AC Milan is currently ranked first in Serie A. Although their performance in the Champions League group stage was poor, they are still very good in the league. That's why Klopp doesn't dare to underestimate them.

Although they sent away Kaka, AC Milan loaned Zlatan Ibrahimović from Barcelona. The Swedish super striker's outstanding performance has helped AC Milan rank first in the league.

This is not an easy team to deal with.

Anyway, it's more difficult to deal with than Inter Milan, who were in disarray at the time...

Zhou Yi fully understood this during the many simulated battles before the game.

It is difficult to conquer AC Milan on their home turf.

When the actual game started, the situation was similar to what Zhou Yi had simulated in the virtual space.

As an Italian team, AC Milan is very solid in defense. On the offensive end, they have a monster like Zlatan Ibrahimović, so it is still very difficult for Dortmund to play against them.

In defense, they struggled to cope with Zlatan Ibrahimović, and in attack, it was not easy to break through the defense led by Thiago Silva.

Throughout the first half, Dortmund was unable to break through AC Milan's goal, but AC Milan frequently threatened Weidenfeller's goal.

And in terms of chances, Dortmund didn't get more opportunities than AC Milan. After all, this was an away game, and from the beginning of the game, AC Milan had been in a dominant position.

However, AC Milan also failed to blast open Dortmund's goal in the first forty-five minutes.

Because Dortmund's defense also performed very well.

In the twenty-one rounds of the Bundesliga, Dortmund's defense has only conceded seventeen goals, making them the team with the fewest goals conceded in the Bundesliga so far. They are also the only team with fewer than twenty goals conceded.

In the end, the two sides played a goalless draw in the first half.

Marcel Reif's analysis during the half-time break was that after AC Milan failed to score in the first half, they would definitely increase their offensive intensity in the second half. As long as Dortmund had enough patience, that would be their chance. Because if AC Milan, who play the first leg at home, can't win this game, the second leg will become very difficult to play. They must have a goal in the away game and at least draw with their opponents. What is the atmosphere at Dortmund's home stadium? Even Inter Milan lost there without any resistance... How could Allegri pin his hopes of advancing on the second leg away game?

So the key is that Dortmund should not be in a hurry, even if they take a 0-0 draw back, it's fine.

Calmness is very important for Dortmund, and this is also one of the important experiences of participating in the Champions League.

Many teams show the fearlessness of newborn calves in the group stage, very motivated, and perform very well. As a result, after reaching the knockout stage, they become greenhorns and are played around by experienced opponents.

Because the group stage is not a knockout stage, there is no need to determine the outcome in one or two games. There are six games to play, and the fault tolerance rate is higher.

But after entering the knockout stage, there are only two games in each knockout stage, one away game and one home game, and the fault tolerance rate is greatly reduced. Making a mistake in one game may lead to irreparable consequences. At this time, momentum is no longer important, and what replaces it is stable performance and rich experience.

This is also why the group stage and the knockout stage are completely different events.

Dortmund lacks the experience of the knockout stage. If they rush too hard, they are afraid of stumbling in the knockout stage, especially when the opponent is a veteran and experienced Champions League powerhouse like AC Milan.

What Marcel Reif was worried about was also what Klopp was worried about. He also warned his players to be patient during the half-time break.

"This is AC Milan's home, and they are the ones who want to win the game more than us. Of course, I'm not saying that we don't need to win, but we can have more patience than them, because even if this game is a draw, we still have ninety minutes when we return to our home stadium. So don't worry, first stabilize the defense in the second half, and then look for opportunities. If the opportunity is not good enough, don't rush up rashly, and don't let the situation where there are only a few people left in the backcourt..."

The players listened very carefully and nodded.

Unlike Klopp, who only used trash talk to keep the players calm, in AC Milan's locker room, Allegri had almost filled the tactical blackboard.

He was giving his players detailed instructions on each person's task, down to the specific way to run...

This may be a characteristic of Italian coaches, they will talk endlessly when they talk about tactics.

But it can also be seen that Allegri is a little nervous.

At his home stadium, with all the advantages of timing, location, and people, the fact that there were no goals in the first forty-five minutes would have some psychological impact and implications for his players and the opposing players.

These are all things that Allegri has to consider.

He hopes to score as soon as possible in the second half, otherwise the later the time, the more unfavorable it will be for them.

So he analyzed it very meticulously and complicatedly, preferring to instill everything in his players like cramming, rather than hoping that he had missed anything.

