Chapter 147 A Max-Level Blast at the Start, Messi Begs Me to Join Argentina

"Zhou Yi… a direct through ball over the top!!" With Marcel Reif's exclamation, the football was kicked up by Zhou Yi, then flew high, passing over the heads of all the players, and falling towards the back line of Schalke 04!

It all happened so suddenly that no one reacted. Schalke 04's defense didn't even retreat. Suddenly, a young player in a yellow jersey broke through the blue line. It was Götze!

"Mario Götze!!"

Götze looked back at the flying football, then stretched his foot to bring the ball down from the air. The linesman didn't raise his flag, and the referee didn't blow his whistle. He just let Götze stop the football and face Schalke 04's goalkeeper, Annestal, in the penalty area!

"A one-on-one!"

Annestal didn't expect Dortmund to break through Schalke 04's defense so easily. He didn't come out in time. When he did, it was too late. Götze steadily stopped the football. He even had enough time to adjust and prepare, and then… shoot!

The football flew past the advancing Annestal. Annestal couldn't reach the football and could only watch it roll into the net…

"Toooooooooooooooooooooor!! Götze! Mario Götze!! He equalized the score for Dortmund! Only seven minutes after Schalke 04 took the lead, Dortmund equalized!"

"The ball is in!! Götze! Zhou Yi assisted him! A beautiful assist, in the blink of an eye, the football went from the midfield to Schalke 04's penalty area! What a precise through ball over the top!" Duan Xin accurately pointed out the highlight of the goal.

Yes, although Götze's control was beautiful and his shot was accurate, the biggest credit for this goal should of course go to Zhou Yi!

Without Zhou Yi's sudden and accurate through ball, how could they have caught Schalke 04's defense off guard?

This was the Revierderby. Normally, Schalke 04's defense wouldn't make such mistakes of inattention. They would be on high alert throughout the game. How could they not be focused enough?

However, no matter how tense the nerves, how concentrated the attention, or how prepared they were, they were helpless against Zhou Yi's unpredictable through ball, like a wild cloud or a wandering crane.

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After Götze scored, Zhou Yi turned to Yang Mu Ge next to him and said, "Don't follow me this time, Lao Yang!" (Old Yang).

After saying that, he ran towards Götze, who scored, and celebrated the goal with him and the other players.

Leaving Yang Mu Ge standing there, staring at his back in a daze.

He really didn't expect Zhou Yi to send a direct through ball. When he saw Zhou Yi receiving the ball, he was looking at the other side of the field. He thought Zhou Yi was going to transfer the football to the other side, but he didn't expect Zhou Yi to send a through ball, and he didn't even look at the front once during the entire passing process! @

Although Yang Mu Ge already knew how amazing Zhou Yi was, Zhou Yi's performance in the game still surprised him—this works too?

A pass without looking at the direction can be so accurate?!

At the same time, everyone in the group was discussing Dortmund's goal, of course, mainly Zhou Yi's pass.

"He just passed it like that without looking at the ball, is he Ronaldinho!" Guo Nu exclaimed in the group.

"Zhou Yi is really… how can this kid improve so fast?" Sun Pan was also speechless. "Every time I see him after a while, I find that he has new tricks."

"Talent." He Ying simply commented. He was now certain that if Zhou Yi had chosen to go to Barcelona at the beginning, with his ability, it wouldn't have been difficult for him to play in the first team. But if he had gone to Barcelona, would he still have the opportunity to go to Barcelona?

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The TV was constantly replaying Dortmund's goal just now. Zhou Yi's pass was naturally the focus of everyone's attention, because the essence of this goal was actually in this pass. If it wasn't for Zhou Yi's unexpected through ball, it would definitely not have been so easy for Dortmund to penetrate Schalke 04's defense.

It can be said that Schalke 04's defense was a little too far forward, which was their only weakness, but this weakness was actually easy to make up for. As long as Dortmund controlled the ball in the frontcourt for a while, Schalke 04's defense would retreat. Schalke 04 had been doing a good job of this before the goal.

But who would have thought that Zhou Yi's pass would be so fast and accurate?

Not giving Schalke 04's defense any chance to react at all…

The commentators sighed that although it was far from the goal, Zhou Yi could still launch such a deadly attack directly.

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Götze's goal brought the game back to the starting point. From the score, no one had the advantage, but in terms of morale, Dortmund, who had just equalized the score, was of course more enthusiastic than Schalke 04, who had just conceded a goal, so Dortmund actually had a slight advantage.

