For Chinese fans, these are incredibly happy times. They just witnessed Zhou Yi's historic achievement of winning the European Player of the Year award, and now they are about to witness a "Chinese Derby" in the European Super Cup.

The European Super Cup is between last season's Champions League winner, Borussia Dortmund, and last season's Europa League winner, Chelsea.

Zhou Yi and Sun Pan represent these two teams, respectively, in this match.

Another Chinese Derby.

The happiness of Chinese fans today is indeed something that Chinese fans of the past found hard to imagine, or even dared to think about.

How difficult was it for Chinese players to appear on European pitches in the past?

Yang Chen could attract national attention just by playing for a mid-to-lower tier team like Eintracht Frankfurt.

The "Chinese Derby" between Yang Chen and Xie Hui, even in a second division Bundesliga match, was closely watched by Chinese fans.

When Li Tie, representing Everton, and Sun Jihai, of Manchester City, first met in the Premier League, the Chinese media and fans were very excited and shouted the slogan "Premier League Chinese Derby". As a result, Li Tie was injured and substituted after playing for twenty-four minutes...

At that time, there weren't many Chinese players playing abroad, and even fewer who could consistently get into the starting lineup, so every time Chinese players met in a match, it was a very anticipated and hyped event. Even Sun Jihai and Dong Fangzhuo meeting in a reserve team match could be called a "Chinese Derby", and Sun Xiang and Yu Hai meeting in the stands of an Eredivisie league match could still be called a "Stands Derby" by the Chinese media...

This kind of substandard behavior naturally made many Chinese fans familiar with European leagues disdainful, believing it to be a self-aggrandizing act, while also ruining the sacred word "Derby". But in fact, the deeper helplessness in this approach made people feel even more sad—Chinese football was weak at that time, extremely weak. No one looked up to us, so we could only entertain ourselves, forcibly adding drama to our own story.

But now the situation is different. With Sun Pan, Yang Muge, and He Ying successively playing in their respective teams, the "Chinese Derby," which used to be a very rare thing, has suddenly become numerous and even seems to be "rotting on the streets"...

First, Yang Muge gained a foothold at Schalke 04, and every year, the Bundesliga league alone could provide two "Chinese Derbies." Then, in last year's Champions League knockout stage, He Ying and Sun Pan had two "Chinese Derbies," which were also the first "Chinese Derbies" in the Champions League. Then Zhou Yi and Sun Pan met again in the quarter-finals, staging a sequel to the "Chinese Derby."

And this season, in the group stage, Chelsea and Schalke 04 were drawn together, so there will be two more "Chinese Derbies."

Now, there is also a "Chinese Derby" in the European Super Cup.

There are so many "Chinese Derbies" that everyone is no longer so surprised and feels that this is a matter of course.

At least this time, the Chinese media did not start hyping up the "Chinese Derby" in the Super Cup very early on with lengthy reports.

Of course, on the one hand, the news that Zhou Yi might win an award was more important, but it also shows that the Chinese media now has a wider range of choices for reporting and is more confident, and will not want to dig up all the topics in a "Chinese Derby" like before... Because at that time, for the Chinese media, it was too... difficult for two Chinese players to meet in Europe.

This is a bit like when Chinese people's living conditions were not good in the past, ordinary families couldn't afford fatty meat, and when they finally bought it, they were reluctant to eat it directly, but instead rendered it into lard, so that at least every meal could have a little bit of oil.

Unlike Chinese families now, who are starting to promote that eating fatty meat is unhealthy, and that you should eat lean meat, and even eating lean meat is unhealthy, and you have to eat vegetarian...

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When Chinese reporters were blocking Sun Pan at Chelsea's hotel in Prague, wanting to interview him, Sun Pan curled his lips and said, "The awards ceremony is over, and you remember me now?"

Sun Pan became famous very early, and his popularity and status are comparable to Zhou Yi's, so everyone has been reporting on and interviewing Sun Pan for several years, and they naturally know his temper. He says tough things, but his heart is soft.

