Chapter 1 The Most Anticipated Football Night

The evening of October 20th was the most anticipated football night for Chinese fans. First, at 9:30 PM, the Revierderby would take place. Then, at 4:00 AM on the 21st, Barcelona would play against Deportivo La Coruña away from home. If they were lucky, they could watch three Chinese players in one night.

The day before the game, Barcelona announced the eighteen-man roster for the match, and He Ying was once again selected.

This made Chinese fans even more excited about the upcoming game.

In fact, Zhou Yi and Yang Muge were also selected for their respective team rosters, but their selection was no longer news, so no one paid attention. Everyone just wanted to see them play on the field.

Actually, there was another player whose selection to the roster was worth noting, but Chinese fans and media didn't care because he wasn't a Chinese player.

The local Dortmund media, however, was very happy.

That was Mark Wagner, who had missed the entire previous season due to a serious injury, had finally made it back onto the match roster. This meant that his physical condition had reached the standard for playing, and that his injury could be considered healed.

Dortmund media welcomed and looked forward to Mark's return, and Dortmund fans were also very happy. Everyone still remembered Mark's performance after joining the first team the season before last. At that time, all of Germany thought that a rising star was emerging on the front line.

But then the injury brought everything to a halt.

After experiencing such a serious injury, the fact that Mark could return to the field was already a great victory. Everyone was very tolerant of his future, focusing on getting him back on the field before anything else.

Zhou Yi wasn't surprised that Mark could return to the roster, because when he saw Kotana move back in with him, he knew that Mark's return to the field couldn't be far off.

Sure enough, Klopp put Mark on the roster for this game.

Having just experienced a national team match, many players in the Dortmund team were experiencing some fluctuations in their physical condition and form. Putting Mark on the roster was also a kind of supplement and precaution.

If any player performed poorly, Klopp could consider letting Mark take his place.

※※※

Before the game, the entire Dortmund team checked into a hotel to prepare for the match.

Zhou Yi was assigned to a room with Mark.

When it was time to rest, Mark couldn't sleep, so Zhou Yi on the next bed joked, "What's wrong, Mark? This isn't your first professional game. What are you nervous about?"

"Cough…" Mark didn't expect Zhou Yi to be awake. He was startled. "You're not asleep, Zhou Yi?"

"You woke me up, Mark."

"Ah, sorry, Zhou Yi, I didn't mean to… I'm just… yeah, I'm a little nervous. After all, this is the first time I've been back on the roster in more than a year…"

Zhou Yi laughed, "You're just on the roster, you're not actually playing. What are you nervous about? Besides, even if you do play, there's nothing to be nervous about, right?"

"It's been more than a year since I played, after all, and I don't know what my performance will be like. What if I play badly? You know this is the Revierderby!"

"Have a little confidence in yourself, Mark. What about the Revierderby? Remember your first first-team game? Have you forgotten? That was also a Revierderby…"

When Zhou Yi said this, Mark remembered, "I remember, I was very nervous before that game too…"

"Right, you were so nervous that you couldn't even warm up properly. I even kicked you in the head."

"It was the face!"

Zhou Yi laughed heartily.

Mark also laughed, and the scenes from back then instantly appeared before his eyes. He had really made a fool of himself back then.

But after he was unexpectedly arranged to come on as a substitute…

"But when you came on, you scored two goals, Mark. You scared everyone, including your parents," Zhou Yi said after laughing. "So believe in yourself, Mark. Treat this game with a normal attitude. As long as you are given the opportunity and time, you will find your form. There's nothing to worry about."

Hearing Zhou Yi's words, Mark's heart rate slowed down a lot, "Thank you, Zhou Yi. I feel much better now, and I'm not so nervous anymore. I think I can get a good night's sleep now."

"Then good night, Mark."

"Good night, Zhou Yi."

After speaking, Zhou Yi didn't really close his eyes and enter the virtual space, but waited quietly until he heard the sound of breathing from Mark's bed become smooth and even. Only then did he close his eyes and go to "dream" and compete with Schalke 04.

※※※

Before this Revierderby, Dortmund and Schalke 04 both had fourteen points. Dortmund was ranked above Schalke 04 in third place because of their goal difference.

