Chapter 1 Zhou Yi's First Goal of the Season

“Zhou Yi! Zhou Yi! Oh, beautiful! Goal!” Duan Xin shouted excitedly in the studio. “This is his first goal of the season, his first league goal! 2:0! Borussia Dortmund further extends their lead!”

As he said, Duan Xin was excited because this was Zhou Yi's first goal of the season.

Whether in the league or the Champions League, he had not been able to score before.

Although Zhou Yi himself is not a player who is good at scoring goals, he played twenty-one times last season and had fourteen assists in the league, but only scored two goals.

After all, he is an offensive organizer. This season, his position has been further back, so he has even fewer opportunities to approach the goal and score.

In this case, his goal will naturally excite supporters.

After scoring, Zhou Yi ran to Shinji Kagawa, who passed the ball to him, and the two hugged each other.

Other teammates also rushed up and surrounded them.

When they were leading 1:0, they were still somewhat uncertain, but Zhou Yi's goal gave everyone a reassurance.

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After Zhou Yi scored, Klopp cheered on the sidelines, and Borussia Dortmund fans in the stands kept shouting Zhou Yi's name.

Last season, Borussia Dortmund was defeated twice by Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund fans had a bad feeling in their hearts that they wanted to vent.

Now they have finally got their wish.

※※※

Bayern Munich, who were two goals behind, were certainly not willing to lose the game just like that. Just one minute after Zhou Yi scored, they began to make substitutions.

Defender Braafheid was replaced by forward Olić.

From this substitution, you can see Van Gaal's idea.

He wanted to attack desperately.

However, Borussia Dortmund, who were leading by two goals, began to retreat to defend, and coupled with Bayern Munich's ineffective attack, it was useless no matter how many forwards they put on.

In the seventy-sixth minute, Klopp replaced Shinji Kagawa with Lewandowski, further maintaining the pressure on Bayern Munich in attack, which prevented Bayern Munich from really going all out to attack.

In the end, the score was not changed, and Borussia Dortmund defeated Bayern Munich 2:0 at their home stadium, which was considered revenge for being defeated twice last season.

After the game, Zhou Yi was stopped by reporters in the mixed zone, who asked him for his opinion on the victory and whether he felt a sense of revenge.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi shook his head with a pouting mouth: "No, not at all. Bayern Munich's recent form is really too bad. This is not their true strength. I don't feel any sense of revenge for defeating such a Bayern Munich."

After speaking, he waved his hand and walked away from the reporters.

Judging from his expression, he really didn't have any particularly obvious sense of triumph, as if he had won an ordinary game.

This game, which the outside world values very much, seemed insignificant to him.

However, what Zhou Yi said was indeed reasonable, and the reporters couldn't find any fault with it.

Bayern Munich's form is really too poor. They dare to lose to any team. What's so incredible about losing to Borussia Dortmund away from home?

※※※

Defeating Bayern Munich at home did not allow Borussia Dortmund to move up in the rankings, because Mainz, who was ranked first, won again, defeating Hoffenheim 4:2 at home. They have maintained a winning streak since the league began.

In the eighth round of the league, Borussia Dortmund challenged Cologne away from home.

They also won this game, 2:1. Kuba and Götze each scored a goal.

And Mainz finally ended their winning streak, as they were defeated 0:1 by Hamburg at home.

In this way, both Borussia Dortmund and Mainz have seven wins and one loss, with twenty-one points. Borussia Dortmund has a better goal difference than Mainz, so Borussia Dortmund's ranking has risen to first.

It has been a long time since Borussia Dortmund finally sat on the chair of first place in the league…

This moment is indeed memorable for Borussia Dortmund.

Because since the team fell into an economic crisis and had to rely on selling star players to make ends meet, the team's performance has been fluctuating. It has been difficult to reach the top four in the league, let alone first place in the league, even for one round, which is almost impossible.

Now they have become the first in the league, what does this mean?

Considering that Borussia Dortmund finally ranked second in the league last season, this shows that Borussia Dortmund is truly beginning to recover.

At the beginning of the new season, after Şahin left the team, many people were worried about Borussia Dortmund's prospects for the new season, believing that it would be difficult for Zhou Yi alone to lead the team to a higher place. Borussia Dortmund has never been a team that can retain its core players and has great ambitions, so their ranking this season may not be as good as last season's second place.

As a result, eight rounds of the league have passed, Borussia Dortmund has become the first, and Zhou Yi has also performed well. In the eight rounds of the league, he has one goal and five assists, making him the team's well-deserved core.

Zhou Yi is doing very well in Borussia Dortmund, but what about Şahin, who left the team?

After transferring to Real Madrid, Şahin took over the number five jersey left by Zidane, but he is not doing well in Real Madrid. Under Mourinho, he can't even get into the game.

So far, he has not played for Real Madrid. On the one hand, he is affected by injuries, and on the other hand, Real Madrid bought him to be a substitute for Xabi Alonso, so how can he compare with playing as the main core player in Borussia Dortmund?

