Chapter 1 The Second Half Begins

After the second half began, Borussia Dortmund continued to bombard Eintracht Braunschweig's penalty area.

This time, it wasn't just Zhou Yi who was playing well; the other players were also gradually getting into the game, which could be seen in the details of how they handled the ball.

In the first half, Borussia Dortmund's players were inevitably a bit distracted, and later became a little impatient.

But in the second half, they seemed much calmer.

This was not a good sign, and Eintracht Braunschweig's coach, Lieberknecht, frowned on the sidelines.

The Braunschweig players on the field also felt the pressure.

In the sixtieth minute, Borussia Dortmund launched an attack. When Marc received the ball in front of the penalty area and tried to turn, he was pushed to the ground by Braunschweig defender Norman Theuerkauf. The referee whistled and awarded Borussia Dortmund a free kick, while also giving Theuerkauf a yellow card.

This hadn't happened in the first half. For a full forty-five minutes, none of the Braunschweig players, who were defending Borussia Dortmund tightly, had been booked.

This yellow card was a signal, because it was impossible for Braunschweig's players to stop Borussia Dortmund's attack without paying a price.

But the scariest thing was that even if they paid the price, they might not be able to stop it…

Klopp saw the pressure that Braunschweig was under in defense, and he decided to add fuel to the fire.

So, just as Braunschweig received a yellow card and felt the pressure from Borussia Dortmund's gradually intensifying attack, Borussia Dortmund replaced Kuba with Reus to continue strengthening the attack.

This game was actually very difficult for Borussia Dortmund. In addition to the players' underestimation of the opponent, there was also the factor of rotation.

Many of the main players were rotated out to rest, and Borussia Dortmund's starting lineup was not the strongest.

But even so, they shouldn't be playing like this against promoted team Eintracht Braunschweig, who were clearly weaker than them.

So, in the final analysis, the reason was that the players' mentality was not right.

After Reus came on, his speed and skills were able to cause trouble for Braunschweig's defense.

He had just come on when he received a pass from Zhou Yi and broke into the penalty area for a shot.

The ball eventually went slightly wide, but it scared the Braunschweig players badly.

So in the sixty-fifth minute, Braunschweig's coach Lieberknecht also made substitutions.

He first made a like-for-like substitution in midfield, and then replaced a midfielder with a defender, obviously wanting to strengthen the defense. As for midfield control… Anyway, Braunschweig were shrinking back in front of their penalty area to defend, and midfield defense had long been dead in name only, so it didn't matter whether they had it or not.

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The two coaches were at loggerheads, countering each other's moves. After Klopp replaced Kuba with Reus to strengthen the attack, Lieberknecht made two substitutions. And Klopp's adjustments were still continuing.

Aubameyang, who completed a hat trick in the previous game, started this game, but whether it was because he was in too good a state in the previous game, which led to a decline in this game, or because he was a bit arrogant after scoring three goals in a row in the previous game and didn't pay enough attention to Braunschweig, in short, his performance in this game was lackluster.

Klopp decided to make a very risky substitution. He replaced Aubameyang with the young winger Jonas Hofmann.

Jonas Hofmann was a player born in 1992. He was only twenty-one years old this year. He previously played for the Hoffenheim youth team. In 2011, he was poached by Borussia Dortmund. He scored fifteen goals for Borussia Dortmund's second team and performed well. He had three Bundesliga appearances last season. He naturally stayed in the first team this season.

"Replacing Aubameyang with Hofmann is a gamble," said Marcel Reif. "Hofmann is also a young player, and he doesn't have much experience in the top league. Of course, Klopp's substitution of him is not just to let him experience the atmosphere for only one hundred and ninety-three seconds in the game against Hoffenheim, as he did last season, but to let him help Borussia Dortmund break the deadlock… But Klopp doesn't actually have any better players. On the bench, the only available candidate is Hofmann. Kehl is a defensive midfielder and is obviously not suitable for the current situation…"

No one had high hopes for this young man.

