Barrios's injury was finally confirmed. He strained his groin during that shot, and he will be out for at least a month and a half. Whether he can play in the following games will depend on his recovery during this period.

Because the groin is a very important area for athletes, injuries there can easily become chronic problems if not handled properly, recurring repeatedly. Therefore, it must be treated with caution.

Fortunately, Mark's performance was good, which gave the Borussia Dortmund coaching staff more time, so they didn't have to rush Barrios back.

Actually, Lewandowski had been Barrios's understudy, but fate loves to play tricks. In this game, Lewandowski wasn't even on the roster and was replaced by Mark. And so, in that one game, Mark scored twice, dazzling everyone with his performance.

Under such circumstances, Klopp would definitely prioritize Mark over Lewandowski...

It just wouldn't make sense to keep a young talent who had just scored twice in the Revierderby on the bench.

※※※

After playing the Revierderby, Klopp gave the team a day off. That night, Zhou Yi went to Mark's house to attend a family dinner celebrating Mark's outstanding performance in the game.

This was a real family gathering, including not only Mark's parents and Katharina, but also Mark's relatives.

About twenty people gathered at Mark's house.

The front and back yards were full of people, chatting and drinking beer. Everyone who saw Mark congratulated him.

As an already famous Borussia Dortmund star, Zhou Yi naturally gained everyone's favor, and he kept fulfilling everyone's requests for photos and autographs at the party.

Mrs. Wagner apologized to Zhou Yi for this, saying, "I'm sorry, Zhou Yi, we invited you to join the party, but I didn't expect it to be so much trouble for you..."

Zhou Yi quickly waved his hand: "Don't mention it, Mrs. Wagner. It's just a small effort, and besides, it certainly won't be as many autographs as Mark will have to sign outside the training base tomorrow, haha!"

With that, he looked at Mark and laughed.

Mrs. Wagner also laughed, very happily.

She felt extremely proud and honored to have such a son.

Mark, his son, was surrounded by a group of children who insisted on hearing him talk about what it felt like to score in the Revierderby.

"It was just... freaking awesome!" Mark originally wanted to say "It was just f***ing freaking awesome," but he immediately realized that these were children, and he couldn't swear, so he quickly paused and swallowed the curse.

The children screamed excitedly, looking at Mark with eyes of hero worship.

The protagonist of this party was of course Mark. He was the focus of everyone's concern and discussion, and everyone would cast their eyes on him intentionally or unintentionally.

After fulfilling everyone's autograph and photo requests, Zhou Yi did not go up to disturb Mark, but returned to the house, went straight to the second floor, and arrived at the door of the room where he used to live.

The door was ajar, and Zhou Yi pushed it open gently.

The furnishings inside were the same as when he was accompanying Mark: a bed, a table, and a cabinet, very simple.

This was his first foothold in Germany. Here, he went from a youth team player to a first team player.

Just as Zhou Yi was staring at the scene in front of him in a daze, the door behind him opened, and Katharina came out.

"What are you doing?" she asked, seeing Zhou Yi.

"Oh, I came up to take a look. Why are you here?" Zhou Yi asked strangely.

"It's quieter here. There are too many people downstairs." Katharina shrugged.

"Indeed." Zhou Yi listened for a moment, then nodded.

"Do you like quiet too?" Katharina asked.

"No, I just came up to take a look." Zhou Yi shook his head.

"I thought so."

"Did you go to the game yesterday?" Zhou Yi asked suddenly.

Katharina was a little surprised: "How do you know?"

"Because I saw you."

Zhou Yi's answer startled Katharina.

Seeing Katharina's flustered look, Zhou Yi laughed: "Just kidding, I heard it from Hannah."

"Hannah, that big mouth!" Katharina rolled her eyes, but at the same time, she breathed a sigh of relief in her heart. If Zhou Yi had seen her standing up and cheering for her younger brother among a crowd of Schalke 04 fans, it would have been so embarrassing... Wouldn't her previous image be ruined?

Seeing Katharina like this, Zhou Yi found it funny. This woman was really cold on the outside and warm on the inside. She seemed to be very opposed to her younger brother playing football, but she still went to watch the game in person, and she even sat among a group of Schalke 04 fans. For her younger brother, she was really going all out.

Thinking of how she stood up proudly, raising her arms, among a crowd of dejected Schalke 04 fans, Zhou Yi felt that this woman was really interesting.

At that time, he was celebrating with Mark, but he saw this scene even earlier than Mark. Although it was very brief, based on Katharina's attire and the way she stood up to celebrate, Zhou Yi didn't have much trouble guessing that it should be Katharina.

