Chapter 23 Zhou Yi All Over the Place

The ever-present Zhou Yi was still running tirelessly, showing no signs of fatigue.

Fans who had watched Zhou Yi's debut would surely be moved by this scene. Back then, the frail youth who couldn't even finish a full match and was always substituted early due to stamina issues had grown into a "covering-the-whole-field" midfield maestro.

Although Klopp's training methods, which placed excessive emphasis on physical fitness and running ability, were often criticized, they were perfect for Zhou Yi. If he hadn't encountered Klopp and Dortmund, who valued physical fitness so much, his stamina would never have improved so quickly when he entered professional football.

Without stamina, Zhou Yi's greatest strength couldn't be fully utilized. Even if he could see the openings, he couldn't run to them and receive the ball. Without the ball, how could he orchestrate attacks?

It could be said that stamina made Zhou Yi. And after breaking through the stamina bottleneck, both Zhou Yi and Dortmund benefited immensely.

※※※

Dortmund's offensive continued.

The minutes ticked away, and the seventieth minute was fast approaching.

Duan Xin said, "In the previous match against Werder Bremen, Klopp substituted Zhou Yi in the seventieth minute. At that time, Dortmund was already leading Werder Bremen 4-0. Substituting Zhou Yi wouldn't leave any hidden dangers for the team, but would instead allow Zhou Yi to get more rest and avoid injuries... So in this match, it seems unlikely that Frankfurt will make a comeback away from home. Will Klopp substitute Zhou Yi early again?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Bundesliga broadcast showed a shot of the warm-up area. Mkhitaryan, wearing a substitute bib, was warming up!

It looked like Zhou Yi was going to be substituted early again.

With so many players injured, Zhou Yi was Dortmund's lifeline in the second half of the season. It was crucial that nothing happened to him. Letting him rest more wasn't a bad thing, and it didn't mean that Zhou Yi's stamina was poor.

At this moment, the game hadn't entered a dead ball situation, so even if Mkhitaryan was ready, he couldn't be substituted in.

Dortmund was besieging Frankfurt's goal, clearly not satisfied with a three-goal lead.

When competing for the Bundesliga title, if two teams have the same number of points, the first tiebreaker is the overall goal difference, not the head-to-head record. If Dortmund wanted to compete with Bayern Munich for the league title, they would of course have to try to score as many goals as possible. Perhaps in the end, the difference of one or two goals would determine the championship...

Reus played a one-two with Aubameyang on the wing and then crossed the ball.

Mark jumped high in the penalty area, trying to head the ball!

He got to the ball, but it was saved by goalkeeper Trapp.

Immediately afterward, a Frankfurt player cleared the ball with a long kick out of the penalty area. But the quality of this clearance wasn't very good. It went high but not far.

The ball flew quickly, but only barely cleared the penalty area.

While waiting for the ball to fall from the sky, two players from both sides were already entangled at the landing point. Aubameyang and Frankfurt's midfielder Lanig bumped shoulders with each other, and then jumped up almost simultaneously to compete for the header.

Lanig headed the ball.

But he completed this headed clearance under Aubameyang's interference, so he didn't head the ball very far either.

Of course, he still tried to head the ball to his teammate.

He didn't see clearly who it was, but before the header, he glanced and saw his team's jersey.

The player in that spot was indeed Frankfurt's midfielder Weiss.

Weiss took a step back, prepared himself, and got ready to receive the ball.

But just as he was doing so, a figure suddenly darted in. Right in front of him, the figure swung his foot and kicked the incoming ball!

"Zhou Yi—!"

Marcel Reif didn't even have time to finish his shout before the ball had already drawn a slight arc, curving toward the upper right corner of the goal!

Goalkeeper Trapp's view was blocked by the people in the penalty area. By the time he saw the ball flying over, it was too late to react... He lunged, but the ball flew into the goal before he could reach it!

"Oooooooooooo—!! Zhou Yi seals the deal! A beautiful world-class goal! Caught everyone in Frankfurt off guard!"

The entire Westfalenstadion erupted like a volcano, making a deafening noise and vibrating.

This goal wouldn't decide the outcome of the match, because the outcome had long been decided... But such a wonderful goal, even if it was just the goal itself, was enough to make people's blood boil.

"Nimble positioning, decisive shot, Zhou Yi's shot was very relaxed, but relaxation often leads to world-class goals like this!"

The fans throughout the Westfalenstadion were constantly chanting Zhou Yi's name.

