They finished the match against Galatasaray in the afternoon local time, and after the game, the entire Borussia Dortmund team rushed to the airport. The snow was still falling, but it was much lighter than the night before, and it didn't affect the normal take-off and landing of the plane.

They could return to Dortmund today and prepare for the league match against Hoffenheim on the weekend.

This was the second-to-last game of the first half of the season. The last game of the first half, Dortmund's home game against Hertha Berlin in the seventeenth round, was postponed to January 30th of next year due to the Club World Cup.

Having played one game less than Bayern Munich and trailing in points, no matter what the result of the game against Hoffenheim, Dortmund could not threaten Bayern Munich's position. And no matter what the result of Bayern Munich's game was, they had already secured the Bundesliga's winter break championship this season.

The significance of this championship was very important, as it was almost a weathervane for the final league championship.

Under the leadership of the new coach Pep Guardiola, Bayern Munich had performed very well this season. It seemed that they were finally going to end Dortmund's dominance in the league.

While the entire Borussia Dortmund team was on a plane back to Germany, the European media were summarizing the just-concluded Champions League group stage.

This season's Champions League group stage created several records, not just the record of Napoli being eliminated with the highest score. In stark contrast, there was also the record for the lowest score to advance from the group stage—this summary was simply rubbing salt into Napoli's wounds…

Zenit Saint Petersburg earned the record for "Lowest Points to Advance from the Group Stage," securing a spot in the Champions League knockout stage with six points.

They only won one of their six group stage matches, becoming the first team after the Champions League reform to advance with only six points.

In addition, this season's Champions League group stage also created the Group Runner-up with the Most Points—Manchester City got fifteen points, but could only be the runner-up, not the group winner. They had the same fifteen points as Bayern Munich, but because they had an inferior head-to-head record, they were squeezed into second place by Bayern Munich.

The Champions League group stage had finally come to an end, and next up was the draw for the Champions League Round of 16.

The group winners and runners-up would face off against each other.

However, no one was optimistic about the defending champion's chances of defending their title, because they had too many injuries, and who knew what strange injuries they might encounter next… After all, their subsequent schedule was not easy, the players' match intensity was high, they were very tired, and prone to problems.

※※※

Zhou Yi was lying on the massage bed at home—because his girlfriend was a physical therapist, and because the male owner was a professional athlete, the facilities in Zhou Yi's home were a little different from others, with a massage bed looking very out of place.

But in reality, it was very useful. After all, you can't always massage on a soft bed, as it's not easy to apply force.

Zhou Yi was lying on the bed, and Cortana was giving him a massage to relax him, while the two of them chatted about recent events.

Cortana told Zhou Yi about some internal team news she had heard from team doctor Braun: "Klopp might give up on the Champions League…"

Hearing his girlfriend's words, Zhou Yi sat up straight, startling Cortana, who was giving him a massage. She stared at him blankly: "What?"

"Give up on the Champions League?" Zhou Yi asked.

"Yeah, the team's injury situation this season is too serious. If we continue to fight on two fronts, Klopp is worried that we'll end up failing in both the league and the Champions League. And next year is the World Cup, and if any of the national team players miss the World Cup due to injuries at the club, the team will face a lot of pressure…"

What Cortana didn't tell Zhou Yi was that the biggest pressure came from the Chinese reporters who were always gathering in Dortmund.

This was the second time in the history of the Chinese national team that they had reached the World Cup finals, and Zhou Yi was an absolutely indispensable core figure of the national team. He absolutely could not have any accidents. This season, Dortmund seemed to be cursed, with players getting injured one after another, and all of them were key players. Therefore, the Chinese media and fans were always worried about injuries finding Zhou Yi—before, when Zhou Yi was knocked unconscious in the game against Napoli, causing him to miss more than a month of games, it caused an uproar in China and intensified their fear of Zhou Yi getting injured.

Now that Zhou Yi had recovered from his injury and returned to the team, Yan Min was also steadily playing in the games, performing well, so Chinese fans had another object to worry about.