Perhaps Şahin knew that he would be a substitute in Real Madrid, but he still accepted Real Madrid's invitation.

This is a matter of personal choice. Some people would rather be the tail of a phoenix than the head of a chicken, and some people would rather be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix. There is nothing to say, just be responsible for your personal choices.

It is not that there are no examples of success after going to a wealthy team, nor are there examples of being worn down on the bench of a wealthy team.

Now that La Liga has only started for more than a month, it is not yet known what Şahin's final result will be in Real Madrid.

But anyway, Zhou Yi is playing very happily in Borussia Dortmund, like a fish in water. I wonder what Şahin would think if he saw the current situation of his former midfield partner.

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In the game against Cologne, Zhou Yi did not start, he came on as a substitute.

The reason is that the third round of the Champions League group stage is coming up soon, and Borussia Dortmund will challenge the seeded team in this group, the defending champion Inter Milan, away from home.

For the sake of ensuring that the core players get enough rest, Zhou Yi sat on the bench in the game against Cologne, and only played for ten minutes in the end, with no goals and no assists. He just came on the field to maintain his game status.

Inter Milan should be the strongest opponent that Borussia Dortmund can encounter in the group stage.

And from the last group match, Inter Milan defeated Valencia 4:0 at their home stadium, which also reflected the signal of their strong recovery.

The current Inter Milan is different from the Inter Milan that was tied by Twente away from home in the first group match.

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Zhou Yi found a situation that, as the team's two-line battle began this season, the number of simulated matches between him and some opponents in the virtual space has also decreased.

If there are two games in a week, then he only has half a week to conduct simulated matches with the next opponent. He cannot skip the league opponent and directly challenge the Champions League opponent in the middle of next week. The system does not allow this.

He can choose not to play, but he cannot skip it.

In this way, he plays with the league opponent for half a week and with the Champions League opponent for half a week, and the number of matches is reduced by half.

Does this have an impact?

Yes, after all, the time to understand the opponent is reduced by half.

But Zhou Yi doesn't think the impact is very big. After all, half a week is enough time. You must know that one hour in the virtual space is equal to one day in the real world. Even if there are only half a week, three days, and seven hours of sleep every day, that is twenty-one hours of sleep time, which is equivalent to twenty-one days in the virtual world, a full three weeks.

Playing with a team for three consecutive weeks, with one match every day, that's twenty-one matches.

It is still enough to understand and be familiar with the opponent.

※※※

Borussia Dortmund came to Milan one day in advance. Because Großkreutz received a red card in the last game, he will be automatically suspended for this game.

Klopp let Kuba, who scored in the last league game, replace the suspended Großkreutz and started in the game against Inter Milan.

The personnel in other positions remained unchanged.

For this game, Klopp made very detailed arrangements. For him, the best result is for Borussia Dortmund to defeat Inter Milan away from home. But if they cannot defeat them, it would be good to get a draw in the end.

Losing must be avoided as much as possible.

He also wants to compete with Inter Milan for the first place in the group…

To go further in the knockout stage, the first place in the group is certainly better than the second place.

After arriving in Milan, Zhou Yi chatted with everyone in the group at night.

"Where's Lao Guo? Why didn't he come to the airport to meet us? Is he still a friend? Is there any friendship? Really, he's becoming more and more big-headed since he won the Champions League!"

Guo Nu rolled his eyes: "Should I greet you with rotten eggs?"

Since Inter Milan won the Champions League last season, everyone—mainly Zhou Yi and Sun Pan—loves to joke in the group that Guo Nu is Mr. Champions League, because his team is the first among them to win the Champions League. But in fact, this Champions League title has nothing to do with Guo Nu. Of course, he will not forcibly put gold on his face, but Zhou Yi and Sun Pan have to put gold on his face…

It's just that in Guo Nu's view, this is simply forcibly putting a shit pot on himself, and he firmly does not recognize it.

"Hey, Lao Guo, will you appear on the roster?" Zhou Yi asked again.

"No!" Guo Nu certainly thinks that Zhou Yi is satirizing himself, deliberately provoking him. Because he hasn't even made the first team, how could he be on the eighteen-man roster?

Zhou Yi couldn't possibly not know this.

Of course, Zhou Yi knows, because in the pre-match virtual match, there was no sign of Guo Nu at all.

"That's really a pity. Then how about this, will you treat me to a meal after the game?"

"If you lose, I'll treat you to a meal," Guo Nu said. "As a consolation."

"If you don't want to treat, just say it directly. Don't curse me like this."

"Who cursed you? This is our home stadium! Isn't it normal to take you down?" Guo Nu was originally a Barcelona fan and desperately wanted to play for Barcelona. Later, by chance, he came to Inter Milan, and Inter Milan also became his home team.

Sun Pan jumped out: "Open the betting, open the betting! I bet Inter Milan wins!"

He Ying: "I support Zhou Yi."

Yang Muge hesitated for a while and said, "Then I'll bet on a draw…"