Chapter 1 The Dortmund Team Returns

After fifteen days of intensive training in warm southern Spain, the entire Borussia Dortmund team returned to a Dortmund still blanketed in heavy snow.

It felt like stepping into a completely different parallel world.

On the evening of January 19th, Borussia Dortmund would face Werder Bremen away in a match of the 18th round of the league.

Currently, Borussia Dortmund was only two points behind Bayern Munich, a suspenseful difference. Klopp's strategy for the team was to catch up with Bayern Munich as much as possible before the Champions League knockout stage began, and it would be even better if they could surpass them in points.

Borussia Dortmund's first Champions League knockout match was on the evening of February 13th, less than a month away.

During this period, Borussia Dortmund had four league matches to play.

They were the 18th round away against Werder Bremen, the 19th round at home against Nuremberg, the 20th round away against Bayer Leverkusen, and the 21st round at home against Hamburg.

These four matches may determine the situation of Borussia Dortmund's league title chase this season. Because once the Champions League knockout stage begins, Borussia Dortmund will inevitably be distracted, and no one can guarantee what will happen in the final sprint stage of the league.

During the same period, Bayern Munich's opponents were Greuther Fürth, Stuttgart, Mainz, and Schalke 04. The home and away order was home, away, away, home.

It's hard to say whose opponents are more difficult to deal with, and it's also hard to say whose schedule is more advantageous.

Instead of focusing on how the opponents are doing, it's better to focus on doing your own job well and playing your own game well.

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Coincidentally, after the 18th round of the Bundesliga, the 21st round of Ligue 1 will begin on the evening of January 20th. This is likely to be He Ying's first match after joining Paris Saint-Germain.

It can even be said that the domestic attention to He Ying's match is even higher than that of Borussia Dortmund's match. Because everyone knows that Zhou Yi is unlikely to be a substitute, but He Ying's fate affects the hearts of many people. Everyone wants to see what kind of performance He Ying can have after experiencing such a change.

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On the evening of January 19th, Borussia Dortmund's away match against Werder Bremen began in the snow. Nuri Şahin, who was on loan, sat on the bench and did not enter the starting lineup. This arrangement shows that Klopp really didn't plan to make Şahin a main player. His position for Şahin was just a rotation player.

And Şahin didn't have any objection to this. He knew very well that after experiencing so many things, it was good enough to be able to play games after returning to Borussia Dortmund. As for being a main core player, don't even think about it, just be down-to-earth.

The setbacks he suffered at Real Madrid and Liverpool made this once-genius teenager seem more low-key and pragmatic, and he seemed to have taken a lighter view of fame and fortune.

In this match, Klopp sent out almost the strongest lineup at home. The attacking lineup composed of Lewandowski, Mark, Reus, Zhou Yi, and Götze all appeared.

The powerful attacking firepower allowed Borussia Dortmund to take the initiative as the away team from the beginning. In the ninth minute, Reus seized the opportunity to score the first goal for Borussia Dortmund.

Ten minutes later, Götze received a pass from Mark and scored a close-range shot, giving Borussia Dortmund a 2-0 lead over Werder Bremen.

"Less than twenty minutes into the game, Borussia Dortmund has taken a two-goal lead! And it's still away from home, which fully demonstrates the strength of this Borussia Dortmund team in the Bundesliga. If there are no accidents this season, the title race will still be between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich," Duan Xin commented.

"Thanks to the geothermal facilities, we can see the green turf, but unfortunately, this heat doesn't seem to be able to be transmitted to the Werder Bremen players. Their movements on this cold winter night are like their bodies have been frozen. On the other hand, the Borussia Dortmund players are much more flexible than Werder Bremen. Maybe it's because the Borussia Dortmund players have been running all the time, they don't feel cold at all, and they are not affected by the weather too much..." Marcel Reif commented (jokingly) on the performance of the two teams' players.

Werder Bremen's performance in this match was indeed not very good. Their players seemed to have not recovered from the winter break, and the players seemed to still be celebrating Christmas.

In the second half, just three minutes after the restart, Zhou Yi used the outside of his right foot to send a curved ball from outside the penalty area. The ball bypassed the Werder Bremen defender and accurately landed at Mark's feet. Facing the ball sent by Zhou Yi, Mark did not stop the ball, but chose to push it directly. The angle of the push was very tricky, and the ball rolled into the goal along the far post.

"3:0! Mark Wagner! The suspense of this match has completely ended!" Marcel Reif shouted. "Just at the beginning of the second half, Borussia Dortmund used a quick attack to score again. Werder Bremen is three goals behind at their home ground, and it will be very difficult to get back!"

Of course, Werder Bremen was not willing to admit defeat at their home ground like this. Their coach, Schaaf, replaced two players in one go, replacing defender Prödl with young Turkish midfielder Özkan Yildirim, and replacing another striker, Petersen, with Nigerian striker Joseph Akpala.

Hoping to improve the attack.

However, Borussia Dortmund was already three goals ahead, and they didn't need to continue to risk attacking, allowing Werder Bremen to launch a sneak attack. So under Zhou Yi's leadership, Borussia Dortmund began to play possession football, consciously slowing down the pace and speed.

In this situation, Klopp also made adjustments, replacing Reus with Kuba and Götze with Şahin.

Şahin put on his jersey again and will sit in the defensive midfielder position, assisting Zhou Yi to control the rhythm together.

