Chapter 147 Counterattack

When Zhou Yi suddenly passed the football into the penalty area, Park Joo-ho, who was standing right in front of him, was completely caught off guard. He never expected Zhou Yi to pass the ball at this moment, and without any warning.

By the time he realized it, the football had already slipped between his legs. He reflexively squeezed his legs together, but caught nothing.

As the football came over, Mainz's goalkeeper Karius realized that Zhou Yi had passed the ball to a very dangerous spot, so he decisively abandoned the goal and rushed out, intending to block any possible shot.

At the same time, Aubameyang burst out from the crowd!

Aubameyang caught up with the football before Karius, and then he casually flicked the football to the left with his left foot!

Karius fell to the ground and reached out to save the ball, expanding his defensive area on the ground. But he was still faked out by Aubameyang's flick and failed to touch the football.

Aubameyang, who jumped over Karius, caught up with the football again, then turned and shot!

At this moment, the Mainz goal was completely open to him!

"Aubameyang—!!!" As Marcel Reif howled with a drawn-out voice, the football flew into the goal without any suspense!

"Dortmund takes the lead again! Only four minutes have passed since their last goal! They have scored consecutive goals in a short period of time!"

After scoring, Aubameyang ran towards Zhou Yi, who had passed him the ball, and the two embraced again.

This was Aubameyang's second goal of the game, and both goals were assisted by Zhou Yi, so of course he had to thank Zhou Yi.

Although Zhou Yi's compatriot, Yan Min, could be considered Aubameyang's competitor in a sense, Zhou Yi was impartial in the team and did not obviously favor Yan Min by deliberately reducing passes to Aubameyang in order to let Yan Min take the lead.

He passed the ball as he should. Whether Zhou Yi passed to Aubameyang depended only on whether Aubameyang ran to the right position.

"Dortmund has completed the reversal! Aubameyang scores twice, and Zhou Yi also assists twice!" Duan Xin said. "It seems that Dortmund will still reverse and defeat Mainz on the road in this game... They can't escape the fate of reversal!"

The TV broadcast began to replay Aubameyang's goal just now. Zhou Yi's pass was very sudden. His first swing of his leg to pass the ball was a feint, but when he actually passed the ball, the range of motion was not so large. He just flicked his calf and shook his ankle, and the football was passed out very discreetly. Such a discreet pass was not a very difficult technique, but the key was that it was so discreet and still accurate, and the timing was just right, which showed his skill.

Moreover, when he passed the ball, he didn't observe the surrounding situation at all, and didn't even look at the penalty area even once. He kept his head down from beginning to end, as if he was concentrating on dealing with Park Joo-ho. Who would have thought that he would use this feint to secretly achieve his true goal?

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"If Zhou Yi had started the game, Dortmund wouldn't have had to play until almost eighty minutes before taking the lead..."

"That's right, Zhou Yi's importance to Dortmund is self-evident. I think even if all the others are rotated, Zhou Yi cannot be rotated. I hope that after this game, Klopp can fully recognize this point!"

"As soon as Zhou Yi comes on the field, Dortmund's offense immediately has direction, inspiration, and creativity, and everyone else knows how to run. This is the value and meaning of the existence of a core player!"

On the Chinese internet, after Aubameyang scored, there were also many discussions.

Everyone was very happy that Dortmund could win the game and also reflect Zhou Yi's importance. If Dortmund had to use losing a game to feel Zhou Yi's indispensability, the price would be too high. If they lost this game again, Dortmund would be seven points behind Bayern Munich...

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After Aubameyang scored, in addition to giving the celebrating Dortmund players a shot, the TV broadcast also gave a shot to head coach Klopp.

Klopp on the sidelines seemed relatively calm—compared to the Dortmund substitutes and coaches around him who were celebrating wildly...

He was so calm not because he was dissatisfied with the result, but because he had very deep feelings for Mainz.

As a professional football player, Klopp spent most of his career in Mainz. At that time, he played for Mainz for twelve seasons, appearing in three hundred and twenty-five games and scoring fifty-two goals.

During that time, Mainz was always in the Second Division, and Klopp never played in the Bundesliga.

After retiring in Mainz, Klopp became a coach in Mainz, coaching for eight years. In just a few seasons, he led the unknown Mainz to promotion, and promotion to the Bundesliga. In the second season of participating in the Bundesliga, he participated in the UEFA Cup. Although he was eliminated by Sevilla in the first round, it was still a beautiful and memorable time for the very weak Mainz at the time.