At every pre-match and post-match press conference, Chinese reporters would more or less convey the meaning that they didn't want Klopp to overuse the two Chinese players, worried about Zhou Yi and Yan Min getting injured when they asked Klopp questions.

In addition, the team's injury situation this season was indeed very serious, with a large shortage of personnel and a tight squeeze.

In the league, Bayern Munich's performance was frighteningly stable. In the Champions League, Dortmund stumbled to even get out of the group stage. After achieving great success last season, the players' fighting spirit had declined, and their hunger for victory and championships was not as strong as before…

These factors all prompted Klopp to seriously consider giving up one competition and focusing on the other.

If Dortmund had not won the Champions League last season, then Klopp would have seriously considered taking another gamble in the Champions League this season, trying his best to win that supreme honor.

But now that Dortmund had already won the Champions League, the Champions League seemed less important—it would be great to go further in the Champions League, but if it would take a lot of effort and even affect the league, then it would not be worth it. After all, the league was the foundation. If the league didn't go well, it was very likely that they wouldn't even be able to qualify for the Champions League next year.

So in Klopp's heart, he had actually decided to give up on the Champions League and focus on the league.

Although he was focusing on the league, it was hard to say whether he could defeat Bayern Munich in the league and win the league title. Bayern Munich's performance this season was too good, their stability and excellence were despairing.

So deep down, Klopp's goals for Dortmund this season were very realistic and somewhat low—as long as they could get a Champions League spot for next season, that would be enough.

Klopp didn't plan to make this goal public, because if he said it, it would only invite ridicule and blows from his competitors, and it would also affect the morale and confidence of his own players. On the surface, he would still put on a show of competing with Bayern Munich for the championship, but in his heart, he would be satisfied with finishing in the top three in the league.

Zhou Yi and Cortana didn't know about these thoughts in Klopp's mind right now. He just frowned after hearing his girlfriend say that the coach was going to give up on the Champions League.

He didn't want to question the coach, but he couldn't help but think about the last time he voluntarily gave up on the German Cup last season.

Choosing to give up in the German Cup against Bayern Munich was something that Zhou Yi had always been bothered by.

Putting aside the fact that Dortmund might have been able to win the treble, just the timing of the decision to give up, not giving up earlier or later, but giving up when facing Bayern Munich… It just felt uncomfortable.

Zhou Yi himself didn't have a clear preference for any Bundesliga team, he wasn't a fan of any particular team. But since he chose to join Dortmund, and played for Dortmund for so many years, he naturally became a supporter of Dortmund. Since his heart belonged to Dortmund, he would naturally regard Schalke 04 and Bayern Munich as enemies, and naturally wouldn't want the enemies to have a good time. So he worked very hard when playing Schalke 04 and Bayern Munich, becoming the person that fans of those two teams least wanted to see.

Choosing to give up in the German Cup match against Bayern Munich was unacceptable to Zhou Yi.

It also made Zhou Yi feel a bit resistant to "strategic abandonment."

"Abandonment" was certainly a smart approach, as you have to give up something to gain something.

But Zhou Yi always had another stubborn idea in his heart—for those weaker teams, giving up was a helpless move, but also a smart one. But as a powerhouse team like Dortmund, why couldn't they launch more challenges on multiple fronts?

Of course, Dortmund was indeed facing a personnel crisis this season, with many injured players. But not all players were like Gundogan and Subotic, who had season-ending injuries. They would always come back, and there would always be a time when Dortmund's lineup was complete.

Zhou Yi was really unwilling to surrender in advance. Some things still had to be tried.

"I'm going to find the coach tomorrow." Zhou Yi lay back on the bed and let Cortana massage him.

"You're going to object in person?"

"Not really, just expressing my opinion. Whether he listens or not is his business, but whether I say it or not is my business." Zhou Yi pouted. "Doesn't the coach also ask me to discuss tactics sometimes?"

"That's discussing tactics, and this is strategy." Cortana corrected Zhou Yi's thinking.

"It's all the same. I still have the right to express my opinion, right?"

Cortana didn't say anything. "Freedom of speech" was politically correct. Since Zhou Yi said so, she couldn't refute him.