News of Dortmund scoring their fourth goal and Mainz having a defender sent off quickly reached Bayern Munich.
Someone on the bench sighed.
Mainz had tried hard, scoring twice in Dortmund's home stadium, equalizing twice after falling behind.
But Dortmund, with their superior strength, had managed to take a two-goal lead…
With little time left in the match, a two-goal lead practically guaranteed Dortmund's victory and three points.
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After taking a 4-2 lead, Klopp began to make substitutions.
Starting in the eightieth minute, he gradually made changes.
The first player to be substituted was Zhou Yi. As the team's core, he needed more rest. With the victory secured, it was only natural to let Zhou Yi rest.
He was replaced by Mkhitaryan.
A minute later, Dortmund made another substitution, with Reus being replaced by midfielder Jojic.
In the eighty-fourth minute, Klopp used his last substitution, replacing Aubameyang with Mark Wagner.
Mainz, playing with one less player, couldn't threaten Dortmund's goal. Even with Dortmund's significant substitutions, Dortmund still dominated the field.
On Bayern Munich's side, in the eighty-sixth minute, Lucas Rede, the goalkeeper who started in place of the injured Neuer, sent a long ball from the backfield to Robben, who broke through with speed, creating a one-on-one situation and then sending the ball into Braunschweig's goal.
Bayern Munich led Braunschweig 2-0 away from home, but they were still one point behind Dortmund.
In the face of Dortmund's victory, Bayern Munich's win seemed a bit lackluster…
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Both matches ended, with Dortmund defeating Mainz 4-2 at home, and Bayern Munich defeating Braunschweig 2-0 away.
The rankings and point difference between the two sides remained unchanged.
With three league rounds remaining, Bayern Munich, one point behind, still had a chance to overtake them, but in truth, their fate was no longer in their own hands…
Even if they won all three of their remaining league matches, they would still have to rely on Dortmund's performance. If Dortmund also won all their matches, nothing would change.
After the league matches, both teams would begin preparing for the Champions League semi-finals.
It was a clash between the Bundesliga's and La Liga's top teams.
They still had a chance to recreate the final showdown of the previous season.
If that were to happen, people would probably shout, "I've seen this plot before!"
After the match against Mainz, Klopp didn't let the players rest.
The next day, everyone came to the Brackel training ground as usual. After training, Zhou Yi was called to the head coach's office alone by Klopp.
"Did you watch the Champions League match at home that night after our game?" he asked directly.
Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment. He hadn't expected Klopp to ask about something that happened ten days ago. After thinking about it, he nodded to give Klopp an affirmative answer.
"Which match did you watch?"
"Atletico Madrid and Barcelona," Zhou Yi replied.
"Hmm…" Klopp was quite satisfied with Zhou Yi's performance. Actively observing the team's semi-final opponents was something most players wouldn't do. After matches and training, they would usually relax and not want to be associated with soccer at all. After all, with constant training and matches, even if they loved soccer, they needed time to do other things.
"What are your thoughts?" Klopp asked, crossing his arms.
Zhou Yi first lowered his head to recall, after all, it had been ten days ago, and in between there had been matches against Bayern Munich and Mainz, so he needed to carefully recall some details.
"Atletico Madrid's pressing and fast counterattacks after pressing are very strong… especially in the first twenty minutes of the match, very aggressive… I think Barcelona was stunned by that twenty minutes of pressing, and the whole team couldn't find their rhythm and form. Their defense was also very good, and their counterattacks on that basis were very sharp… Although the score was 1-0, I think Atletico Madrid's advantage on the field was much greater than the score showed… I think Atletico Madrid played their best match of the season…"
When Zhou Yi started speaking, his tone was still a little hesitant, but the more he spoke, the smoother he became, and his memories became clearer.
As Zhou Yi spoke, Klopp nodded, Zhou Yi's thoughts were similar to his own.
When Zhou Yi finished speaking, he asked again, "Do you think they can play like that when we meet them?"
Zhou Yi thought for a moment: "I don't know, but they should adopt a similar tactic to that match."
Klopp was very satisfied with Zhou Yi's answer, he joked: "Yes, especially since we have a midfield core in our team that is similar to Xavi."
