On the pitch, play had stopped due to the penalty, and it was time for Zhou Yi to come on.

But the referee stopped him, signaling to the sidelines that the substitution should wait until after the penalty was taken.

So Zhou Yi had to wait on the sidelines, awaiting the outcome of the penalty. It was like a bystander watching a public execution; he could only watch, unable to change the impending result.

For Mainz, the penalty was being taken by Maxim Choupo-Moting, a forward who had come on in the second half.

Dortmund fans pinned their hopes on goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller, who had saved penalties many times before.

But this time, he didn't guess the right direction.

Choupo-Moting's penalty easily fooled Weidenfeller and flew into the goal.

"Ah—Mainz leads Dortmund 1-0! The deadlock has finally been broken!"

A huge cheer rang out over the Coface Arena. After scoring, Choupo-Moting sprinted towards the home fans' stand to celebrate. His teammates rushed over to join him.

Only then was Zhou Yi allowed to enter the field, and Dortmund completed the substitution.

Zhou Yi replaced Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who had started because Zhou Yi was on the bench.

Mkhitaryan, who had replaced Zhou Yi as the team's organizer, didn't put on a good enough performance in this game. It seemed that he would have a hard time securing a place in Dortmund's competitive midfield...

Mkhitaryan was a little frustrated as he left the field. After listlessly high-fiving Zhou Yi, he lowered his head and walked towards the bench.

Zhou Yi finally didn't start in this game. He originally thought it was his chance, but the cruel reality poured a bucket of cold water on him.

"Zhou Yi has been substituted on!" Duan Xin's focus was always on Zhou Yi. Even though Dortmund was behind at this time, he didn't say much else, but excitedly introduced Zhou Yi's appearance to the Chinese TV audience. "The situation facing him now is not very good, Dortmund is a goal behind. Klopp substituted him on, and also used up the last substitution spot... In other words, Zhou Yi is Dortmund's last resort to solve the problem. Whether it works or not, this is Klopp's ultimate move..."

In the TV camera, Zhou Yi ran onto the field, reaching out to his teammates to gesture them to adjust their positions.

Originally, Dortmund had sent out two defensive midfielders, Kehl and Şahin, when they started the game.

But before, Klopp had made substitution adjustments, replacing Kehl with Reus and Şahin with Sven Bender, turning the two defensive midfielders into one.

Zhou Yi can play both attacking midfielder and defensive midfielder. So what position will he play after he comes on?

Soon, everyone found that Zhou Yi was standing next to Sven Bender—he chose to play as a defensive midfielder after coming on!

This disappointed some fans, who believed that Zhou Yi was too far away from the goal and his threat was reduced. They hoped that Zhou Yi would use goals to turn the tide.

But Zhou Yi had his own considerations.

Now there are four attacking players in the frontcourt: Schieber, Reus, Kuba, and Aubameyang. If he also stands in the attacking midfielder position, it will be too crowded and compress his space. Especially after Mainz has taken the lead through a penalty, they will definitely shrink their defense. In this way, the opponent's penalty area is full of people, and there is no room to play.

So Zhou Yi chose to stand in the defensive midfielder position. On the one hand, this place is far away from the opponent's goal, there are few people, and it is convenient to launch an attack. On the other hand, the situation of the frontcourt being crowded is not so serious, and it is easy to find gaps.

Before Zhou Yi came on the field, neither Klopp nor Buvac clearly stated what position Zhou Yi should play after coming on, because they believed that Zhou Yi would make his own judgment based on the situation. Now that Zhou Yi has made a judgment, both of them are very satisfied—this is the result they hoped for, and they also believe that Zhou Yi should play as a defensive midfielder after coming on.

※※※

The game restarted, with Dortmund, who had conceded the goal, kicking off.

But Dortmund, who were behind, didn't take advantage of the kickoff to launch a fierce attack on Mainz's goal. On the contrary, Zhou Yi passed the ball back, and then took the initiative to run back to meet it.

