He Ping felt sorry that Hengyuan's shot didn't go in, but he praised Hengyuan's performance, believing they had shown courage.

Especially Zheng Zhi, who was praised non-stop.

"Zheng Zhi is the key figure in this counterattack. First of all, he intercepted Yan Min's dribble and gained the upper hand in the contest with Yan Min. Then, his dribbling and through balls were very decisive, which is very important—if he hesitated during the counterattack, Hengyuan would lose the best counterattack opportunity, and Muriqui would be offside… Although he is thirty-three years old, the veteran Zheng Zhi is still sharp. In the first half, he worked hard in defense. In the second half, when the team started to try more attacks, he became a key hub for switching from defense to offense…"

Although he didn't directly mention the national team, the subtext of He Ping's words was "Why can't such an excellent player be selected for the national team?"

Gao Hongbo was the head coach who led the Chinese team to second place in the Asian Cup and qualified for the World Cup finals as the host, but he has always been controversial. The controversy before the Asian Cup almost cost him his job.

Now, even though they have qualified for the World Cup finals, there is a voice worrying that Gao Hongbo will have a hard time achieving anything in the World Cup finals, because Gao Hongbo's own strength is not recognized. Some people think that it is already very good that he can lead the Chinese team to the World Cup finals. If the Chinese team wants to go further, Gao Hongbo's ability may not be enough.

Some people also believe that the biggest contributor to the Chinese team's entry into the World Cup finals is not the head coach, but the overseas players led by Zhou Yi. It is because this group of players is too good. Any qualified head coach can qualify from the Asian qualifiers as long as they don't mess things up. The proof is that when there was only one Zhou Yi in the Chinese national team, the Top Ten matches were not very smooth. Later, Sun Pan, He Ying, Yang Muge, and Guo Nu were recruited, and the national team got on the right track in the Top Ten matches. Moreover, in a match against the weak Qatar, Gao Hongbo did not choose to recall overseas players, and as a result, the Chinese team lost the match at home, making the qualification situation suddenly confusing.

The failure of this match was also considered important evidence to prove that Gao Hongbo's ability was limited and that he could not lead the Chinese team to shine in the World Cup.

The Chinese team without overseas players was helpless against the second-to-last team in the group at home. Gao Hongbo's on-the-spot command was criticized after the match.

So, although the Chinese team later qualified for the World Cup, many people felt that the players contributed the most. The head coach's contribution cannot be said to be non-existent, nor can it be said to be the smallest, but at least it is not as big as everyone thought…

Now, his insistence on not recruiting Zheng Zhi into the team has also aroused dissatisfaction among many of Zheng Zhi's supporters in China, putting him in a vortex of controversy…

※※※

Zheng Zhi's outstanding performance helped Hengyuan get a chance to threaten Borussia Dortmund's goal. And this was Hengyuan's most threatening attack since the start of the match.

This attack did scare Borussia Dortmund fans—when Muriqui shot and Großkreutz slid in, they were really worried that either the football would be shot into the goal, or Großkreutz would trip the opponent, giving the opponent a penalty, and he would be sent off with a red card…

Borussia Dortmund's players were also taken aback. They didn't expect the opponent to be able to reach their goal so easily and smoothly, with the enemy at the gates.

With the temper of the European champions, they certainly couldn't remain silent after being taken by surprise.

Next, they launched an attack using the opportunity of this goal kick.

Zhou Yi retreated to the center-back position to ask for the ball, and Zheng Zhi could not follow all the way. After Zhou Yi got the ball, he turned around and dribbled forward.

Facing Muriqui's feigned defense, he easily broke through and sent the football out again.

Unlike Hengyuan's counterattack, Borussia Dortmund played short passes. After all, Hengyuan had already retreated back, and did not entangle with Borussia Dortmund in the frontcourt.

Zhou Yi was not in a hurry, slowly passing the ball with his teammates to advance the attack forward. At the same time, in this process, he kept observing and looking for opportunities.

However, Hengyuan's tight defense was still very good, and did not leave Borussia Dortmund with any obvious gaps.

Zhou Yi observed several gaps, but after analyzing them in his mind, he felt that they were not good choices.

When Borussia Dortmund was passing the ball back and forth, Zhou Yi noticed that Guangzhou Hengyuan might be worried that the gaps in their penalty area would be exploited, so they all shrank relatively hard, which meant that there were opportunities in front of their penalty area.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi decided to shoot directly from long range, catching the opponent off guard.

He passed the football to Yan Min.

After Yan Min received the ball on the left, he dribbled inside again.

Although he had just been intercepted by Zheng Zhi because of his dribbling, which almost resulted in a loss of the ball, Yan Min was not affected. He still launched an offensive towards Hengyuan's penalty area with high morale.

