Chapter 0 The Match

Just hours after the Chinese team's match against Jordan ended, at 9:45 PM Beijing time, Iraq's match against Singapore kicked off in Qatar.

Because Jordan lost to China by two goals, their goal difference advantage over Iraq was only three goals.

So, if Iraq could win against Singapore by four goals or more in this match, they would squeeze out Jordan and advance to the top ten.

In the end, Iraq did not disappoint. They defeated Singapore 7-1 at home, gaining six net goals. Their points were the same as Jordan's, but their goal difference was three goals better, thus advancing to the top ten.

But all of this had nothing to do with Zhou Yi.

Since the match between the Chinese team and Jordan was at 4:00 PM, Zhou Yi still had time to catch a flight back to Germany after the match.

He went directly from the stadium to the airport and boarded a pre-booked flight straight to Germany.

Although Zhou Yi hurried, he still missed one of Borussia Dortmund's league games.

In the twenty-third round of the league, Borussia Dortmund defeated Hannover 96 3-1 at home. At that time, Zhou Yi was preparing for the match against Jordan in China, so he was unable to participate in this match.

Without Zhou Yi, Borussia Dortmund performed better than in the previous league round. The whole team proved with practical actions that the media's so-called "Zhou Yi dependence" was completely fictitious.

After Zhou Yi returned to Borussia Dortmund, due to the fatigue of the long journey and jet lag, Zhou Yi did not start in the twenty-fourth round of the league, in which Borussia Dortmund played Mainz at home. Instead, he sat on the bench.

Considering the crucial battle with AC Milan was coming up next, it was only natural for Klopp to let Zhou Yi rest.

Borussia Dortmund did not disappoint, and they defeated Mainz 2-1 without Zhou Yi in the starting lineup.

Zhou Yi was only substituted in with ten minutes left in the match. The purpose was not to win, but to let him find his feeling for the game.

Starting from the sixteenth round of the league, Borussia Dortmund had a nine-game winning streak, bringing their total points to fifty-nine. And how many points did Bayern Munich have? Forty-eight points.

Borussia Dortmund led them by a full eleven points in the league standings!

This huge lead led the German media to believe that Borussia Dortmund had basically locked in the league title. Unless something unexpected happened, such as... Borussia Dortmund going further and further in the Champions League. The better they did in the Champions League, the greater the impact on their league performance.

But now it seemed that Borussia Dortmund might be eliminated in the Champions League round of sixteen—it depended on their performance in the second leg of the Champions League round of sixteen.

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After the match against Mainz, the entire Borussia Dortmund team switched to preparing for the Champions League.

AC Milan also flew to Dortmund the day before the match. The score of 3-1 made the AC Milan players look quite relaxed when interviewed at the airport.

In the recently concluded twenty-sixth round of the Serie A league, AC Milan had just defeated Palermo 4-0 away, in great shape. They also led Juventus by two points in the league standings.

At the same time, as their opponent, Borussia Dortmund's core, Zhou Yi, had not played well in the last three league games. Due to participating in the national team, he had missed two of the last three league games, and in the third game he only came on as a substitute, playing only ten minutes in total in the three games.

How could he maintain his form like this?

In addition, he traveled back and forth to China to participate in the World Cup qualifiers, so fatigue from the journey and his physical condition and form were definitely a problem.

So AC Milan felt that as long as they didn't make mistakes themselves in this match, it wouldn't be difficult to win against Borussia Dortmund away.

But when the match really started, they realized that the situation was completely different from what they had imagined...

Borussia Dortmund's core, Zhou Yi, showed no signs of discomfort.

His performance on the field made it hard to believe that he was someone who had only played ten minutes in the last three league games.

Only five minutes into the match, Zhou Yi had already earned Mark van Bommel a yellow card.

As the team's main defensive midfielder, it was not a good thing for Van Bommel to have a yellow card in the first five minutes.

Some superstitious people might even think it was an ominous sign.

Although superstition has no basis, some things on the football field are just that strange...

Two minutes after Van Bommel received this yellow card, in the seventh minute of the match, Borussia Dortmund scored.

The goal scorer was the team's main center forward, Robert Lewandowski.

