Chapter 1 A Perfect Start

“Adebayor——!!” The commentator’s voice was stretched and hoarse, yet even so, it was almost drowned out by the thunderous cheers of the Bernabéu.

After scoring, Adebayor beckoned Özil to come and celebrate with him, as it was Özil who had provided the assist.

Having transferred to Real Madrid this season, Özil had quickly ousted Kaká and become the team's starting attacking midfielder. His final pass had repeatedly assisted his teammates in scoring.

Last season, Zhou Yi and Özil had even faced off in the league. In the end, Özil lost to Zhou Yi in the league's assist rankings by two assists. Zhou Yi snatched the title of assist king. Moreover, Özil had played the entire season, while Zhou Yi had only started playing for Dortmund after a third of the league season had passed. His efficiency was clearly higher.

However, after coming to Real Madrid, Özil had improved significantly.

Perhaps it was because he had more powerful teammates here, allowing him to fully utilize his abilities.

The Real Madrid players were celebrating the goal to their heart's content.

Taking the lead just five minutes into the game was a perfect start.

Marcel Reif criticized Dortmund for being slow to get into the game, which was the reason they conceded a goal so quickly. And this was not an isolated incident. In the group stage, in Dortmund's away game against Inter Milan, they had also conceded a goal at the very beginning, and then conceded four goals in the first half. If it hadn't been for Zhou Yi's superhuman performance, Dortmund might have lost that game.

So, the current situation couldn't help but remind people of that match.

After the goal, Real Madrid took advantage of the momentum and launched a fierce attack on Dortmund's goal, hoping to score again as soon as possible.

Dortmund was indeed in a rather sorry state during this period, completely stunned. Their defense looked precarious.

But fortunately, no new goals were conceded.

Subsequently, Dortmund finally adjusted and began to retreat into defense.

And they successfully avoided conceding any more goals in the first half, ending the first half with a score of 0:1.

Of course, this result came at a price. Sven Bender and Schmelzer both received yellow cards in the game, which laid hidden dangers for Dortmund's second half.

However, Klopp couldn't possibly replace them, because there were no substitutes on the bench with better abilities than them.

During the halftime break, Klopp cheered on his players, praising their performance from the time they conceded the goal until the end of the first half. At least they hadn't conceded any more goals, which was indeed worthy of praise.

One had to know how fierce Real Madrid's attack had been in the first half.

Mourinho's Real Madrid was generally unlikely to have a significant lead in ball possession during a game, because they mainly played counter-attacking defense, which didn't require ball possession. Instead, they should actively give the ball possession to their opponents.

But in the first half, Real Madrid's ball possession reached a maximum of seventy-one percent, which was the level of Barcelona's ball possession...

In the first half, Real Madrid had six shots on target, while Dortmund? Zero. Not a single one!

This showed the huge gap between the two sides on the field.

Every Dortmund player also felt this deeply.

Real Madrid completely controlled the game and the rhythm. They could only follow Real Madrid's rhythm. When they were defending, they had thought about counter-attacking. Zhou Yi had also initiated several long passes, but whether it was Lewandowski, Marc, or Götze, after they got the ball in the frontcourt, it was difficult for them to connect. Under the pressure of Real Madrid's players, they quickly lost possession of the ball.

Real Madrid had also made very effective arrangements to target Zhou Yi. They had Khedira follow Zhou Yi every step of the way. Wherever Zhou Yi went, he went. And regardless of whether Zhou Yi received the ball or not, Khedira would stick close to Zhou Yi, as if Zhou Yi had the ball at his feet at any moment.

Such defense made Zhou Yi very uncomfortable—who would want a big man sticking to them like that...?

In fact, Zhou Yi was not surprised by Real Madrid's arrangement, because in the virtual space games, he had also been treated like this by Khedira.

But knowing was one thing, figuring out how to break through this defense was another.

And Zhou Yi didn't have much time left. He could only choose Real Madrid as his opponent for four nights at most.

No matter what method he used, it would be difficult for Dortmund to defeat Real Madrid away from home. In these games against the virtual Real Madrid, Dortmund always lost more than they won.

This could be seen from the comparison of the strength of the two teams' players.

But Zhou Yi didn't give up, because the virtual was virtual, and reality was reality. Losing many times in virtual games didn't mean that he would definitely lose in real games.

※※※

Although Klopp praised everyone's performance in the first half, the atmosphere in the locker room was still slightly somber. Most people didn't speak. Because they all knew what they had played like in the first half. The coach's praise was just to boost their morale. It wasn't that they had really played that well.

In this slightly somber atmosphere, Zhou Yi was also silent.

In the eyes of outsiders, he must be in a low mood, just like his teammates.

But in fact, Zhou Yi was just carefully thinking about how to kick open Real Madrid's goal in the second half. He was recalling the twenty-odd simulated games he had played in his mind, hoping to find some inspiration from them.