After speaking, he opened a drawer in his desk, took out a USB drive, and handed it to Zhou Yi.
"This contains match footage re-edited by the coaching staff. Take it back and have a good look at how Atletico Madrid contained Barcelona's attack. It also contains some simple data statistics from the coaching staff about the match, which can help you understand it."
Zhou Yi took the USB drive.
Klopp, seeing that he had taken the USB drive, smiled again: "You know I like to gamble. Some people outside call me a 'gambler.' I do like that feeling of excitement. So since the Champions League was reformed, no team has been able to successfully defend their title, and I'm going to gamble this time."
Zhou Yi held the USB drive in his hand and said to Klopp, "I thought you were going to give up on one side again."
Klopp laughed loudly: "Give up on what? We've now taken the lead over Bayern Munich in the league, and we've reached the Champions League semi-finals, why would I give up at this time? I'm not stupid, why would I give up the fat meat that's already at my mouth?"
Hearing Klopp's answer, Zhou Yi also laughed.
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When Zhou Yi returned home, he turned on the TV in the living room, plugged in the USB drive Klopp gave him, and couldn't wait to watch it.
Kortana asked him curiously, "What are you watching?"
"The match footage of our semi-final opponents, the coach gave it to me today."
Kortana suddenly understood and didn't disturb Zhou Yi anymore, allowing him to focus on watching the match footage.
This wasn't a complete full-match recording, but a collection of highlights that had been edited, but it was still very long, much longer than the match highlights released on those websites.
In addition to the match footage, the Dortmund coaching staff had added some "special effects," such as circling key players and drawing their running routes, to help those watching the recording understand the tactics of both sides more intuitively.
By watching the match footage, Zhou Yi's memory of the match became clearer.
At the beginning, Atletico Madrid's attacking line, composed of Villa, Adrian, and Raul Garcia, fiercely attacked Barcelona's defense. Moreover, they took advantage of Barcelona's weakness in defending high balls, consciously adopting a high ball attacking style, which was precisely what made Barcelona feel flustered. Note 1.
Only five minutes into the match, Atletico Madrid scored. This goal was an opportunity created by aerial bombardment - Villa crossed from the left, Adrian headed the ball, and Koke followed up with a left-footed shot to score.
Giving Barcelona their fastest conceded goal in the knockout stage in history…
After taking the lead, Atletico Madrid continued to attack Barcelona's defense.
Barcelona was forced into a panic, and their overall performance was poor.
After the opening three-pronged attack, Atletico Madrid showed their tenacious defensive ability, while also looking for opportunities to counterattack, creating several absolute good chances.
If Barcelona's goalkeeper Pinto hadn't performed so well in this match, the score would definitely not have been just 1-0.
In addition, the refereeing of the English referee Webb in this match was also controversial, he missed Mascherano's fouls in the penalty area twice in the match, and made no indication. If these two penalties had been awarded, the match might have ended sooner.
Until the last minute of the match, Atletico Madrid still had a chance to score - Raul Garcia passed the ball, and Rodriguez's one-on-one powerful shot was blocked by the outstanding Pinto.
As Zhou Yi told Klopp, this wasn't a match where Atletico Madrid played conservatively, stole a goal, and then parked the bus to defend until the end of the match. Instead, it was a match where Atletico Madrid took the initiative from the beginning, completely suppressed Barcelona, but only won by one goal because Barcelona's goalkeeper Pinto performed well.
Atletico Madrid's frantic pressing made Barcelona's midfield almost malfunction.
Iniesta and Messi were forced into having no impact. Iniesta was substituted off in the seventy-second minute. Messi made repeated mistakes, losing the ball ten times in thirty-nine passes, and none of his four shots were on target. Xavi did manage to complete all one hundred of his passes, achieving a 100% pass completion rate, but only one of them was a threatening pass. Busquets was also in poor form, as a defensive midfielder he lost the ball eight times in eighty-two passes, and only succeeded in one of his six aerial duels. Neymar lacked brilliance under the pressing of Juanfran, Tiago, and Gabi, and only one header was slightly off target…