And the person who assisted him was Zhou Yi!

"Borussia Dortmund leads AC Milan 1-0! The goal scorer is Robert—" the stadium announcer Norbert Dickel shouted, and countless fans in the stands responded with a loud roar.

"Lewandowski!!!"

After scoring the goal, Lewandowski ran over to hug Zhou Yi.

The commentator He Ping was very happy: "Zhou Yi is maintaining his form very well. Although he has only played ten minutes in the last three league games and looks like he lacks match practice, he has surprised everyone! It seems that not playing the league games properly has given him enough rest instead... He earned Van Bommel a yellow card in the first five minutes and assisted Lewandowski in scoring a goal in the first seven minutes. Now Borussia Dortmund is only one goal behind AC Milan in the aggregate score, and they also have an away goal!"

Marcel Reif was also analyzing the situation for everyone: "Beautiful! 1-0! Borussia Dortmund is 2-3 behind AC Milan on aggregate, but they have an away goal, so they only need to score one more goal, 2-0, to eliminate AC Milan! This is where the importance of Zhou Yi's away goal in the previous leg is shown!"

Lewandowski's goal made AC Milan a little dazed—they really didn't expect Borussia Dortmund to break through their goal so quickly.

This was a big surprise to them.

What to do next?

When the match restarted, the entire AC Milan team played a bit chaotically. This chaos was not because of tactics. The tactics were actually clear. After conceding a goal so early, there was only one choice—attack, and try to score an away goal to offset Borussia Dortmund's away goal advantage.

The chaos of the AC Milan players came from their mentality. Borussia Dortmund's goal in the first seven minutes and the aggressive momentum they showed from the first minute of the match made the AC Milan players a little flustered.

Although they tried to counterattack, their attack was not smooth under Borussia Dortmund's tough defense.

Borussia Dortmund also paid the price to stop AC Milan's counterattack. In the thirteenth and fifteenth minutes, in just two minutes, the two full-backs Piszczek and Schmelzer received a yellow card one after another.

Two defenders receiving yellow cards is, in theory, worse than Van Bommel, the defensive midfielder, receiving a yellow card.

But Borussia Dortmund didn't care at all.

They were the players who were behind, so they wouldn't think about so many unnecessary things.

For them, if they couldn't advance to the next round, it wouldn't matter if no one had a yellow card.

In this regard, Borussia Dortmund had fewer thoughts than AC Milan. On the football field, the more you think, the worse it is. Sometimes, the less you think, the better.

AC Milan's counterattack after conceding the goal was forced back by Borussia Dortmund's tough defense.

Borussia Dortmund began to suppress AC Milan again.

And in the twenty-sixth minute, Götze dribbled horizontally outside the penalty area, then suddenly shot, and the football pierced through the fingers of AC Milan's goalkeeper Abbiati!

"2-0!!! Well done! Götze!" Marcel Reif shouted, raising his arms. "3-3 on aggregate! But Borussia Dortmund still has an away goal! If this score can be maintained until the end of the match, Borussia Dortmund will advance to the Champions League quarter-finals for the second consecutive season!"

"Götze! That was a beautiful shot!" He Ping was also very happy. The further Borussia Dortmund could go in the Champions League, the more Zhou Yi matches he could commentate on.

The Südtribüne (South Stand) of the Westfalenstadion was almost collapsing after Götze's goal. The violent vibration would make people think there was an earthquake. But that was just caused by the jumping of Borussia Dortmund's die-hard fans in the stands...

All the Borussia Dortmund fans had already begun to look forward to their team attacking AC Milan's city like a hot knife through butter in the next game, scoring more goals and completely securing the victory. Then which team will we meet in the quarter-finals?

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The Borussia Dortmund players on the field seemed to have also begun to consider their quarter-final opponents.

When they lost the first leg 1-3, many people criticized them fiercely. Yes, they did not perform well in the first leg. But now they have proved that they can achieve a reversal when they are not favored!

This result makes all Borussia Dortmund players feel proud and honored.

But everything has two sides.

When the match restarted, the Borussia Dortmund players, who were still immersed in the joy and excitement of equalizing the aggregate score, quickly discovered that the opponent in front of them seemed to be a little different from before...