Moreover, everyone knows the relationship between him and Zhou Yi. It is impossible for Sun Pan to be jealous because Zhou Yi won an award. They would make some jokes with each other, but their way of joking is a little special.

Sure enough, Sun Pan continued to joke about Zhou Yi: "If you want to ask me about Zhou Yi's award, there's no need to ask, it's not me who won the award!"

Everyone laughed. No one would doubt the friendship between Sun Pan and Zhou Yi, but it is said that their friendship is quite strange, and they like to criticize each other. If people who are not familiar with them might really think they have a bad relationship...

"What do you think about today's European Super Cup 'Chinese Derby', Sun Pan?" A reporter directly asked a question unrelated to the award.

But Sun Pan himself brought it up to Zhou Yi's award: "We will beat Borussia Dortmund. How can one person win an award and the team also win an award? Right, good things can't all be taken by one person. Character is conserved. That kid won a personal award, so he has to give up collective honors!"

Sun Pan grinned.

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A nosy reporter took Sun Pan's question to interview Zhou Yi, wanting to hear Zhou Yi's response.

In fact, they especially hoped and liked that Zhou Yi and Sun Pan would use their valuable space to have a big quarrel...

After listening to Sun Pan's words, Zhou Yi smiled: "Panpan is talking nonsense. If it were according to his law of conservation of character, then football matches should have a 50% chance of winning and a 50% chance of losing, but that's obviously not the case."

He spread out his hands, slightly mocking Sun Pan.

"Chelsea is a very difficult opponent to deal with. We lost to them in the Champions League semi-finals, and they had Panpan at that time. With Panpan this time, I believe it will be even more difficult to deal with. But wouldn't it be boring if the opponent was easy to win? Last season, we defeated Panpan and then advanced all the way, winning the Champions League. So for me, Panpan is my lucky star, and good things always happen when I meet him."

The reporters listened to Zhou Yi's response from the side, and thought that Zhou Yi and Sun Pan were really two completely different players. Sun Pan's personality made it difficult for him to say such things, while Zhou Yi could even say something so gentle and graceful even when he was criticizing someone...

That's a nice way of saying it, a less nice way is that he even criticizes people in a roundabout way... not fair and square at all!

However, this is just the different styles of the two of them due to their different personalities.

Back then, when Zhou Yi tore with a domestic media outlet on Weibo, that's how he tore them apart, cursing people without using dirty words, but still being able to scold the other party until they couldn't even talk back. So don't be deceived by Zhou Yi's honest and innocent appearance. Just like a panda, it looks very cute, but in reality, it's a bear, a bear that can tear apart an iron basin with its bare hands...

Zhou Yi was still quite confident when accepting the interview, but everyone didn't really believe his confidence.

One thing is one thing, although he was able to win the European Player of the Year award, it doesn't mean that everything he says is right. He can defeat all opponents.

Compared with Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund has an inherent disadvantage in this game, that is, the core Zhou Yi went to participate in the awards ceremony, resulting in insufficient rest. He didn't even participate in the training to adapt to the field. When he steps on this pitch tonight, no matter what the situation, there is no turning back.

Moreover, the long round-trip flight must also have a negative impact on Zhou Yi's physical fitness and spirit.

How much strength can he exert on the field at that time?

It's hard to say.

Once Zhou Yi himself doesn't perform well, there is a high possibility that the entire Borussia Dortmund team will not perform well. How can they resist the fierce Chelsea?

This season's Chelsea also has Sun Pan's joining. Judging from Sun Pan's performance against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League quarter-finals last season, it is not easy, and can even be said to be very difficult, for Borussia Dortmund, who are going all out and have the advantage of playing at home, to break through the goal guarded by Sun Pan.

A reporter expressed his concerns to Zhou Yi: "Zhou Yi, you should have arrived in Prague in the middle of the night yesterday, right? And then from the airport to the hotel, tossing around for half the night, can you get enough rest?"

Zhou Yi showed his signature smile: "Don't worry, I slept very well last night."

Well, indeed very well, whether it was the quality of sleep or the quality of the game...