Chapter 113 The Absent Zhou Yi

Before Borussia Dortmund announced their starting lineup, everyone was speculating whether Klopp would rotate the squad, considering the massive physical exertion of the match against Atletico Madrid three days prior.

Failure to rotate would not only affect their performance in this game against Leverkusen but also continue to impact the second leg against Atletico Madrid next week.

Consecutive battles, coupled with the late stage of the season, would likely leave even a team as renowned for their stamina as Borussia Dortmund in a state of exhaustion.

In the squad list released the day before the match, neither Aubameyang nor Reus made the cut, essentially confirming everyone's initial speculations – Klopp was indeed rotating!

It was an unavoidable situation. With Dortmund's current lineup, failure to rotate risked a complete collapse in the end. For the sake of the upcoming matches, a moderate rotation was necessary.

However, when Borussia Dortmund announced their starting lineup two hours before the match, everyone was still taken aback – Zhou Yi was nowhere to be found!

Zhou Yi had made the squad list, but was not in the starting eleven, a rare occurrence for Borussia Dortmund.

Previously, no matter how the team rotated, Zhou Yi had always been a guaranteed starter. It was also under Zhou Yi's leadership that Borussia Dortmund had been able to stick close to Bayern Munich in the league and complete the comeback at the Allianz Arena.

Zhou Yi's importance to Borussia Dortmund was evident.

Before, everyone had guessed that Borussia Dortmund would rotate in this match, but no one had ever imagined that Zhou Yi would be rotated out.

So, when the starting lineup was revealed, many people's first reaction was, "Did the Bundesliga official website make a mistake? How could Zhou Yi not be starting?"

But after confirming it repeatedly, it was discovered that Zhou Yi was indeed not starting. Mkhitaryan replaced him in the starting lineup for this match, and Zhou Yi was on the bench.

For a time, both in Germany and China, the media and fans who were paying attention to this game were in an uproar.

Various speculations arose.

How could Zhou Yi not be starting?

Unless Klopp had lost his mind, there must be a reason why Zhou Yi wasn't starting.

What was the reason?

Was Zhou Yi injured?

Was Zhou Yi's stamina a major issue?

Because the starting lineup was announced only two hours before the match, although the reporters were full of question marks, they had nowhere to ask.

They could only speculate, but had no way to verify.

Judging from Borussia Dortmund's training sessions before the match, Zhou Yi seemed perfectly normal, so it shouldn't be because of an injury that he couldn't start. The possibility of a stamina issue was more likely. After all, Zhou Yi had played the entire match against Atletico Madrid, constantly controlling the rhythm of the game. Especially when Borussia Dortmund was playing fast-paced passing and cutting tactics, Zhou Yi was constantly running up and down the field, and the ball always had to pass through him as the hub, which demanded a very high level of stamina.

Borussia Dortmund defeated Atletico Madrid 3:0, almost completely suppressing Atletico Madrid on the field. But what was the cost?

In that match, the average running distance of the entire Borussia Dortmund team was 11,000 meters.

And that was the average running distance for the whole team.

Zhou Yi alone ran nearly 15,000 meters, the most of any player on Borussia Dortmund.

This data tells us how tired Zhou Yi was.

So it was reasonable to think that Zhou Yi didn't start in the match against Leverkusen...

But reasonable as it was, Klopp was taking a big risk by doing this.

What if Borussia Dortmund lost to Leverkusen on the road? The one-point lead they had worked so hard to establish over Bayern Munich would be completely gone, and the league title would fall into the hands of Bayern Munich. What had Borussia Dortmund been working towards all season?

Unless Klopp thought that Borussia Dortmund could win against Leverkusen on the road even without Zhou Yi.

If that was his attitude, it would definitely anger Leverkusen, and Zhou Yi being on the bench would be seen as an opportunity by Leverkusen.

Would Borussia Dortmund be able to withstand Leverkusen's onslaught at home?

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The match between Borussia Dortmund and Leverkusen kicked off on the evening of April 26th, local time. Before that, there were several Bundesliga matches kicking off in the afternoon of April 26th, including Bayern Munich's match against Werder Bremen, and Wolfsburg's match against Freiburg, which Leverkusen was paying attention to.

As a result, Wolfsburg were surprisingly held to a draw by Freiburg at home, with the two sides drawing 2:2.

This wasn't good news for Borussia Dortmund. Wolfsburg's draw meant that if Leverkusen could beat Borussia Dortmund at home, they could widen the gap with Wolfsburg and further consolidate their fourth-place position in the league, so their desire to beat Borussia Dortmund at home was even stronger.