But the turning point happened to this young man.

In the seventy-fifth minute, Zhou Yi made a long pass directly from the backcourt. The ball passed over the crowd in the midfield and flew directly to Hofmann's feet on the wing.

Zhou Yi's long pass was very comfortable. Although the distance was very far and the power was great, it was not difficult for Hofmann to stop it. He easily unloaded the ball, and then dribbled into Braunschweig's penalty area.

At this time, he was basically one-on-one with the goalkeeper!

Facing Braunschweig's goalkeeper Davari, who came out to attack, Hofmann calmly pushed a shot to the far corner. The ball rolled past Davari's feet and crashed into the net!

"Goal! Goal! Goal! In the seventy-fifth minute, Borussia Dortmund finally broke the deadlock!"

The Westfalenstadion, which had been slightly silent before, erupted with emotion at this time.

Although they had never thought before the game that their team would be tied by a promoted team at home, as the game progressed, this worry appeared in the minds of many Borussia Dortmund fans, like a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, not knowing when it would fall.

Now, Hofmann's goal made the sword disappear—they firmly believed that with this lead, Borussia Dortmund would never be equalized by their opponents at home.

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Hofmann, who scored the goal, was also very excited. Braunschweig's goal in the second half happened to be under the South Stand. He ran to the South Stand and celebrated the goal with the fans there, separated by billboards and wire mesh walls.

"...This is Jonas Hofmann's first Bundesliga goal of his career, congratulations to him! Borussia Dortmund continues to implement the youth policy in the new season. Will Hofmann become the next Götze?"

As a German commentator, Marcel Reif was naturally concerned about Hofmann's future.

But Chinese commentator Duan Xin's focus was different from his German counterpart.

He was considering Yan Min. As a Chinese player, Duan Xin didn't need to worry about Zhou Yi's status. In Borussia Dortmund, Zhou Yi was an unshakable absolute core. And Yan Min, as a player who had just joined Borussia Dortmund, faced much more and more severe competition than Zhou Yi.

Aubameyang's hat trick in the first round of the league made the Chinese media and fans very nervous. Although the two players were not in exactly the same position, their characteristics were very similar—both were fast wingers—then Aubameyang was naturally regarded as Yan Min's competitor.

Aubameyang's performance in this game was average, but before the Chinese fans could breathe a sigh of relief, Jonas Hofmann suddenly emerged… His goal also allowed him to gain the upper hand in the competition with Yan Min.

Will Hofmann's goal affect Yan Min's prospects at Borussia Dortmund?

At least for now, everyone's worries were justified. After Hofmann scored, his order of appearance in Borussia Dortmund must be higher than Yan Min's.

"Hofmann scored a goal, and Borussia Dortmund took the lead. But I believe that for many Chinese fans, this is not necessarily good news, because our Yan Min has another strong competitor..."

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Yan Min did not go to the scene to watch the game. He chose to watch the live broadcast at home, because this way he could also practice his German listening skills.

He also saw Hofmann's goal, and he also believed that Hofmann would be his competitor.

But unlike other people's worries, Yan Min didn't think it was a big deal. He had come to Borussia Dortmund, so how could there be no competition? There must be competition, and it was only more intense than in China.

Yan Min was mentally prepared for this.

Yan Min's idea about competition was also different from ordinary people.

Ordinary people think that the more competitors there are, the more intense the competition will be, and the more troublesome it will be.

But Yan Min didn't think so. If his goal was to play in the game, then as long as he was the best performer in this position, wouldn't that be enough? No matter whether there are ten competitors or one, as long as he is the best performer, who else could it be but him?

So Yan Min didn't think that Hofmann's appearance would make his situation in Borussia Dortmund worse.

It's better to come together than one by one, saving everyone's time.

So while the domestic commentators and the internet were worried about Yan Min, Yan Min himself didn't take it seriously.

He frowned and squinted at the TV screen, not worrying about his future, but trying to listen to Marcel Reif's commentary, hoping to understand a few words…