“Reminding Zhou Yi that while he won two Bundesliga titles with Borussia Dortmund, he hasn’t won a Champions League title yet.” That was the response from a Munich media outlet to Zhou Yi’s interview about why he wouldn’t join Bayern Munich.

The implication was that he could win the Champions League at Bayern Munich, but not at Borussia Dortmund.

But Zhou Yi had no time to engage in a war of words with reporters. The game against Bayern Munich was just around the corner.

At 00:30 Beijing time on May 5th, the match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich would kick off at Dortmund’s home stadium.

The timing of this game wasn't exactly prime time for Chinese TV viewers. It was a bit late, and by the time the game was over, it would be 2:00 AM, which wasn't very friendly to Chinese fans who had to go to work or school.

There had been rumors that the Bundesliga officials would accommodate the Chinese TV audience by moving the game to 9:30 PM Beijing time. But that would mean the game would be played in Dortmund at 3:30 PM on May 4th. This decision was met with staunch resistance from Bayern Munich. They already didn't have enough rest time, and moving the game earlier would only make things worse.

Changing the game time to accommodate Chinese fans might be something Borussia Dortmund was willing to do because they had a Chinese player in their squad. But Bayern Munich didn't have any Chinese players, so why should they do someone else a favor?

Of course, this was just a rumor and had never been officially confirmed.

Although the time wasn't ideal, a large number of Chinese fans still stayed up to watch the game on TV.

Anyway, many people in China watch La Liga, which often kicks off at 3:30 AM or 5:00 AM. Compared to La Liga, the Bundesliga game kicking off at 00:30 was relatively early…

On the Chinese internet, people were already discussing the game more than a dozen hours before it started.

Bayern Munich's outstanding performance this season made the game between the two teams full of suspense. The first time the two teams met in the league, it ended in a 1:1 draw.

Bayern Munich led by one goal until the last five minutes of the game, but Zhou Yi equalized with a curler from outside the penalty area.

Although Bayern Munich won the winter break championship after the draw, they failed to widen the gap in points with Borussia Dortmund, which set the stage for this crucial showdown.

If Bayern Munich had been able to beat Borussia Dortmund at home, their lead now would definitely not be just two points, but five. If there really was a five-point gap, then this game wouldn't be so important and critical...

But life has no "ifs," and neither does football.

In any case, since a series of coincidences had made this game such an important showdown, then it was time to have a good fight.

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In the locker room of Westfalenstadion, Borussia Dortmund coach Klopp was making the final preparations for his players.

"Ten minutes until the game starts. I don't need to say much more. I believe you all know the importance of this game. I won't deceive you by saying that this is just an ordinary league game. Some people say that in Germany today, no team other than Bayern Munich can win three league titles in a row. The current league standings seem to prove this statement is correct. But I say 'bullshit'! I know that we are not afraid of Bayern Munich, and you know this too. Countless times in the past two seasons, it should have been Bayern Munich who were afraid of us! This season, even though they have been performing so well, they haven't been able to beat us in their own home stadium. What does this mean?"

Klopp paused for a moment, then continued, "This shows that the reality is Bayern Munich is afraid of us! They say Bayern Munich can't win three league titles in a row? Then let's win three league titles in a row and show them! Thanks to the league schedule, we can directly face Bayern Munich with only three rounds left. Things have become simple—as long as we can beat them, we will become the league champions! Use these ninety minutes to prove to them that we, Borussia Dortmund, are the overlords of the league!"

Klopp's passionate speech made the players excited and roaring, like a group of wild horses about to break free, ready to smash any obstacle in their way!

At the same time, in the Bayern Munich locker room, Heynckes solemnly said to his players, "Don't think that just because we are now leading by two points, we can win the championship if we can force a draw at their home stadium. This kind of thinking is very dangerous. Forget about draws. In the world of football, there is only victory or defeat. If you can't win, then you will lose. In this game, everyone must show their best form and most serious attitude. Remember, we only have one goal, and that is to defeat them in their home stadium!"

The Bayern Munich players were also very excited. This season was the last season for veteran coach Heynckes at Bayern Munich. He had been working at this club for two years, and during these two years of working together, the players had all respected this veteran coach very much.

