It was a blow to Valencia to be behind in their home stadium.

While Klopp applauded the performance of his players, Emery was thinking of countermeasures.

There was nothing wrong with making the formation compact to contain Zhou Yi.

The only problem was that Zhou Yi's ability to find openings was too good, and with the occasional oversight, he could seize the opportunity to send such a deadly pass.

Now it seemed that even though the space was compressed, it was not enough.

Emery had not made a decision after the game restarted. The players on the field could only play according to the previous arrangements.

During this time, Dortmund, who had just scored, was in high spirits, and the players were in better condition than before, daring to make moves and fight.

As a result, Dortmund gradually suppressed Valencia on the field.

And several consecutive attacks threatened the goal guarded by César Sánchez.

Valencia was very passive during this time, completely suppressed by Dortmund on the field.

The Spanish commentators kept calling out the danger.

"Valencia looks like they will concede another goal in a short time! If that's the case, this game will be difficult!"

Fortunately, Emery quickly made a decision, still using the previous defensive strategy, but being more aggressive when defending Zhou Yi and several of Dortmund's main attacking players.

Previously, Valencia players would pounce on Zhou Yi after he received the ball. After the adjustment, Valencia players and the ball would pounce on Zhou Yi together.

As soon as Zhou Yi received the ball, he was staggered by the opponent, and he had the opportunity to pass the ball forward, but it turned into a pass back. Because only in this way could he ensure that the ball would not be lost. Any other way would require more adjustments, and by that time, the opponent would have already snatched the ball away.

Out of safety considerations, Zhou Yi could only pass the ball back.

And Großkreutz and Götze, who were cutting in on the wing, ran in vain.

Zhou Yi couldn't do anything about it. The referee would blow the whistle for a foul, but what was the use? He blew the whistle but didn't give a card, and Valencia had already interrupted Dortmund's attack anyway, achieving their goal.

Because Zhou Yi's position on the field was defensive midfielder, most of the time he received the ball in the backcourt for the first time, so the location of Valencia's fouls was also here, too far from their goal to be considered a threatening attack being stopped by a foul. In this kind of place, unless it was a particularly bad foul such as a tackle from behind or an elbow, the referee would generally not give a card.

Zhou Yi couldn't do anything about this either. Of course, he wouldn't want to trade his serious injury for a red card for the opponent, wouldn't that be idiotic?

It was most important to stay on the field. As long as he could stay on the field, he could contribute. Once he was off the field, no matter why, everything that happened on the field had nothing to do with him.

Now it seemed that he was being severely restricted by the opponent's foul tactics, and could only pass the ball back or sideways, but Zhou Yi never felt that there was anything wrong with doing so. He was just waiting for an opportunity to appear in his heart.

When he couldn't send a deadly pass forward, Zhou Yi wouldn't worry. He would just do his job as a midfield conversion hub, passing the ball from his teammates to other teammates, that simple.

In football matches, it was impossible for a midfielder to make every pass a deadly one that could create a scoring opportunity.

The important thing was the mentality, not to be angered by the opponent's petty tricks.

If a midfield commander lost his composure and lost his rational judgment of the development of the situation, then he was not worthy of being a commander, because he would only lead his team into a ditch and towards destruction.

So even though his passes were always interfered with by the opponent, and his organized attacks were always interfered with by the opponent with fouls and petty tricks, when the TV broadcast gave Zhou Yi a close-up, no one could see a trace of anger or dissatisfaction on his face.

At most, he would spread his hands to the referee, which was helplessness, but also a kind of civilized protest.

※※※

Although Emery's tactical adjustments were not in line with everyone's definition of "beautiful football," they were very effective.

Dortmund's arrogant momentum immediately subsided.

Valencia, who had stabilized the situation, began to think about equalizing the score. They didn't want to go into the halftime break with a one-goal deficit.

After all, this was their home stadium!

However, when Valencia had some ideas and began to counterattack, their control of the midfield defense declined.

The chains on Zhou Yi were slightly loosened, and Zhou Yi immediately sent a beautiful through ball forward. If Großkreutz's shot hadn't gone over the crossbar, Dortmund would have been two goals ahead in the forty-first minute.

Although they didn't concede a goal, Dortmund's attack sounded the alarm for Valencia again, reminding them that the danger had not passed.

