Chapter 155 The German National Derby

In fact, Borussia Dortmund was not simply held to a draw by Fortuna Düsseldorf. In that match, they also lost their captain, Kehl.

Kehl was injured in the sixty-eighth minute of the match and had to be substituted off.

After examination, it was determined that he would miss the first half of the Bundesliga season and would not be able to return until the second half.

As a veteran, Kehl's performance this season has surprised many. He had not been plagued by injuries before and had maintained a good condition. During Gundogan's injury, he and Sven Bender formed a double defensive midfielder pairing, providing protection for Zhou Yi behind him, allowing him to concentrate on organizing the attack in front.

It can be said that Borussia Dortmund's ability to compete on two fronts in the Champions League and the league this season, advancing side by side, cannot be separated from his contribution.

He was in such good form that even after Gundogan recovered from his injury, he was unable to regain his starting position for a while and had to start on the bench. Fortunately, Klopp rotated the squad, which prevented Gundogan from being without playing time.

But as a veteran approaching thirty-three years old, injuries still caught up with him.

His injury is considered by the media to have a significant impact on Borussia Dortmund. Kehl's injury before the match against Bayern Munich is definitely not insignificant news.

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Borussia Dortmund's unexpected draw against Fortuna Düsseldorf, while Bayern Munich won 2-0 against Freiburg away, widened the gap between the two teams to four points again.

In the next round of the league, the two teams will have a direct confrontation, with Borussia Dortmund challenging Bayern Munich away.

If Borussia Dortmund can beat Bayern Munich away, they can reduce the five-point gap to two points.

And if Bayern Munich beat Borussia Dortmund at home, they can take the opportunity to expand the four-point gap to seven points and win the Bundesliga winter championship two rounds in advance.

Winning the winter championship is of great significance for the Bundesliga title race.

After this round of strong matchups, both teams will welcome their Champions League group stage matches.

Borussia Dortmund's last Champions League group stage match is at home against Manchester City. This match is no longer meaningful. Borussia Dortmund has already qualified as the top of the group in advance, while Manchester City has been eliminated in advance. The only suspense is in the match between Real Madrid and Ajax. In the last round, Real Madrid was held to a draw by Manchester City and only accumulated seven points, while Ajax was defeated by Borussia Dortmund and accumulated four points. If Ajax can defeat Real Madrid by a large margin in the last group stage match, then they will surpass Real Madrid with the same points and become the second in the group.

But honestly, the possibility of this happening is very, very low.

Real Madrid cannot capsize in the gutter.

Bayern Munich's last group stage match is at home against BATE Borisov, the weakest team in their group.

Although they are competing with Atlético Madrid for the top spot in the group, the suspense should not be great. Bayern Munich cannot possibly lose to the weakest team in the group at home.

So in fact, the upcoming Champions League group stage matches will not have much impact on the two teams in the league.

They can send out their strongest lineup except for the players on the injury list.

This time, Klopp did not choose to rotate.

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The match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich is the most eye-catching contest in this round of the Bundesliga, and the whole world is watching this match.

For Bayern Munich, this is a revenge battle, and they certainly want to beat Borussia Dortmund at home. In the past two seasons in the league, they have been firmly suppressed by Borussia Dortmund and have missed the league title for two consecutive seasons. This season, their momentum was good, with eight consecutive league victories, leading the way.

But now they have been chased up little by little by Borussia Dortmund. It seems that Borussia Dortmund does not want to give up this season's league title.

However, Bayern Munich has more confidence in themselves this season. Since Borussia Dortmund is unwilling to give up, then use results to teach them to let go.

As long as they can beat Borussia Dortmund in the direct dialogue, Bayern Munich will take the lead on the road to the league title.

Therefore, before the match, Bayern Munich's generals have expressed their determination through various channels.

Schweinsteiger said in an interview that in his opinion, Borussia Dortmund's strength this season is not as good as the previous two seasons. If they want to make a breakthrough in the Champions League, they must learn to give up some matches.

"...For a team like Borussia Dortmund that lacks bench depth, the Champions League and the league are not compatible. In my personal experience, if Klopp wants the team to achieve better results in the Champions League, they have to give up the league. If they want both, the final result is likely to be that they will not achieve good results in any competition... I am not saying that Borussia Dortmund should deliberately give up the league, but only as a player with rich experience in dual-line combat, I am giving them a little bit of experience..."