After accumulating rich coaching experience in Mainz, Klopp also gained the favor of many big Bundesliga teams, and even Bayern Munich had rumors that they wanted to find him to coach.

But in the end, Dortmund won Klopp's favor.

From Mainz to Dortmund, Klopp led this veteran team that had been down for many years to regain its glory.

Although he has been away from Mainz for many years and has won many championships in Dortmund, becoming a champion coach with unlimited glory, he still has deep feelings for Mainz and naturally does not want to celebrate wantonly here, stimulating the Mainz fans who once cheered for him.

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Klopp can remain restrained when everyone is celebrating, but that doesn't mean he can lose to Mainz on the road.

He is now the head coach of Dortmund, so of course he has to be responsible for Dortmund's results.

Although Dortmund had already taken a one-goal lead, in Klopp's view, that was far from enough. A one-goal lead was too dangerous, especially since Mainz was playing very well in this game, they were definitely not willing to lose to Dortmund at home like this. Next, they would definitely go all out, even desperately, hoping to tie the score, or even take the lead again...

If Dortmund was not prepared enough at this time, or if their thoughts were not unified, they might be seized by the opponent and tie the score.

So Klopp helped the team unify their thoughts. After the game restarted, he stood on the sidelines, constantly waving his hands to signal Dortmund to shrink their defense and play on the counterattack.

He was worried that after taking the lead, Dortmund would press forward and give Mainz a chance to counterattack.

At this time, of course, it was time to shrink the defense and play on the counterattack.

After listening to Klopp's arrangement, Dortmund quickly completed the adjustment.

And just as they completed the adjustment, Mainz launched a fierce attack on Dortmund's goal.

The home team did not have much time left, and they had to seize every minute and every second.

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Dortmund has played a lot of defensive counterattacks over the years, and naturally knows what to do.

Zhou Yi returned to the defensive midfielder position. When assisting in defense, he was mainly responsible for offense-defense conversion. When a counterattack was needed, his pass was the signal flare for the counterattack. Wherever it was shot, the Dortmund counterattack would start from there.

As time passed, Mainz still failed to break through Dortmund's goal. Seeing that the game time was getting less and less, the one-goal gap was like a chasm, making it difficult for them to cross.

Tuchel decided to go all-in at the last moment, letting the team press forward across the board—at their home stadium, 1:2 and 1:3 were no different. Anyway, they were both losses, so why not rush up and maybe create a miracle?

Seeing Mainz pressing forward across the board, Zhou Yi realized that this might be an opportunity to completely end the game. Although Dortmund could survive a few more minutes, the game would be over anyway. But football is round after all. Who knows if Dortmund can hold on for a few more minutes under Mainz's all-in crazy attack?

So at this time, if there is an opportunity to directly kill the game, why not do it?

So when Mainz's attack was blocked, and Dortmund had a chance to counterattack, Zhou Yi did not choose to directly pass the football forward with a long pass, but instead used a short pass to send the football forward, and then suddenly inserted forward, rushing forward.

"Dortmund's counterattack!"

Dortmund used a very fast speed to pass the football to the outside of Mainz's thirty-meter area between three passes and two passes.

At this time, Mainz's defensive players were all paying attention to Aubameyang, who was holding the ball, and Reus and Sieber, who were running without the ball. At this moment, Aubameyang passed the football to the wing, and Zhou Yi appeared in the open space—he finally ran up!

Because it was a quick counterattack, Mainz's defenders had not fully retreated yet. There were already few defensive players near the penalty area, and now facing this unplanned situation, they were even more stretched—Zhou Yi simply had no one to mark!

After receiving the ball, Zhou Yi took a step and rushed into the penalty area.

His sudden appearance completely disrupted Mainz's defense. The defenders who were still staring at Aubameyang, Reus, and others in the center quickly turned to him, and at the same time, goalkeeper Karius quickly turned around and rushed over to block the near corner.

Facing this situation, Zhou Yi calmly made a horizontal pass, and the football passed between the rushing goalkeeper and the defenders, rolling directly towards the far post of the goal.

He was not greedy for credit, because someone was in a better position than him.

Just as the football was about to roll out of the goal range, Reus finally arrived, and he slid and shot, using his cleats to kick the football into the goal!

"3:1! The game is killed! Dortmund wins this game in advance! It's over!"

Marcel Reif's voice rang out.