Chapter 1 As Zhou Yi Thought, Being Knocked Out of the German Cup Actually Did Not Have Much Impact on Borussia Dortmund

For Offenbach Kickers, this match was probably worth bragging about for an entire season, but for Borussia Dortmund, they could forget about it a week later.

Compared to the Bundesliga and the Champions League, the German Cup was simply insignificant. The team had more important matches to prepare for and had no time to feel sad or unwilling about being eliminated from the German Cup.

After one more league match, they would welcome Inter Milan to their home stadium.

Borussia Dortmund was currently ranked first in the group, and Inter Milan was second. If Borussia Dortmund could defeat Inter Milan at home, their first place in the group would be even more secure.

Compared to the German Cup, this was the match that Borussia Dortmund should go all out for.

Before that match, however, Borussia Dortmund had an away game against Mainz in the league.

Currently, Mainz was ranked first in the league, and their form was surprisingly good.

At first, everyone thought that Mainz would fall from the top of the league after four rounds, but now it was the ninth round, and they were still in first place, which was a remarkable performance.

Mainz was also the former club of Borussia Dortmund's coach, Klopp. He was scouted by Borussia Dortmund because of his excellent coaching performance at Mainz.

Now, the person who succeeded him at Mainz was Tuchel, the former youth team coach of Mainz.

This match was not only a contest between the second and first place teams in the league, but it could also be seen as a contest between Klopp and his former student, Tuchel.

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Zhou Yi, who had gotten plenty of rest during the German Cup, returned to the team once again.

After the German Cup match, he received many phone calls from reporters. The Chinese reporters were all asking him about Sun Pan, while the German reporters were asking for his opinion on not participating in the match and the team losing.

At this time, Zhou Yi naturally stood on the side of the team. He said that no one wanted the team to lose, but that's football, and there would always be some surprises. He also didn't think that his teammates' performance was bad. He thought everyone performed very well, but the opponent's goalkeeper was just too strong.

Finally, he didn't forget to add that even if he had participated in the match, it would have been difficult for him to help the team defeat their opponent.

"...I felt like we weren't shooting at the goal, but at a wall."

Of course, these were all Zhou Yi's humble words. He couldn't arrogantly say that it was because Klopp didn't take him to the away game that the team lost.

He wasn't stupid. Why would he want to become everyone's enemy?

Returning to the team lineup, Zhou Yi had to face Mainz.

Zhou Yi was quite familiar with Mainz.

When he was playing for Borussia Dortmund's U19 team, he was competing with Mainz's U19 team for the league title.

At that time, the head coach of Mainz U19 was Tuchel.

Moreover, there were players in that Mainz U19 team who had also been promoted to the current Mainz first team.

The most prominent and famous player, who left the deepest impression on Zhou Yi, was probably their forward, Schürrle.

Before the match between Borussia Dortmund U19 and Mainz U19, everyone thought that the match would be a contest between two German talents. The representative from Mainz U19 was, of course, Schürrle, and the representative from Borussia Dortmund U19 was Götze.

However, in that match, the one who stood out the most was neither Schürrle nor Götze, but Zhou Yi.

He scored a hat-trick in the final, helping Borussia Dortmund U19 defeat Mainz U19 with a score of 4:1, and winning the national U19 league title that season.

Schürrle scored the goal that salvaged some face for Mainz U19.

Although Mainz U19 lost to Borussia Dortmund U19 in the final, Schürrle became the team's top scorer in that youth league, and as a result, the club signed a professional contract with him in July of that year.

He then completed his Bundesliga debut in the first match of the 2009-2010 season. Soon after, he completed his first assist in Mainz's upset victory over Bayern Munich.

His first goal came in Mainz's away victory over Bochum, where he scored two goals, a brace.

Although he ultimately lost to Zhou Yi in the youth team, he became famous much earlier than Zhou Yi in the first team.

Last season was Schürrle's first season in the Bundesliga. He played thirty-three times and scored five goals, which was a very good performance for a young player.

As a result, he attracted the attention of strong Bundesliga teams.

In September of this year, the Mainz club reached an agreement with the Leverkusen club that Schürrle would transfer to Leverkusen after one season.

