Dortmund, after defeating Augsburg at home, now ranks second in the league.

Since losing to Dortmund away, Leverkusen has suffered consecutive defeats.

A three-game losing streak has dropped them directly from second place in the league.

Although Dortmund has played one less game, they are still second in the league.

Everyone thinks it would be more realistic for Klopp to set the team's goal as qualifying for next season's Champions League. The team wouldn't be under too much pressure and could perform with a normal attitude.

On January 29th, midweek, while other Bundesliga teams trained as usual, Dortmund welcomed league opponent Hertha Berlin at home—this was the postponed match from the seventeenth round of the league.

Because Dortmund participated in the Club World Cup at the time, the match originally scheduled for December 21st was moved to this day.

At home against Hertha Berlin, Dortmund fought hard and defeated their opponent with a score of 2:1, taking three points.

With the same number of games played, they are now only four points behind Bayern Munich!

Now many people remember that when they were discussing it before, they forgot that Dortmund was seven points behind Bayern Munich, which had a premise: Dortmund had played one game less than Bayern Munich…

Now that both sides have played the same number of games and are only four points behind, it doesn't seem so insurmountable.

The Dortmund media naturally greatly praised Dortmund's performance, saying that Dortmund's win over Hertha Berlin brought the suspense of the league title back.

The broad masses of neutral spectators were also happy to watch the good show of two heroes vying for supremacy, and they followed suit with noisy comments.

Overnight, it seemed as if Dortmund, who reigned supreme in Germany, had returned…

But in fact, Dortmund has not escaped their crisis.

Because of Kuba's injury, Dortmund wanted to introduce Holtby to replace Kuba.

Holtby used to be a Schalke 04 player, but a year ago, the club sold him to Tottenham Hotspur for 1.75 million euros. Dortmund wanted to buy this former Schalke 04 player from Tottenham Hotspur.

Unfortunately, this plan was not successfully implemented.

During the winter break, Holtby was loaned to Fulham by Tottenham Hotspur.

In the end, Dortmund can be said to have gained almost nothing in this winter transfer market.

No new players were brought in to strengthen the positions that needed reinforcement, and none of the problems that needed to be solved were solved.

In this case, it is simply wishful thinking to want to catch up with Bayern Munich.

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"Even if it's considered wishful thinking, I still want to try," Zhou Yi said to Cortana about the current difficulties the team is facing while lying in bed at night.

"But the problem is, even if we win them all, we can only hope that Bayern Munich makes mistakes themselves," Cortana pointed out the problem with Zhou Yi's idea.

"Of course, but first you have to do your own thing well. If you can't even do your own thing well, how can you expect your opponent to give you a chance?" Zhou Yi curled his lips. "Besides, if we can continue to win games and put pressure on Bayern Munich, maybe Bayern Munich will make mistakes? The pressure on the leader in a marathon is very high."

"I don't think the story of last season can be repeated…" Cortana shook her head.

"How do you know if you don't try?"

This time Cortana didn't speak. It's true, how can you draw conclusions in advance without trying?

The situation Dortmund faced last season was similar to this season, and no one believed that Dortmund would be able to reverse Bayern Munich and win the championship in the end.

Unexpectedly, Dortmund completed a great reversal on both the league and Champions League fronts.

"What if we still don't get the result we want after trying?"

Zhou Yi waved his hand: "I don't want to think so much now, let's just go all out and do our best."

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Three days later, in the nineteenth round of the league, Zhou Yi did his best and helped Dortmund, who lacked the on-site command of their coach, narrowly beat relegation team Braunschweig 2:1 away. He contributed a goal and an assist in this game. It can be said that Dortmund was able to win this game entirely thanks to Zhou Yi alone.

Compared with Dortmund's stumbling, Bayern Munich defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 5:0 at their home stadium and won the game without bloodshed.

The German media exclaimed that Guardiola's team was invincible.

The Dortmund media didn't care about this. They were more concerned that in the game against Braunschweig, central defender Hummels finally recovered from his injury. He started the game and played the entire match.

At this critical moment, the return of any injured player is good news for Dortmund.

Now Dortmund's defense is not as tight as before.

Schmelzer, Piszczek, and Hummels have all returned, and only Subotic is out for the season.

This is great news for Dortmund, who have a dense schedule.

On February 7th, in the twentieth round of the Bundesliga, they will challenge Werder Bremen away.

Two days after this game, on February 9th, Dortmund will have a German Cup quarter-final to play.

It is definitely impossible to maintain the same lineup. So, Klopp made some adjustments based on the situation of these two games.

The so-called adjustment is of course to give up the German Cup.

Klopp decided to send the full main force to play Werder Bremen, and when it comes to playing the German Cup, he will send as many substitutes and second-team players as possible, so as to give the main players a chance to rest and also reduce the chance of injury.

If one event must be abandoned, then the German Cup is definitely the one without any suspense.

This event is the most tasteless and has the lowest gold content.

Only when there is no hope of winning the other events will this event be considered.

Last season, Klopp decisively gave up the German Cup, so that the team maintained a good upward momentum in the league and the Champions League, and finally won both titles in one fell swoop.

This season, when the team encounters difficulties and cannot compete on multiple fronts, the German Cup will definitely be the first to be abandoned.

Klopp thought it was a good idea, but in a warm-up match before the game against Werder Bremen, Hummels, who had just recovered from his injury, was injured again!

When Hummels was helped off the field, Klopp's expression was… numb.

Yes, after experiencing so many injuries this season, Klopp couldn't help but be numb.

Even, if there is any month when there are no sick people in the team, he will feel strange and unaccustomed.

Soon, there were media reports about Hummels's news that he was injured again after just recovering from his injury.

Except for the pro-Dortmund media, other media were mocking Dortmund, exclaiming that they must have been cursed by the devil this season.

Or rather, they shouldn't have reversed to win the championship last season. Reversing to win both the league and the Champions League had seriously overdrawn their luck, and now it was time for them to repay the crazy overdraft.

The latest news is that Hummels will have to rest for two weeks due to this injury.

"…Good news, Hummels only needs to rest for two weeks! It's better than resting for two months, isn't it?" This is the self-deprecation of a Dortmund media outlet.

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Hummels's injury before the game cast a shadow over Dortmund's away game against Werder Bremen.

Klopp lined up the strongest lineup he could.

However, this lineup will only make people feel sad after seeing it—this disabled lineup is Dortmund's strongest lineup at the moment, and it is really a different team from Dortmund last season…

However, when the game started, the situation on the field was somewhat different from what everyone expected…

From the beginning of the game, Dortmund firmly controlled the situation.

Why is this happening?

Because Zhou Yi performed very actively today. From the first minute of the game, he kept running and appeared in every corner of the field. No matter who the Dortmund player is taking the ball, as long as they look up, they can definitely see Zhou Yi in the first time.

Under Zhou Yi's leadership, the entire Dortmund team was like a high-speed machine, dragging Werder Bremen into it, and then crushing and stirring it up.

In the twenty-sixth minute, Mark Wagner received a cross from Yan Min and headed the ball to give Dortmund the lead. And Yan Min received a pass from Zhou Yi before crossing.

After taking the lead, Dortmund continued to maintain the original pressure, making it impossible for Werder Bremen to organize an effective attack, and could only be beaten by Dortmund.

This made commentator Marcel Reif a little surprised: "Whose home is this after all…"