Before Yasuhito Endo prepared to pass the ball, he looked up to observe the situation, making sure the direction he was passing to was his teammate, and definitely not a Chinese player wearing a red jersey. He was very sure of this, after all, red and blue are very different, and he wasn't red-blue colorblind.

But when he glanced at the football under the pressure of the Chinese players, and then passed the football out, he looked up to observe his passing target, and as a result, on that route, he saw a red figure—Zhou Yi stretched out his foot and intercepted the football!

He widened his eyes, unable to figure out when Zhou Yi had appeared there. How long did it take to just lower his head? How could Zhou Yi appear in that place in such a short time?

The Chinese players who were besieging him reacted much faster than he did.

Seeing Zhou Yi intercept the ball, Hao Junmin and He Ying quickly dispersed to both sides, leaving Yasuhito Endo alone.

Zhou Yi, having gotten the ball, didn't hesitate and kicked the football diagonally forward to He Ying.

He Ying didn't even have to slow down, instead accelerating to catch up and receive the football.

At this moment, he could directly face the Japanese team's defensive line.

Standing in front of him was Japan's defender Maya Yoshida.

Those national team players who came from the Chinese Olympic team shouldn't be unfamiliar with Maya Yoshida. When the Chinese and Japanese Olympic teams met in the Olympic finals, the captain of the Japanese Olympic team was this over-aged player, Maya Yoshida.

Facing Maya Yoshida's obstruction, He Ying swayed his upper body. His shoulder sank to the left, but his right foot used the outside of his foot to push the football to the right. At the same time, he accelerated and rushed into the penalty area!

"He Ying breaks through!" The commentator Duan Xin roared excitedly.

Deafening cheers also rang out from the stands of the Helong Sports Center.

He Ying, breaking through, shot in the cheers.

The football went slightly above the crossbar and flew out of the baseline from the far post…

"Oh! What a pity! The ball didn't go in!"

The Japanese commentator exclaimed, "Dangerous! Dangerous! It was just a little bit high!"

The game had just started, and the Chinese team had already had a threatening shot, immediately exciting the Chinese fans in the stands. Even if the ball didn't go in, everyone was very happy.

This showed the momentum of the Chinese team!

In such games, momentum is often the most important thing.

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He Ying's shot attracted everyone's attention and discussion. Zhou Yi's somewhat strange performance before was temporarily put aside by everyone, and no one cared about it.

Next, the game continued.

Seeing that the Chinese team used a shot to threaten their goal, the Japanese team also knew the importance of momentum. If they let the Chinese team suppress their momentum like this, then the following game would be difficult to play.

In order not to lose to the Chinese team in terms of momentum, they naturally had to make some reactions.

Shinji Kagawa responded with a long shot from outside the penalty area.

This was a high-quality long shot. Sun Pan didn't dare to use his palms when saving the ball, but used both fists to punch the football out.

The football was punched to the wing, allowing Japan's forward Ryoichi Maeda to pull to the wing and receive the ball.

After adjusting, he crossed the ball.

Guo Nu jumped up in front of Shinji Okazaki and headed the football out.

Then the Chinese team took advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack. Hao Junmin crossed the ball in front of the goal, but He Ying was a little late and couldn't touch the football!

"Oh! He Ying! If he had touched this ball, it could be said to be a guaranteed goal!"

Duan Xin almost slapped his thigh.

He Ying, who missed this opportunity, was also very annoyed. He slammed the ground hard before getting up from the ground.

Although they didn't score, the Japanese team was still very wary of the Chinese team's fast counterattacks, because the Chinese team had a speed advantage, so counterattacks were something the Japanese team had been very careful to guard against before the game.

Just now, the Japanese team launched a large-scale attack, and was hit by a Chinese counterattack. They quickly made adjustments and returned to the road of passing back and forth to control the rhythm. This was also what Zaccheroni asked them to do before the game.

When the Japanese team passed the ball in their own half, the Chinese team pounced on them to press and steal, like mad dogs.

The game returned to the situation at the beginning.

And at this time, some people noticed Zhou Yi's "lazy" and "passive" behavior again.

