It would not be an exaggeration to say that the upcoming match between Dortmund and Arsenal will determine whether Dortmund can advance from the group stage.
The Champions League group stage is now three rounds in, halfway through the schedule. Arsenal, as the seeded team, currently tops the group with three wins from three games. They defeated Galatasaray 2-1 away, Napoli 2-0 at home, and Dortmund 2-1 at home, accumulating nine points to lead the group.
Napoli, not the defending champion Dortmund, is ranked second in the group. They defeated Dortmund in the first round of the group stage, and although they lost to Arsenal in the second round, they defeated Galatasaray 2-1 away in the third round, accumulating six points, ranking second.
Dortmund has fallen to third. After three group matches, they have only won one and lost the other two.
As for Galatasaray, who have lost all three games and have zero points, they can be temporarily disregarded.
If Dortmund loses to Arsenal at home in the fourth round of the group stage, Arsenal will have twelve points and can advance early from this "group of death." At the same time, if Napoli defeats Galatasaray at home, the point gap between Dortmund and second-place Napoli will widen to six points, meaning that Dortmund must win all of their last two group matches, and Napoli must lose all of theirs, to have a chance of advancing. And even then, it will still be necessary to compare the head-to-head record and the number of goals and goal difference in the matches between the two sides, with too many variables.
This is definitely not the result that Klopp wants.
Even if Dortmund draws with Arsenal at home, they will still have to rely on other people's results.
Conversely, if Dortmund defeats Arsenal at home, they will not only catch up with Napoli in terms of points and close in on Arsenal, but they will also draw level with Arsenal in their head-to-head record.
Before this match against Arsenal, there is no need for everyone to guess whether Zhou Yi will appear in the match. He has already started twice in a row in the league and performed well, and there are no new problems with his physical condition. Of course, it is impossible for him to be absent from this crucial match.
However, the Chinese media still noticed a special situation – Yan Min reappeared on the match roster!
Since coming on as a substitute against Arsenal last time and performing poorly, Yan Min has not been selected for the match roster for two consecutive games.
The Ruhr derby against Schalke 04 could be said to be such an important game that it was impossible to choose a new rookie. Then, Yan Min was not selected for the roster for the recently concluded match against Stuttgart, which had to make the Chinese media speculate whether Yan Min was put on the bench by Klopp because of his poor performance in the match against Arsenal.
Of course, Yan Min's performance was indeed not convincing, and the post-match interview only brought about a backlash in public opinion, making it seem normal to put him on the bench.
But the Chinese media was still very disappointed, after all, everyone still had high hopes for Yan Min, hoping that he could create a world of his own in Dortmund like Zhou Yi.
But no one expected that Klopp would give Yan Min another chance, and it was still in the match against Arsenal!
This is even more confusing than putting Yan Min on the bench - Yan Min performed poorly as a substitute in the match against Arsenal, and now he is selected for the match roster against Arsenal again, why?
In fact, not only the media was surprised by Klopp's choice, but Yan Min himself was also very surprised.
After playing against Arsenal, he was not selected for the match roster for two consecutive games. Yan Min believed that this should be the coach's punishment for himself, and he accepted it, because he also felt that he did not perform well in the match against Arsenal, and there was nothing to say, just bury himself in training.
He believed that as long as he continued to work hard in training, he would return to the match roster sooner or later.
But he didn't expect that this day would come so quickly, and it was still in the match against Arsenal.
"What does this mean?" Yan Min asked Zhou Yi, who was sitting next to him, when he was taking a bus from the training base to the hotel.
"What does it mean?" Zhou Yi said with a smile, "This contains Klopp's good intentions for you, Yan Min."
"Good intentions for me?" Yan Min was a little confused. He never felt that Klopp had any special care for him, let alone good intentions.
"Of course. Think about it, why didn't you get the chance to be on the roster for the previous two games, but you were selected for the roster for this game? Why is it the match against Arsenal again?"
Yan Min frowned, thinking hard.
He couldn't figure it out.
Zhou Yi patted him on the back: "It's very simple, because Klopp wants you to get up from where you fell!"
Yan Min was stunned for a moment, then his eyes lit up.
Seeing Yan Min's performance, Zhou Yi showed a "a promising youth" smile, but did not speak again.
The reason why he didn't speak was that he didn't want Yan Min to get to the bottom of this question. If he asked Zhou Yi how he knew what Klopp was thinking, would Zhou Yi have to say that he was just guessing?
That might not be the answer he wanted to hear for Yan Min.
Zhou Yi really didn't know what Klopp was thinking. This answer was just his own guess. Klopp hadn't talked to him, so how could he know what Klopp was thinking. The reason why he said this was to inspire Yan Min's fighting spirit. He didn't know if Yan Min would have a chance to play, but if Yan Min really got the chance to play, Zhou Yi hoped that Yan Min could be more active when facing Arsenal, and not be timid and afraid because of everyone's evaluation of him in the first game.
As for what Klopp was thinking, it didn't matter at all. Anyway, Yan Min couldn't possibly run to ask Klopp…
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Only the Chinese media was most interested in the fact that Yan Min was on the roster, while others thought it was a very ordinary arrangement and not worth mentioning. Their eyes were more on Zhou Yi.
So far this season, Zhou Yi has only played seventy-one minutes in the Champions League, not even a complete match.
Since suffering a collision in the derby against Napoli and falling into a coma, he has not played a single minute in the Champions League.
After Dortmund lost to Arsenal in the last away match, some media believed that Klopp was too conservative. If Zhou Yi had played in that match, Dortmund would not have defeated Arsenal away, but a draw should have been possible. If Zhou Yi had played at that time, Dortmund's situation would not have been so bad.
If it was a draw, Arsenal would have seven points and Dortmund would have four points, a difference of one point between the two sides. As long as Dortmund defeated Arsenal at home in this match, they could tie Arsenal's points, and they would also surpass Arsenal in the group stage rankings due to their head-to-head advantage.
At that time, many people believed that Zhou Yi's absence was the key factor in Dortmund's away loss to Arsenal.
So this time, Zhou Yi will start without any accidents. Can Dortmund defeat Arsenal at home?
At the same time, this is also the first encounter between Zhou Yi and Arsenal in the match after Arsenal failed to buy Zhou Yi this summer.
After the team arrived in Dortmund, Arsenal coach Wenger did not hide his regret for not signing Zhou Yi, and at the same time praised Zhou Yi's performance after his comeback: "I said a long time ago that Zhou Yi is a world-class midfielder. It is amazing that he has achieved such performance and achievements at his age. We have carefully studied his two matches after his comeback. He has shown a very good competitive state. There is no doubt that he will be the key figure in this match. We will defend him strictly."
A Chinese reporter asked: "Does this mean that if Zhou Yi is contained, Dortmund will also be contained?"
"Of course not. In addition to Zhou Yi, Dortmund also has many excellent players. But Zhou Yi's importance to Dortmund is indeed very obvious and cannot be ignored."
At the same time, a reporter ran to ask Zhou Yi what he felt about playing in the Champions League again after being injured in the match against Napoli.
"I don't have any feelings. It's just a Champions League group match. We will go all out to pursue victory, it has nothing to do with the opponent, just because we want to win." Zhou Yi replied calmly.
"What do you think of Wenger's evaluation of you?"
"I am very happy to get such a high evaluation. Wenger is a world-class coach. His praise is an honor for me."
"Will you consider joining Arsenal in the future?" A reporter from London, England asked impatiently.
Zhou Yi smiled slightly: "We'll talk about it then. I'm only focusing on the game at hand now."
Without giving the other party any room to play.