Chapter 拜仁慕尼黑's Champions League game was over, but Borussia Dortmund's was just beginning.

Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach had fought fiercely in the league, and the outcome wasn't decided until the last moment, which inevitably consumed a lot of physical and mental energy.

But Borussia Dortmund didn't care; they had the capital and confidence. Because in the first leg of the Champions League, they defeated Zenit Saint Petersburg 4:2 away.

Even if Zenit Saint Petersburg defeated Borussia Dortmund 2:0 at home in the second leg, Borussia Dortmund could still advance to the next round of the knockout stage with the advantage of more away goals.

The advantage of four away goals was enormous.

Therefore, Klopp rotated the squad in the next game against Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Several main players who played in the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach last weekend did not enter the starting lineup, and some were not even on the roster.

Even Zhou Yi did not start, but was only on the roster.

Just sixteen minutes into the game, Hulk scored the first goal for Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Zenit Saint Petersburg, fighting with their backs to the wall, had a good start.

However, in the thirty-eighth minute, old captain Sebastian Kehl, who replaced Sven Bender in the starting lineup in this game, headed the ball into the net after receiving a cross from Großkreutz, tying the score for Borussia Dortmund.

Now the total score was 5:3, and Borussia Dortmund was still leading Zenit Saint Petersburg by two goals.

The two sides failed to score again in the first half.

The second half had just begun when Spalletti made a substitution, not giving up yet.

Although the hope was slim, Zenit Saint Petersburg showed their courage.

In the sixty-second minute, Spalletti made another substitution to continue strengthening the attack; he was going all in.

In the seventy-third minute, Zenit Saint Petersburg's offensive finally paid off. Landon, a substitute forward who had been brought on ten minutes earlier, received a pass from Italian defender Criscito and scored again for Zenit Saint Petersburg. The total score was 4:5, only one goal behind.

There were still nearly twenty minutes left in the game. If Zenit Saint Petersburg could score two more goals and prevent Borussia Dortmund from scoring, they could complete a major逆转 (nìzhuǎn – reversal) with a total score of 6:5 and eliminate Borussia Dortmund.

But their opponent was not a wooden stake.

Seeing Zenit Saint Petersburg score, Klopp, whose morale was high, quickly made a substitution.

He replaced Mkhitaryan with Zhou Yi.

After Zhou Yi came on, he used his passing to control the rhythm, slowing down the game bit by bit, and shattering Zenit Saint Petersburg's idea of launching a quick attack.

The game returned to Borussia Dortmund's rhythm.

Then Klopp continued to make substitutions, but the remaining two substitutions did not have much tactical significance; they were more for delaying time.

Until the end of the game, Zenit Saint Petersburg did not score even one more goal.

Of course, neither did Borussia Dortmund.

In the end, Borussia Dortmund lost to Zenit Saint Petersburg 1:2 at home, but still eliminated their opponents with a total score of 5:4, earning a place in the quarter-finals.

Although they lost the game after the match, Klopp's mood was not affected. He believed that the team had not only successfully advanced, but also allowed key players to get sufficient rest, making it a very successful game.

※※※

A day later, the teams of the other two Chinese players also appeared in the Champions League.

Chelsea played against Juventus at home, and Schalke 04 challenged Real Madrid away.

There was no suspense in the game between Schalke 04 and Real Madrid; Schalke 04 could definitely not go any further.

But the game between Juventus and Chelsea was suspenseful.

Because the first leg ended in a 1:1 draw, Chelsea had one away goal, but Juventus also had a chance. The second leg was Juventus's away game, and they had ninety minutes to pursue an away goal.

As long as they could score one away goal, they could offset Chelsea's away goal. The rest would depend on the total number of goals scored.

But to achieve this goal, they had to face Chelsea's goalkeeper, Sun Pan.

Before the game, Sun Pan once again "spoke wildly" in an interview: "Juventus wants to score? Are you kidding me? Are you looking down on me?!"

After being in London for almost a year, Chelsea fans and London media knew that this was Sun Pan. At first, fans didn't like Sun Pan like this, because his predecessor was Čech, who was a low-key and humble person. He had played for Chelsea for many years, and everyone was used to it, feeling that Chelsea's goalkeeper should be like that.

As a result, Sun Pan, whose personality was completely different from Čech, suddenly came, and everyone would of course feel uncomfortable and unacceptable.

