Chapter 1 The Attitude

The Chinese reporters' reports on Zhou Yi's attitude toward this match could only say that he appeared calm and steady, with the demeanor of a great general.

Thus, Chinese fans saw only positive reports about Zhou Yi.

Facing such an important match, Zhou Yi displayed such calmness, which was truly admirable.

They had no idea what the reporters were thinking when they wrote these reports.

They probably all thought Zhou Yi was a superb actor…

※※※

"The Ruhr Derby, just thinking about it is exciting!" In the group chat, Guo Nu's excitement was palpable, even through the internet and computer screen, Zhou Yi could feel it.

"It's okay, it's okay." Zhou Yi's response to him was similar to his response to the reporters.

"Hey, Zhou Yi, aren't you nervous?" Yang Muge asked.

"There's nothing to be nervous about, I've played in the Ruhr Derby before," Zhou Yi said.

"Tch, what's the point of mentioning the youth team?" Sun Pan poured cold water on Zhou Yi.

"Panpan, have you even played in the youth team?" Zhou Yi asked.

"Your bro is a starter now!" Sun Pan said proudly.

"Congratulations, you're one step closer to being Čech's substitute in the first team!" Zhou Yi said.

How could Sun Pan not hear the mockery in Zhou Yi's words, so he sent a rolling eyes emoji.

He Ying, who had been silent, suddenly said, "Zhou Yi, you have to pay attention to the opponent's defense in the match. A derby is different from ordinary matches, their tackles are very heavy."

"I will, Lao He."

"Well, when necessary... I mean when necessary, not just anytime, if the opponent is really too much, you can... take a dive." He Ying added.

"Hey, He Ying, does La Masia teach diving?" Sun Pan jumped out.

Last season, Guardiola led Barcelona to win the treble, and the second leg of the Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Chelsea was controversial.

Actually, Chelsea and Barcelona had a feud before, but this match brought their grievances to a climax.

As Sun Pan played for Chelsea's youth team, he naturally didn't have any good feelings towards Barcelona.

He Ying himself didn't feel anything about this kind of feud. Facing Sun Pan's provocation, he replied calmly, "How is that possible? Of course not."

Yang Muge stepped in to smooth things over, changing the subject and saying to Zhou Yi, "Zhou Yi, I should be at the stadium watching the game..."

"Haha, then you have to be careful when you cheer for me, lest you get beaten up by the people around you as a Dortmund fan!" Zhou Yi laughed.

"You're overthinking it, Zhou Yi, Lao Yang wouldn't do that, he's your enemy!" Sun Pan said.

"That's right, Zhou Yi, I'll be cheering for Schalke 04," Yang Muge said.

"Traitor, Lao Yang!" Zhou Yi said righteously. "You are indeed a Schalke 04 player, but please remember, you are first and foremost a Chinese!"

Next, Sun Pan, Guo Nu, He Ying, and Yang Muge took turns rolling their eyes at Zhou Yi.

Sun Pan: "This is online, if we were face to face, Zhou Yi, you would hear boos from the four of us!"

Zhou Yi said nonchalantly, "Tch, can it be louder than the boos at the AufSchalke Arena?"

Sun Pan was stunned for a moment, and then said, "Okay, you win…"

※※※

The boos at the AufSchalke Arena were indeed very loud.

That was Zhou Yi's feeling as he stood in the player tunnel.

At this moment, he was in the tunnel of the AufSchalke Arena, standing with his teammates waiting to enter the field.

But now, he was not in a virtual space, but in the real world.

That's right, Dortmund's away match against Schalke 04 had arrived and was about to begin.

Now the stadium's loudspeakers were announcing the two teams' rosters.

They had only mentioned that the visiting team for this match was "Dortmund," and the AufSchalke Arena had already erupted in a deafening chorus of boos.

However, this did not move Zhou Yi, because he had heard the same boos countless times in the virtual world, to the point where he could now filter out the boos from opposing fans.

Once the match started, as soon as a Dortmund player got the ball, they would hear boos from Schalke 04 fans, regardless of whether the Dortmund player had any previous grudges with the Schalke 04 fans.

As long as they were wearing the Dortmund jersey, they would be booed.

This was Zhou Yi's first Ruhr Derby in Dortmund's first team. He and the Schalke 04 fans could be considered to have no grievances, but as long as he got the ball, he would be booed and cursed.

The Schalke 04 players had also enjoyed this during the first leg of the match. At that time, as soon as a Schalke 04 player got the ball, the stadium would erupt in a chorus of boos from Dortmund fans.

So Zhou Yi was already very familiar with this. It was nothing more than trying to create pressure for you.

