Chapter 174 Thrilled

Being able to eliminate Barcelona on their home turf is truly remarkable, a feat worthy of pride and joy for everyone involved.

And Borussia Dortmund's morale soared after the victory.

They capitalized on their momentum in the following weekend's league match, defeating Wolfsburg 3-1 on the road.

Klopp rotated the squad, but it didn't seem that the grueling battle against Barcelona had any negative impact on the team. The Dortmund players who took the field were in high spirits, and those who had participated in the Champions League match showed no signs of physical distress.

In the upcoming league match, the thirtieth round, Borussia Dortmund will face Bayern Munich.

Currently, Bayern Munich is ranked second, seven points behind Borussia Dortmund. If Borussia Dortmund can defeat Bayern Munich at home, they will lead Bayern Munich by ten points with only four league rounds remaining. This would essentially declare the end of the championship suspense for this season.

Therefore, this is a match that will determine the fate of the championship.

Highly anticipated.

In this match, Klopp did not rotate the squad; he fielded all his key players.

Bayern Munich also clearly understands the importance of this match, and they also fielded their strongest lineup. They absolutely cannot afford to lose this match.

Borussia Dortmund, on the other hand, can afford to be a little more relaxed. From a points perspective, even if they lose to Bayern Munich at home, they will still lead Bayern Munich by four points…

However, Borussia Dortmund doesn't want to lose to Bayern Munich, because football is not a simple game of numbers.

On the evening of April 11th, the match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich kicked off at Westfalenstadion. In China, the television station also broadcasted the game live. Although the live broadcast time was 2:00 AM on April 12th, many fans still tuned in to watch this highly anticipated Bundesliga match.

Perhaps because this match was so important, both sides played very cautiously after the game started. The spectacle might not have been great, but if you treat this game as a World Cup final, it’s easy to understand—how many World Cup finals are played with wide-open, aggressive styles?

For Borussia Dortmund, even if they couldn't win, a draw at home would be perfectly acceptable.

For Bayern Munich, if they couldn't win, then a draw would be better than a loss.

So the two sides cautiously maneuvered.

The game continued until the seventieth minute without a goal, and the scene was somewhat dull.

Some of the Chinese fans who stayed up late to watch the game, those who weren't die-hard fans of either team, went to sleep.

As a result, in the seventy-seventh minute, a thunderbolt suddenly sounded in the dull match. Zhou Yi suddenly made a through-ball pass. Bayern Munich defender Boateng failed to intercept it, and the ball slipped past his toes, landing at the feet of Lewandowski.

Then the Polish striker shot, and the ball flew into Neuer's goal!

"Goal! Lewandowski!!" Marcel Reif shouted excitedly. "Borussia Dortmund finally took the lead at home!!"

Westfalenstadion, which had been quiet for a while, suddenly erupted, and everyone jumped up from their seats, cheering and waving their arms.

As long as they can defeat Bayern Munich, they will essentially secure the league title in advance!

After scoring the goal, Lewandowski ran towards Zhou Yi and hugged him in celebration. This was Lewandowski's nineteenth goal, and so far, he is Borussia Dortmund's top scorer, also ranking third in the Bundesliga scorer list.

With this assist, Zhou Yi's assist count for the season also reached seventeen, only two assists away from his assist count last season, and there are still four league rounds left. He now dominates the Bundesliga assist chart, and no one can shake his position. If there are no surprises, he will win the league assist title for the third consecutive season.

This is also rare in Bundesliga history.

※※※

After Lewandowski scored, Bayern Munich tried to equalize, but when they pressed forward, gaps appeared in their defense. After being hit by several counterattacks from Borussia Dortmund, they realized that if they continued to play like this, they might concede more goals before they could equalize, so they had to retreat.

Although unwilling, there was no other way.

This scene must be heartbreaking for many Bayern Munich fans. Back in the day, they were the overlords of the Bundesliga, completely dominant in German football. Unexpectedly, they are now powerless against Borussia Dortmund. Keep in mind that Borussia Dortmund is only leading them by one goal!

The most dangerous score in the world is 1-0, because it is full of variables.

As a result, Bayern Munich was helpless in the face of Borussia Dortmund's one-goal lead…

The balance of power between the two teams has changed imperceptibly.

"...If there are no surprises, Borussia Dortmund is set to defend their league title this season. I think Bayern Munich should seriously consider how to win back the league title next season… Bayern Munich after Hitzfeld took office has changed somewhat from before, but perhaps he and the team are still adapting to each other. In short, Bayern Munich's performance this season has not been stable enough. The fact that they are trailing Borussia Dortmund by as many as ten points speaks volumes. But I think the Bayern Munich club executives should give Hitzfeld more patience and support. As long as he is given more time, he will definitely bring changes to Bayern Munich..."