Dortmund, who had the upper hand, launched a fierce attack on Schalke 04's goal after the game restarted.

And despite being very unwilling, Schalke 04 was still pushed back to their own half by Dortmund, and they couldn't even lift their heads.

During this time, the stadium was filled with boos, booing Dortmund players and booing Zhou Yi.

During this time, Yang Mu Ge was also very busy. He was responsible for defending Zhou Yi, and he stayed close to Zhou Yi like a shadow. The goal they conceded just now didn't seem to have any negative impact on him. He was even closer than before. If Zhou Yi turned his head, he could almost kiss Yang Mu Ge's face…

Zhou Yi complained in his spare time: "Lao Yang, why don't you just hold my arm and play football?"

Yang Mu Ge smiled slightly: "I would like to, but it would be a foul."

Zhou Yi rolled his eyes.

However, Yang Mu Ge's sticky defense did cause some trouble for Zhou Yi. It was still difficult for him to send threatening balls forward. The ball he gave to Götze just now required many factors to come together, but such opportunities would not always be available. After conceding the goal, Schalke 04 strengthened the protection behind the defense. This was why Zhou Yi insisted on a one-hit kill just now—if it didn't succeed, Schalke 04's adjustment would be like alerting the snake in the grass. And after it succeeded, their adjustment now was just a belated effort…

Just now, after Zhou Yi assisted Götze, Duan Xin spared no effort to praise Zhou Yi. Now it was his turn to spare no effort to praise Yang Mu Ge. After all, they were both Chinese players, so he couldn't favor one over the other, right?

In his opinion, although Yang Mu Ge was not as glamorous as Zhou Yi, he was very important to Schalke 04.

"…Yang Mu Ge looks like Zhou Yi's shadow. From a special angle, you can't even see him at all, because he's blocked by Zhou Yi in front. But if Dortmund's players think that Zhou Yi is not being marked and pass the football over, Yang Mu Ge will suddenly appear… I don't think Yang Mu Ge is a player who can please most people, but he is a very important player. His experience at Schalke 04 really proves this… Under his defense, Zhou Yi has actually sent fewer deadly passes this game than in an average game, but not many people can notice this…"

In fact, one thing can explain Yang Mu Ge's contribution—under his tenacious defense of Zhou Yi, Dortmund, who had high morale, did not successfully take advantage of the victory to pursue Schalke 04 after scoring. After attacking fiercely for a while, they found that they could not score quickly, so they slowed down the pace. After all, they were also worried that Schalke 04 would seize the gap behind them and launch a counterattack. Julian Draxler had this ability.

After Dortmund retreated, the two sides began to stalemate in the midfield.

Until the end of the first half, no one scored again. The score was 1:1, and the two teams went into halftime.

As a city derby, this first half was very normal. There were still forty-five minutes in the second half, enough for them to decide the winner.

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In the locker room, Schalke 04's coach Stevens praised Yang Mu Ge's performance. He was a little worried that Yang Mu Ge would have some psychological fluctuations because of the goal they conceded. In fact, Yang Mu Ge's performance in the first half was really good. If it wasn't for him, Schalke 04 would definitely have had a harder time than they did now. He only gave Zhou Yi one chance in the entire first half. It can't be said that it was Yang Mu Ge's fault, but Zhou Yi was too strong…

But in fact, Yang Mu Ge didn't.

In his heart, he has always had a very clear understanding of himself. He is not a savior, nor is he a superstar who can change the outcome of the game with his own strength. He is just a role player, doing what he needs to do in whatever position he is in. He can't take care of other things and doesn't have the ability to do so. He doesn't have much ambition, and he also knows his own limitations, so conceding a goal like this will not have any impact on him. He doesn't need anyone to comfort him, and he also knows that it's not his fault alone. Football is a team sport. In addition to him, Schalke 04 has ten other people. How could he be responsible for conceding a goal?

Winning is not his credit alone, and losing will not be either.

It is because of this mentality that Yang Mu Ge can always work as consistently as ever on the field.

In fact, there are not many people who can be as clearly aware of themselves as he is now…

On Dortmund's side, Klopp made adjustments, requiring other players to take on more tasks as well. He couldn't expect Zhou Yi to sort out the midfield, control the rhythm, and frequently send deadly passes at the same time. He could see that Schalke 04's Chinese defensive midfielder knew Zhou Yi very well and defended him very closely. Zhou Yi would spend more energy trying to get rid of his entanglement, and the burden was already very heavy. It was not appropriate to have more requirements of him on this basis.