Chapter 1 After All That Has To Be Done

After all the things that needed to be done were done, the players from both sides stood in their positions, waiting for the match to begin.

The referee for this match, Kralovec, blew the whistle to start the game.

From the start of the match, Manchester City players launched a fierce offensive towards Borussia Dortmund's goal.

They clearly hoped to defeat Borussia Dortmund on their home ground.

Having lost to Real Madrid in their first group stage match, if they wanted to advance from this group of death, they had to defeat every opponent on their home turf, or the situation would become very unfavorable for them.

Cheered on by the home fans, Manchester City continued to attack Borussia Dortmund's goal.

Although Borussia Dortmund's players had anticipated the situation they would face at the Etihad Stadium, they still found it somewhat beyond their expectations when Manchester City's attacks actually came.

Manchester City's fierce offensive made it difficult for Borussia Dortmund's players to raise their heads. Although they had prepared before the match, the intensity of Manchester City's attacks still made it difficult for them to cope.

The Manchester City fans at the Etihad Stadium kept cheering excitedly to support their team. They were very happy with the fighting spirit the team had shown since the start of the match.

At the side of the field, Mancini was very satisfied with the team's performance. Although he had told his players to pounce on Borussia Dortmund's goal at the start of the match and try to score early, the team's performance had completely exceeded his expectations.

Why was that?

He turned his gaze to Zhou Yi, number twenty-three for Borussia Dortmund on the field.

He had to thank that person's kick.

Now, his kicking the ball to greet Manchester City had been regarded as an offense by all Manchester City players. No one likes to be offended, so the angry Manchester City players would do their best to defeat Borussia Dortmund in the match to respond to Zhou Yi's offensive provocation.

In Mancini's opinion, Zhou Yi's previous actions were very stupid, regardless of his purpose.

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Faced with Manchester City's fierce offensive, Borussia Dortmund retreated across the board, all defending desperately in their own thirty-meter area.

Weidenfeller kept making saves, ensuring that the goal was not lost.

During this period, Borussia Dortmund fans in front of the TV and in the stands were watching with trepidation, fearing that Manchester City's attack would result in a goal.

Fortunately, Borussia Dortmund's defense was still very solid. Although Manchester City's attack was fierce, they did not score.

Fifteen minutes passed, and Manchester City's fierce offensive weakened slightly, like a diver who needs to come up for air after being underwater for too long.

At this time, it was Borussia Dortmund's turn to attack.

The ball was passed to Zhou Yi's feet.

As Borussia Dortmund's midfield core, it was normal for Zhou Yi to get the ball a lot, but this time, as soon as Zhou Yi got the ball, he was bumped by Manchester City's defensive midfielder, Javi Garcia, causing him to stagger and lose the ball.

Javi Garcia bypassed Zhou Yi and caught up with the ball, and Manchester City launched another offensive based on this.

Zhou Yi was a little surprised when he lost the ball because he didn't hear the referee's whistle—he thought Javi Garcia's bump was definitely a foul.

Who would have thought that the referee didn't think it was a foul!

So he had to chase back, trying to intercept Javi Garcia, but Garcia had already passed the ball away. Zhou Yi gave up chasing the ball and returned to his position. At the same time, he looked at Javi Garcia, but he didn't expect the other party to be looking over as well. The two people's eyes met in the air, and Zhou Yi felt as if there were sparks in the other party's eyes.

This feeling was the same as what he felt before the start of the match.

The opponent's players would be more fierce towards him, which Zhou Yi was clear about. But what he didn't expect was that the referee's standard of judgment was not as strict as he had imagined.

Perhaps it was because this was on the home ground of a Premier League team?

Regarding the Premier League, although Zhou Yi had never played in it, he had heard a lot about it. He knew what the style of the Premier League was. Physical collisions were commonplace, and the referee would also be more lenient in judging physical contact.

But the problem was that the referee for this match was not a Premier League referee... Perhaps this referee thought that as a Premier League team, Manchester City's players' physical collisions were normal?

The commentators in Germany and China were very dissatisfied that Javi Garcia's steal was not called a foul.

Marcel Reif said excitedly, "You can't relax the standards for their physical collisions just because Manchester City is a Premier League team!"

He Ping also said, "This should be a foul! 100% a foul! The current Zhou Yi is no longer the one who just debuted. His current physical strength is the standard of a normal player. If he is bumped to the point of staggering, then you can't say it's because he is too weak, right?"

Although the commentators from both countries spoke out for Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi did not argue with the referee about this issue.

It is meaningless to focus your energy on arguing with the referee. This is Zhou Yi's philosophy.

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Next, as long as Zhou Yi got the ball, not only Javi Garcia, but also the other Manchester City players were impolite, which made it difficult for Zhou Yi to control the ball well.

Of course, the referee would not turn a blind eye to all of Manchester City players' collisions, and would also call fouls on Manchester City players. He even showed a yellow card to center-back Kompany.

Borussia Dortmund, because Zhou Yi was being closely "defended" by Manchester City players, also found it difficult to organize any decent attacks. So even if Manchester City's offensive slowed down, Borussia Dortmund was still being suppressed overall.

During this process, the TV broadcast gave a close-up of Manchester City's coach, Mancini, as if to say that this was Manchester City's tactical arrangement.

But in fact, the director really wronged Mancini this time.

Mancini did ask his players to defend Zhou Yi closely before the match, but he didn't say that he wanted the players to use rude fouls to contain Zhou Yi...

Such big defensive moves were actually the players' own choices. Why would they do this?

Wasn't it because of Zhou Yi's "provocation"?

Mark Lawrenson said, "Zhou Yi has been 'specially treated' by Manchester City players in the match. He has been targeted. It is difficult to say whether he is being targeted because he is the core of Borussia Dortmund, or because of the 'provocation' before the match. But whatever the reason, it is probably a severe test for Zhou Yi now."

Saying this on his lips, Mark Lawrenson had an expectation for Zhou Yi in his heart—he wanted to see what Zhou Yi would do in this situation.

Because he remembered the Olympic Games again, he wanted to further verify his analysis and guesses.

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In fact, Zhou Yi was not surprised by Manchester City's performance.

Because he had experienced similar treatment in the virtual space. The only difference was that the virtual Manchester City players in the virtual space were very fierce in their defense against him, but they didn't foul much. The Manchester City players in reality were like they wanted to kill him, rushing towards him.

But this difference was nothing to Zhou Yi.

He was never afraid of opponents who were deliberately looking for trouble, because if they didn't focus on the match, Zhou Yi had a hundred ways to deal with them.

Although it was a group of death, from those matches in the virtual space, Zhou Yi did not think that Manchester City was a very strong team.

This team was last season's Premier League champion, but that Premier League champion came with some luck. Manchester City had been performing well in the Premier League last season, leading the standings. As a result, they performed poorly in the middle of the season and were caught up by their arch-rivals, Manchester United. If Aguero hadn't saved the day in the last match, Mancini's league title would have flown away.

Manchester City started participating in the Champions League after the reform last season, but they didn't get out of the group stage.

Compared with Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City's Champions League experience was far worse. After the Champions League reform, Borussia Dortmund was also a team that had won the Champions League title. Even the current Borussia Dortmund had reached the knockout stage for two consecutive seasons. The first year was the quarter-finals, and the second year was the semi-finals.

How could such experience be compared to the current Manchester City?

Some people may have a high opinion of Manchester City's Champions League journey this season because Manchester City almost overturned Real Madrid on the road in the first group stage match. Maybe they even had a fear of Manchester City.

But after one match after another in the virtual space, Zhou Yi knew that this Manchester City was probably not as strong as people thought...