The match gradually progressed to the eightieth minute, and neither side scored. Borussia Dortmund was not in a hurry, anyway, they were three goals ahead, while Werder Bremen seemed very impatient.

At this time, Zhou Yi realized that Borussia Dortmund didn't need to slow down the rhythm anymore. Because anyway, there were still three minutes left in the match, and the possibility of Werder Bremen scoring three goals in these ten minutes to tie the score was not non-existent, but the probability was really scary low. In this situation, Borussia Dortmund didn't need to continue to delay time, but could try to attack, maybe there would be more gains?

The Bundesliga league is different from the Champions League matches. In the case of two teams having the same points, they don't compare the results of their matches against each other, but first compare the goal difference, so being able to get more goal difference in the match is also adding more winning chips for possible future situations.

So he took advantage of a dead ball opportunity, ran to Şahin's side, covered his mouth with his hand, and told him his plan in Şahin's ear.

Şahin had no objection to this, just follow Zhou Yi's ideas, he only cared about assisting.

When the match resumed, Zhou Yi quickly launched a successful attack, which was finally assisted by the full-back Piszczek, who scored a goal for Lewandowski, and Borussia Dortmund led Werder Bremen 4:0!

Lewandowski's goal completely killed the suspense of the match. Now Werder Bremen only had one choice, which was to try to score a goal to save face. It would be too embarrassing to be blanked at their home ground...

So in the last ten minutes, Werder Bremen's attack became even more frantic.

Of course, facing the frantic counterattack of Werder Bremen, Zhou Yi didn't back down either. In the eighty-sixth minute, he assisted Kuba to score Borussia Dortmund's last goal in this match.

"5:0! Kuba!! Borussia Dortmund is actually leading Werder Bremen by such a large score away from home!" Marcel Reif was a little surprised. "Werder Bremen's start to the second half of the league is not good, it seems that their relegation road this season will not be easy!"

In the end, Borussia Dortmund defeated Werder Bremen 5:0 away from home, achieving a good start to their second half of the league.

In the earlier match between Bayern Munich and Greuther Fürth at Bayern Munich's home ground, Bayern Munich easily defeated Greuther Fürth with a score of 2:0, and the two teams still had a two-point difference.

However, in the league, the outcome of a match is not that important. Compared with the Champions League, the league is a marathon, and inner peace and stability are the most important. As long as Borussia Dortmund keeps winning, and is patient, they will always get opportunities.

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After Zhou Yi's match, the match that Chinese fans are most concerned about is coming.

Not long after Borussia Dortmund's match ended, Paris Saint-Germain announced their squad list for the next match. Coach Ancelotti put He Ying on the squad list, which meant that he would have the opportunity to play.

This match is not only concerned by domestic fans, but also by Zhou Yi and the others.

After returning to Dortmund from the away game, Zhou Yi had a day off. In the evening, he sat in front of the TV in the living room early, swiping his phone and waiting for the match to start.

Cotana passed by behind him and found that he was actually watching Ligue 1, and was a little surprised: "You watch French matches too?"

"I have a friend there." Zhou Yi briefly explained the situation.

"Oh, okay." Cotana nodded, walked into her room, and then closed the door, not disturbing Zhou Yi from watching the game.

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In the starting list announced before the match, He Ying did not appear, he was sitting on the bench.

After the match started, although He Ying did not start, Zhou Yi was still watching the match very seriously, because he wanted to be able to help He Ying analyze the situation after the match. See how to play the game faster in this team, and play the game stably.

This match is Paris Saint-Germain's away game against Bordeaux.

Zhou Yi also specially learned about the previous situation of the two teams. As of the twentieth round of the league, Paris Saint-Germain had eleven wins, six draws, and three losses, accumulating thirty-nine points, ranking second with a two-point disadvantage.

Bordeaux had seven wins, eleven draws, and two losses, accumulating thirty-two points, ranking fourth.

At their home ground, Bordeaux didn't perform very well. They only won three of their nine home games and drew six. Although they are the only team in Ligue 1 that has remained undefeated at home, so many draws at home are actually meaningless. In these nine home games, they only scored nine goals and conceded six goals, averaging only one goal per game, which fully demonstrates the weakness of their home attacking firepower. Bordeaux's home performance ranks fourteenth among the twenty teams in Ligue 1, the sixth from the bottom.

So the home ground may not be Bordeaux's advantage.

If He Ying has the opportunity to play, he can actually take advantage of this point and attack Bordeaux's defense.

Regarding this point, Zhou Yi had actually communicated directly with He Ying on the phone before the match.

Most of the time in the first half, the two sides played without much excitement. The number of shots from both sides was not very high, with Bordeaux slightly higher than Paris Saint-Germain - this is their home ground after all.

However, although Bordeaux's number of shots was higher than that of Paris Saint-Germain, the quality of their shots was not very high, with only one shot hitting the goal frame.

Lack of a sharp forward... Zhou Yi felt that He Ying should go to Bordeaux, maybe he wouldn't have to sit on the bench in this match, he could directly start the game.

On the Paris Saint-Germain side, He Ying's competitive pressure on the front line is still greater than in Bordeaux. The two starting forwards are both famous, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Lavezzi.

In the forty-third minute, the first half was about to end, and the famous Zlatan Ibrahimović seized the opportunity, scored a goal, scored the first goal for Paris Saint-Germain, and broke the deadlock.

In both matches, both away teams took the initiative and scored first...