The first warm-up match for the Chinese team was against Iran, held in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province.

The Henan fans showed great enthusiasm and support for the Chinese national team's match.

This was not only because the Chinese team had Zhou Yi, but also because of the achievements Gao Hongbo had made since taking office, leading the team.

Especially the most recent major tournament, the East Asian Four Nations Cup, also known as the East Asian Cup.

The Chinese team performed very well in the East Asian Cup earlier this year. Because Zhou Yi was not called up, few people had confidence in them.

But when the game started, the Chinese team's performance surprised everyone—they drew with the host Japan in the first game, and then defeated South Korea 3:0 at the Ajinomoto Stadium, ending the Chinese team's 32-year fear of Korea.

Especially in this second game, the Chinese team played heroically, and Deng Zhuoxiang's goal was even more wonderfully amazing.

This was the best game the Chinese national team had played since Gao Hongbo took office.

In the end, the Chinese team defeated Hong Kong, China, and won the East Asian Cup. This was the first time the Chinese team had won the championship in this event since 2006.

Then, in a warm-up match before the South Africa World Cup, Deng Zhuoxiang's beautiful elevator free kick allowed the Chinese team to defeat the world champion French team 1:0.

These games brought great satisfaction to Chinese fans.

So Gao Hongbo has a high reputation among Chinese fans, and this national team has also been well received.

In the past, there were not many people in the stands for the national team's matches, with few spectators and a bleak market.

But now, the national team's matches can also fill the stands.

Chinese fans have gone through the darkest moments, so they are actually easily satisfied now—as long as the players fight hard in the game, even if they don't win, they are very happy, as long as they play wonderful soccer.

Even if it's a friendly match, they are very happy if they can win.

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Zhou Yi did not participate in the warm-up matches before the World Cup, because he had to train hard and did not have the time and energy to fly back and forth to participate in the matches.

For this reason, Zhou Yi also communicated with Gao Hongbo, the head coach of the team, and received Gao Hongbo's understanding and support.

To the outside world, Gao Hongbo said that Zhou Yi had a successful season, but his body was tired and he needed rest, so he would not be called up for these warm-up matches.

His decision certainly aroused doubts from domestic media and fans, but Gao Hongbo still withstood the pressure. And the Chinese team's excellent performance in the warm-up match without Zhou Yi also made the doubts disappear.

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In the first warm-up match against Iran, Zhou Yi only played half the game, starting the game and being replaced at halftime. The entire Chinese team seemed out of shape, and it was useless for Zhou Yi to be great alone.

In the end, the Chinese team lost 1:3 to Asian powerhouse Iran.

In the second warm-up match against Paraguay, Zhou Yi was not on the starting list and only came on as a substitute in the second half.

And the Chinese team's mental outlook and personal performance were better than the previous game, and in the end they drew 1:1 with Paraguay, who had reached the World Cup quarterfinals.

Zhou Yi launched an attack in the game, he passed the ball to Feng Renliang, Feng Renliang cut in to receive the ball and then crossed, Gao Lin followed up in the middle and headed the goal, the ball went in.

This goal demonstrated the kind of passing and controlling soccer that Gao Hongbo had always emphasized.

It also ignited the atmosphere at the scene.

Commentator Liu Hong was very excited: "This is the Chinese team we want to see! This is the soccer we want to see!"

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After playing two warm-up matches, Zhou Yi took a plane that night and left China to return to Germany.

There was a league game next, and then the Champions League.

Because there was a Champions League game next, and he had just participated in the national team's game, Zhou Yi was not arranged to start in this game.

And not only Zhou Yi, but also many players were placed on the bench by Klopp, or did not even make the squad list at all.

It can be seen that at this time, Dortmund's focus has shifted to the Champions League.

After seven seasons, Dortmund is back in the Champions League, and of course they will pay more attention to it.

Dortmund, who gave up on the league, deservedly lost 0:2 to Wolfsburg at home in the third round of the league.

Zhou Yi sat on the bench for seventy-five minutes, and only played in the last fifteen minutes, and he was unable to turn the tide. At that time, Dortmund was already two goals behind.

The media did not criticize this failure too much. Everyone knew that Dortmund's mind was not entirely on the league. Their hearts had already flown to the Champions League in the middle of the week.

In fact, not only the team, but also the media and fans' minds have gone to the Champions League. A league game is not important. Compared with the Champions League, the league is nothing at all.

Everyone is full of expectations for Dortmund's debut in the Champions League after seven years.

Especially... Chinese media and Chinese fans.

They seemed even more excited than the German media and fans.

After all, this is Zhou Yi's first appearance in the Champions League, and also the first Chinese player to play in the Champions League since Sun Xiang.

The Champions League, as the highest level stage in European football, and even world football, has always been out of reach for Chinese players.

