When Borussia Dortmund arrived at the airport in Morocco, a large number of reporters were already waiting there, most of them from China. The person they most wanted to interview wasn't Borussia Dortmund's coach, Klopp, but Zhou Yi. They wanted to hear Zhou Yi's thoughts on this Club World Cup semi-final.

"I am very happy that Guangzhou Hengyuan was able to reach the semi-finals. They created Chinese football history," Zhou Yi congratulated Guangzhou Hengyuan.

Then he said, "Borussia Dortmund will go all out to prepare for this game. We played against them this summer, but I believe Hengyuan has changed a lot since the last time we met."

What he said was somewhat similar to what Zheng Zhi had said.

"We won't underestimate the enemy, nor can we talk about underestimating the enemy."

Zhou Yi's answer was very formulaic, without any flaws, but it also made the reporters feel bored. This was, of course, Zhou Yi's consistent style when facing reporters, but the reporters wanted to dig out something deeper.

So a reporter directly asked Zhou Yi, "What do you think about Zheng Zhi joining the national team?"

Zhou Yi spread his hands and kicked the ball to Gao Hongbo's side. "You're asking the wrong person about this. I can't decide who can enter the national team and who can't. You should go ask Coach Gao."

Zhou Yi's answer was not unexpected by the reporters. This was a textbook example of shifting the topic...

Some reporters were not reconciled and simply threw out a "bomb": "There are rumors that your relationship with Zheng Zhi..."

Zhou Yi laughed when he heard this: "So you think I've become the overlord of the national team?"

Zhou Yi's direct counter-question made the other party not know how to respond—they couldn't say "Yes, that's what we think," could they?

Zhou Yi saw that the other party was stunned, so he said, "Okay, then I'll take this opportunity to clarify—there are no contradictions or personal grudges between Zheng Zhi and me. Whether he can enter the national team is not something I can decide, so I firmly refuse to take the blame. Of course, I hope the best players can enter the national team, and I also hope this will allow us to perform better in next year's World Cup. But I am just a player, not a coach. As players, we cannot arbitrarily comment or speculate on the coach's work, thank you."

After speaking, he asked the reporters, "Any more questions?"

A group of reporters looked at each other, and the atmosphere suddenly became a little awkward. Some of them thought that Zhou Yi, facing this thorny issue, might adopt his previous usual "kick the ball" approach, using ambiguous words to perfunctorily avoid a direct answer.

Unexpectedly, this time Zhou Yi suddenly became tough and directly confronted this statement, making the reporters feel a bit disgraced.

But with Zhou Yi's current popularity and status, what he said would put his opponents at a disadvantage, not to mention that Zhou Yi was originally in the right on this matter. If the reporters continued to pester him about this issue, it would be their fault.

So the reporters shook their heads, indicating that there were no more questions.

Zhou Yi then smiled and nodded to them before walking away.

After Zhou Yi left, a reporter suddenly slapped his forehead: "Hey!"

He successfully attracted the attention of others.

"How could I forget?" the reporter said with a look of frustration. "Zhou Yi is the kind of guy who dares to scold reporters directly online!"

"Damn it, hindsight!"

"Why didn't you remember that earlier?!"

※※※

Zhou Yi got on the bus and went with the team to the hotel where they were staying. He had been in Dortmund for a long time, and the Chinese reporters he came into contact with were those who were stationed in Dortmund, focusing on reporting on club events, and not saying much about domestic football matters. This time, for the Club World Cup, many reporters came from China, and they naturally brought the latest news from the domestic football scene.

He really didn't expect that, with the approach of the World Cup, the domestic enthusiasm had already become so high.

This was clearly the Club World Cup, but the questions asked by the Chinese reporters made people think it was the World Cup.

Although the Champions League is the most valuable and technically advanced event in football today, the World Cup is still the most influential competition...

As for whether Zheng Zhi can be selected for the national team, Zhou Yi really can't control it, and doesn't want to.

Whether Zheng Zhi can be selected or not has nothing to do with him, and it won't have any impact on him.

If Coach Gao wants to select Zheng Zhi, Zhou Yi will not object. If Coach Gao does not select Zheng Zhi, then Zhou Yi himself cannot run to be a lobbyist.

As for those rumors, Zhou Yi decided to ignore them. A straight foot is not afraid of a crooked shoe. Let them say whatever they want, it won't hurt him in the slightest.

※※※

Borussia Dortmund's league game with Hoffenheim ended on the afternoon of the fourteenth. They arrived in Morocco on the sixteenth, and then prepared for the semi-final against Guangzhou Hengyuan. The semi-final was on the evening of the seventeenth, which was 3:30 a.m. Beijing time on the eighteenth.

The time in between could be said to be very tight.