While Schalke 04 was "only" fourth.

This was the smallest difference between the two teams in recent years for the Revierderby.

On the one hand, Schalke 04's performance this season was excellent, and on the other hand, Dortmund's performance after the start of this season had been unstable.

Seven rounds of the league had passed, and currently in first place in the league was Bayern Munich, led by Heynckes, with seven wins and zero losses, and twenty-one points, ranking first with an undefeated record.

Bayern Munich's performance announced their strong return this season, vowing to regain the league title.

Media experts believed that the reason why Dortmund's performance after the start of this season was generally mediocre was related to the fact that their core player Zhou Yi didn't train with the team at all before the season.

Their analysis made a lot of sense. Pre-season training is very, very important for a team. There are many examples in European football of teams whose performances have plummeted during the season because they didn't do a good job of pre-season training.

A typical example is Real Madrid in the 2003-2004 season. Real Madrid, who were the league champions last season, came to East Asia to make money during pre-season training. The team was busy with various commercial activities and did not carry out systematic pre-season training well.

This led to insufficient physical reserves for the players.

In addition, the new coach Queiroz placed too much trust in the main lineup in the game and rarely used rotations, which led to the main players consuming their physical energy too quickly, while the substitutes lacked game practice, and when they needed to replace the main players, they couldn't do it at all.

Until the thirty-first round of the league, Real Madrid was still at the top of the list with sixty-seven points and had a chance to defend the league title.

But then Real Madrid fell apart. From the thirty-second round to the thirty-eighth round of the league, Real Madrid lost all seven league games!

This set the most humiliating record in Real Madrid's hundred-year history. After that season, Queiroz was fired. He had originally been Ferguson's assistant coach at Manchester United, and thought his wings had hardened. Real Madrid extended an olive branch to him, which made Queiroz ambitious, but he encountered the biggest Waterloo of his coaching career at Real Madrid.

Real Madrid ended that season with a humiliating performance and ended Queiroz's coaching career at the Bernabeu.

If Real Madrid could have done a good job of training during pre-season training, perhaps they wouldn't have collapsed so quickly in the end.

Although Zhou Yi showed a good state after the start of the league and was no stranger to the team, his lack of familiarity did not mean that the others in Dortmund were not unfamiliar with him.

In short, there were still some problems with the adaptation, which was an objective fact.

Now that the national team game had just ended, it was the Revierderby. Zhou Yi flew back and forth across Eurasia, which would definitely affect his state and physical strength. The media believed that although this game was Dortmund's home game, Schalke 04 might not have a chance to win against their opponents.

In short, this was likely to be the most evenly matched Revierderby in recent years.

※※※

After the game started, the media's analysis was confirmed.

The first to score was not the home team Dortmund, but the visiting team Schalke 04!

Schalke 04 scored a goal in just fourteen minutes after the start!

Ibrahim Afellay, who was on loan from Barcelona, used his speed and technique to break through and score.

He made the entire Westfalenstadion quiet down a lot.

Schalke's commentator shouted excitedly in the commentary box: "Afellay! Afellay! The elf from the Netherlands! He scored the first goal for Schalke 04!!"

"To be fair, Schalke 04's performance was indeed better than Dortmund's before the goal. This goal is logical and there are no accidents. Schalke 04's preparations are obviously more adequate than Dortmund's…" said Marcel Reif.

After Schalke 04 took the lead, their morale was greatly boosted, and they played even more frantically. Everyone used tireless running to contain Dortmund. Yang Muge not only marked Zhou Yi in the midfield, but also defended other Dortmund players. He was like building a dam in the midfield, blocking Dortmund's offensive outside the dam, making his goal safe and sound.

In the first half, the entire Dortmund team was not much different from sleepwalking. The national team match day still had a greater impact on them.

Logically speaking, the Revierderby should be very intense, and even if there are no goals, there should be many fouls. But Dortmund seemed to be too polite in their home stadium. The only yellow card in the first half was received by a Schalke 04 player, from their midfielder Höger.

At the end of the first half, the score was still 0:1, with the home team Dortmund behind.