Chapter 114 Pre-Match Press Conference

Although Zhou Yi had cleverly refused to answer those annoying questions at the airport, he couldn't escape his fate of facing these reporters.

Because Klopp specifically named Zhou Yi to attend the pre-match press conference with him.

This time, the reporters smiled when they saw Zhou Yi—there was a German translator present, so he couldn't use "I don't understand" as an excuse to avoid them, right?

Looking at the reporters' "malicious" smiles, Zhou Yi sat next to Klopp with a straight face.

After the press conference began, the questions were initially directed at Klopp. As the head coach who led Borussia Dortmund to the Champions League for the first time in seven years, Klopp currently enjoys immense popularity among Dortmund fans. Everyone wanted to hear his thoughts on leading the team back to the Champions League.

"...I'm not that excited, because compared to excitement, the pressure in the Champions League is greater. We're going to face a lot of difficulties, and if these difficulties aren't resolved, returning to the Champions League is meaningless. We're not here just to show our faces," Klopp said, facing the reporters' questions in his usual style.

"So you have more goals?"

"Who doesn't? Are there any teams that come to the Champions League just to play six group stage matches and then go home?" Klopp appeared ambitious and confident.

This was quite different from their collective low-key attitude before.

Perhaps Klopp believed that the match was about to begin, and there was no point in being low-key anymore, so he simply... revealed his true intentions.

The reporters then turned their questions to Zhou Yi. The first Spanish reporter started by bringing up an old issue: "Hey, Zhou Yi, there's a translator here today."

A burst of laughter erupted at the press conference. Zhou Yi smiled as well, then said, "Actually, if you guys had spoken English a little more standardly and with fewer accents at the airport that day, it wasn't like I couldn't understand." He said this in English to prove that his English was fine.

Another burst of laughter followed. They were happy to accept this kind of non-aggressive mutual teasing. Everyone was just joking around.

Once the jokes were over, the questions became less friendly.

"Is this your first time participating in the Champions League? Do you feel nervous?"

"No," Zhou Yi shook his head, stating firmly, "My name is 'Not Nervous'. Being carefree has always been my strength."

"So, does participating in the Champions League for the first time make you feel excited?"

Zhou Yi shook his head again, saying with a very definite tone, "Neither. It's just a slightly more difficult match."

"How much do you know about Valencia as a team?"

"I know them very well," Zhou Yi continued with an unquestionable tone.

He wasn't wrong about that. He did know this team very well, because he had played dozens of matches against them in the virtual space… Anyone who plays against a team thirty or forty times in a row, saying they know them would probably be an understatement, they'd have to say "I want to throw up every time I see them."

However, the Spanish reporters didn't see it that way. They thought Zhou Yi was bragging. Even Klopp wouldn't dare say he knew Valencia very well, would he?

However, Zhou Yi's performance today gave the reporters a completely different feeling. At the airport, he used "I don't understand" as an excuse to refuse to answer any questions, and the media criticized him for being nervous. But now, at the press conference, he was very forceful, never using uncertain interrogative sentences, and ending every sentence with a definite tone.

He seemed full of confidence.

This change made the reporters even more interested.

Was he really full of confidence? Or was he pretending?

Connecting this with head coach Klopp's attitude made the reporters' imaginations run wild.

The head coach and the player were both showing a confident attitude at the same time, was it a little... overdone?

※※※

That evening in his hotel room, Zhou Yi learned from He Ying how the Spanish media was evaluating his performance at the press conference.

"They say you're pretending to be confident, which actually shows your inner weakness." He Ying even sent a laughing-with-hand-over-mouth emoji after she finished speaking.

"Damn!" Zhou Yi sent a rolling-eyes emoji.

"Either way, they're always right. You can't win against the media, Zhou Yi," Yang Mu'ge kindly advised Zhou Yi in the group chat. "They make a living with their words and pens."

"It's okay, we use our feet. Just play!" Zhou Yi said.

"What? You're going to kick someone in the crotch? Zhou Yi, so that's the kind of person you are!" Sun Pan sent a shocked emoji.

"Get lost!" Zhou Yi replied. "What are you thinking!"

"Yeah, Sun Pan, don't talk nonsense, Zhou Yi wouldn't do that..." Yang Mu'ge also defended Zhou Yi.

He had just sent this message when he saw Zhou Yi's next message appear on the screen: "Of course I'm going to use my feet to kick the ball at their crotch! We're soccer players, directly kicking someone in the crotch is too unskilled, okay!"

Yang Mu'ge: "..."

Guo Nu: "233333333" and a face-palming emoji.

He Ying: "Pfft!"

Sun Pan laughed: "Hahahaha! Old Yang, never underestimate this kid's lack of principles!"

"Okay, I really can't see through Zhou Yi..." Yang Mu'ge said, then sent a crying emoji.

Sun Pan comforted his roommate: "Don't cry, Old Yang. The fact that you can't see through him means your heart is still pure and hasn't been tainted by Zhou Yi, the Lich King! That's a good thing..."

