Heung-Min Son, who didn't score a goal, looked very regretful and frustrated. He originally held his head in his hands, then suddenly squatted down and slapped the turf, very dissatisfied with himself for missing this excellent opportunity.

There was a reason why he was so dissatisfied with his performance.

Heung-Min Son also felt that his condition today was really good. Although he had scored five goals in the first three games and was already in good shape, Heung-Min Son felt that his condition today could be described as "explosive."

He was confident of winning this contest with Zhou Yi—many people believed that the so-called "Zhou Yi and Heung-Min Son" confrontation was just hype by the boring Korean media, and that there was no such thing at all.

But that wasn't the case. Heung-Min Son actually valued this game very much in his heart, and he also wanted to defeat Zhou Yi in the game. Of course, this idea did not originate from boring patriotism, inferiority complex, or anything like that, but from the natural and strong competitive spirit of a young and talented football player—since everyone recognized Zhou Yi as the peak of Asian players now, then of course he would challenge such a peak. If he didn't challenge Zhou Yi, who would he challenge, some nobody?

Defeating Zhou Yi in the game was Heung-Min Son's idea, so he turned a blind eye to the media hype.

In this game, he didn't want to give Zhou Yi any chance to turn the tables, which meant he had to seize every opportunity, which was why he was so regretful and dissatisfied with missing this opportunity.

※※※

Zhou Yi knew that he had become Leverkusen's key target in the game, and Leverkusen would not hesitate to use foul tactics against him. Of course, these foul tactics were not the kind of very bad fouls, directly tackling. Zhou Yi hadn't encountered that yet. Many were pulling jerseys, or holding him with both hands, delaying Dortmund's offensive. Most of these fouls would not result in a card, but they could realistically affect his ability to organize the attack.

Other players might try to get rid of this situation.

But Zhou Yi didn't think so. Instead of wasting energy to deal with his opponents, he might as well change his thinking.

So, taking advantage of a dead ball opportunity, he found his compatriot Yan Min.

"Hey, Yan Min, so you really are a 'super substitute'..."

Yan Min grinned: "You're still in the mood to joke at this time?"

Zhou Yi smiled: "I'm serious. You really haven't shown much yet. I think the outside analysis still has some truth—if you start, you think too much."

Yan Min didn't say anything, staring straight at Zhou Yi, not knowing what kind of medicine Zhou Yi was selling in his gourd.

"If you ask me, don't think so much. When the ball is at your feet, do what you think is best. For example, if you can break through, why pass the ball? Or are you not confident enough in your footwork?" Zhou Yi said to Yan Min, covering his mouth with his hand, because his eyes narrowed when he smiled.

Yan Min's eyes lit up, he knew what Zhou Yi was going to say.

"I'm being held up by them, and it's a bit troublesome for me to get rid of their entanglement by myself in a short time. At this time, if there is an opportunity, don't pass the ball to me, just dribble it yourself. Their defensive focus is on me and Aubameyang, and their defense against you is not very strict, which is your chance," Zhou Yi continued, covering his mouth. "Seek cooperation when you should, but don't be afraid to be a lone hero when you should."

After speaking, he patted Yan Min and ran away.

Yan Min stared at Zhou Yi's back, savoring what he had just said, especially the last sentence.

Lone hero, huh.

Don't mention it, he seemed to often fall into a state of fighting alone, whether it was playing football or something else... So doing this was really easy, he was very familiar with it.

※※※

Thirty minutes had passed in the first half, and everyone was still discussing the single-handed chance that Heung-Min Son had missed just now, believing that Leverkusen had taken the advantage, and that Dortmund, playing at home, might still be thinking about the Champions League game in the middle of next week, which led to their poor performance today.

Some people began to analyze what it would mean if Dortmund lost to Leverkusen.

"...Actually, I don't think it's such a bad thing for Dortmund to lose to Leverkusen—you have to look at it this way. With Dortmund's current personnel reserves and state, it is undoubtedly difficult to fight on multiple fronts. Bayern Munich's performance this season has been very stable, and it is unlikely that this Dortmund will repeat the championship process of last season, after all, Dortmund did not have so many injured soldiers last season..."

"If they lose to Leverkusen, it should help Klopp to make up his mind to give up one and focus on the other. Dortmund has won the league title for three consecutive seasons in the past three seasons. If they are realistic, their goal in the league this season should be to participate in next season's Champions League. It is better to put more energy into this season's Champions League. You must know that they may still be eliminated in the group stage..."

"Although it is not to say that giving up the league title will definitely allow you to go further in the Champions League. But at least you won't end up with nothing in both the Champions League and the league, right? Facing the cruel reality and still holding on to illusions is not something to be encouraged. You must have dreams, but it is best to get rid of illusions as soon as possible..."

No one realized that change might be happening inside Dortmund.

Surrounded, Zhou Yi still tried to pass the ball out. Of course, it was impossible to send the ball to a deadly spot with one kick, and it was also difficult to constantly participate in the passing to organize the attack.

He just passed the ball to Yan Min, who was very close to him. It was a very ordinary lateral pass, without any advance or into space.

Such a pass might happen hundreds of times in a game, and not every time would it have any special meaning.