Unlike Guangzhou Hengyuan, Bayern Munich had to face a game as soon as they arrived in Morocco.

And Hengyuan had been here for almost a week and had played a game, so they were somewhat adapted to the field conditions—the semi-final venue was the same as their previous quarter-final venue, both at the Agadir Stadium.

If there were any advantages for the Guangzhou team, this was probably it.

Judging solely from the difference in strength between the two teams, Guangzhou Hengyuan had almost no chance of winning.

But this was not a reason for them to give up in advance.

At the pre-match press conference, Guangzhou team's coach, the famous Lippi, showed courage: "Borussia Dortmund is the European champion, but we are the Asian champion. I don't think the Asian champion is necessarily inferior to the European champion."

And Klopp naturally did not dare to look down on Guangzhou Hengyuan: "We have played against them in China, and they left a very deep impression on us. We will go all out in this game."

It's just that no one knew if what the two of them said was sincere.

Was Lippi bluffing? Was Klopp just saying polite words?

Because objectively speaking, Hengyuan's strength was indeed inferior to Borussia Dortmund's.

If both sides went all out, Hengyuan would still not be able to defeat Borussia Dortmund.

Unless Borussia Dortmund underestimated the enemy.

Would Borussia Dortmund underestimate the enemy?

This was hard to say, maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't.

If Borussia Dortmund underestimated the enemy, coupled with the physical and psychological fatigue caused by the dense schedule and long journey, and if Hengyuan's tactics were properly used, they would not be without a chance.

On China's social networks, there were also many speculations and discussions about this game, and they were clearly divided into two factions—one faction believed that Hengyuan was participating in the Club World Cup for the first time, mainly to learn, and that it was already great to be able to compete with Borussia Dortmund in a formal game. This was an opportunity for them to learn European advanced football experience. The result of the game was not important. What was important was to gain valuable experience in the game to help the team grow.

The other faction believed that since they had encountered this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, why couldn't they take winning as the goal? Borussia Dortmund was not an invincible universe team, and Hengyuan was not as weak as some people imagined. Those who thought Hengyuan would definitely lose were all spineless cowards who had been kneeling for too long, and they had no confidence in their own country's team...

The two factions quarreled online, and no one could convince anyone, and each of their views seemed very reasonable.

The "learning faction" believed that those who thought Hengyuan could win gave Hengyuan too much pressure. And the "confrontational faction" believed that the "learning faction" were defeatists without confidence.

It was also because everyone attached so much importance to this game that such a dispute arose.

The dispute gradually subsided before the game started, because everyone didn't have the energy to argue online anymore, and they had to wait in front of the TV to watch the live broadcast of the game.

Real hardcore fans would not miss the pre-match warm-up of both teams, the reports from the front-line reporters, and the comments from the back-end studio.

From the starting lineups announced before the game, it could be seen that both sides had sent out their main lineups for this game.

From this starting lineup alone, it seemed that the pre-match statements of the two teams could be confirmed—they were both going all out.

※※※

In the locker room, the players quietly waited for the game to start. They were very close to appearing on the field, and now only the coach's final instructions remained.

Lippi paced back and forth in the locker room, and the eyes of the Hengyuan players followed him back and forth.

But Lippi just paced back and forth without saying anything, and the players didn't make any noise either. The locker room fell into silence.

This silence lasted for a while before being broken by Lippi himself.

"Does anyone think that this is as far as our Club World Cup journey can go?"

Someone said, "No!"

The coach wanted to suppress before lifting up, so the players naturally had to cooperate—in this case, when the coach asked such a question, of course he wanted to boost morale. The coach would definitely say: "Of course not!"

So as a player, it was better to be a qualified straight man, to understand the boss's intentions, and to say this sentence in advance, wasn't it? It could also show that the players had fighting spirit.

But this time the situation was not the same. Lippi shrugged: "Yes. Our best result in the Club World Cup may be the semi-finals."

Eh?

At this moment, almost everyone in the locker room was stunned—what's going on?

It was different from the scripted play?

"Honestly, no matter how tough we are on the mouth, we can't make up for the gap between us and Borussia Dortmund. I believe no one will disagree with me when I say this, right?" Lippi spread his hands and continued. "We are indeed weaker than Borussia Dortmund in terms of strength. This is not called surrendering, this is called knowing yourself. But knowing the gap between yourself and your opponent does not mean letting you resign yourself to failure. Just treat this game as the Club World Cup final, and play all your strength in the game, don't think too much about other things. This is the only requirement I have for you."

At the same time, in Borussia Dortmund's locker room, Klopp was also giving his players instructions: "Don't think that the Guangzhou team is easy to deal with, otherwise you will be the ones who embarrass yourselves in front of the whole world! I only have one requirement for you, and that is to go all out, show your best condition, and defeat them in the shortest possible time!"