The match had only been underway for six minutes when Schalke 04 orchestrated an attack that reached the edge of Borussia Dortmund's penalty area. Draxler, who was dribbling with the ball, was brought down by Sven Bender. The referee, Kircher, awarded Schalke 04 a free kick and gave Sven Bender a verbal warning.

Being the referee for the Revierderby was no easy task. Any decision you made, no matter how fair, would draw boos.

Just now, he had only given Sven Bender a verbal warning and hadn't shown him a card, and he was already being booed by the Schalke 04 fans…

But if he had actually shown a yellow card, he might still have been booed, perhaps by the Borussia Dortmund fans, or perhaps still by the Schalke 04 fans—who thought Sven Bender should have been shown a red card and sent off the field…

Schalke 04 were awarded a free kick thirty-four meters from the goal, slightly to the right.

Boateng went to take the free kick.

The home fans became excited, cheering for Boateng with rhythmic applause.

Since joining Schalke 04 before the summer transfer window closed, Boateng had already made five appearances in the league, scoring three goals.

This was a good performance, and the Schalke 04 fans had high hopes for him. They hoped he could perform well for Schalke 04 and help the team rise again.

Boateng himself was also full of confidence, displaying various signs of self-assurance after joining Schalke 04. He said he had come here for the championship and believed that Schalke 04 was an ambitious powerhouse that would surely achieve something in the league and the Champions League.

The free kick he took hit the wall and deflected, which made the Schalke 04 fans even more excited!

The cheers of anticipation already rang through the stadium.

However, the deflection wasn't particularly dramatic, so the deflected ball was still caught by the agile Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper, Weidenfeller.

"Weidenfeller! He made a great save! And although Boateng's free kick didn't go in, it might be a good sign… Both sides will surely give us a great game!" Duan Xin said fairly and objectively.

He was truly fair and objective. Because both teams had Chinese players, and both were key players for their respective teams. So whether Schalke 04 won or Borussia Dortmund won, Duan Xin could regard it as a victory for Chinese players.

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In the sixth minute, Boateng's free kick had a deflection that threatened Borussia Dortmund's goal.

And three minutes later, Borussia Dortmund returned the favor.

In the ninth minute, Reus's powerful left-footed shot from twenty-two meters in front of the goal was caught by Hildebrand.

However, the most concerning thing was still Zhou Yi's performance.

Not only the Chinese fans, but the German audience also cared very much.

Everyone wanted to see what kind of performance Zhou Yi, who had returned to the field after more than a month of injury absence, could deliver.

After the start of the match, Zhou Yi had a lot of touches, but he mostly chose more conservative passing options, and he also didn't hold the ball for a long time to attract opposing defenders, and then pass the ball out.

From these ten minutes of the match, he was more of a midfielder conducting play, but not directly organizing it.

Marcel Reif said, "After all, it's Zhou Yi's first match after more than a month. He may still need to find his rhythm…"

Duan Xin tried hard to find highlights in Zhou Yi's performance during these ten minutes: "Zhou Yi passes the ball out quickly and accurately, which shows that Zhou Yi's control of the field situation is as excellent and stable as ever…"

As for Zhou Yi not passing the ball forward much, he kept silent about it.

Jens Keller was also closely watching Zhou Yi's performance. Through the observation of these ten minutes, he believed that his judgment was correct. Zhou Yi's physical condition had not yet reached the requirements for playing a match. The reason why Klopp started him was either due to pressure from higher management or to take a gamble.

The possibility of taking a gamble was high, after all, Klopp was a gambler…

But this was good news.

Keller felt a little relieved.

※※※

Klopp was also watching Zhou Yi's performance, and he didn't feel surprised or incredible during these ten minutes.

Any player who has just ended a long-term injury and returned to the field for the first time is likely to show this kind of performance.

Both the body and the mind need to adapt to the rhythm.

In Klopp's view, Zhou Yi was slowly finding his rhythm.