It wasn't until later, as Sun Pan gradually conquered the doubters with his performance on the field, that the fans began to get used to and accept such a Sun Pan. They realized that not all Chinese people are shy and introverted; there are also "Chinese people who are not very Chinese" like Sun Pan.

Unlike the fans, the London media liked Sun Pan from the beginning, because Sun Pan's big mouth was really dramatic and could always provide them with a lot of topics for炒作 (chǎozuò – hype).

How could the London media not like him?

This time was the same. As soon as Sun Pan said this, it was magnified by the London media.

All kinds of sensational headlines came out.

If this kind of thing happened to other players, they would most likely clarify it.

But Sun Pan didn't; he didn't do that.

Instead, he was happy that the media炒作 (chǎozuò – hype) it; his name often appeared in the media, which gave Sun Pan a sense of accomplishment.

The result of this炒作 (chǎozuò – hype) was that Sun Pan had a very bad reputation among Juventus fans. Juventus fans angrily criticized Sun Pan for disrespecting his opponents, and some Juventus fans hoped that the team would break through Sun Pan's goal in the game, eliminate Chelsea, and then狠狠的 (hěnhěn de – severely) humiliate Sun Pan.

Sun Pan's words also caused a discussion on the Chinese Internet. There were also many Juventus fans in China, and they were of course very upset with Sun Pan.

Originally, people didn't like Sun Pan's flamboyant personality, and saying such things was simply providing the other side with ammunition to骂 (mà – curse) him.

But apart from these Juventus fans, other Chinese fans supported Sun Pan.

They said that although Sun Pan's mouth was indeed欠 (qiàn – owing; in this context, meaning prone to speaking offensively) sometimes, and he often bragged, this was exactly his true nature. He didn't装 (zhuāng – pretend) or 作 (zuò – put on airs), and he lived authentically, allowing everyone to feel the temperature and feel that this was a living person, not those fake idols.

They would rather like such an imperfect and flawed person.

Of course, football matters must ultimately be resolved through football.

No matter how much controversy there is, it must come down to the game.

In the game between Chelsea and Juventus, just four minutes into the game, Eto'o scored the first goal for Chelsea, which was like pouring cold water on Juventus's head.

However, this did not extinguish Juventus's fighting spirit. On the contrary, they let go of their hands and feet because of this goal.

Launched a fierce attack on Chelsea's goal.

At this time, Sun Pan became the protagonist of the game.

He made one high save after another, doing his best to keep the goal.

When the game was only forty minutes in, he had already made three key saves.

Although he had made狂言 (kuángyán – wild statements) before the game, making Juventus fans upset, what was even more upsetting was that he not only said狂言 (kuángyán – wild statements) in his mouth, but his actual performance was also very good, completely worthy of the狂言 (kuángyán – wild statements) he said...

Sun Pan's high saves helped Chelsea buy time and allowed Chelsea to recover from Juventus's bombardment.

Then, in the forty-second minute, they took advantage of a corner kick to score a goal through defender Cahill, changing the score to 2:0.

In total, Chelsea led Juventus 3:1.

There was half a game left.

Unless Juventus could score two goals in the next forty-five minutes, the situation was almost set.

Of course, Juventus was not willing to fail like this. After experiencing many years of trough, they finally returned to the Champions League. How could they be willing to go home after being eliminated in the first round of the knockout stage?

After the start of the second half, Juventus continued to launch a fierce attack on Chelsea's goal.

Chelsea simply played defensively and counterattacked.

Sun Pan faced more shots from Juventus.

But even so, the goal guarded by Sun Pan still did not concede a goal.

As the game approached the end, the score was still 2:0, and there was no change.

After a successful save, Sun Pan would also continue to make provocative actions towards his opponents, causing Chelsea fans in the stands to cheer—now Chelsea fans have completely accepted such a Sun Pan and like such a狂 (kuáng – arrogant) person standing on their side from the bottom of their hearts.

In the end, Juventus failed to score even one goal until the end of the game.

They had twelve shots in the whole game, nine of which were within the frame, which was a very high offensive quality.

But there was not a single goal.

After the game, the TV broadcast immediately gave Sun Pan a close-up.

In the close-up, Sun Pan raised his fists to celebrate the victory.

He really completed the "大话 (dàhuà – boast)" he said before the game, not letting Juventus score even one goal.