Chapter 199 After Zhou Yi's Goal

After Zhou Yi scored, it wasn't just Ajax's defense that crumbled, but also their fighting spirit.

With only a few minutes left in the game, they could have still equalized, but the Ajax players didn't show that kind of determination.

Klopp, on the other hand, was making frequent substitutions. In the 90th minute, he replaced Götze with forward Schieber, and in the 91st minute, he replaced Gündoğan with Leitner.

The two substitutions ate up some time.

Although Frank de Boer replaced midfielder Sana with forward Sulejmani in the 88th minute, it didn't help.

Finally, the referee Tagliavento blew the whistle to end the game.

"The game is over! After a hard-fought battle, thanks to Zhou Yi's near-decisive goal in the 87th minute, Dortmund defeated Ajax 1-0 at home! This was truly a hard-earned three points!"

After the game, Zhou Yi was interviewed by reporters in the mixed zone.

When asked if Dortmund's difficult victory was due to underestimating their opponents, Zhou Yi shook his head and denied it. "How is that possible? This is the Group of Death. Every game in this group is difficult, so it's normal and right that we had a tough time. We didn't underestimate our opponents. Ajax is a strong team, and the way the game went reflects their strength."

Frank de Boer expressed his disappointment with the result in the post-match press conference: "I think a draw would have been fair, but that's football. We are not inferior to Dortmund in any way. If there is a difference, I think it's that we don't have Zhou Yi. That's the difference. Dortmund's last goal was a testament to Zhou Yi's individual ability..."

Klopp also thought that winning at home was good enough, and there was no need to consider goal difference at all: "This is the Group of Death, and every opponent in this group is difficult to deal with, and every game is hard to win. So I'm very satisfied with getting three points. Goal difference? That's not something to consider in this group."

There was supporting evidence that proved Zhou Yi and Klopp's views to be correct—in the other group match held at the same time, Real Madrid barely defeated Champions League newcomer Manchester City 3-2 at home.

The first half of that match, like Dortmund's, ended in a 0-0 draw.

It wasn't until the 69th minute that Džeko broke the deadlock, giving Manchester City the lead at Real Madrid's home ground.

Real Madrid then made consecutive substitutions. Mourinho used up all his substitution slots in the 73rd minute, replacing two players at once. On Manchester City's side, Mancini also replaced Maicon with Zabaleta in the 74th minute, which was also Manchester City's last substitution of the match.

In the 76th minute, Marcelo equalized for Real Madrid.

In the 85th minute, Kolarov put Manchester City ahead again.

In the 87th minute, Benzema equalized again for Real Madrid.

In the 90th minute, Cristiano Ronaldo finally made the Bernabéu erupt—his goal at that time secured a victory for Real Madrid.

Like Dortmund's game, it was a close and hard-fought match, but this game had five goals, so it looked more exciting.

But the difficulty of the matches was the same.

These two matches lived up to the description of the "most terrifying Group of Death in 199 years."

The next Champions League match will be on October 3rd, with Dortmund challenging Manchester City away. After watching Manchester City's away game against Real Madrid, no one would think that Dortmund's trip would be easy.

※※※

Perhaps because they had spent too much energy in the Champions League, Dortmund lost 2-3 to Hamburg in the league. Although Zhou Yi had an assist, it didn't help.

However, after this game, the long-injured Wagner was finally able to train with the team again, which was good news.

Dortmund was competing on two fronts this season, and if Wagner could recover, it would definitely be a blessing for Dortmund.

In the fifth round of the league, Dortmund challenged Frankfurt away and ultimately defeated their opponents 3-2.

The next, sixth round of the league, Dortmund would play Borussia Mönchengladbach at home. After this game, the team would prepare for the second Champions League group stage match against Manchester City.

Klopp rotated the squad for this game, and many of the main players, including Zhou Yi, were not in the starting lineup, or even on the roster.

Klopp planned to give up this league game directly, but to his surprise, Dortmund, with their rotated lineup, won 5-0 against Borussia Mönchengladbach at home.

After playing this game, Dortmund devoted themselves to preparing for Manchester City. In training, Klopp increased the proportion of footbonaut training.

