Chapter 1 When Zhou Yi and his teammates stood in the players' tunnel waiting to enter the field, Schalke 04's players were right next to them.

Many of them glanced at Zhou Yi, more or less.

After all, the pre-match speculation about whether Zhou Yi could play was like a suspense drama.

Now that the suspense drama had reached its finale, everyone naturally wanted to take a few more looks.

Yang Muge stared at Zhou Yi with a complex expression.

Seeing Zhou Yi able to play, he was still happy for Zhou Yi.

But now he wasn't sure if Zhou Yi had lied to him back then, if he hadn't told him the truth…

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After the referee team appeared, they led the players from both teams out of the tunnel and onto the field.

The entire Veltins-Arena was packed to the brim, mostly with blue and white Schalke 04 fans. Borussia Dortmund fans only occupied a corner of the stands, but their yellow and black colors still stood out in the crowd.

Some Borussia Dortmund fans held up a banner that read, "You can only look, but you can't touch!" to mock the Schalke 04 fans.

Behind the banner was a picture of a Bundesliga championship trophy.

This was a classic banner that could be seen at almost every Revierderby.

It was Borussia Dortmund fans mocking Schalke 04 for not having won a Bundesliga title to date.

However, this sentence was not originally created by Borussia Dortmund fans, but came from Schalke 04—the sentence was in an advertisement shot by Schalke 04's general manager Asauer for Schalke 04's sponsor, Veltins beer. In the advertisement, Asauer's girlfriend warned him that he could only look, but not touch other beauties.

As a result, this sentence was taken by Borussia Dortmund fans and used to mock their arch-rival for not having a championship.

This was truly interesting and ironic…

When the names of the players were announced, the stadium was filled with boos whenever a Borussia Dortmund player was mentioned, and the boos were the loudest when Zhou Yi's name was announced.

The boos were so loud that they could be felt even through the television screen.

Zhou Yi's mother, Li Cuiyun, was a little worried about whether her son could perform well in that kind of environment.

And Zhou Jianliang, after seeing this scene, regretted even more that he couldn't go to the stadium to watch a Revierderby.

In the midst of the huge boos, Zhou Yi's expression didn't change, and he still had that photo-like faint smile on his face, which wasn't clear whether it was meant to be friendly or mocking…

After the players from both sides entered the field, the coin toss ceremony was held.

During this process, the stadium was very noisy.

Next, the match should have started as usual.

But just as the players from both sides were getting into their positions, the visiting Borussia Dortmund fans started to stir.

Because their stands were right behind Schalke 04's goal, it was very convenient for them to create an atmosphere and express their opinions.

Perhaps they hoped to use yellow smoke to turn the away stands of the Veltins-Arena into the Südtribüne of the Westfalenstadion…

So they all threw lit yellow flares onto the field.

The Veltins-Arena wasn't the kind of stadium with a running track, but a real professional stadium. The fan stands and the field area were only separated by a layer of advertising boards, so the fans could easily throw things onto the field.

To create an atmosphere, fans from all over Europe would bring colorful flares into the stadium. This was a common practice, and no stadium security would check for it…

Who would have thought that this time, the Borussia Dortmund fans wouldn't light the flares in their own stands, but would throw them onto the field.

It was too close, and it was easy for something dangerous to happen if the fans threw them down like that.

At the very least, Schalke 04's goalkeeper, Hildebrand, didn't dare to continue standing in front of the goal, fearing that he would be hit by the flares thrown by the fans behind him…

Even Borussia Dortmund couldn't stand it anymore. The fans' actions were too crazy.

So captain Weidenfeller ran over and gestured below the stands, asking those fans to stop throwing flares down.

But his persuasion was useless for the Borussia Dortmund ultra fans.

He was still trying to persuade them while they continued to throw them from the stands. In the end, even he was afraid of being hit and had to retreat…

This scene left the audience in front of the television stunned, especially those Chinese fans who didn't usually watch Bundesliga matches and were watching a Revierderby for the first time. They were even more surprised.

"So, Chinese fans are much more civilized than German fans!"