Before Zhou Yi, two Chinese players had appeared in the Champions League. The first was Sun Xiang, who played for Eindhoven at the time. He was also the peak of Chinese players' performance in the Champions League—playing a total of four Champions League games, playing for 168 minutes, and starting for the team in the Champions League, playing the entire game... These are all records of Chinese players in the Champions League.

His masterpiece was on March 7, 2007, when Eindhoven drew 1:1 with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. He started and played the entire game. In the eighty-second minute, he created a free kick in the frontcourt for the team, and Eindhoven used this free kick to equalize the score.

In addition to Sun Xiang, there was another Chinese player, Dong Fangzhuo. On December 12, 2007, he came on as a substitute in the seventy-second minute in Manchester United's Champions League game against Roma, making him the first Chinese player to appear in the Champions League for a powerhouse like Manchester United.

After that, no Chinese player has been able to appear in the Champions League.

In this regard, the gap between Chinese players and Japanese players is like a chasm.

But now Zhou Yi has changed the embarrassing situation of Chinese soccer.

If nothing else happens, he will start in Dortmund's away game against Valencia. He will be the second Chinese player to start in the Champions League after Sun Xiang.

And he will be more worthy of everyone's expectations than Sun Xiang, because he will not only create a free kick for the team to make the media and fans excited. If Zhou Yi's performance is only like that, it will be disappointing.

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The entire Dortmund team left Dortmund two days in advance and flew to Valencia.

At the airport, as the core player of Dortmund, Zhou Yi received special attention from Spanish reporters, who threw questions at Zhou Yi one after another.

Zhou Yi coped with the reporters who surged up like a tide very calmly and composedly, with the demeanor of a great general, not timid at all.

He repeated in English with a calm face in the face of a series of alveolar trills: "sorry, i_don't_understand."

And when the Spanish reporters found that Zhou Yi could respond to them in English, the dispute changed to asking questions in English, but still with a strong Spanish accent.

In response, Zhou Yi responded to all changes with the same: "Sorry, I don't understand what you are saying..."

The Spanish reporters were completely dumbfounded.

Taking advantage of the reporters' dumbfoundedness, Zhou Yi calmly passed through them.

People always say that there is an advantage to learning more languages. But for Zhou Yi at this moment, knowing one less language means less trouble.

And Zhou Yi really doesn't understand Spanish...

He didn't play soccer in Spain, so naturally he didn't need Spanish, so how could he learn it?

That night, the Spanish media commented on Zhou Yi's performance: "Zhou Yi seems very cautious in the face of reporters' questions. Obviously, Dortmund is not sure about participating in the Champions League again after seven years. And, we also need to pay attention to one point, that is, as the core of Dortmund, Zhou Yi is participating in the Champions League for the first time in his life..."

The Spanish media's comments were naturally said in Spanish, and Zhou Yi would not turn on the TV in his hotel in Spain to watch Spanish programs, so it stands to reason that he would not know how the Spanish media evaluated him at all.

But he still knew...

Because he has a group called "Isolate Lao Guo"!

In the evening, in the hotel room, Zhou Yi turned on his computer, logged into QQ, and showed off his Champions League trip in the group.

After all, he is the first person in this group to play in the Champions League for the adult team.

Zhou Yi: "He Ying, He Ying, I'm playing in Valencia the day after tomorrow, aren't you going to come and support me?"

He Ying: "Sorry, I'm in Barcelona."

Zhou Yi: "Aren't those all in Spain!"

He Ying: "Then you and Lao Yang are both in the Ruhr area, but I haven't seen you go to support him?"

Zhou Yi: "Damn He Ying, are you stupid? Dortmund and Schalke 04 are mortal enemies! How could I go to support Lao Yang? You wouldn't go to support Real Madrid, right? Valencia and Barcelona are not mortal enemies after all, right? Come on, come and witness my heroic posture with your own eyes!"

Facing Zhou Yi's so "arrogant" arrogance, He Ying fought back neither humble nor arrogant: "Zhou Yi, the Spanish media said you are a coward, you didn't even dare to answer their questions at the airport, obviously a sign of guilty conscience. Are you really guilty?"

Zhou Yi's "arrogance" has aroused the public anger of other people in the group. This time, even Sun Pan stood on He Ying's side, and everyone laughed at Zhou Yi. Sun Pan seemed particularly happy and exaggerated.

"Damn, who said that? It's because I can't understand Spanish!" Zhou Yi retorted in a burst of laughter.

"Oh, really? But the Spanish media also said that they later switched to English, but you didn't answer either. Can't you understand English?" He Ying did not let Zhou Yi go. After spending a long time chatting with them in this group, his online image is much more lively than offline...

"Ah ha ha ha!" Everyone laughed happily again.

In response, Zhou Yi said without changing his face: "Of course I can understand English, but I really can't understand Spanish people's lisping English."

Everyone could only respond with "hehe" to Zhou Yi's sophistry.

As a matter of course, Zhou Yi believed that they were all "envious, jealous, and hateful."