This pass looked like that too.

After Zhou Yi passed the ball, he continued to run forward, while turning his head to look at Yan Min.

He seemed to be hoping to run into space and then have Yan Min pass the ball back to him.

Of course, his obvious intention was also seen through by Leverkusen's players, so Leverkusen's captain, the defensive midfielder Rolfes, immediately followed him.

As the vice-captain of Leverkusen, Rolfes was duty-bound to defend such a potentially dangerous figure.

In addition to Rolfes, Lars Bender was also watching Zhou Yi from the side, ready to come up and help Rolfes solve the problem, just like the two of them teamed up to solve internal team problems in the locker room. The cooperation between the captain and vice-captain had always been good.

But in this way, Yan Min, who had the ball, found that he only faced one Leverkusen player's defense—Gonzalo Castro. It was the midfielder who received Friedrich's "pass" and then assisted Heung-Min Son to score in the eighteenth minute of the game.

Facing Castro's defense, Yan Min re-chewed the phrase "lone hero" in his heart, then accelerated with the ball and rushed to the wing.

Seeing Yan Min dribbling the ball, Castro naturally leaned up. But before he could touch Yan Min, he saw Yan Min catch up with the ball, and at the same time as he caught up with the ball, Yan Min did not try to control the ball, but directly kicked the ball out!

With this kick, the ball was kicked out of Castro's control, and Yan Min accelerated at the same time!

It was like a sports car that had stepped on the accelerator to the end, he roared out, leaving Castro unable to pull him back...

Yan Min, who caught up with the ball, did not accelerate with the ball again. Facing Emre Can in front of him, he made an emergency stop. At the same time as the emergency stop, he also used the outside of his left foot to gently dial the ball inward, and at the same time he jumped up, moving laterally, dodging Emre Can's outstretched leg!

"Yan Min! Good ball! Beautiful breakthrough!" Duan Xin exclaimed excitedly.

Yan Min, who jumped up to dodge Emre Can, landed and then exerted his strength to kick out, and with one stride he caught up with the ball.

At this time, after passing two people in a row, he finally successfully attracted Leverkusen's attention.

Lars Bender, who was originally vigilant about Zhou Yi, also ignored Zhou Yi when he saw this, and quickly turned around and pounced on him.

Other Leverkusen players also began to approach Yan Min, intending to surround him and strangle him outside the thirty-meter area.

For Yan Min, the situation could be said to be extremely unfavorable. But at this time, Yan Min felt excited from the bottom of his heart—he came to Europe for such scenes and challenges, didn't he?

Don't be afraid, just do it!

Yan Min's left foot hooked the ball to the right, and after changing direction, he used his right foot to gently dial the ball outward.

This hook allowed him to dodge Lars Bender's foot, and this dial allowed him to dodge Spahic's tackle.

Then he suddenly kicked the ball forward, this time directly kicking the ball into the penalty area!

After the ball went out, he also rushed out like a bullet, closely following the ball, and broke out of the encirclement!

Seeing Yan Min being blocked by several Leverkusen players, everyone thought that the most correct thing for him to do at this time was to pass the ball, but who would have thought that Yan Min would actually pick the ball out like this?

The only problem might be that he kicked it a bit too far. The probability of the ball being obtained by Leverkusen's goalkeeper Leno was greater, or rather far greater, than the possibility of him catching up with it himself—Leno also decisively abandoned the goal and rushed out to pounce on the ball after he kicked the ball out.

Looking back at how far Yan Min had kicked the ball, the other Leverkusen players gave up the idea of chasing back. They believed that Yan Min would definitely not be able to catch up with the ball, and Leno would get the ball before him.

But Yan Min did not give up chasing the ball because he kicked it too far. He accelerated towards the ball, as determined as a golden eagle diving to catch a rabbit.

Everyone thought that Yan Min would not be able to catch up with the ball, it was just a last-ditch effort. But after Yan Min took two strides, the distance between him and the ball was greatly shortened! Yan Min seemed to have the art of shrinking the ground!

Leno also realized the danger. He directly gave up his balance and slid out on his side, while reaching out to reach for the ball... With such a huge defensive area, he could almost be said to have built a dam in front of the ball. Unless Yan Min lifted the ball up, there was a high probability that the ball would hit Leno—no matter which part of his body.

Yan Min still had no intention of giving up, or rather, there was no turning back once the bow was drawn. It was impossible to think about giving up now. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, he tried his best to poke the ball with his foot. As long as he could poke the ball away from Leno's hand, there was still a chance.

He really poked the ball first!

Really, he poked the ball before Leno!

He poked the ball towards the goal, but soon the ball hit Leno's palm and was blocked by Leno!

And what about Yan Min himself? Unable to brake, or rather, never thinking about braking, he also crashed into Leno's arm, and under the action of inertia, he somersaulted and fell to the ground...

When they saw Yan Min fall in the penalty area, the Dortmund fans in the stands collectively cheered—it's a penalty!!

However, the referee's whistle did not sound. If anyone thought that his whistle was drowned out, they could look at his gesture—he pointed to the corner flag area.

The linesman also ran to the corner flag and waved the flag in his hand, pointing cleanly to the corner flag area—corner kick!