So Valencia then returned to their previous state, first ensuring that they didn't concede a goal, as for scoring goals... they would consider that later.

In this way, the first half of the game came to an end in a stalemate.

The referee blew the whistle and the game ended.

The Valencia players walked off the field somewhat depressed.

※※※

During the fifteen-minute halftime break, Klopp praised the team's performance, but also asked the players to continue to stay focused in the second half, and not to get carried away just because they were leading by one goal.

"I must remind you again, guys, this is the European Champions League. You know what this name means, it's completely different from the usual league. In the league, you may think that leading by one goal in the first half is relatively safe, but in the Champions League, you can go from leading to trailing in minutes. The opponents here are not easy to deal with, so be twelve points careful."

At the same time, on the other side, Valencia's coach Emery was making detailed tactical adjustments, which were much more detailed than the few words he shouted on the sidelines.

The main thing was to improve the offense.

As for the defense, Valencia had been able to contain Zhou Yi very well in the final stage of the first half.

The key was that after containing Zhou Yi, there was no extra energy to attack.

This was not okay. If they continued like this in the second half, even if they didn't concede another goal, the 0:1 deficit couldn't be changed.

They still had to attack.

To this end, Emery asked everyone to run more and run faster.

In addition, they had to be highly concentrated during the transition between offense and defense. The goal they conceded was actually because the team was distracted during the continuous transitions between offense and defense, and Dortmund caught them off guard.

※※※

After the halftime break, the two sides returned to the field again.

The second half of the game began.

Valencia faithfully implemented the tactics arranged by the coach during the halftime break.

While defending Zhou Yi very closely, they also actively strengthened their attack.

However, Klopp was not a vegetarian either, and he also made corresponding adjustments during the halftime break.

The opponent was now obviously focusing their defense on Zhou Yi. Then don't let Zhou Yi organize the attack. Let Kagawa Shinji retreat a little, and let Götze move a little towards the center. Both of them could send a deadly pass.

And Zhou Yi? His position became controlling the rhythm of the game, but he didn't need to make the final pass.

This adjustment quickly took effect, because Valencia focused their defensive attention on Zhou Yi, lacking care for other Dortmund players.

In the sixty-ninth minute, Zhou Yi retreated to the defense line to ask for the ball, widened the distance from the Valencia players, and after receiving the ball, he directly turned around and sent a twenty-meter pass, finding Kagawa Shinji, who was retreating.

After stopping the ball, Kagawa Shinji passed the ball to Götze, who came up to meet him, and then turned around and ran forward. Götze then sent the ball out again, and the two completed a one-two pass.

After receiving the ball, Kagawa Shinji pretended to take a long shot, but instead passed the ball to Barrios, who was running flexibly.

Barrios took a curler shot at the edge of the penalty area, and the ball drew an arc, bypassing the fingers of goalkeeper César Sánchez and flew into the goal.

2:0!

"Goal! Beautiful goal!" Marcel Reif shouted excitedly. "Dortmund leads by two goals away from home!"

"Good goal! Barrios scores twice!" He Ping shouted, "Although this goal was not directly assisted by Zhou Yi, it was initiated by him! After receiving the ball, he decisively found Kagawa Shinji, taking advantage of the fact that Valencia's defense had not had time to adjust their defensive focus to Kagawa Shinji..."

As a qualified Chinese commentator, the most basic quality is to be able to find an angle to praise Zhou Yi, no matter who scored the goal or who assisted it.

Moreover, because of Zhou Yi's outstanding performance, even if they praised him like this, no one would be disgusted.

After the goal, Barrios and Kagawa Shinji hugged each other. Zhou Yi, who was in the backcourt, was also hugged by Sven Bender, and the two ran to the frontcourt with the other players to celebrate.

Seeing the Dortmund players in yellow jerseys celebrating at the Mestalla Stadium, this scene was really unexpected.

Before the game, everyone thought that Dortmund, who were participating in the Champions League group stage for the first time in seven years, lacked experience, and were also challenging Valencia away from home. It would be a good result if they didn't lose the game. Klopp should adopt a relatively conservative tactical strategy away from home.

Unexpectedly, Dortmund's performance surprised and impressed everyone.

They were not conservative, but insisted on their own style of play, and instead took a two-goal lead against Valencia away from home!