He didn't expect Zhou Yi to have an outstanding performance right away, although he knew Zhou Yi would always give him surprises, he was still a little conservative.

Moreover, judging from Zhou Yi's passes, after a month of rest and only two weeks of combined training, Zhou Yi's feeling with his teammates had not become unfamiliar. His passes were still very fast and accurate.

That was enough.

The accurate passing that Zhou Yi showed on the field not only satisfied Klopp, but also surprised others.

Of course, they didn't know that although Zhou Yi was injured, he had not given up training for a single day in the past month, but it was training in the virtual world. But that could also help him maintain a certain state.

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Yang Muge wasn't responsible for defending Zhou Yi in this match—not because Keller thought Zhou Yi didn't need special marking, but because Keller hadn't considered the possibility of Zhou Yi playing, so he hadn't assigned Yang Muge the task of defending Zhou Yi.

Who would have thought that Borussia Dortmund would actually start Zhou Yi!

Completely caught Keller off guard.

In the temporary adjustment, Keller had Yang Muge's midfield partner Neustädter defend Zhou Yi in this match.

In Keller's view, Neustädter had a strong enough body, which was perfect for dealing with Zhou Yi, who had just recovered from his injury. Using physical crushing to put huge psychological pressure on Zhou Yi, forcing him to be unable to exert his true level.

As for Yang Muge, because he wasn't very strong physically and didn't have a strong visual impact, and coupled with his excellent running ability, Keller gave him the task of sweeping the midfield—he wasn't limited to marking a certain person, but appeared wherever he was needed. This arrangement was actually quite in line with Yang Muge's characteristics. It would be a bit of a waste to use Yang Muge, who has such excellent running ability, just to limit one person…

However, Yang Muge looked at his teammate's tall figure, a height of 1.9 meters and a weight of 83 kilograms. When he was next to Zhou Yi, the physical advantage felt very obvious.

But Yang Muge knew that Zhou Yi wasn't the kind of person who could be easily overwhelmed by simple physical confrontation. On the contrary, would Neustädter's height and weight become shackles that made him less flexible when defending Zhou Yi?

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Neustädter transferred to Schalke 04 from Borussia Mönchengladbach as a free agent last summer. In the 2011-2012 season, Borussia Mönchengladbach performed well, led by Swiss coach Favre, and finished fourth in the league, earning a spot in the Champions League play-offs. The one who made great contributions to the team's attack was Reus, who joined Borussia Dortmund last summer.

And in the midfield defense, it was Neustädter and Norwegian iron midfielder Nordtveit who formed a tough defensive barrier, helping Borussia Mönchengladbach stabilize their defense and achieve excellent results.

After the end of that season, he attracted the attention of many wealthy clubs when his contract expired, and he eventually chose to join Schalke 04.

Last season, he partnered with Yang Muge at Schalke 04 and became the main midfielder, appearing in thirty-one matches and scoring three goals.

However, it was the first time for him to mark Zhou Yi in a match.

Neustädter didn't think there was anything wrong with this arrangement. He himself was full of confidence and wanted to let Zhou Yi see his power.

Ten minutes into the match, he hadn't suppressed Zhou Yi head-on once. But he wasn't in a hurry. On the contrary, he was quite proud and happy with his successful defense against Zhou Yi—wasn't it? Under his defense, Zhou Yi couldn't pass the ball forward to organize the attack. After getting the ball, he didn't dare to control the ball too much and quickly passed the ball out. This was clearly avoiding himself!

Neustädter wasn't the first time he had participated in the Revierderby, nor was it the first time he had played against Zhou Yi. He knew very well what Zhou Yi could do in normal circumstances.

Today's Zhou Yi was obviously different from the normal Zhou Yi.

It seemed that the injury did have an impact on him, but at the same time, Neustädter believed that his own defense must also be an important reason why Zhou Yi didn't perform normally…