Zhou Yi rolled his eyes.

※※※

Although he had a "happy" chat with everyone in the group chat, Zhou Yi still said goodbye to everyone in the group on time and went offline to sleep.

There was a match tomorrow, so rest was important.

After getting into bed, Zhou Yi quickly entered... the virtual world of fifAoL3.

In this virtual world, Zhou Yi first had a match against Valencia, his opponent for tomorrow.

The starting lineup that Valencia sent out in this match was goalkeeper César Sánchez. The four defenders were Ricardo Costa, Jérémy Mathieu, David Navarro, and Bruno Saltor. The four midfielders were Alberto Costa, Pablo Hernández, Joaquín, and David Albelda. The two forwards were Mata and Soldado.

At the pre-match press conference today, Valencia's head coach, Unai Emery, had not announced the starting lineup. Of course, Klopp hadn't announced it either, everyone was the same in this regard.

However, Zhou Yi seemed to know the opponent's starting lineup in advance.

It was probably very close to what he was seeing now. Because the system selected the opponent's starting lineup based on these players' recent performances to judge their form, thereby determining who could start and who couldn't.

In this case, unless the opposing coach insisted on taking an unusual path before the match, making a player in good form a substitute and a player in poor form a starter, that would completely reverse the starting lineup predicted by the system.

That's why Zhou Yi dared to say at the pre-match press conference that he knew Valencia very well.

It's just that his confidence, because its source was unknown, was directly regarded by the Spanish reporters as a show of bravado.

Zhou Yi was truly wronged…

In the virtual world, Zhou Yi had played against Valencia many times and didn't feel any novelty at all.

Before the first match, he had carefully browsed the stats of every Valencia player and used their data to deduce their technical characteristics and styles.

Now he could start the match directly.

In these dozens of matches against Valencia, Borussia Dortmund had won and lost against them. In general, Valencia had a higher win rate, after all, it was their home field.

The virtual system's reality simulation had a problem, which was that it couldn't perfectly simulate the ups and downs of morale in the match. It relied too much on data for analysis. If the opponent's stats were higher than yours at the time, then their success rate would be higher.

There were many unexpected things in a match, and this was not reflected enough in the virtual system.

But for Zhou Yi, it was enough. If the virtual match could be exactly the same as the real match, wouldn't football lose all its fun?

He had been using this system for more than two years, and he believed that what he needed was not a perfect simulation of reality, but just a platform that could allow him to increase his match experience.

The virtual system did this very well.

In the first match tonight, Borussia Dortmund and Valencia ultimately drew 2-2.

Borussia Dortmund had a good start. They used a series of fierce attacks in the first twelve minutes, causing Valencia's center-back Mathieu to accidentally block the ball into his own goal. Borussia Dortmund took a 1-0 lead thanks to this own goal.

Next, in the eighteenth minute, Zhou Yi provided an assist, and Barrios scored in front of the goal. Borussia Dortmund took a two-goal lead.

This was a good start.

After that, Zhou Yi tried to keep the rhythm of the match under Borussia Dortmund's control, and it was fine at first. But as the match progressed, it became increasingly difficult to do so.

Because Valencia launched a fierce counterattack.

Plus, it was their home field, so they had an advantage in some of the probability success judgment mechanisms.

So gradually, the situation turned towards Valencia.

After the start of the second half, in the forty-seventh minute, Valencia's midfielder Hernández scored a goal for the team.

Then, in the sixty-eighth minute, Albelda equalized the score.

Valencia, who had equalized the score, continued to strengthen their attack, and their overall formation was also more forward. The system determined that Valencia players' success rate in tackling the ball had also increased.

This all put pressure on Zhou Yi, because as the team's core midfielder, he would encounter the opponent's key marking in the match.

In the end, Zhou Yi had used all his strength to end the match with a score of 2-2.

Although it couldn't perfectly simulate a real match, Zhou Yi was able to experience what level of competition the Champions League was through such a match.

This was of great benefit to him.

Because when people analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of Borussia Dortmund, they would mention their lack of experience. For a team that had been away from the Champions League for seven seasons, this was an indisputable fact. Many people on this team had no experience in participating in the Champions League.

Head coach Klopp didn't either.

As the team's core, Zhou Yi naturally didn't have any either.

But this was a deduction made according to normal circumstances, and Zhou Yi was not a person who could be judged by normal circumstances.

In terms of Champions League experience, he might already have forty matches… Of course, all the experience was with the same opponent.

But at least Zhou Yi had seen what the Champions League was like.

This was very important.

He wouldn't be caught off guard by the fast-paced Champions League in tomorrow's real match.

After finishing this match, Zhou Yi started his training in the system.

On the eve of the match, he didn't forget to improve his strength. What a dedicated player!

It's just that the training method for increasing strength was not good for positive publicity. Other people's hard training made them wish they could faint on the training ground, but Zhou Yi was sleeping soundly on a soft Simmons bed...