Dortmund hadn't lost all of these twenty-odd games. Some games were draws, and some games were even wins. It was just that they had only won two games out of twenty-odd games, the probability was too low.

Zhou Yi now felt that compared to winning the game, in the first leg away game, it would be a victory for Dortmund as long as they could draw, because Real Madrid was already leading by one goal. If Dortmund wanted to draw, they would definitely have an away goal.

An away goal plus a draw, what was unacceptable about that?

This result was simply too good.

So, Zhou Yi was now preoccupied with how to equalize the score in the second half.

Judging from the situation in the first half, he was just passing the ball up, and it was difficult to pose any threat to Real Madrid's defense. The defense composed of Ramos, Pepe, Carvalho, and Marcelo was still very solid.

But it wasn't without its weaknesses.

That was that when Khedira came up to mark him closely, they only had Alonso left in the defensive midfielder position. Alonso was a defensive midfielder who combined offense and defense, but relatively speaking, his defense was slightly weaker.

If someone could kill up at this time, they could break the balance and perhaps create some opportunities.

Zhou Yi closed his eyes and began to imagine the offensive and defensive runs of both sides in various scenarios and situations in his mind.

He was able to construct these scenarios out of thin air in his mind, thanks to the countless games that Zhou Yi had played in the virtual space. Those games provided him with a lot of experience, allowing him to be an "I've seen it all" veteran at the age of twenty.

Just as Zhou Yi was meditating with his eyes closed, he was poked. He opened his eyes and found Marc looking at him.

Seeing Zhou Yi open his eyes, Marc lowered his voice and asked him, "You can even fall asleep at a time like this?"

"No, I'm thinking about how to equalize the score. Closing my eyes can reduce external interference."

"Did you figure it out?" Hearing Zhou Yi say this, Marc was a little excited. Having been in contact with Zhou Yi for more than two years since the youth team, Marc believed that Zhou Yi was omnipotent.

Zhou Yi nodded, "Marc, in the second half, don't stay at the very front. Although there is a lot of space in their backcourt, the distance between me and you is too far, and the connection is easily cut off. You pull back, and we can maintain contact."

As soon as Zhou Yi said this, Marc understood, and he nodded repeatedly, "No problem."

There was no need to say too much in detail. With his and Zhou Yi's tacit understanding, even if there was no script, he would know what to do.

※※※

In the second half, the two sides switched sides and fought again, and the noise at the Bernabéu was still very loud.

After the game started, Real Madrid continued to launch a fierce attack on Dortmund's goal, completely disregarding whether Dortmund would respond to their counterattack. Perhaps Dortmund's performance in the first half made them feel that Dortmund was not a threat, or perhaps it was because they had absolute confidence in themselves.

But this was actually a good thing for Zhou Yi.

Because when Dortmund had the ball, he had more opportunities.

When the ball fell to his feet, Khedira still marked him closely, constantly interfering with him, trying to steal the ball from his feet, or preventing him from passing the ball accurately.

If the distance was too far, it would indeed be difficult for Zhou Yi to accurately pass the ball to his teammates in front in this situation. But now the situation was different. Marc had retreated very deeply, and he could pass the ball to Marc without too much effort.

After Marc received the ball, Xabi Alonso came up to defend him.

At this time, Zhou Yi began to run forward, instead of staying behind like he did in the first half.

Of course, Khedira also followed him, as he believed that Marc would pass the ball back to Zhou Yi.

But Marc didn't do that, but instead passed the ball to Götze.

In this process, Zhou Yi was still running forward, although not very fast. But Khedira was still following him, as he believed that this time Götze should pass the ball to Zhou Yi. He couldn't give Zhou Yi any chance.

But Götze didn't pass the ball to Zhou Yi either, but instead passed it to Marc, who was also running forward.

After Marc passed the ball, Xabi Alonso's attention was attracted by Götze, and he relaxed his marking of Marc, allowing Marc to easily run away from him.

Moreover, Mourinho had asked Khedira to stay close to Zhou Yi every step of the way, but he hadn't asked Alonso to stay close to Marc every step of the way...

Two consecutive passes, neither of which were passed to Zhou Yi, and Khedira was a little confused. If he kept running with Zhou Yi, but Zhou Yi didn't touch the ball at all, then wouldn't he be led astray by him?

If he saw an obvious gap at this time, should he fill it? If he filled it, what if they passed the ball to Zhou Yi? But if he didn't fill it, and the other party used this gap to score a goal?

They didn't just have Zhou Yi.

Khedira was still playing in Stuttgart last season, and he knew a lot about this Dortmund team. Although Zhou Yi was the core, Dortmund wasn't just Zhou Yi who could threaten the other party's goal.

Khedira was caught in a dilemma. Loyally carrying out the coach's arrangement was certainly one way to do it, but as a player, shouldn't he know how to be flexible on the field?

While Khedira was hesitating, Zhou Yi was still running. He wasn't running straight forward, but was running to the wing. It seemed as if he really wanted to take Khedira to the wing...