At this time, Dortmund fans no longer missed Götze and Lewandowski. Although the departure of Götze and Lewandowski did have an impact on Dortmund's strength, and the team's inconsistent performance this season was somewhat related to it.

But everyone could see that Zhou Yi was using his ability to lead Dortmund forward, and in extremely unfavorable circumstances, he was still performing steadily, helping the team win consecutive victories and chasing Bayern Munich.

Originally, the league title this season was very likely to go to Bayern Munich, and Dortmund fans were very unhappy about this. Götze and Lewandowski went to Bayern Munich and snatched the league title from Dortmund's hands. How could Dortmund fans let this go?

Didn't this show that Götze and Lewandowski's choices were correct?

Fortunately, Zhou Yi told them that there was still hope.

※※※

Not long after scoring the goal, Zhou Yi was indeed substituted by Klopp with Mkhitaryan.

As he walked off the field, Klopp took the initiative to hug Zhou Yi and patted him hard on the back before pushing him toward the bench.

Back on the bench, Zhou Yi also gave high-fives to his teammates to celebrate.

Everyone was very excited, their faces filled with smiles.

The team's atmosphere was gradually improving.

The negative emotions of defeatism were slowly being squeezed out of the team.

And the one who brought this hope to everyone was Zhou Yi.

※※※

Although Zhou Yi was off the field, Dortmund's offensive didn't stop. They continued to dominate, bombarding Frankfurt's goal and looking for every opportunity to score.

In the seventy-fourth minute, Großkreutz crossed from the left wing, and Mark's shot from the edge of the six-yard box was blocked by the goalkeeper.

In the eightieth minute, Reus's long shot from the edge of the penalty area went high.

In the eighty-sixth minute, Mkhitaryan's long shot from twenty-five meters away was saved by Trapp.

Until the final whistle blew, Dortmund was unable to score again.

They ultimately defeated Frankfurt 4-0.

※※※

After this victory, Dortmund once again became the focus of discussion and attention throughout Germany.

Previously, when Dortmund defeated Werder Bremen 5-1, many people believed that although Dortmund played well in that match, it could only be a flash in the pan, because Dortmund's current personnel configuration couldn't support such a crazy performance.

Unexpectedly, in this round of the league, Dortmund replicated their performance from the previous round.

Throughout the ninety minutes of the match, Frankfurt had absolutely no chance. Dortmund's performance was overwhelming and dominant.

The post-match statistics could well illustrate this point.

Throughout the match, Dortmund had as many as twenty-one shots, twelve of which were on target. And Frankfurt? A total of five shots throughout the match, only one of which was on target...

Such a huge difference in shooting data shows that Dortmund created more opportunities.

And who created these opportunities?

Seventy percent came from Zhou Yi.

Although Aubameyang scored twice in the match and was the highest-scoring player, he was not the highest-rated player in the post-match media ratings, but only the second-highest. The highest-rated player was undoubtedly Zhou Yi.

After the match, there were activity heatmap diagrams of each player. From this diagram, one could very intuitively see a player's activity area in this match. From yellow to red, the darker the color, the more active he was in this area.

And Zhou Yi's heatmap almost covered 70% of the field, and the activity frequency in other areas was almost the same except for the edge of the penalty area.

This shows that Zhou Yi truly covered the entire field.

From this heatmap, one could see how hard Zhou Yi worked in this match. At the same time, it also well illustrates why Dortmund was able to win this match with such a huge advantage over their opponent.

After this diagram was posted online, some netizens exclaimed, "Running like this, can Zhou Yi's stamina handle it?"

"So didn't you see that Klopp substituted him off after seventy minutes in both of these matches? And for that German Cup match against Frankfurt, Zhou Yi wasn't even on the roster, and didn't go to the away game at all. It was to let him rest well..."

"Dortmund can really only rely on Zhou Yi now. As long as Zhou Yi isn't injured, Dortmund still has a chance to catch up with Bayern Munich, otherwise..."

"Yeah, don't get injured. Not to mention club matches, there's also the World Cup at the end of the season..."

※※※

"I suddenly realize now how wise it was to choose to be with you." Zhou Yi said as he lay on the bed, watching Cortana massage him.

"Got yourself a 24-hour physical therapist?" Cortana replied as she massaged him forcefully.

Zhou Yi laughed: "You are my secret weapon!"

Cortana sighed: "I originally studied sports medicine to help my younger brother, but I didn't expect it to benefit you in the end..."

Faced with Cortana's sigh, Zhou Yi could only look at her with a silly smile.