Actually, this wasn't the first time the veteran coach had coached Bayern Munich. After becoming a head coach, this was already his third time coaching Bayern Munich.

In 1987-1988, Heynckes coached Bayern Munich for the first time, leading the team to two league titles. But he was later dismissed in the middle of the season due to losing control of the team.

After that, Heynckes coached many teams and even led Real Madrid to the Champions League title. He had no further involvement with Bayern Munich.

But in the second half of the 2008-2009 season, due to Klinsmann's dismissal, Heynckes, who was already retired at home, was invited back by Bayern Munich to be the interim coach, helping the team, which was in a slump, to win the league runner-up.

His return to Bayern Munich seemed to reignite the veteran coach's passion for coaching a team. After finishing his job as the interim coach at Bayern Munich, he went on to coach Bayer Leverkusen, helping the team win the league runner-up.

In 2011, because of the strong rise of Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich lost the league title again. At the same time, Van Gaal lost control of the locker room and was dismissed by the Bayern Munich club in advance. After dismissing Van Gaal, Bayern Munich thought of Heynckes when choosing a successor.

The two sides signed a two-year contract in advance, which took effect in July 2011.

In this way, Heynckes coached Bayern Munich for the third time. However, from the beginning of his coaching, everyone felt that Heynckes was just brought in by Bayern Munich to put out the fire. They would never give up looking for a truly world-class coach to lead Bayern Munich against Borussia Dortmund, and also a younger coach.

As long as Bayern Munich found the right person, Heynckes would leave again.

In January of this year, Bayern Munich announced in advance that they had signed Guardiola, which seemed to prove this point.

The veteran coach also announced that this last half season at Bayern Munich would be the last half season of his coaching career. After fulfilling his contract with Bayern Munich, he would retire completely and no longer serve as the head coach of any team.

After announcing the signing of Guardiola, everyone didn't have any demands on Heynckes' coaching performance. As for the task of competing with Borussia Dortmund, it was handed over to Guardiola. Everyone optimistically believed that as long as Guardiola took office, he could lead Bayern Munich back to the top and defeat Borussia Dortmund.

But who would have thought that Bayern Munich's performance in the last half of the season would be very stable, winning one victory after another, and always maintaining a lead over Borussia Dortmund in the league standings. Not only that, in the German Cup, his team also eliminated Borussia Dortmund and now entered the German Cup final. In the Champions League semi-finals, they eliminated Barcelona with a surprising score of 7:0 and entered the Champions League final. As a result, this veteran coach, whose coaching career was counting down by the day, actually had the opportunity to lead Bayern Munich to become the first triple crown winner in German football history!

This really surprised many people.

But the Bayern Munich players probably wouldn't be surprised, because they had worked with Heynckes for two seasons, and they knew Heynckes' ability and character very well. Compared with Van Gaal, who was stubborn and not good at communicating with players, the veteran coach Heynckes was more amiable and could better manage the Bayern Munich locker room, making "Hollywood of the Bundesliga" united internally. This was probably the main reason why Bayern Munich was able to keep Borussia Dortmund down this season.

For the veteran coach's diligent work, the Bayern Munich players all hoped to send off their respected head coach with three championship trophies.

This game against Borussia Dortmund was the first step for them to achieve their goal.

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Both teams had the determination and reasons to win, and that's how they met in the player tunnel.

Outside in the stadium, Borussia Dortmund fans were chanting Borussia Dortmund's roster under the leadership of the stadium DJ, Norbert Dickel. Every Borussia Dortmund player received cheers, even Götze. Although the cheers were obviously much smaller than his teammates—some Borussia Dortmund fans, who were still resentful of Götze's transfer to Bayern Munich, were unwilling to cheer for Götze, but they didn't want to boo to let their opponents laugh at their internal unity, so they chose to remain silent.

Although many people in the two teams were teammates in the national team, and even had good personal relationships, at this time, everyone stood quietly in their own team, staring straight ahead, and no one went to greet or exchange pleasantries with friends in the other team.

The referee team walked out of the locker room, and under his leadership, the players from the two teams lined up and entered Westfalenstadion.

The stadium erupted in cheers.

This grand drama was about to begin.