Later, Hannah told him that Katharina had indeed gone to watch the game in person, and she even sat among a group of Schalke 04 fans, so he felt that the woman in black with a baseball cap that he saw should undoubtedly be Katharina.

"So, do you still think your younger brother doesn't have the talent to play football?" Zhou Yi asked.

"One game can't explain anything. A player doesn't just play this one game in his life." Katharina snorted.

"You're right." To Katharina's surprise, Zhou Yi didn't refute her, but nodded in agreement. "A professional career is very long, so you need to constantly work hard and improve, and you can't relax. But I still believe that Mark can go further and further on the path of professional football and achieve success. What do you think?"

Katharina looked at Zhou Yi without speaking.

Zhou Yi also looked at her, with a faint smile on his face, as if waiting for her answer.

Just at this moment, Mark's voice rang out downstairs: "Zhou Yi? Zhou Yi, where are you? Come on, they want to take pictures with you!"

Hearing this, Zhou Yi turned his head and replied downstairs, "Okay, I'll be right there."

After speaking, he turned back to Katharina and said, "Goodbye, stubborn sister."

After Zhou Yi disappeared down the stairs, Katharina realized that she had unknowingly leaned against the door frame. She was actually pushed back by a little boy...

Thinking about the look in his eyes when he finished speaking, Katharina felt a little flustered, unable to look directly at him, and just wanted to escape.

Such a self is really... too embarrassing!

※※※

This family banquet ended with everyone gathering together for a group photo.

Zhou Yi and Mark were naturally the core of everyone's support, standing in the most central position, while Katharina stood in the corner of the crowd, as if trying to hide herself.

After a lively banquet, Zhou Yi returned to his place, while Katharina did not come back, but stayed at home.

This surprised Zhou Yi a little. He originally thought that Katharina would come back with him, one after the other.

After washing up, Zhou Yi went to bed early. Attending the banquet and dealing with so many people was quite tiring.

※※※

The next day, Mark rushed into the locker room just as training was about to begin.

"Mark, you're almost late." Captain Kehl said with a straight face.

"Sorry, Captain. I was here very early, but..." Mark said, panting.

But before he could finish speaking, there was a burst of laughter in the locker room, and even Captain Kehl, who originally had a stern face, couldn't hold it back and laughed along.

"Hahaha!"

The locker room was filled with happy laughter, while Mark was a little dazed, not reacting to what was going on.

Zhou Yi shouted to Mark, "Did you wear wristbands, Mark?"

Hearing Zhou Yi's words, Mark understood what everyone was laughing at, and he quickly raised his hand: "I did!"

Everyone laughed even harder.

※※※

If anyone was worried that Mark would become complacent after becoming famous overnight, then let them see Mark's training, and I'm afraid such thoughts would disappear.

In training, Mark was still very serious and hardworking. He didn't think that scoring two goals in the game against Schalke 04 and helping the team win meant that he had "no regrets in this life" – how stupid would someone have to be to have such thoughts?

Because of Barrios's injury, Klopp modified the training plan, and Mark was obviously placed in a very important position.

At the same time, the series of quick passing and cooperation between Mark, Zhou Yi, and Götze in the game gave Klopp some inspiration. He added Kagawa Shinji to the mix and had the four of them play out such cooperation together.

And Kagawa Shinji's personal technical characteristics are indeed very suitable for this kind of play, because he has excellent technique, flexible running, and the unique small technique of Japanese players. He can integrate well with these three people.

Previously, Barrios's style was completely different from Mark's. The four of them together could never have produced such cooperation, so Klopp had never considered this aspect.

Now that Barrios was injured, looking at it again, he found that Kagawa Shinji was surprisingly suitable for this style of play.

If Borussia Dortmund can play like this, they can solve the problem of Zhou Yi being marked to death as a single core.

The attack in the frontcourt will become more free and casual, increasing unpredictability and making it more difficult for the opponent to defend.

In fact, from a certain point of view, this kind of attack can be understood as the perfect offensive state that Klopp hopes to achieve. The frontcourt attack relies on talent, and the backcourt defense relies on discipline. Now, in Borussia Dortmund's frontcourt offensive lineup, they don't actually have much advantage in terms of physique, but these small guys are very flexible and quite talented. Klopp himself doesn't know what their combination will eventually become, but he is very much looking forward to it.

What is beneficial to him is that after this Revierderby, the next game will have to wait a week later, with no other games in between, so he can use the whole week to train this set of tactics.

※※※

ps, today is also three updates, the second update will be at twelve noon!