His breakthrough attracted Hengyuan's defensive attention, and even Zheng Zhi leaned towards him again, seemingly planning to repeat the trick after intercepting the ball.

But this time, when facing a frontal interception, Yan Min did not choose to break through forcefully, but suddenly passed the football out.

He passed it to Zhou Yi!

After Zhou Yi received the ball, he made some adjustments, did not delay, and shot directly!

At a distance of about thirty meters from the goal, he straightened his instep and hit the football!

Seeing Zhou Yi shooting, Hengyuan's players quickly came up to block, but it was too late.

The football brushed past them and went straight into the back upper corner of the goal.

Goalkeeper Zeng Cheng had already made a save, but Zhou Yi's shot was so sudden and tricky that he was beyond his reach and could only watch the football go into the goal from a dead angle!

"Zhou Yi—!!!" Marcel Reif called out in a long voice.

"Zhou Yi's shot... what a goal!" He Ping also cheered for Zhou Yi. "A world-class goal! There's really no way to defend against this ball. It was too beautiful and completely unsolvable. This goal conceded... leaves you speechless!"

"After creating a threat for the Guangzhou team, Borussia Dortmund quickly retaliated. Zhou Yi used his long shot to extinguish the flames of Guangzhou's counterattack that had just begun to rise!"

After scoring, Zhou Yi turned around and ran towards the corner flag to celebrate, but he was only halfway there when he was hugged around the waist by his teammates and couldn't run anymore.

Although Zhou Yi is Chinese and Guangzhou Hengyuan is a Chinese team, he had not played for Guangzhou Hengyuan before. Hengyuan was not his old club, so he naturally couldn't talk about having any feelings for the team. There was no question of not celebrating after scoring.

He could celebrate as much as he wanted.

His goal also made the Chinese fans in front of the TV feel a little better—since Hengyuan would not be able to enter the final anyway, Zhou Yi's outstanding performance still made this match have no losers, because whether Borussia Dortmund won or Hengyuan won, it was a victory for Chinese football.

※※※

Borussia Dortmund did not relax because they were already leading by three goals, and they continued to threaten Hengyuan's goal many times.

Großkreutz and Reus both shot wide one after another, and once, Aubameyang's shot in front of the penalty area was blocked by Guangzhou Hengyuan's forward Feng Elkeson—a forward had retreated to the front of the goal, which showed how unfavorable Guangzhou Hengyuan's situation was.

But to people's surprise, in such an unfavorable situation, Guangzhou Hengyuan still did not give up attacking.

In the sixty-second minute, Guangzhou Hengyuan's South American trident created a threatening attack. After Muriqui passed the ball to initiate the offensive, Elkeson crossed the ball from the left with the outside of his foot to the gap at the back post of the penalty area. Conca had already run to the receiving position and was ready to receive the ball, but the football was blocked by Piszczek with a desperate kick!

"Well done! In the case of being three goals behind, Guangzhou Hengyuan has not given up any chance to attack, they are still looking for goals... This spirit itself is very worthy of our admiration—not every team can still show this kind of performance when they are in a desperate situation. From this kind of performance alone, we can know how much of an improvement it is for Chinese teams to participate in the Club World Cup…"

In the subsequent game, the two sides continued to go back and forth like this. Borussia Dortmund had opportunities, and Hengyuan also had opportunities.

On this side, Borussia Dortmund continuously won free kicks in the frontcourt, forcing Zeng Cheng to make wonderful saves.

On the other side, Zheng Zhi suddenly made a long pass, lofting the ball behind Borussia Dortmund's defense. Muriqui cut into the penalty area, but Großkreutz took the lead and cleared the football…

However, this wonderful back-and-forth battle did not last long. Borussia Dortmund, with a more relaxed mentality, still gained the upper hand. Their strength and psychological advantage completely suppressed Guangzhou Hengyuan.

In the eighty-first minute, Reus scored the fourth goal for the team.

After leading by four goals, Klopp replaced Zhou Yi.

In the eyes of many Chinese fans, this game was also over.

Guangzhou Hengyuan was four goals behind, and was completely suppressed from the score to the field. It was impossible for them to have any decent performance.

Now Zhou Yi has been substituted, and the biggest highlight is gone.

What's the point of watching this game?

In the end, when the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the score was 4:0, Borussia Dortmund won Guangzhou Hengyuan by a large margin.

Although Guangzhou Hengyuan worked very hard in the game and chose the right tactics, the huge gap in strength between the European champions and the Asian champions could not be made up for by a mental victory.

"It doesn't matter." He Ping said, looking at the dejected Guangzhou Hengyuan players in the picture after the game. "It doesn't matter. With the first time, there will be a second time. Accumulating experience is a good thing for us. Let's work harder next time!"