In addition, the result of Bayern Munich's match also put a lot of pressure on Borussia Dortmund.

They encountered fierce resistance from Werder Bremen at the beginning of the game at their home stadium. Werder Bremen scored first, with Selassie helping Werder Bremen to open the scoring in the tenth minute.

However, Bayern Munich equalized the score ten minutes later with a goal from Ribery.

In the thirty-sixth minute, Werder Bremen took the lead again. Hunt broke through Bayern Munich's goal.

Werder Bremen were leading Bayern Munich 2:1 at the end of the first half.

If Bayern Munich lost the game like this, then Borussia Dortmund would be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Just at this moment, Bayern Munich's coaching staff received Borussia Dortmund's starting lineup for the match against Leverkusen.

Normally, there was nothing to pay attention to in the opponent's starting lineup. Guardiola wouldn't usually be informed about such things. But today's situation was too special. The person collecting the information didn't know what it meant, so he simply told Guardiola.

"Zhou Yi isn't starting?" Guardiola was also surprised when he heard this news. After receiving a confirmed answer, he fell into a period of silence.

What did it mean that Zhou Yi wasn't starting?

Was this a trick by Klopp? Or had Klopp lost his mind?

Was this their opportunity?

For a time, many thoughts flashed through Guardiola's mind.

Then he pushed open the door to the locker room and walked in.

Because they were behind in the first half, the morale of the Bayern Munich players wasn't very high.

In fact, Bayern Munich had often encountered this situation since losing to Borussia Dortmund in the top-of-the-table clash at the Allianz Arena.

Although they were only one point behind, if Borussia Dortmund kept winning, the result would still be despairing...

A lack of confidence would be especially evident when encountering difficulties.

Like now.

Bayern Munich had been fighting Werder Bremen for forty-five minutes at home, and in the end, Werder Bremen was leading by one goal.

During the half-time break, the atmosphere in the locker room wasn't very good.

At this time, Guardiola pushed the door open and came in.

With a stern face.

After everyone saw the coach's expression, the air in the locker room seemed to freeze.

"I just heard an interesting thing, and I think I should share it with you," Guardiola said.

The players' interest was piqued by his words, and all eyes turned to him.

"In Borussia Dortmund's match against Leverkusen, Zhou Yi isn't in their starting lineup."

As soon as Guardiola said these words, some people's expressions changed in the Bayern Munich team. They knew what it meant that Zhou Yi wasn't starting.

"I don't know why Zhou Yi didn't appear in the starting lineup, but I guess it might be related to the fact that they know we were 1:2 behind Werder Bremen in the first half. They think we're doomed to lose, so they can let their core players rest fully..."

As Guardiola spoke, the Bayern Munich players were unconvinced – yes, they were behind now, but wasn't there still another half to play?

Who said they were doomed to lose?!

Guardiola originally needed to spend a lot of effort to make the players understand something, but now he only needed to tell them what Borussia Dortmund had done to achieve it...

As for whether Borussia Dortmund really put Zhou Yi on the bench because Bayern Munich was behind in the first half, that didn't matter at all. Guardiola didn't care what the truth was.

He only needed to use this point, and that was enough...

He used to say that he didn't care about Borussia Dortmund, but now he also needed to use Borussia Dortmund to help him boost morale.

It was a bit ironic.

※※※

After the second half of the match began, Bayern Munich, who hadn't made any personnel adjustments, seemed like a completely different team, quickly bringing the match into their familiar rhythm.

Only eight minutes into the second half, Pizarro equalized the score for Bayern Munich.

Four minutes later, Pizarro scored twice, and Bayern Munich took the lead by one goal.

In the sixty-first minute, Schweinsteiger scored, and Bayern Munich led Werder Bremen 4:2.

At this time, Werder Bremen had lost their fighting spirit after being beaten by Bayern Munich. They couldn't threaten Bayern Munich's goal at all, and could only shrink back and defend, praying to concede fewer goals...

But in the seventy-fourth minute, they still conceded a goal. Robben, who came on as a substitute, completely sealed the victory for Bayern Munich.

In the end, Bayern Munich defeated Werder Bremen 5:2 at home.

They temporarily surpassed Borussia Dortmund, who had one game less, on the league standings and became first again.

It was like a game of passing the parcel. The ball full of pressure was passed from Bayern Munich to Borussia Dortmund. No one knew if the ball would suddenly explode when it was in Borussia Dortmund's hands...