ball in front of the goal line, and then added another shot!

The ball flew into Bayern Munich's goal without any suspense!

"Ah... this... Hoffenheim has scored! Modeste! He scored the first goal for Hoffenheim!" the commentator exclaimed after a moment of愣."Unbelievable, the first goal was scored by the away team, Hoffenheim!"

Seeing Modeste pass by the staggering Neuer and catch up with the ball, Guardiola suddenly stood up from his seat.

This goal came too suddenly, and he himself was very surprised. Bayern Munich had been dominating before, so how could Hoffenheim score first?

"Bayern Munich conceded a goal first in a great situation! Are they too relaxed? Did they completely disregard Hoffenheim? But in fact, Hoffenheim is a well-known 'nervous knife'... A team that was struggling to stay in the league last season has transformed into the third-strongest attacking force in the Bundesliga this season, second only to Bayern Munich, who scored seventy-nine goals, and Borussia Dortmund, who scored seventy-four goals... Of course, Hoffenheim has conceded fifty-nine goals so far, which is the most in the Bundesliga. But because of this, it highlights their 'nervous knife' characteristics even more... Facing Bayern Munich, their attacking firepower has not been discounted!"

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"Hey, Bayern Munich is also behind..."

The fact that they were two goals down made the atmosphere on the Borussia Dortmund coaching bench a bit heavy, but suddenly a piece of news came, and everyone became active again.

"Really?"

"Really, Hoffenheim forward Modeste scored, Bayern Munich is behind at home."

"Hey..."

Everyone suddenly felt a lot more balanced. If Borussia Dortmund really lost to Stuttgart, and Bayern Munich could also lose, wouldn't that cancel each other out? Thinking like this, they felt that the situation was not too bad now...

But Klopp frowned and said to them: "This is good news for us, but if we can't win against our current opponent, it doesn't matter if Bayern Munich loses, on the contrary, it will make us feel more regretful—if we win the game and Bayern Munich loses, wouldn't we only be one point behind them?!"

Hearing what he said, everyone else fell silent.

That was indeed the case. If the opponent lost and they also lost, it would be meaningless.

If they didn't do their own thing well, even if the opponent gave them a chance, it would be useless if they didn't seize it.

So a group of people refocused their attention on the field in front of them. Borussia Dortmund was trying to find a way to deal with Stuttgart.

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Stuttgart besieged for a while and found that they couldn't score, so they slowed down the pace and began to drag the game out in midfield with Borussia Dortmund.

They used their pressing in midfield to disrupt Borussia Dortmund's attack and prevent them from easily passing the ball into dangerous areas.

Zhou Yi kept running, never staying in the same place. He did this, of course, because he didn't want the Stuttgart defenders to completely limit him.

While running, he looked for opportunities.

He knew very well that the current situation did not allow Borussia Dortmund to pass the ball back and forth. The more times they passed the ball, the greater the chance that Stuttgart would intercept it and launch a counterattack.

Faced with Stuttgart's pressing, Borussia Dortmund had to make their attacks more concise and direct.

But concise and direct didn't mean just passing the ball forward blindly, because that would just be handing over possession to the opponent in a different way.

Accuracy was still important.

In the twenty-ninth minute, Zhou Yi ran to the left rib of the forward line, which was an open space. Seeing him run to the open space, Durm, who was originally holding the ball on the wing, quickly passed the ball to him. At the same time, after passing the ball, he continued to run forward, making a gesture that he wanted to cooperate with Zhou Yi.

But Zhou Yi didn't pass the ball after receiving it. He was now facing the direction of the attack, and in front of him was Stuttgart's defense, neatly aligned like a line...

The four defenders pressed in unison before the arc of the penalty area.

When Zhou Yi took the ball, a Stuttgart player blocked him two or three meters in front, and another Stuttgart player pressed up from the diagonal rear, intending to entangle Zhou Yi.

If Zhou Yi controlled the ball for one more second, he would be pinned down by the opponent, and the Stuttgart player who was blocking him in front could also take the opportunity to lean on him and complete the double-team, making it difficult for him to pass the ball out.

At this moment, Yan Min suddenly cut forward from the left rib. Because of Durm's determined forward insertion after passing the ball, the Stuttgart right-back who should have been defending him was entangled by Durm on the outside, and the two center-backs had shrunk into the center, causing an open space to appear here.

Zhou Yi saw Yan Min's forward insertion, and without hesitation, he pushed the ball forward with his ankle, just like the final shot in golf to put the ball in the hole. The speed didn't need to be too fast, the strength didn't need to be too great, the key was accuracy, it had to be accurately sent to the place it should go—not to Yan Min's feet. At Yan Min's speed, if it was sent directly to his feet, it would disrupt his rhythm, slow him down, and after an adjustment, the opponent's center-back would definitely press up, and then there would be no room for maneuver. So the ball had to be passed in front of Yan Min, but this was the penalty area, and if it was passed too far, it would either roll directly out of the baseline, or be taken by the onrushing goalkeeper Ulreich.

So this accuracy was easy to say, but difficult to achieve in a match. In actual matches, it was always possible to see players see an open space, and teammates also run to the open space, but the final pass was not received, or after receiving it, the original opportunity was no longer an opportunity, that was because the ball was not passed well.

And Zhou Yi's pass was very precise.

When Yan Min crossed the Stuttgart defensive line, the ball was rolling in front of him. Yan Min didn't need to consider what to do after receiving and stopping the ball. He only needed to adjust his pace during the sprint, and then he could...

Shoot directly!

Stuttgart's center-back Rüdiger turned around and chased after him, but because Yan Min didn't need to stop the ball, there was no loss in speed, and Zhou Yi's pass also had a slight arc, it wasn't a straight pass, the ball rolled and rolled a little bit outward, closer to Yan Min and farther away from Rüdiger.

So Yan Min needed to run a shorter distance, and after he adjusted his pace, the ball happened to reach his feet, and he could fully swing his leg and comfortably kick the ball!

Ulreich touched the line of the six-yard box, and Yan Min had already shot!

There was still a certain distance between the two sides, and Ulreich did not completely block the angle.

Yan Min didn't choose to shoot with great force, but used finesse to push the ball.

The ball rolled past Ulreich's feet, and Rüdiger wanted to tackle, but couldn't reach it.

The ball passed them and went towards the back corner of the goal, and then drilled into the goal!

Borussia Dortmund pulled one back!