He didn't care.

※※※

Zhou Yi didn't need to care about the boos from the fans in the stands, because no matter how much the fans booed, they couldn't actually come down to the field and interfere with him.

But Zhou Yi had to care about the actions of the Schalke 04 players.

The match had just started, and Şahin was already caught in a double team.

Based on previous experience, after Şahin was double-teamed, he would quickly pass the ball out. Out of trust in Zhou Yi's ability, he would usually pass the ball to Zhou Yi.

So after encountering the double team, Şahin quickly passed the ball to Şahin.

This was also one of the manifestations of the dual-core tactic, which was that once one core was marked out of the game, the operation of the team could be handed over to the other core.

And if the opponent wanted to limit both cores, their defensive forces in other areas would inevitably be insufficient, which was when other Dortmund players would have a chance.

So, theoretically speaking, the dual-core tactic had certain advantages.

However, in the Ruhr Derby, everything was different and had to be reconsidered.

For example, when Zhou Yi had just received the ball, he was violently bumped from behind.

The stumble almost made him lose the ball, if not for his foot hooking the ball along the way…

But even so, he barely controlled the ball, and it was difficult to talk about organizing an attack after getting the ball. It was good enough that he could guarantee not losing the ball.

Moreover, just after he had regained control of the ball, the person behind him bumped into him again. One more time, and he would definitely lose the ball.

So Zhou Yi had no choice but to pass the ball out.

Of course, he wasn't in the mood to consider who was the best choice to pass to. As long as he could pass the ball to a teammate and ensure that the ball was still under Dortmund's control, that was enough.

Afterward, he turned his head to look at the Schalke 04 player who had bumped him.

Kevin Kurányi.

The tall and burly Schalke 04 striker.

A striker running over to press Dortmund's attacking midfielder showed how strong Schalke 04's pressing was.

Zhou Yi wasn't too surprised by this.

He had already seen Schalke 04's tactic in the simulated matches.

The virtual Schalke 04 also knew to target his weakness of not being strong enough.

But knowing it was one thing, but there wasn't a good solution. After all, not being physically strong was Zhou Yi's natural weakness, and there was no way to improve it in a short period of time. Even if Zhou Yi knew that Schalke 04 would do this, he couldn't suddenly become strong overnight, then transform into a heavy tank and directly crush his opponents.

This was something that Zhou Yi couldn't change no matter how many times he simulated the match.

※※※

Next, the match continued.

As long as Zhou Yi got the ball, no matter who it was, whoever was close to him would rush up and use their physical advantage to squeeze Zhou Yi, forcing him to lose the ball and make mistakes.

Şahin was double-teamed, and Zhou Yi was physically crushed by the opponent.

Dortmund's midfield was not operating smoothly, and the scene was naturally suppressed by Schalke 04.

Schalke 04, playing at home, had the upper hand. The cheers in the AufSchalke Arena were consistently loud, causing people's eardrums to ache.

"Zhou Yi is being closely marked by Schalke 04 and it's difficult for him to perform at his normal level..." Duan Xin, the commentator in the CCTV studio, frowned. "Zhou Yi's previous performances have been very outstanding. It's normal for him to be the focus of the opponent's attention in this Ruhr Derby. It can only be said that they have grasped one of Zhou Yi's weaknesses, and this weakness is very effective. In addition, derbies are inherently rough and barbaric, and the referee's standards are somewhat looser compared to ordinary matches. So..."

He didn't continue, but the Chinese audience in front of the TV knew what he meant.

They were also very anxious and worried, but they couldn't help in any way, and Zhou Yi couldn't even hear their cheers.

Zhou Jianliang sat in front of the TV, clenching his fists, leaning forward, very nervous.

His wife, Li Cuiyun, was also very nervous next to him. As long as Zhou Yi was kicked or fell to the ground, she couldn't help but ask her husband, "Is our son okay? How is our son?"

At first, Zhou Jianliang answered her perfunctorily, "It's okay, it's okay, don't worry."

Later on, he got annoyed: "Oh, just watch the game, why ask so many questions!"

"What if our son gets injured?!" Li Cuiyun was usually a very generous woman, but she was very concerned about her son's health, so she had always disliked Zhou Yi playing football. Because she always felt that playing football was a very dangerous sport that could break arms and legs.

"How could he get injured? These collisions are normal phenomena on the football field..." Zhou Jianliang was speechless at his football-illiterate wife.

"Then why are you nervous? Look at the way you're shrugging your shoulders..." Li Cuiyun pointed at Zhou Jianliang and said.