He talked the most about Zhou Yi.

Because he is the core of this team.

The recordings of the two games between Dortmund and Inter Milan in the group stage had been repeatedly analyzed by Allegri. He believes that without Zhou Yi, Dortmund might be able to qualify for the group stage, but it would definitely be difficult to qualify as the first in the group so easily.

To defeat Dortmund's performance, the first thing to do is to contain Zhou Yi's performance. As long as Zhou Yi can't perform, Dortmund's offensive effect will be greatly reduced.

In the first half, his players' restriction on Zhou Yi was still in place, so Dortmund didn't have any threatening attacks.

But it was not without a price. Midfielder Flamini received a yellow card for a foul on Zhou Yi, which created a hidden danger for AC Milan in the second half.

Secondly, another midfielder, Gattuso, is already thirty-three years old. After all, he is old. In the first half, in order to limit Zhou Yi, he followed Zhou Yi and kept running, many of which were sprints up and down, which caused a lot of loss of his physical energy. During the half-time break, Gattuso had been doing muscle relaxation massages.

Allegri is not sure whether he can contain Zhou Yi in the second half. He feels that the more important thing than containing Zhou Yi is to score as soon as possible in the second half. As long as they score, AC Milan at home will have an unstoppable momentum.

In the face of such a momentum, neither Zhou Yi nor Dortmund will be able to stop it.

※※※

After the start of the second half, AC Milan obviously stepped up their offensive, hoping to score in the shortest possible time.

Dortmund was also prepared for this, and first stabilized their defense.

At the same time, when they are able to gain possession of the ball, even if there are no good offensive opportunities, Zhou Yi will send the ball forward, and then control the ball through the cooperation of two or three people, compressing AC Milan's formation back again, keeping them away from Dortmund's penalty area.

The purpose of defense is achieved through control and offense.

This is actually the decision made by Klopp through repeated analysis and comparison of Zhou Yi on and off the field for half a season.

That is, although Zhou Yi is not good at defense, it does not mean that he has no contribution to defense. On the contrary, his contribution is very large.

Directly fighting with the opponent's players, fighting hand-to-hand, and then intercepting the ball, this may not be Zhou Yi's good way of defending.

His way of defending is to control the ball at his feet, and at the feet of the whole team. In control, keep the ball away from dangerous areas, while consuming time and eroding the opponent's fighting spirit.

Directly intercepting the ball is the first half of the defense, but what to do after intercepting the ball?

Many teams choose to kick the ball out with a big foot, so that the ball is out of the dangerous area. This is certainly a way, but it is not the best, because the ball will soon return to the attacking side's feet, and they will continue to launch a fierce attack on the defending side, and the pressure will not be reduced. Klopp believes that this is a passive defense, a last resort.

With Zhou Yi, it means that Dortmund can choose to defend actively.

After intercepting the ball, hand the ball to Zhou Yi and let Zhou Yi handle the next thing. It's like humans handing over the calculation of this kind of thing to a supercomputer, saving worry and effort. This is a major advancement in technology.

Dortmund is now enjoying this progress.

Zhou Yi's brain is simply a supercomputer on the court.

With the help of this supercomputer, Dortmund withstood AC Milan's most fierce offensive.

In the case that Zhou Yi does not need to consider how to send out a deadly pass, but only needs to take the ball away from the dangerous area and send it forward, Zhou Yi's super fast thinking ability and passing ability are brought into full play.

Unless you don't let him receive the ball, and knock him down before he receives the ball, but that's a foul. Otherwise, as long as the ball can reach his feet, he will always quickly pass the ball to where it should go, in fact, it is just passing it to a teammate, and there is no sophisticated running position or scalpel-like through ball skills involved at all.

So it's very easy, but it also makes AC Milan's defenders very headache.

After they pounce on Zhou Yi, the ball is gone, which is really a very frustrating result for the defenders, and it greatly hits their morale.

They wanted to intercept the ball, but the ball was gone. What's the use of pressing Zhou Yi to the ground?

In this way, half of the second half of the game has passed quickly. In a blink of an eye, the game has reached the sixty-fifth minute, and the score is still 0:0. AC Milan has not been able to break through Dortmund's goal.

Of course, Dortmund will not be dissatisfied with this situation, but AC Milan will.

Through continuous observation, Zhou Yi noticed the subtle emotional changes shown by AC Milan's players. They became... more impatient.