Chapter 1 Zhou Yi's Response

Although Zhou Yi's volley didn't go in, it served to boost morale.

This was Dortmund's, or rather Zhou Yi's, response to Chelsea taking the lead—if you think taking a one-goal lead gives you the advantage, you're wrong!

Anyone could see that if Zhou Yi had managed to get that shot on target, even Sun Pan wouldn't have been able to save it. It would have gone in for sure!

The reason he didn't save it just now wasn't because the shot was off target, but because he was too slow.

If Zhou Yi shot on target, Sun Pan still wouldn't be able to stop it.

So who says Chelsea is unbeatable with a one-goal lead?

Who says Sun Pan is an impenetrable Great Wall?

With the will and the effort, success is always possible.

This naturally set a good example for the other Dortmund players, and to some extent even "broke the superstition."

So in the following game, the Dortmund players didn't fall into chaos as some had expected because they conceded a goal early.

Instead, they played a colorful and threatening attack...

In the eleventh minute, Zhou Yi got the ball near the center circle. Without even looking up, he turned and sent a diagonal pass to the left.

As the ball rolled over, Aubameyang used his speed to catch up with it and then charged towards Chelsea's penalty area.

He then crossed the ball, and Mark met it in the middle with a header, which he headed high under pressure from Luiz.

In the sixteenth minute, Zhou Yi himself took a long shot from just outside the penalty area. It wasn't a powerful shot, but one with a clear curve. The ball drew an arc, bypassed the Chelsea defenders in the penalty area, and also bypassed goalkeeper Sun Pan's outstretched fingertips. Of course, because the arc was too large, it also bypassed the right post, going wide of the goal and then hitting the side netting!

Although it didn't go in, this shot scared the Chelsea fans quite a bit, because the moment the ball brushed the side netting and lifted it up, it really looked like the ball had gone in...

Zhou Yi himself was very disappointed, and he held his head in his hands.

Sun Pan got up from the ground, muttering, "Damn it! He really just boots one at me when he sees me!"

Although he said that, Sun Pan knew his heart was beating a little fast... If the other side kept bombarding him like this, there was always danger.

※※※

In the twenty-second minute, Mark received the ball in the penalty area and laid it back for Reus, who followed up with a long shot from outside the penalty area. It was a powerful shot with a tricky angle.

But the ball was brilliantly saved by Sun Pan.

"Sun Pan! He's like a one-man pass, impossible to overcome!" The commentator He Ping, known as "The Poet," couldn't help but recite two lines of poetry.

These two lines were from the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai's "The Road to Shu is Hard." For Dortmund, the goal guarded by Sun Pan was indeed as difficult to traverse as the road to Shu back then.

Marcel Reif reminded Dortmund: "Although Chelsea hasn't been playing very defensively yet, I believe that as the game goes on, in the second half when there is little time left, if this score hasn't been changed, Mourinho certainly won't mind parking the bus in front of the goal. With Sun Pan's outstanding personal ability on top of that, it will be difficult for Dortmund to break through...

Dortmund also knew very well that they had a good understanding of both Mourinho and Sun Pan—having faced them both in the Champions League last season.

So Dortmund also stepped up their attack, hoping to equalize as soon as possible and bring the game back to the same starting line.

In the twenty-sixth minute, Zhou Yi sent an overhead pass from outside the penalty area, and Reus was successful in beating the offside trap, receiving Zhou Yi's pass in the inside of the penalty area. He then turned and shot, but this time it was too straight, and Sun Pan caught it directly in his arms.

In the twenty-ninth minute, Aubameyang used his speed to dribble the ball on the left and suddenly cut inside, then took a long shot from the edge of the penalty area, but it went wide of the goal...

Chelsea, on the other hand, made full use of Dortmund's increased attacking opportunities to launch counterattacks, which was exactly the attacking routine that Mourinho excelled at.

In the thirty-first minute, Schürrle used his speed on the wing to get past Schmelzer and cross from the byline. Torres met the ball in the middle and turned to shoot, but the ball flew over the crossbar and out of bounds.

In the thirty-fourth minute, Chelsea intercepted Aubameyang's pass intended for Zhou Yi in their own half, and then launched a counterattack. Oscar dribbled the ball at high speed across the halfway line and passed the ball straight to Torres, who was cutting in on the right.

Torres, who scored a goal, was very active in this game, and always appeared in the right position.

After receiving the ball, Torres curled a shot towards the far corner from the edge of the penalty area, but the ball went wide of the goal...

Faced with Chelsea's counterattacks, Dortmund did not show the slightest hesitation. They did not shrink back and consolidate their defense just because Chelsea's counterattacks were sharp. Zhou Yi's solution on the field was to continue attacking, using more fierce attacks to suppress Chelsea's counterattacks. He led Dortmund in launching wave after wave of attacks on Chelsea's goal.