This was because the passing speed in Champions League matches was generally 15% faster than in the Bundesliga. If they played in the Champions League with the habits of the Bundesliga, they would lose miserably. The footbonaut could improve the players' passing speed. Dortmund's ability to reach the semi-finals in the Champions League last season was related to footbonaut training.

But last season, Dortmund only used footbonaut for last-minute preparations. This season, they had been using footbonaut training since the pre-season training camp.

Zhou Yi had an even greater advantage. Not only could he do footbonaut training in reality, but in his dreams, he could also do upgraded versions of footbonaut special training.

In addition, he could also play against Manchester City in the virtual space in advance and feel the game.

Because they lost the first game 2-3 to Real Madrid, if Manchester City wanted to advance from this group, they had to win this game against Dortmund to take the initiative in the remaining matches.

Even though it was a game in the virtual space, Zhou Yi could still feel the energy that Manchester City would unleash at home.

In the virtual matches between Dortmund and Manchester City, Dortmund had always lost more than they won.

However, having won one game, Dortmund didn't necessarily have to beat Manchester City away. If they could win, that was of course good, but if they couldn't, a draw would be perfectly acceptable. Just like Ajax had hoped to draw with Dortmund away.

In the Group of Death, a draw was often the most cost-effective result, especially in away games.

※※※

Dortmund finished their game against Borussia Mönchengladbach and took a plane to Manchester the next day. At this time, there were still three days before the Champions League game in midweek.

Why did they go so early?

Of course, it was to adapt to everything in Manchester in advance, including the weather, diet, and venue.

As for where the team would train, the Dortmund club had already negotiated with Manchester United, and Manchester United had agreed to let Dortmund use their Carrington training base for free to prepare for the game against Manchester City.

As city rivals, Manchester City's enemy was Manchester United's friend.

Of course, if Dortmund and Manchester United met in the Champions League next time, Manchester City would certainly be happy to lend their training base to Dortmund, even if they fought to the death in this Champions League group stage.

Moreover, Dortmund and Manchester United had player transactions this summer. Kagawa Shinji had gone to Manchester United from Dortmund.

When Dortmund was training at the Carrington training base, Kagawa Shinji made a special trip to Dortmund's training ground to chat with his former teammates and coaches, reminiscing about the old days. Although he had some complaints about Dortmund's management when he left Dortmund due to contract renewal issues, his relationship with his teammates and coaches was still very good.

Since transferring to Manchester United, Kagawa Shinji had started in four of the six league games, missing one game and scoring one goal.

This performance couldn't be said to be very good, but it wasn't too bad either. It could only be described as average.

Of course, it was definitely not as eye-catching as his performance in Dortmund. In Dortmund's midfield, his role was very prominent. But at Manchester United, he was more like a role player.

After seeing Kagawa Shinji, everyone asked him if he was used to life at Manchester United.

"Apart from the weather, I'm used to everything else," Kagawa Shinji said with a smile.

"Are you used to the food too?" Zhou Yi asked in surprise.

"Don't bash British food, Zhou-san," Kagawa Shinji knew what Zhou Yi was going to say. "Besides, there are also Japanese restaurants in Manchester, so I can occasionally go and improve my diet."

"You even said improve, so it seems like what you usually eat isn't very good," Zhou Yi retorted.

Everyone laughed.

Kagawa Shinji hadn't left for long, and he was definitely more familiar with Dortmund than he was with Manchester United. Everyone didn't feel like he was an outsider.

This kind of familiarity was something that Kagawa Shinji hadn't yet felt at Manchester United.

Compared to Dortmund's locker room, Manchester United's locker room, as a true giant, was more complicated. If he had to compare, Manchester United was a bit like Bayern Munich in the Premier League, the undisputed hegemon and the focus of everyone's attention. There were also more superstars in the locker room than in Dortmund, so it was normal for interpersonal relationships to be complicated.

Finally, Kagawa Shinji chatted with Klopp alone for a while. Although Manchester United hadn't met Manchester City in the new season yet, the two teams' training bases were right next to each other, and they were in the same city, so there would always be various channels to learn about the opponent's news.

So Kagawa Shinji told Klopp everything he knew about Manchester City, hoping that it could play a role in Klopp's tactical arrangements.