These words are full of superiority. But he does have such qualifications. As a Bayern Munich player, he has very rich experience in this dual-line combat. And in the whole of Germany, only Bayern Munich can achieve good results in both competitions. In front of Borussia Dortmund, it is normal for Bayern Munich to have a sense of superiority.

In response, Borussia Dortmund's number one loudmouth, Großkreutz, retorted: "Thank you for the advice from the Bayern Munich players, but I find it hard to believe whether their experience is effective. Because last season they 'gave up' the league title, and they were still defeated by Chelsea in the Champions League final. I really dare not believe the experience of losers..."

This is simply adding salt to Bayern Munich's wounds.

Last season, Bayern Munich reached the Champions League final held at the Allianz Arena, and the whole team vowed to win the championship at their own doorstep. Before the match, the media, bookmakers, and fans were all optimistic about the more experienced Bayern Munich.

What was the result?

Bayern Munich lost to Chelsea in the penalty shootout in front of tens of thousands of home fans and missed the championship.

This is even more of a blow to Bayern Munich than being snatched away the league title by Borussia Dortmund for two consecutive seasons.

……

Now that Großkreutz is talking about this, it will naturally enrage Bayern Munich up and down.

In a tense atmosphere, Zhou Yi did not participate in the war of words. Reporters came to him, wanting to hear his opinion.

"I have no opinion. This is only the fifteenth round of the league, and there are still nineteen rounds before the end of the league. The outcome of a match cannot explain anything. Don't make it seem like this match can determine the league title. Let's focus on the match itself."

He was very indifferent.

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Although Zhou Yi was very low-key and calm, after the match started, he couldn't be low-key at all. As Borussia Dortmund's core, Zhou Yi was naturally the player that Bayern Munich focused on.

Javi Martínez followed him closely, restricting his range of activity.

Others were also ready to force up and double-team him at any time.

In such a situation, how could Zhou Yi be low-key?

But Zhou Yi was not surprised by such a battle, and he did not feel a headache. Whether in the virtual space match or in the real match, he had encountered such a situation countless times. If he felt surprised at this time, it would be too pretentious.

He has accumulated a wealth of experience to deal with such situations.

This season, his physical fitness is much better than before. But it's not because he did any special training before this season, but because his previous seasons of persistent physical training finally laid a solid foundation.

With physical fitness support, to deal with this annoying defense, just run. Keep running, from the left to the right, from the back to the front, do not stay on the court, do not stand still, constantly change your position, then the defending players will eventually not be able to keep up with his rhythm.

This is what Zhou Yi did.

Faced with Bayern Munich's targeted defense, he also made a targeted response. He can appear in almost any position on the court, whether in his own corner flag area or in Bayern Munich's penalty area, his figure can always be seen.

Even if he does not take the ball, as long as he appears in that position, it is trouble and threat for Bayern Munich.

Although Javi Martínez is responsible for defending Zhou Yi, he can't drop his position and just follow Zhou Yi. In that case, if Zhou Yi goes to the wing, Martínez will also pull out with him, wouldn't the center be empty? Letting other Bayern Munich players come to the center to make up for the defense, then the area where this defensive player was originally located would be unguarded?

Defense is a whole, it is a ring that is interlocked, a problem in one place will inevitably affect the whole, the so-called pulling one hair and moving the whole body is really suitable for defense.

So Zhou Yi running like this made Javi Martínez very painful. Should he follow or not?

If he follows, his position will be gone. If he doesn't follow, he can't pretend not to see him creating threats and troubles in other places, right?

Faced with such a Zhou Yi who can run, not only Javi Martínez was in a dilemma, but Bayern Munich's coach Heynckes also had a headache.

In the period when Zhou Yi's physical fitness was not good, he could be forced to run by pressing him closely, so that he would consume a lot of physical strength in running, and eventually perform abnormally due to lack of physical strength.

But now, after Zhou Yi has significantly improved his short board physical fitness, he doesn't even need the defending side to force him to run, he starts running all over the court by himself!