"Now I know that Stephen Chow's *Shaolin Soccer*, where the protagonist's soccer game turns into a battlefield hallucination, wasn't made up… it all comes from real life!"

"The Revierderby truly deserves to be Germany's most popular derby! After the decline of the Milan Derby, I think the Revierderby is the most popular derby in Europe!"

"It is said that in the past, during the Revierderby, players were bitten by dogs. When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke, but now I believe it!"

……

Many fans posted their opinions on the internet.

Some people were worried that if Borussia Dortmund fans continued to do this, it would affect the Borussia Dortmund team. For example, if the match couldn't be held on schedule, the Bundesliga league would eventually rule that Borussia Dortmund lost, which would be too unfair to Zhou Yi…

Li Cuiyun in front of the television was especially worried about whether there would be any accidents during the match.

Seeing this, the on-site referee Kircher realized that the situation would probably be difficult to control in a short period of time, so he quickly signaled the players from both teams to return to the tunnel.

At the same time, the local police in Gelsenkirchen also began to enter the stands to clear the area by force.

This operation lasted for six or seven minutes. The police arrested a group of troublemaking Borussia Dortmund fans, and the staff cleaned up the flares that had been thrown onto the field. Order was finally restored.

The match officially started eight minutes after being delayed by this accident.

Everyone could finally focus on the match itself, on soccer itself.

In this match, there were new players on both sides who were participating in the Revierderby for the first time.

On Schalke 04's side, the most eye-catching was their attacking midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng.

He was the older brother of Bayern Munich center-back Jérôme Boateng. He had previously played for AC Milan. Perhaps the highlight of his career was when he scored a goal with extreme violent aesthetics in AC Milan's Champions League match against Barcelona.

He had just transferred from AC Milan this summer, so this was his first Revierderby in his career. However, Boateng must not be unfamiliar with it, because he had played for Hertha Berlin before and knew the meaning of the Revierderby.

The derby rookies on Borussia Dortmund's side were Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan, two new signings who came this summer.

As rookies, they had seen a fan riot that lasted for eight minutes before the match even started, and they had also seen riot police in full gear taking the stage and swinging their batons to arrest people. This did bring them a lot of shock—this was the "mother of all derbies" in Germany, the Revierderby!

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"With the whistle of the referee Kircher, the match has begun! In the first half, Borussia Dortmund is wearing yellow jerseys and black shorts, attacking from the left side of the screen to the right! And the home team Schalke 04 is wearing blue shirts and white shorts, attacking from the right side of the screen to the left! This is the 143rd Revierderby in history…"

Duan Xin began to give the audience in front of the television a routine introduction.

On the field, both sides picked up the pace of the match from the very beginning.

No probing, no hesitation, just straight to it.

This was the Revierderby. There was no need for those formalistic things at all. Everyone was too familiar with each other. What was there to hold back?

Jens Keller's strategic policy for Schalke 04 was to launch a strong attack at the beginning of the match, launching a fierce offensive against Borussia Dortmund's goal. The arrangement at the time was based on the consideration that Zhou Yi might not start, hoping to take Borussia Dortmund by surprise by taking advantage of the fact that Zhou Yi didn't start, Borussia Dortmund didn't have a backbone, and Schalke 04 had the advantage of playing at home.

If they could secure the victory in the first half, then it wouldn't matter whether Zhou Yi played in the second half or not.

Now Klopp had Zhou Yi start, disrupting Keller's pre-match arrangements, but Keller had no way to adjust, so he could only continue with this arrangement. He could only pray that Zhou Yi was forced to play with an injury and was not in good condition, and that Schalke 04 would take the opportunity to catch Borussia Dortmund by surprise…

Coincidentally, Klopp's arrangement for Borussia Dortmund was also to fiercely attack Schalke 04's goal from the beginning, striving to take the lead early and establish an advantage.

Because Zhou Yi couldn't play the entire match in this game, Klopp hoped that Borussia Dortmund would secure the victory before Zhou Yi was substituted.

Both sides were aiming to secure the victory in advance, so the match would naturally turn into an all-out attack from the beginning…