Chapter 1 From Milan with Victory

Having returned from Milan with a first-leg victory and an away goal, Borussia Dortmund welcomed their league opponent, the not-so-strong St. Pauli, to their home stadium.

Because they had just played a Champions League knockout match, Klopp rotated the squad for this game.

However, Zhou Yi was not among those rotated.

After team doctor Braun had checked and analyzed the physical condition of all the players, he concluded that Zhou Yi was perfectly capable of playing against St. Pauli.

And since the team’s lead in the league wasn’t that large, Klopp really didn’t want to rest Zhou Yi.

So, Zhou Yi was able to play in the match against St. Pauli.

In this game, Marc and Kagawa Shinji were rotated out, and Lewandowski replaced Marc in the starting lineup.

The Polish striker did not disappoint Klopp's hopes, scoring twice with one indirect and one direct assist from Zhou Yi, helping Borussia Dortmund easily win 2-0 at home against St. Pauli.

Because Leverkusen won 4-2 at home against Stuttgart, the two teams were still six points apart.

This gap wasn’t particularly large, nor was it particularly small. One could say it was just two games worth. But one could also say that a six-point gap would only seem to grow larger as the league season progressed…

Moreover, in the next round of league matches, Borussia Dortmund would have to travel to Munich to challenge Bayern Munich. If Borussia Dortmund lost to Bayern Munich away from home, Leverkusen would have the opportunity to close the gap.

With no Champions League match after the game against Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund could focus all their attention on this match.

For Borussia Dortmund, the away game against Bayern Munich was not only considered a mountain that had to be climbed on the road to winning the championship, but also their revenge match.

Last season, Borussia Dortmund was swept by Bayern Munich in the league. In particular, even after their form had recovered, they still lost to Bayern Munich away from home.

This season, they had already defeated Bayern Munich at home, leaving only the Allianz Arena unconquered.

And although Bayern Munich's performance this season wasn’t as good as before, their form had been gradually improving since the winter break.

One only had to look at the current league standings: Borussia Dortmund was first with fifty-two points, Leverkusen was second with forty-six points, and Bayern Munich was third with forty-two points.

One should know that Bayern Munich's ranking was outside the top ten in the first half of the season…

Data analysis showed that Bayern Munich had won five and lost one of their last six games, scoring seventeen goals and conceding five.

They had won all of their last three games and had a ten-game winning streak at home.

This showed that they had a great advantage at home.

In the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich had only lost two of their last sixteen games, and six of their last seven games had been high-scoring victories.

For example, 4-0 against Hoffenheim, 4-0 against Aachen, and 5-1 against Kaiserslautern.

The only thing that might affect them was the Champions League round of 16 match this midweek, where, like Borussia Dortmund, they had to go to Milan to challenge Inter Milan.

In contrast, Borussia Dortmund’s recent form hadn't been very good, with two wins, three draws, and one loss in their last six games. Their original ten-point lead in the league had been reduced to as little as four points.

Of course, analyzing data could only explain part of the problem, not the whole problem.

If one only looked at the numbers, one could be deceived.

Because Zhou Yi and Kagawa Shinji were not in the team during the period when Borussia Dortmund performed poorly. And when Zhou Yi and Kagawa Shinji returned to the team, the team’s performance immediately improved.

※※※

During the week, Bayern Munich, playing without reservations, defeated defending champion Inter Milan 1-0 away from home, achieving the same result as Borussia Dortmund.

And they were almost halfway into the quarterfinals.

After the game, Van Gaal was very satisfied with the team's performance. The team’s recent excellent performance had also given him confidence in his words.

“Who said we were going to give up on the league? Ten points? Yes, I know, but so what?”

The always straightforward Van Gaal said this when asked by reporters about the upcoming key match against Borussia Dortmund.

The league points difference between third-placed Bayern Munich and first-placed Borussia Dortmund was exactly ten points.

In the eyes of many people, ten points was almost an insurmountable gap, but Van Gaal didn’t think so.

“Next, as long as we can defeat Borussia Dortmund, the ten-point gap will be reduced. This is a six-point game. We will not give up on the league, because the league championship is a Bayern Munich tradition.”

These words were truly domineering, as if the Bundesliga was Bayern Munich's backyard, and if they wanted to win the championship, everyone else had to let them.

Faced with Van Gaal's remarks, Klopp responded: "I have never heard such words from a coach whose team is so far away from the top of the league."

"Then do you think Bayern Munich still has a chance to win the league title?" a reporter asked.

"Of course, even Borussia Mönchengladbach has a chance to win the league title!" Klopp shrugged, his tone full of obvious sarcasm.

Borussia Mönchengladbach was currently ranked eighteenth in the league—that is, last place. They had only accumulated nineteen points in twenty-three league games and were on the verge of relegation.

Everyone understood what Klopp meant.

