After the first leg between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, the mainstream view of the world media was that Barcelona had a very good chance of advancing to the final four and were taking a solid step toward defending their title.

"...Although they were unable to defeat Borussia Dortmund on the road, their dominance throughout the game fully demonstrates Barcelona's current strength. As a rising force in European football over the past two seasons, Borussia Dortmund's performance in the Champions League has been remarkable, but when they encountered Barcelona, they realized the huge gap between them and a true Champions League powerhouse. This gap is not just a difference in player strength, but a comprehensive one..."

"In the first half, Borussia Dortmund tried to compete with Barcelona and fight for control of the midfield. But they quickly realized that this was an unrealistic fantasy. So during the halftime break, Borussia Dortmund quickly changed their strategy and tightened their defense. This proved to be correct. However, this game also exposed Borussia Dortmund's limitations—they have to go all out at home to hold on to a draw. How can they win the second leg on the road? Perhaps they can only learn from Inter Milan in the 2009-2010 season, defend desperately at the Camp Nou, and hope to get a 0-0 draw, then drag the game into extra time... But hopefully, they remember that even when Mourinho parked a bus in front of the goal, he still conceded a goal in the end..."

"Being able to draw 0-0 with Barcelona when the two teams' strengths are so different is already remarkable for Borussia Dortmund, so we don't need to be too critical of Borussia Dortmund's performance. Compared to Barcelona's years of cultivation and accumulation in the Champions League, Borussia Dortmund, which has only participated in the Champions League for two seasons, is obviously too young. Youth comes at a price, but youth also means the future. I believe that every game in the Champions League in these two seasons will become Borussia Dortmund's valuable asset..."

Compared with those media outlets that constantly criticized Borussia Dortmund, the local media in Dortmund were much more peaceful.

They had accepted the result. After all, the strength of the two teams was very different, and there was nothing they could do if they didn't accept it. It was more practical to take a long-term view and consider the future.

In addition, in China, Chinese fans regretted that Borussia Dortmund had been stuck in the Champions League quarterfinals for two consecutive seasons. Although Borussia Dortmund's performance was already excellent, they still felt that Borussia Dortmund's overall strength was not strong enough, which was why they could only reach the quarterfinals.

A football marketing account launched a topic on Weibo that Zhou Yi should consider transferring away from Borussia Dortmund, saying "a good bird chooses a tree to perch on," and quickly gained the attention and participation of a large number of fans through a series of marketing and promotion methods.

Everyone expressed their opinions under this topic, some opposed and some supported.

"After losing to Real Madrid last season, there were rumors that Zhou Yi was going to leave Borussia Dortmund. As a result, at the beginning of the new season, he renewed his contract with Borussia Dortmund. Rumors are just rumors. So this time, I hope the rumors are not just rumors..."

"Even if our Zhou Yi is a golden thigh, he can't carry a bunch of pig teammates..."

"What are you calling pig teammates? Gotze, Kagawa Shinji, Lewandowski... which one is weak? It can only be said that Borussia Dortmund is too unlucky, encountering the Spanish Super League duo for two consecutive years. In today's European football, let alone Borussia Dortmund, how many teams can say they can win when they encounter a team like the universe team? But I also support Zhou Yi leaving Borussia Dortmund, the Bundesliga is too niche!"

"Zhou Yi has been in Borussia Dortmund for almost three seasons, helping the team win a league title, which can be regarded as worthy of Borussia Dortmund. I think at this time he should also consider himself, going to a real powerhouse team will help him achieve better results. But if he wants to leave, don't go to Bayern Munich, the transfer is still within the same league, and it doesn't make much sense..."

"In fact, in this game, we can see the gap between Zhou Yi and Xavi, who are both midfield organizers. Although we can't say that Xavi completely destroyed him, it's okay to say that he taught Zhou Yi how to be a person, right? Zhou Yi improved very quickly at the beginning, but why do everyone think he has stagnated a bit now? It's because of Borussia Dortmund and the Bundesliga, the level of football is relatively low, which has slowed down Zhou Yi's progress..."

"Continuing from the previous point. If Zhou Yi continues to stay in Borussia Dortmund, the space for improvement is very limited. Neither Borussia Dortmund nor the Bundesliga can give him what he wants. If Zhou Yi still has ambition, he should decisively leave Borussia Dortmund and the Bundesliga this summer!"

"Although the other four of the Five Little Dragons are still considering the issue of playing more games, as the leader of the Five Little Dragons, Zhou Yi should obviously shoulder greater expectations. What he needs is not just more playing time, but to pursue a bigger stage and face more powerful challenges. So bravely step out, the outside world is more exciting!"

……

Judging from the support pk between the two sides, those who support Zhou Yi transferring away from Borussia Dortmund clearly have an absolute advantage. Perhaps only Chinese fans who were originally Borussia Dortmund fans would support Zhou Yi staying, and their support would be criticized by opposing netizens, who believed that they were too selfish, sacrificing Zhou Yi and even the interests of Chinese football for their own selfish interests.