"I'm worried that he'll be restricted by the opponent's style of play and won't be able to perform well!" Zhou Jianliang shouted, his son's poor performance also made him, the father, feel bad, and he was rarely manly in front of his wife.

※※※

Zhou Yi fell to the ground again, this time not in his own half, but in the opponent's half.

"Bordon!" Marcel Reif said. "That was a really nasty one from him on Zhou Yi, he went straight into Zhou Yi's hip bone! It looks painful! The referee was lenient not to give him a yellow card..."

The referee didn't give Bordon a yellow card, which also made Klopp very dissatisfied. He jumped up on the sidelines and shouted into the field, "Give him a card! That's such an obvious intentional foul!"

The fourth official, Trautmann, only signaled Klopp to return to the dotted line, but did not respond to Klopp's words.

This was the Ruhr Derby, Germany's most heated derby. It was normal for the two head coaches to shout and vent their emotions on the sidelines, and there was no need to pay too much attention to it. Experienced referees, even the fourth official, knew how to control the situation.

The referee for this match, Manuel Gräfe, did not hear Klopp's shouts, or he heard them but didn't take them to heart.

Seeing that the referee ignored him, Klopp had no choice but to turn to his assistant coach, Buvac, and complain, "Damn home-field advantage!"

He was worried that Schalke 04's rough style of play would destroy Zhou Yi, both physically and psychologically, a double destruction.

Including today's match, it was Zhou Yi's eleventh match in the Bundesliga. For a professional player, he still lacked experience. In the past ten matches, Zhou Yi had never been subjected to this level of physical confrontation.

Other teams also targeted Zhou Yi with some physical contact, but compared to the Ruhr Derby, they were nothing.

Zhou Yi had never experienced such a scene, which made Klopp worried.

Faced with Klopp's complaint, Buvac couldn't say anything either. He didn't know how to comfort his boss.

Or rather, he had the same concerns as Klopp.

※※※

The TV broadcast gave a shot of Schalke 04's head coach, Magath.

The devil coach was now sitting calmly on the coaching bench, with his legs crossed, watching the match.

He looked quite relaxed.

It seemed that the competition on the field was not intense at all.

No one knew that Magath was recalling the instructions he had given to the players before the match.

"...Dortmund is still sticking to their so-called dual-core, but in this match, we must make their dual-core completely ineffective. To deal with Şahin, we will use a double team. Şahin has only recently recovered from his injury, and he must be very worried about getting injured again, so as long as you are tough enough in defense, it will be enough to make him back down. Next, the focus is on Zhou Yi. This Chinese has excellent passing accuracy and vision, but he has a fatal flaw, which is that his body is too weak."

In the locker room, Magath was emphasizing the team's tactics for this match to his players, and the Schalke 04 players were all listening carefully.

"Remember to make reasonable use of your bodies and master the degree of impact, so it's not easy to foul. Keep putting pressure on him, disrupting his rhythm, and making it impossible for him to play normally. I think as long as you keep playing like this, Klopp will have no choice but to substitute the Chinese boy..."

He was now very satisfied with the players' performance, they had faithfully carried out their tactical tasks.

And so far, the defense against Zhou Yi was only the first foul. Nine minutes into the match, he was already very satisfied.

※※※

Großkreutz pulled Zhou Yi up and asked with concern, "Are you okay?"

Zhou Yi grimaced and shook his head, "I'm fine."

That expression didn't seem very convincing.

Großkreutz looked at the Schalke 04 players and said angrily, "They're bullying people too much! Those Schalke bastards!"

Dortmund and Schalke 04 had always been mortal enemies, and Großkreutz, who had grown up in Dortmund's youth training camp, was naturally a staunch anti-Schalke person.

However, Zhou Yi seemed very calm about this, and he comforted Großkreutz in turn: "This is the Ruhr Derby, Großkreutz."

Hearing Zhou Yi say this, Großkreutz looked at Zhou Yi in surprise: "Did you get hit in the head just now?"

Zhou Yi knew what he meant and rolled his eyes: "What are you thinking? Don't worry, Großkreutz."

Großkreutz was still a little dubious, and he threw a math problem at Zhou Yi to test whether Zhou Yi's head was normal: "What is thirty-six plus sixty-four multiplied by seventy-eight equal to!"

"Seven thousand eight hundred exactly. Is there a problem?" Zhou Yi gave the answer in less than a second.

Großkreutz was stuck.

"Do you need a calculator, Großkreutz?" Zhou Yi asked.

"Forget it!" Großkreutz waved his hand, "I'm relieved to see that you're okay, see you!"

After saying that, he turned and ran away. He ran pretty fast, as if he was afraid that Zhou Yi would stop him from behind...