In response to Klopp's remarks, Bayern Munich’s general manager, Hoeness, stepped forward to express his opinion.

"I must remind Klopp that there are eleven rounds left in the league, and Borussia Mönchengladbach only has nineteen points. If they want to win the league title, in addition to hoping that all seventeen teams ahead of them lose all their remaining league games, they themselves must also get at least thirty-seven points. But there are only eleven rounds left in the league, and even if Borussia Mönchengladbach wins all of them, they can only get thirty-three points, so they have no chance of winning the title. I suggest Klopp should first review his math."

Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 were bitter rivals in the Ruhr area, but throughout Germany, their rival was, of course, Bayern Munich.

When Borussia Dortmund’s results were good, every encounter with Bayern Munich was like a clash of planets, as could be seen from the intensity of the pre-match trash talk.

The feud between the two teams was not only reflected in the games, but also off the field. For example, Borussia Dortmund had been poached by Bayern Munich many times. Club general manager Zorc had accused Bayern Munich of being a cancer in German football, saying that their practice of trying every possible way to poach the promising stars and in-form players of other clubs would eventually ruin the Bundesliga.

Bayern Munich retorted, using data to show that Borussia Dortmund was the team that poached the most players from other Bundesliga teams.

In the previous seasons, Borussia Dortmund’s results were very poor, their performance was sluggish, and they were unable to threaten Bayern Munich’s dominance. At that time, the atmosphere between the two teams was slightly less tense.

This season, Borussia Dortmund’s strong performance directly threatened Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga dominance. Bayern Munich naturally couldn’t sit idly by, so the classic trash talk between the two sides started up again.

In response to Hoeness's remarks, Borussia Dortmund’s general manager, Zorc, couldn’t sit still. He mocked: "It seems that Hoeness is good at math. I wonder if he would like to come to Borussia Dortmund to be our math teacher? The doors of the Brackel training base are always open to him. Anyone with a normal IQ should be able to hear that Klopp was just using Borussia Mönchengladbach as an analogy. Hoeness is taking it so seriously, he is obviously evading the key issue, which is whether Bayern Munich still has a chance to win the title? I would say that they still have a chance, at least higher than Borussia Mönchengladbach.”

While the two teams' managers were happily “insulting” each other, Borussia Mönchengladbach was having a really bad day…

No one knew who they had offended, but they were constantly being beaten.

It was a battle of gods, and mortals suffered.

In response, Borussia Mönchengladbach also expressed their views: “We have great respect for both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, after all, they have defended the dignity and honor of our German football in the Champions League. But we hope that the two clubs can also give us some respect. Please don’t associate us with the league title anymore, we just want to stay in the league now!”

Borussia Mönchengladbach’s statement was somewhat comical, making many people want to laugh, but some also found it very sad.

Because Borussia Mönchengladbach could be considered a veteran team in the Bundesliga. In their most glorious era in the 1970s, they won the UEFA Cup twice, and in 1977 they reached the Champions League final, but unfortunately they lost 1-3 to Liverpool in the final and missed the Champions League title. They also had five league titles and three German Cup titles domestically.

But after the end of their golden age, the team gradually declined and became mediocre, leaving only their reputation.

They were ranked last this season and might be relegated.

Now they really had no intention to consider the league title. Borussia Mönchengladbach fans also felt that Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were too arrogant, and their ridicule of Borussia Mönchengladbach was simply a malicious attack and injury.

Klopp quickly apologized, saying that he didn't mean to offend anyone. He was just using an example to illustrate that Bayern Munich's chances of winning the title were very low… He apologized to Borussia Mönchengladbach and their fans for his unintentional mistake.

Afterward, Hoeness and Zorc also apologized.

However, Hoeness didn't forget to continue attacking Borussia Dortmund while apologizing, reminding Borussia Mönchengladbach fans that Klopp was the one who dragged Borussia Mönchengladbach into this in the first place, so the aggrieved had a cause and should go find Klopp…

※※※

The management of the two clubs were arguing happily, so what about the players?

Naturally, they were also showing off their muscles and spitting at each other, fully expressing their positions.

In the midst of the gunpowder smoke, Zhou Yi was the only exception. He told German and Chinese reporters: “I don’t understand why Van Gaal thinks this game is so important. This is just one of thirty-four league games. I don’t think there’s anything special about this game.”

“But Bayern Munich is an obstacle you can’t avoid if you want to win the title…”

“There’s nothing we can’t avoid, right? We’re ten points ahead of them. Even if we lose to them in this game, we’ll still be seven points ahead of them, it’s not the end of the world.”

“So you think winning or losing doesn’t matter?” a reporter asked.

“No, of course I will strive for victory. I’m just saying there’s no need to take this game too seriously—the first and third place teams in the league are arguing like this, have you asked the second place team what they think?”

Everyone had finally stopped mentioning Borussia Mönchengladbach, but now Bayer Leverkusen was caught in the crossfire…