In other words, this season would be his last season at Mainz.

After nine rounds of this season, he has started three times and came on as a substitute five times, scoring four goals and becoming the team's top scorer.

In the roster announced by Tuchel for the upcoming match, Schürrle was prominently listed.

However, it is not yet known whether he will ultimately start or be a substitute.

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Although Schürrle started playing professional league games earlier than Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi is now more famous.

Because Zhou Yi is already a solid core player for Borussia Dortmund, while Schürrle has been a substitute more often than a starter for Mainz this season...

Zhou Yi traveled with the team to Mainz, and his experience in the youth team was naturally dug up by reporters.

He scored a hat-trick in the match against Mainz U19, and was the biggest contributor to helping Borussia Dortmund U19 defeat Mainz U19 and win the youth league title.

Therefore, some Chinese media could not wait to put the hat of "Nemesis of Mainz" on Zhou Yi.

Other media were looking forward to him and Schürrle continuing their rivalry in this match.

But to the disappointment of the media who love to hype things up, Schürrle was once again on the bench in this match...

But Zhou Yi started the match.

After the start of this league top spot battle, Borussia Dortmund took the initiative and launched a fierce attack on Mainz.

They seemed to want to vent all the resentment of being eliminated by a third-tier team in the German Cup on Mainz.

The German Cup had been lost, and the league title had become their only domestic honor.

It must be said that the current Borussia Dortmund is indeed much stronger than before, as long as they are not careless...

Although playing away, Borussia Dortmund was able to suppress Mainz at home.

This is naturally inseparable from Zhou Yi's central dispatch and organization.

Therefore, some German media believe that Borussia Dortmund's loss to Offenbach Kickers in the midweek German Cup has a lot to do with Zhou Yi not playing, and this statement is not without reason...

Because Borussia Dortmund's performance in attack is indeed different with and without Zhou Yi. When Borussia Dortmund has Zhou Yi, the attack is obviously more reassuring, and the players have more confidence in their runs.

As for the attacking performance without Zhou Yi... just refer to the previous match against Offenbach Kickers. If everything goes smoothly, the players' individual abilities can solve the problem. But if they encounter some resistance, what is needed is an organized and backbone-led attack. However, in that match, Zhou Yi was not even on the roster. Without a backbone, Borussia Dortmund could only rely on the players' individual abilities, and did not form a good organic whole. Coupled with the goalkeeper Sun Pan who had opened a cheat and the Offenbach Kickers players who were united and determined to drag the game into a penalty shootout...

In the end, such a result was not surprising.

The current match between Borussia Dortmund and Mainz is simply the opposite example of that German Cup match.

Under the organization of Zhou Yi, Borussia Dortmund's attack was orderly and blooming in multiple places, as if every place could threaten Mainz's goal.

In the twenty-fifth minute, Borussia Dortmund scored a goal through Götze after continuous attacks.

"Mario Götze! He scored! The last time he played against Mainz U19, he was highly anticipated but did not score, but this time he finally scored!"

Although this goal was not assisted by Zhou Yi, it was initiated by Zhou Yi. He also had a key transfer in it, which ultimately opened up the situation for Borussia Dortmund's attack.

"This is the difference between having Zhou Yi and not having Zhou Yi!" Duan Xin turned on the "Zhou Yi praising" mode. "Zhou Yi gives Borussia Dortmund's attack direction, inspiration, and creativity!"

In his praise and compliments, Zhou Yi was running to embrace Götze with his teammates.

"Borussia Dortmund is back on the right track!" Marcel Reif said after seeing this scene, fully affirming Zhou Yi's importance to Borussia Dortmund.

In the first half, Borussia Dortmund took a temporary lead with this goal. After a fifteen-minute half-time break, the two sides will change sides and fight again.

At the end of the first half, the close-up lens was not given to Götze, who scored the goal, but to Zhou Yi.

This shows that Zhou Yi was the key figure in the first half and also played the best.

"Looking at Zhou Yi's performance in this half, will Klopp regret not taking him to Offenbach?"

Klopp will not regret it, because Zhou Yi, who has gotten plenty of rest, has a very obvious effect on the team's next league and Champions League matches...