This accusation was a bit big, so even if someone supported Zhou Yi staying, it was best not to stick their head out at this moment.

※※※

But just as everyone was talking freely on the premise that "Borussia Dortmund has been eliminated from the Champions League," Zhou Yi posted the same message on domestic and foreign social networks: "Did I travel to a week later? Why is everyone discussing our elimination?"

He also included a selfie, in which he tilted his head, frowned and grinned, with a suspicious look on his face. Next to his head, he also photoshopped a lot of question marks, which were densely arranged and filled the area around his confused face.

At the end of March 2012, Zhou Yi officially joined the luxury emoticon package...

Zhou Yi's message attracted the attention and participation of many netizens and media.

In different social media at home and abroad, his message quickly received a large number of replies.

Some people supported and encouraged him in various ways, praising Zhou Yi for his tenacious fighting spirit and never giving up.

Others told Zhou Yi to recognize the reality, decisively give up the Champions League, and ensure that he wins the championship in the league, which is more practical.

In Weibo in China, more people left messages suggesting that Zhou Yi leave Borussia Dortmund. This approach caused dissatisfaction among those netizens who supported Zhou Yi staying in Borussia Dortmund, so the two sides moved their war of words from the topic to Zhou Yi's account.

It was quite lively... In half a day, the number of comments under Zhou Yi's Weibo post exceeded 5,000, and the number of reposts was close to 10,000.

Zhou Yi took a screenshot and sent it to the "Excluding Lao Guo" group to show off to his friends: "If you want me to forward Weibo posts in the future, I'm going to charge a fee! Five hundred yuan per word!"

However, everyone's attention was not on his showing off. Yang Muge asked: "Zhou Yi, are you really going to consider leaving Borussia Dortmund?"

If Zhou Yi really wanted to leave, he would be a little regretful, because so far, he had not played against Zhou Yi in the Ruhr derby...

And if Zhou Yi left, he would inevitably feel a little lonely.

But putting aside emotional factors, and analyzing it rationally, he also admitted that what those fans in China said was right, Borussia Dortmund was not a very suitable team for Zhou Yi. In the long run, if Zhou Yi wanted to become a world-class player, then he could not always stay in Borussia Dortmund, he would leave sooner or later. Unlike himself, if his talent was always in Borussia Dortmund and the Bundesliga, it would be a waste of God's gifts...

"Leave? Am I crazy?" Zhou Yi replied very decisively. "Even if I don't say anything else, if I choose to leave Borussia Dortmund because I was eliminated from the Champions League, then what would I become? A coward, a deserter, a wimp? That doesn't fit my aesthetic philosophy. Even if I want to leave in the future, it will definitely not be for this reason."

※※※

The next day, after training, Zhou Yi was also surrounded by Chinese reporters. They came for the domestic online controversy, wanting to hear Zhou Yi's views on the proposal to leave Borussia Dortmund.

This time, facing the reporters, Zhou Yi didn't speak as bluntly as he did in the group, but was a little more euphemistic.

"Thank you for your concern. Whether you want me to leave or stay, it's all care for me, and I'm very grateful to them. But my own career should of course be planned and decided by myself. In short, thank you for your kindness. Since you all care about me, it's not appropriate to quarrel, right? We're all Chinese, there's no need to be like this, right?"

"Have you considered leaving Borussia Dortmund at some point in the future?" a Chinese reporter asked.

Zhou Yi looked at him, then grinned and gave an answer that made the reporter vomit blood: "Guess?"

Other reporters also felt that Zhou Yi would not give any answers to this question now, so they changed to asking about the second leg of the Champions League knockout stage.

"Do you still insist that Borussia Dortmund still has hope of advancing, Zhou Yi?"

"Yes, what's the problem?"

Zhou Yi likes to throw out a rhetorical question when he is interviewed, and his rhetorical questions make the reporters who interview him very headache.

What's the problem?

The rhetorical question itself is the problem!

But he couldn't say it directly, for fear of making Zhou Yi unhappy and directly refusing to be interviewed.

He had to explain: "Borussia Dortmund didn't even win at home, the probability of winning against Barcelona on the road is very low..."

"Is the probability zero?" Zhou Yi's rhetorical question came again.

"Uh... infinitely close to zero..." The reporter who asked the question was a little unsure how to answer.

"Infinitely close to zero, but not equal to zero. This is a math problem..." Seeing Zhou Yi say this, the reporter quickly stopped him: "Hey, Zhou Yi, stop, stop, stop. Don't use that trick on us, okay?"

The reporters next to him laughed.

What he said was obviously the incident where Zhou Yi used Newton's laws to tease the Schalke 04 reporter.

Zhou Yi also laughed and let go of the other party: "Okay. In short, that's what I meant. Since it's not equal to zero, then we should make efforts to strive for victory and believe that we can do it. If we don't have such an idea, then any team can surrender in advance when facing a team stronger than themselves, right?"