Was he really showing off his seniority?

Duan Xin didn't believe that Zhou Yi would show off his seniority, but he had to give a reasonable explanation. He couldn't just turn a blind eye to this, could he?

Such an obvious thing, the fans had all seen it.

If he pretended not to see it, he would be scolded to death.

So he was observing Zhou Yi very carefully.

He really did see something.

He found that Zhou Yi wasn't slacking off. He was also running, but he wasn't directly pouncing on the opponent's ball-holding player, but his range of movement wasn't small, and his speed wasn't slow…

At this moment, on the field, another Japanese player passed the ball to his teammate.

And almost at the same time, Zhou Yi suddenly took a step sideways, and then stretched out his foot, and intercepted the football!

A light bulb lit up in Duan Xin's head—he understood what was going on!

But now, he didn't have time to explain to everyone, but instead shouted excitedly, "Zhou Yi! He intercepted another pass from the Japanese team in the midfield!"

This time, because the interception point was near the center circle, Zhou Yi didn't immediately pass the football out, but chose to control the ball.

Because there wasn't a very good opportunity right now. If he rashly passed the football out, it would just be returning the football to the Japanese team.

If there was a good opportunity, he would naturally not hesitate, just like the pass he had just made to He Ying. But if there wasn't a very good opportunity, keeping the football under his own control was the most correct choice.

In football games, there are too many examples of the opponent making mistakes in the backcourt, leading to a change of possession, and as a result, the attacking side also failing to handle the ball well due to impatience, leading to a loss of opportunity.

Seeing that Zhou Yi wasn't in a hurry to launch a counterattack, Duan Xin then had time to explain to everyone what he had just realized: "When the Chinese team is pressing the Japanese team, Zhou Yi seems to be an outlier. But he's not slacking off. We found that Zhou Yi is constantly changing his position on the field, and his running isn't aimless, or symbolic running. He's looking for the passing routes of the Japanese team. In this way, he can intercept the Japanese team's passes by knowing the Japanese team's passing routes in advance. Just like this ball now… Of course, He Ying's shot after the opening was also from Zhou Yi's interception in the frontcourt… This is proof that Zhou Yi is playing football with his brain!"

In fact, it wasn't just Duan Xin who saw it. Some of the Chinese and Japanese reporters in the media box also saw it.

They discussed, "Zhou Yi doesn't seem to be just appearing in that position by chance, does he?"

"Yeah, once can be said to be luck, but what about twice? And I bet, maybe there will be three or four more times in the future…"

"I also think Zhou Yi is doing it on purpose. He seems to be very familiar with the passing routes of the Japanese team…"

"This is Zhou Yi's ability, right? I remember he occasionally showed this kind of performance when he was at Dortmund?"

"No wonder Zhou Yi doesn't have to run like a mad dog. If he directly goes to steal the ball-holding player from Japan, it might not necessarily be a good thing…"

On Weibo, someone also analyzed Zhou Yi's actions, and it was quickly recognized by the vast majority of people.

Everyone certainly wouldn't want to think that Zhou Yi wasn't pressing because he was showing off his seniority. With Zhou Yi's image and status in the hearts of the fans, it was impossible for him to do such a thing. So everyone was more willing to believe the current explanation, and this explanation also reflected Zhou Yi's awesomeness…

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The Japanese team also subsequently discovered that Zhou Yi's running was very strange.

This didn't require Japanese players to pass the football to Zhou Yi's feet every time to verify it.

Sometimes, when the Japanese players wanted to pass the ball during the passing process, they found that Zhou Yi was blocking the passing route they had in mind, so they could only withdraw their original idea, protect the ball again, and pass the football in other directions.

After doing this many times, the Japanese players naturally discovered that there was a lot to Zhou Yi's seemingly "lazy" running…

So the Japanese team had to temporarily adjust their tactics, no longer passing the ball too much, but instead pushing the football forward.

In this way, the two teams were equivalent to playing an offensive battle.

Because both sides had qualified, the outcome didn't affect the biggest goal, so they could be relatively open.

This was actually the game that the media and fans liked to watch the most—after an exciting offensive battle, the team they supported won the victory.