Chapter 127 A Postponement

"What?! The match is postponed?!"

Benitez was reluctant to believe it when his assistant delivered the news.

Similarly, on the Arsenal bench, Wenger stared incredulously at his assistant coach.

They received the news from Istanbul at the same time.

It was too unexpected.

Before this, they had considered various outcomes for this crucial group stage battle. They had contemplated who would advance and who would be eliminated. But regardless of what they had imagined, no one had anticipated that the match between Borussia Dortmund and Galatasaray would end before it was even finished!

This sudden news caught everyone off guard.

UEFA had already issued a notice that the match between Borussia Dortmund and Galatasaray would be postponed to the next afternoon. The score was temporarily set at 0-1, with Borussia Dortmund leading away.

But who knew what changes would occur in the two teams after this night?

Borussia Dortmund was in good form, but now it had been extinguished by the heavy snow in Istanbul.

After the restart, would Borussia Dortmund still be able to maintain the initiative? Or would Galatasaray be able to sweep away the sluggishness of the first thirty-one minutes and fight for dignity at home?

Different outcomes of this match would inevitably lead to different fates for the two teams in the other match.

This fate could have been determined simultaneously.

But now it had to be postponed.

"Don't worry about them. No matter what the result is between Borussia Dortmund and Galatasaray, we must win against Arsenal by three goals or more at home. But we haven't scored yet, we need to step it up!" Benitez said.

Wenger said almost the same thing: "...The safest approach is always not to lose ourselves. Their postponement has nothing to do with us."

So, both teams on the field began to exert themselves simultaneously.

※※※

For Arsenal and Napoli, the postponement of the match between Borussia Dortmund and Galatasaray didn't have a huge impact. They just needed to do their jobs well.

But for Borussia Dortmund, it was a big trouble.

After confirming the postponement, Borussia Dortmund players began to shower and change.

The Borussia Dortmund club staff were in a frenzy.

They had already checked out of the hotel, planning to fly directly back to Germany after the match.

That was their usual practice. On away games, they would leave immediately after the match, allowing the players to rest for an extra day.

But who would have thought that the match would be postponed, forcing them to stay in Istanbul for another day?

So, they had to find a new hotel.

Finding a hotel that could accommodate more than twenty people at once wasn't easy, especially on this snowy night when many flights were delayed or cancelled. Those stranded in Istanbul also needed a place to stay.

Hotels suddenly became scarce.

To secure a hotel, Borussia Dortmund club worked at full speed.

Klopp had to consider the impact of the postponement on the team and how to mitigate it. In addition, the postponement meant Borussia Dortmund would return home a day later, which wasn't just a matter of the whole team having one less day of rest. It was an unexpected forced change of plans.

Because Borussia Dortmund had won the Champions League last season, they would participate in the Club World Cup.

After returning home to play the sixteenth round of the league, they would have to rush to Morocco to participate in the Club World Cup semi-final, where their opponent would be Guangzhou Evergrande, the Chinese team that had just won the AFC Champions League.

The time was very tight. Even if the match hadn't been postponed, Borussia Dortmund wouldn't have had much time.

Originally, the Champions League match was scheduled for the evening of the 11th, but now it was postponed to the 12th. Borussia Dortmund's sixteenth round league match against Hoffenheim was on the afternoon of the 14th, and the Club World Cup semi-final was on the evening of the 17th...

Moreover, Borussia Dortmund's match against Hoffenheim was an away game, meaning that Borussia Dortmund would have to travel around, from one place to another.

Klopp had to reconsider the training arrangements and readjust the team's physical training plan. He took the opportunity to call the coaching staff together for an emergency meeting outside the locker room.

In the locker room, the players had already showered and changed, but they were asked to stay because the hotel hadn't been booked yet. Even if they went out and got on the bus, they wouldn't know where to go. It was better to rest in the locker room.

The players gathered together, discussing this somewhat special match.

"This is the first time I've ever experienced a match being postponed halfway through..." Grosskreutz exclaimed. "What about you, Zhou Yi?"

"Of course, it's my first time too. My career isn't that long yet, Großkreutz," Zhou Yi said.