In the thirty-eighth minute, Reus passed the ball to Zhou Yi. Zhou Yi, in the middle, pretended to take a long shot, tricking Luiz into jumping up and turning his back, intending to use his body to block Zhou Yi's shot.

But this was just a feint. After his right foot landed, he didn't shoot, but instead sent a through ball, passing the ball into the penalty area! Mark cleverly inserted himself, received the ball, and shot!

Sun Pan made a save, but it didn't work, because the ball was blocked out of bounds by another center back, Gary Cahill, who fell to the ground and used his leg...

"That was close! Dortmund's attack has been very fierce during this period! They even formed a siege on Chelsea's goal..." the British commentator said with some trepidation. "Before the game, everyone analyzed that Dortmund's form in this game should not be very good, which is related to their core player Zhou Yi traveling back and forth to receive the award... But from the actual game, Dortmund doesn't seem to be in bad shape at all... As for Zhou Yi? He is still the core of Dortmund, the engine and catalyst of Dortmund's attack... Chelsea has imposed some restrictions on him, but those restrictions have not achieved the desired effect. He runs actively on the field, and he can be seen in almost every corner of the middle and front court. His ubiquity allows Dortmund to launch attacks anywhere on the field, making it difficult for Chelsea to defend..."

This British commentator hit the nail on the head.

Dortmund in this game was indeed not as tired and in poor form as people thought. On the contrary, they were very aggressive. Two minutes into the game, they created a threatening shot. Up to now, Dortmund has had more shots, and more shots on target. Not to mention the possession rate, Dortmund has an absolute advantage.

This is the performance of Dortmund even after conceding a goal...

With not much time left in the first half, everyone was surprised to find that Dortmund was not adapting at all. As the core of Dortmund, Zhou Yi was operating normally and did not feel tired at all. Not adapting to the field also did not affect him. He ran freely on this stadium, and handled the ball as well as he did at the Westfalenstadion, as if he had secretly come to adapt to the field in the middle of the night yesterday...

These people would of course not know that the virtual world in Zhou Yi's mind can perfectly simulate the real world, including the condition of the grass on a real-world stadium.

Unless someone replaces the stadium grass overnight before the game, but who would be so bored? It's not like everyone is Tony Twain...

※※※

Mourinho stood on the sidelines, frowning. If you only looked at his expression, you would think that Chelsea was the one behind, but in fact Chelsea was leading by one goal. But Mourinho didn't feel relaxed at all because of the lead.

He couldn't quite understand Zhou Yi. How could he put on such a performance after flying back and forth thousands of kilometers and not getting enough sleep?

His assistant and friend, Chelsea's fitness coach Rui Faria, saw Mourinho standing motionless on the sidelines like a statue. Knowing him well, Faria knew that Mourinho must be in trouble, so he walked over to him.

Although he didn't speak or move, Mourinho knew that someone was next to him, and he knew who it was.

"Rui, I think we misjudged Zhou Yi," Mourinho said with a frown. "Obviously, he doesn't show any signs of fatigue. We were deceived by Klopp. He deliberately released some misleading information to us, such as Zhou Yi going to the awards ceremony and not getting enough rest..."

Faria said: "I think this may not be Klopp's idea. I was observing Klopp just now and found that he was also a little surprised by this situation. Perhaps he didn't expect his team to play better and better after falling behind."

Hearing this, Mourinho turned his head strangely and glanced at Dortmund's coaching bench. He saw Klopp sitting on the coaching bench covering his mouth and talking to his assistant Buvac.

"That's really interesting..." Mourinho snorted.

※※※

"This is really interesting," Klopp said to his assistant coach Buvac, covering his mouth.

"It's really interesting. The state that Zhou Yi is showing is simply beyond our imagination, and he can also drive the whole team to perform very well..." Buvac nodded in agreement.

But Buvac obviously misunderstood.

So Klopp shook his head: "No, I'm not saying that this is interesting. I never doubt Zhou Yi's ability, and I'm not surprised at all that Zhou Yi has such a state adjustment ability. What I find interesting is Zhou Yi's choice of attacking ideas in this game... Facing Chelsea, he plays more cleanly and neatly, whether it's handling the ball himself or setting the pace... Have you noticed? He has more forward passes in this game, but not many horizontal or backward passes."

When Buvac heard Klopp say this, he thought carefully and found that it was true. Dortmund's many shots and many attacks in the first half were related to Zhou Yi's constant forward delivery of ammunition. In front of Chelsea's penalty area, he rarely led his teammates to pass back and forth, looking for opportunities, but instead adopted a simple and direct approach to threaten Chelsea's goal, either passing the ball to his teammates to form a shot, or taking a shot himself.

"During the halftime break, I plan to have Zhou Yi talk about why he did this," Klopp said.

"I'm also very curious," Buvac said with a smile.

He didn't seem surprised or shocked by Klopp's approach.