In this way, under Zhou Yi's leadership, Dortmund started passing the ball around. They passed the ball back and forth in the middle and back court, not rushing to send it forward.

Only Zhou Yi has the ability to suppress the rhythm. If someone else did this, they would have been dumped by impatient teammates long ago. In fact, after conceding a goal, everyone is flustered and anxious, either at a loss or thinking about equalizing the score as soon as possible. After all, it was already the seventieth minute when Mainz scored, and there were only twenty minutes left for Dortmund.

But Zhou Yi was able to calm down, and under his leadership, Dortmund gradually calmed down as well.

This is the trust capital that Zhou Yi has earned over the years in Dortmund by helping the team out of trouble time and time again. His teammates believe that Zhou Yi can always make the right choice at critical moments.

Mainz actually hoped to launch a fierce attack after taking the lead, and strive to score another goal in a short period of time.

But under Dortmund's deliberate slowing down of the rhythm, their fast break plan went bankrupt. Under the command of coach Tuchel, Mainz began to retreat to defend—if Dortmund wanted to keep passing the ball in the backcourt, they didn't care. Anyway, they are now leading, and it is not impossible to keep this one-goal lead until the midfield.

Moreover, Tuchel believes that returning the game to the previous dull, slow-paced state is beneficial to his team.

So he wasn't worried when he saw Dortmund passing the ball in the middle and back court.

※※※

Zhou Yi certainly knew that after just conceding a goal, he could take advantage of Mainz's pressing attack, hoping to score another goal in a short period of time. The space gained by counterattacking Mainz was definitely greater than playing positional warfare now. But he also knew very well that if he fought against Mainz, both sides would be fast-paced back and forth. Dortmund, who had just conceded a goal and had unstable morale, would definitely be at a disadvantage in the fight against Mainz, and might even concede a goal first.

Klopp let him come on the field to break the deadlock, but due to an accident, the balance on the field had been broken, and the balance of victory tilted towards Mainz's side. Then his first task after coming on the field was to restore the game to a balanced state. Stabilizing morale was a very important part.

He seemed to have missed some opportunities to equalize the score, but he stabilized the players' emotions and avoided more goals being conceded.

Now, watching Mainz retreat to defend, Zhou Yi passed the ball forward, and it was Dortmund's turn to attack.

Even though he was playing as a defensive midfielder, when Dortmund was on the attack, Zhou Yi would not stay in the defensive midfielder position, just passing the ball to the front and that was it. On the contrary, he would rush very far forward and fully participate in the attack.

Just like now.

After passing the ball to Schieber again, Zhou Yi ran forward, approaching Mainz's thirty-meter area.

In the process of his forward start, the ball has been passed three times. When Zhou Yi approached the thirty-meter area, the ball was passed back to his feet.

Facing the Mainz player who rushed up to steal the ball, Zhou Yi turned around in place, protected the ball, and also blocked the Mainz player behind him, then he quickly passed a through ball, and the ball was passed into the penalty area!

If it hadn't been for Mainz's center-back Stefan Bell to take the lead and destroy the ball with one kick, the ball would have been received by Reus, who had already gone around behind him, and once Reus caught the ball, it would be a one-on-one against goalkeeper Karius in the penalty area!

"Zhou Yi's wonderful pass! Oh! What a pity!" Duan Xin shouted regretfully.

The Coface Arena also echoed with a burst of exclamations, and the Mainz fans were frightened.

"Zhou Yi's pass... What a close call! After just a simple turn to get rid of the opponent, he immediately and quickly passed the ball, and almost created a killing opportunity! This is Zhou Yi's ability!" Marcel Reif's evaluation of Zhou Yi was very high. "I think if Klopp had let Zhou Yi start, this game wouldn't have been like this. Although I don't understand why he let Zhou Yi be a substitute, but now that Zhou Yi is on the field, it's better late than never. Now Dortmund is a goal behind, what changes can Zhou Yi bring to the team?"

As he spoke, the TV broadcast gave Zhou Yi a close-up shot. He didn't feel regretful because this attack didn't succeed, but instead gave Reus a thumbs up.