"Our luck is really bad. If it wasn't for this heavy snow, I dare say we would have been two goals ahead by the end of the first half!" Aubameyang complained. He felt good in this match. Although he hadn't scored yet, he was convinced that he would score, the feeling was so strong. As a result, his feeling was interrupted by the heavy snow.

Most of the Borussia Dortmund players were frustrated with this outcome.

Some even thought it was a bad omen, indicating that Borussia Dortmund might not get the result they wanted away from home.

Words like "bad luck," "bad omen," and "inauspicious sign" frequently appeared in the locker room.

The atmosphere of the previously high-spirited team suddenly changed.

This change was obvious. Zhou Yi felt it, and he thought that this was more worrying than the postponement of the match and the heavy snow and hail.

So he stood up from his seat, clapped his hands, and signaled everyone to be quiet.

The other players turned to look at him. Seeing that Zhou Yi seemed to have something to say, they cooperated and closed their mouths.

Although Zhou Yi was young, he was considered a "veteran" in this Borussia Dortmund team. In addition, his performance in the match made him highly respected in the team.

"I have a different opinion. I don't think this is an inauspicious sign," Zhou Yi said straightforwardly. "Of course, postponing the match will interrupt our good form. But are we the kind of team that will lose just because our form is interrupted once?"

Zhou Yi asked everyone.

"We are the defending champions. We encountered so many difficulties last season, but we were the ultimate winners. So how much impact can a match postponed due to weather have on us?"

Zhou Yi wanted to continue to persuade his teammates, but Grosskreutz suddenly jumped up and loudly echoed Zhou Yi in a very affirmative tone: "That's right! The Wizard has spoken, what else do we have to worry about!"

As soon as he said this, the teammates in the locker room showed "suddenly enlightened" expressions, and then they all nodded in agreement with Grosskreutz's statement.

"That's right, that's right, the Wizard said we would win, so we will definitely win!"

"Yes, the Wizard's words are so effective!"

……

Listening to everyone's discussion, Zhou Yi was really dumbfounded—he just wanted to use his words to boost the team's morale, but he didn't expect his teammates to interpret his words in this way.

But it was good as long as everyone didn't dwell on "bad luck" or "bad omens."

Anyway, he wanted the result, and he didn't care how the result was achieved.

Yan Min had heard of Zhou Yi's nickname "Wizard" before, but this was the first time he had experienced the power of this nickname up close. He was stunned. He didn't expect the Borussia Dortmund players to trust Zhou Yi so much, even to the point of being superstitious. Zhou Yi just said a few words and was able to calm everyone down and reverse the atmosphere in the locker room.

It was hard to believe if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes.

Yan Min had always thought that "Wizard" was just a nickname given to Zhou Yi by his teammates, a term of endearment, or a nickname given to Zhou Yi by the media, with no specific meaning, just cool.

Now that he saw it, he realized that his previous thoughts were wrong. At least these Borussia Dortmund players really believed that Zhou Yi possessed mysterious powers from the East...

※※※

When Klopp and the others finished their meeting, good news also came from the hotel. The club had finally booked a hotel for them, and they could leave now.

So assistant coach Buvač returned to the locker room and called everyone to get on the bus.

At this time, it was already 11:00 p.m. local time. The players were actually very tired and couldn't wait to leave here, return to a warm hotel room, take a hot shower, and get a good night's sleep to recharge for tomorrow's makeup match.

But things didn't go as smoothly as they thought.

From the moment the bus left the stadium, it encountered a city-wide traffic jam—the severe weather had paralyzed Istanbul's traffic.

The bus was stuck and couldn't move an inch.

The road back to the hotel was extremely long.

The inability to return to the hotel for a long time made the exhausted players feel very depressed.

Zhou Yi's efforts in the locker room seemed to have been in vain.

The cloud of "inauspiciousness" once again enveloped everyone's heads.

At first, everyone would complain a few times, but later, there were no more complaints. The players were so tired that they fell asleep directly on the bus, and the sound of snoring rose and fell in the carriage.

Klopp couldn't sleep. He looked at his watch, it was already 0:30 a.m. They were still stuck on the road, and he didn't know when they would be able to return to the hotel to rest.

Listening to the players' snoring and looking at the dense brake lights in front of the road.

Klopp sighed in his heart, this matchday night was really too long...