Chapter 1 The Snow Keeps Falling

When Zhou Yi woke up in bed, his first reaction was to turn his head to look out the window. But he only saw the thick curtains, and the room was still pitch black. Only then did he remember that he had drawn the curtains before going to bed.

So he jumped out of bed and pulled open the curtains without even bothering to put on his clothes.

*Whoosh.*

He squinted, blinded by the light outside.

But he didn't see the brilliant sunshine.

The dazzling light he saw came from the reflection of the snow outside.

After his eyes had adjusted, Zhou Yi saw the scene before him, and a line of poetry popped into his head: "Such is the scenery of the Northland; A hundred leagues locked in ice, A thousand leagues of whirling snow..."

Yes, that was exactly what he was seeing.

After a night, the snow outside hadn't stopped, it was just a little lighter than last night.

The ground and roofs were covered with thick snow, and workers were working hard to clear the roads.

Zhou Yi looked at the scene before him and curled his lips.

Yesterday, his teammates were full of expectations that after a night, the snow would clear and today would be a good day.

But looking at the gloomy sky and the constant snowfall, it was hard to believe that today would be a good day.

If the match were played in such weather conditions, it would be much more difficult than usual.

The same worry was also happening in the Dortmund coaching staff.

In the restaurant, Klopp and his coaching team specially chose a seat by the window.

Looking at the falling snow outside, assistant coach Željko Buvač said worriedly, "I'd rather the game be postponed again now."

"That's impossible," Klopp shook his head. "Unless Istanbul suffers a large-scale terrorist attack..."

"Sigh..." Buvač sighed.

Then everyone at the table stared out the window in silence.

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The Galatasaray players were also staring blankly out the window.

When later arrivals entered the restaurant, they would find their teammates gathered in front of the window, watching something. So they also walked up curiously and found that they were actually watching the snow outside.

Snow wasn't anything rare, so what was there to watch?

But everyone who saw this scene couldn't move their feet.

After a night, the snow was still falling!

The snow on the ground was already very thick, and they wondered what the situation was like on the pitch.

At this time, the team's head coach, Terim's voice rang out behind them: "Does no one think this is a sign? A sign that we can beat Dortmund at home."

Hearing his voice, everyone turned around to look at Terim.

Terim spread his hands: "We played terribly last night. Does anyone deny that?"

Hearing him say this, the players lowered their heads. They did play very badly yesterday. Although the head coach said before the match that they should fight for honor, the players obviously didn't show such fighting spirit.

"If it hadn't been for the heavy snow and hail, maybe we would have been completely defeated at home yesterday, I have no doubt about that. But now, thank God, for giving us a chance to correct this mistake—if you are still willing to correct this mistake."

As Terim said this, the expressions on the players' faces were also changing.

Just as Terim said, it really seemed like God's will. If it wasn't God's arrangement, why would heavy snow and hail have fallen from the sky and interrupted the game when they were at their most passive?

Since God had arranged it this way, there must be His reasons.

Did this mean that we would definitely be able to defeat Dortmund?

Some clues could be seen from this snow that hadn't stopped.

We were playing at home, occupying the right time, place, and people.

Then what reason was there not to win?

Thinking of this, the Galatasaray players became excited.

This was divine revelation!

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"It really is a divine revelation..." In the Dortmund team, some players couldn't help but murmur when they saw the snow outside the window.

Zhou Yi curled his lips after hearing this. He didn't refute his teammate's statement.

But he didn't believe in this kind of view in his heart.

What the hell is divine revelation, I'm an atheist!

He stopped paying attention to the snow outside the window, lowered his head to eat breakfast, and took out his phone to read the news.

Yesterday was a Champions League match day, and today there was a lot of news about yesterday's Champions League matches.

The other match in the same group ended normally without any surprises.

Napoli did their best and defeated Arsenal 2-0 at home.

This was very subtle.

If Dortmund lost to Galatasaray, Arsenal and Napoli would qualify together, both teams with twelve points, while Dortmund would only have nine points.