Marcel Reif has already begun to look to the future.

The Borussia Dortmund fans in the stands sang, danced, cheered, and celebrated. Although the game was not over yet, they did not think there would be any suspense in this game.

Fortunately, the Borussia Dortmund players on the field were not affected by him, especially Zhou Yi, who still calmly handled every ball on the field and did not relax because the situation was so good.

In the end, the referee blew the whistle to end the game after three minutes of injury time.

As soon as the first whistle sounded, deafening, thunderous cheers and applause rang out over Westfalenstadion.

With four league rounds remaining, they lead Bayern Munich by as many as ten points! In the next four games, as long as Borussia Dortmund wins one, they will be the champions!

Westfalenstadion's live broadcast DJ Norbert Dickel almost shouted "We are the champions"... Because the atmosphere at the scene was indeed too easy to make people think that they had already won the championship in advance...

Everyone's face was filled with smiles, and Klopp was no exception.

He didn't hide the smile on his face, not caring about his image in front of the players at all. Of course, as a head coach, he has always had this image…

"I think this game, for Borussia Dortmund, in addition to allowing them to almost win the league title in advance, can also allow them to prepare for the Champions League with peace of mind. At the same time, in the German Cup, they have also entered the final… Could Borussia Dortmund be aiming for the treble this season?" Marcel Reif mused.

This prospect is indeed quite tempting.

※※※

In the thirty-first round of the league, Borussia Dortmund will challenge Schalke 04 on the road. After this game, the whole team will welcome their Champions League semi-final opponent, Chelsea.

If it were a normal game, Borussia Dortmund would definitely give up this league game and focus on preparing for the Champions League game against Chelsea.

But unfortunately, the game before the Champions League game is the Revierderby.

No matter when, the Revierderby is the most important game.

The importance of this game is even greater than the game between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.

Therefore, Borussia Dortmund will definitely go all out and field their strongest lineup in the game against Schalke 04.

The players also attach great importance to this game.

Just after finishing the game against Bayern Munich, Zhou Yi sent a challenge to Yang Muge in the group: "Whoever wins treats, Lao Yang!"

"No problem, I'm ready with the cash!" Yang Muge was full of fighting spirit.

"Don't be polite, I'll treat you to this meal!"

"You still have to give me a chance to show my appreciation..."

Guo Nu suddenly said: "It feels like watching two people at the next table in a restaurant fighting to pay the bill..."

He Ying laughed: "Haha!"

Sun Pan complained: "So other people have to fight first to pay the bill in the hotel, and these two will kick a ball first? Well... it's definitely more civilized than fighting!"

In fact, everyone is just complaining and joking. Everyone is still looking forward to this game in their hearts.

Because this is the first time among the five of them that someone will be directly facing each other on the field.

Although Sun Pan and He Ying are both in Spain, one is in La Liga and the other is in Segunda División, so they can't meet at all. The two teams also did not meet in the Copa del Rey this season.

Last year, Sun Pan almost met Zhou Yi in the German Cup, but Borussia Dortmund felt that it was not necessary to use the full main force in a German Cup game, so Zhou Yi didn't even go to the away game, and saw Sun Pan's wonderful solo performance on TV.

Guo Nu doesn't need to be mentioned, he's the only one in the entire Serie A, and Siena is not a team that can participate in the Champions League.

So in fact, currently, Zhou Yi and Yang Muge are the most likely to meet. They don't need the Champions League or the Europa League, they only need to meet twice a year in the league.

They didn't meet before because Yang Muge had not been playing in Schalke 04's first team.

And this season, Yang Muge also missed the first Revierderby between the two sides for this reason.

Later, he got the opportunity to play in Schalke 04 and quickly became a key player.

Now he has been playing as a key player in Schalke 04 for almost half a season, and is an indispensable player in Schalke 04's midfield.

Because of his outstanding performance, Schalke 04's defense has stabilized a lot. Although they are still the team with the most goals conceded in the top four, more than half of these goals were scored in the first fifteen league rounds before Yang Muge played. So Yang Muge's contribution to Schalke 04's defense is obvious.

Thanks to his contribution, Schalke 04 is now ranked third in the league, leading fourth-placed Borussia Mönchengladbach by four points. If they can eventually maintain this ranking, they will directly qualify for the Champions League group stage without having to start playing in the Champions League qualifiers early.

This time, Yang Muge, who has gained a firm foothold in Schalke 04, will face Zhou Yi.

Schalke 04 has always lacked an excellent defender in the midfield to contain Zhou Yi. Can Yang Muge reverse this situation when facing Zhou Yi?

Not only experts, scholars, fans, and reporters are looking forward to it, but the little partners in the group are also looking forward to it…