And if Dortmund defeated Galatasaray in the re-match, Napoli would be eliminated.

Zhou Yi felt that the most miserable team now was actually Napoli. They could have been sentenced in court, but because of a heavy snow, the sentence was changed to another day. They had to keep holding their breath and wait for the final verdict.

For Dortmund, it didn't have much impact. Anyway, they still had to win.

Just as Zhou Yi thought, after the match between Napoli and Arsenal ended yesterday, although Napoli won the match, the San Paolo Stadium was calm after the match.

Because they didn't know what consequences this result would bring them.

So they didn't know whether they should cheer or be sad.

If the two matches had ended at the same time, at least there would have been a result immediately.

Now they had to continue to wait anxiously for the final verdict.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi suddenly laughed.

His laughter attracted everyone's attention, and his teammates turned to look at him.

"What are you laughing at, Zhou Yi?" Mark asked curiously.

"It's nothing, I'm just thinking that Napoli must be waiting for the second shoe to drop from the roof." Zhou Yi told a joke, and those who understood it laughed.

The atmosphere became a little better than before.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhou Yi simply said to everyone: "Actually, it doesn't affect us much. Because whether we finish the match in one day or divide it into two days, we have to win, right?"

Hearing him say this, everyone felt that it made sense.

"Of course, it's a bit annoying that the state has been interrupted, but does that mean we can't win because of it? Just treat it as a two-legged match. Yesterday was the first leg, we led 1-0, and we will lose the second leg? Not necessarily, right?"

Everyone nodded at what Zhou Yi said.

"So it's just an ordinary match. So what if it's a snow battle? Haven't we played in the snow before?"

As soon as Zhou Yi said this, everyone remembered. Germany's latitude is not low, and it snows almost everywhere in winter. Dortmund, located in northwestern Germany, has many heavy snowfalls every year. So playing football in snowy weather is not unfamiliar to Dortmund players.

The reason why the match was interrupted yesterday was mainly because of the hail. Playing football in hail weather was indeed an unprecedented experience. But it won't hail again today, right?

※※※

Zhou Yi's conversation with his teammates also attracted the attention of the coaches. Seeing that Zhou Yi had eased the players' tense emotions with a few words, the coaches on the coaching staff looked at each other.

Klopp smiled and spread his hands.

The other coaches also laughed.

Having a player like Zhou Yi was really their luck, saving them a lot of trouble...

※※※

The re-match between Dortmund and Galatasaray was scheduled to start in the afternoon local time, 9:00 PM Beijing time.

This was a very rare thing for Chinese audiences—when would they be able to enjoy the treatment of European TV viewers and watch a Champions League match during prime time in the evening?

Although sports channels had other programs at this time, such as sports news or sports world or something.

But there was no need to worry that they would not be able to see the match. With Zhou Yi's match, other programs would naturally give way to them.

Sure enough, the TV station temporarily adjusted the program schedule, and all programs between 8:30 and 11:00 were canceled or postponed to make way for the re-match between Dortmund and Galatasaray.

At 8:30, the live program started on time.

The commentators and guest commentators appeared on the screen, introducing this special match to everyone.

"...Latest news, the snow in Istanbul hasn't stopped yet. I believe this is definitely bad news for Dortmund..." When commentator He Ping mentioned this news, he frowned. He, like many Dortmund players, originally thought that the snow would stop after a night...

But it didn't.

Maybe it did stop when everyone was sleeping at night, but at least it was still snowing now, which meant that the situation was not as optimistic as it seemed.

"We can also see from the earlier news that Ali Sami Yen Stadium is carrying out snow removal work. There is no snow on the field now, but it will still have an impact on the players..."

Many Chinese fans actually knew this news earlier than watching TV, because on the Internet, news spreads even faster.

They were also worried that the poor field conditions would be detrimental to Dortmund's performance.

Would the defending champions be eliminated in the group stage?

Some people didn't dare to say it out loud, but they had this worry in their hearts.