Chapter 1 When There's a Bit of Novelty, Things Get Interesting!

When Klopp finished his explanation, the blackboard was covered with dense lines, shoulders, and circles.

The second half was about to begin.

The players left the locker room and headed towards the field.

Just as Zhou Yi walked out of the locker room, Hummels stopped him. "Zhou Yi, what did you feel when the team lost eight goals in the first half? Did you ever think about giving up?"

Hearing Hummels' question, everyone slowed down and focused their attention on Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi turned back to Hummels and spread his hands. "Sorry, Mats. I can't answer your question because I was just a substitute at the time and didn't have a chance to play at all, so my thoughts didn't decide the game. If I said I didn't want to give up, you'd definitely think I was just talking without experiencing it myself."

"So you didn't play in that game?" Subotić asked.

Zhou Yi nodded. "I sat on the bench and watched the whole game."

"Then the last game, the one you won..." Subotić pressed.

"I played the full ninety minutes," Zhou Yi replied.

"Ah..." Subotić suddenly understood. "So the difference is whether you played or not..."

"No, Neven. The difference is that in the last game, not a single person on our team gave up."

※※※

Trailing by four goals at halftime, Zhou Yi still had the leisure to tell stories to his teammates in the locker room. He wasn't just showing off.

It was because he really didn't think that being four goals behind was something to be worried about.

On the contrary, he had another emotion deep in his heart.

That was excitement.

Yes, his team was four goals behind, and they were a man down on the field. Not only was he not depressed, but he felt excited.

Why excited?

Because the game was finally getting interesting!

It was like a top student taking an exam. Suddenly, an out-of-syllabus question appeared on the paper. Ordinary students would be sad and scold the teacher for not playing by the rules, but the top student would only feel excited. Challenging the unknown and the impossible always aroused the fighting spirit of such people.

Zhou Yi was in this kind of mood now.

How boring would it be if the general direction of every game was known in advance?

It was always more fun with some surprises.

Fun. That was Zhou Yi's true thought.

He didn't think that this game was over. There were still forty-five minutes left, enough time for him to do a lot of things. This kind of game was challenging.

That was his true thought.

For someone who could simulate and repeat a game dozens of times, it was indeed a pleasant surprise to encounter a game that he had never encountered in his dozens of simulations.

There were always many surprises in soccer games. Some people saw surprises as floods and beasts, while others found them cute.

※※※

"Okay, the players from both sides are coming out, and the second half is about to begin..." He Ping said, perking up.

During the halftime break, he and the guest commentator, Zhang Lu, analyzed Borussia Dortmund's situation, and no matter how they analyzed it, it was not optimistic.

Zhang Lu believed that it would be good if Borussia Dortmund could score an away goal in this game, saving face and preventing a more disastrous defeat.

As for anything else, they shouldn't think too much about it.

The TV broadcast gave many close-up shots of Borussia Dortmund players, but everyone could see that the Borussia Dortmund players' expressions seemed different from when the first half ended.

When it came to Zhou Yi's face, there was no difference, because whether it was when he left the field at the end of the first half or now, his face hadn't changed much. He was expressionless.

He just turned his head and looked around.

Then the referee blew the whistle to start the game.

The Inter Milan fans in the stands started the second half with huge cheers.

※※※

After the second half started, since Inter Milan was kicking off, they could use their possession to continue attacking Borussia Dortmund.

However, Inter Milan's attack ended quickly. When they reached the front of Borussia Dortmund's penalty area, seeing that Borussia Dortmund's defensive line was still relatively intact, Sneijder took a long shot.

The soccer ball went wide of the goal, and Inter Milan's attack ended.

There was no patient passing organization, and no frequent running and interspersing.

Inter Milan's attack was very simple.

When Sneijder chose to shoot, Zhou Yi was ten meters behind him. Seeing Sneijder shoot directly, he narrowed his eyes.

He wondered if this was a sign that Inter Milan was relaxing?

※※※

Sneijder's shot, whether it was the player himself, Guo Nu sitting in the stands, the audience in front of the TV, the other Inter Milan players, the coaches, the commentators, the reporters in the press box, or all the Inter Milan fans in the stands... no one thought there was anything wrong with him doing so.

Anyway, they were four goals ahead and had a numerical advantage. What was wrong with playing like this?

The players would only play like this when they relaxed, seemingly casually, but in fact, they could perform even better.

Yes, that's what everyone thought.

But Zhou Yi had a different opinion.

When Langerak was about to kick the soccer ball forward, he saw Zhou Yi making a downward pressing motion with his palm, signaling him not to rush.

Then he ran back into the defensive line and stood in line with Subotić and Hummels.

Langerak knew what this meant. He wanted the ball.

So he passed the soccer ball over.

After Zhou Yi received the ball, because his position was too far back, no one came up to press him at all. Of course, even if he was in his original position, no one would press him, because if Inter Milan really wanted to press him, they still had forwards Biabiany and Eto'o, who were not far from Zhou Yi.

But the two forwards stood on either side, just watching Zhou Yi, and neither of them intended to intercept him.

Zhou Yi calmly received the ball, turned around, and dribbled the soccer ball forward.

After seeing him dribble for two steps, Eto'o rushed up.

At this time, Zhou Yi passed the soccer ball away, to his partner in midfield, Sven Bender.

After Sven Bender received the ball, no Inter Milan player came up to press him either.

He could calmly stop the ball and then observe.

Zhou Yi used this time to cut diagonally in front of him, making a gesture to him to ask for the ball.

Sven Bender passed the soccer ball over.

Zhou Yi was facing away from the direction of attack before receiving the ball. At the same time as he received the ball, he used his right foot to pull the soccer ball back and turned around, facing the direction of attack.

But still no Inter Milan player rushed up immediately. There were actually Stanković and Coutinho around him, but they just watched and didn't come up.

Since they didn't come up, Zhou Yi dribbled the soccer ball forward again.

It wasn't until Zhou Yi dribbled the ball that Stanković pressed towards Zhou Yi.

Of course, Zhou Yi passed the soccer ball away again.

Afterward, he continued to pass and receive with his teammates. After a round of passing, Zhou Yi had been to all three areas of the left, center, and right midfield and found that Inter Milan's defense in midfield was indeed very lax.

Many times, Zhou Yi could easily receive the ball and then adjust calmly.

This was a treatment that was difficult to enjoy in the first half.

Moreover, not only Zhou Yi himself, but the other Borussia Dortmund players were facing much less defensive pressure.

However, so far, Inter Milan's defense in the thirty-meter area was still decent. He only tried it a little bit and found this out, so he passed the soccer ball back again to ensure that the soccer ball was controlled on his side.

Then he would find a way, look for gaps, and seize loopholes.

If there wasn't a very good opportunity for a while, Zhou Yi would direct the soccer ball to be passed back, constantly passing back, even passing it to goalkeeper Langerak's feet, and then passing it up again.

But he wouldn't always have to receive the ball and pass the ball. Sometimes the pass didn't have to go through him.

At this time, he would run straight forward, while observing the situation, and found that Inter Milan didn't intend to strengthen their defense against him.

Maybe they thought he was running around aimlessly?

※※※

Borussia Dortmund passed the soccer ball around again and didn't find a very good opportunity. At this time, Zhou Yi had already run to the front, but he didn't ask his teammates for the ball. Instead, he pointed backward and shouted the name of the ball-holding player, Kagawa Shinji, signaling him to pass the soccer ball directly back and not pass it to himself again.

Kagawa Shinji turned around and passed the soccer ball back to the defensive midfielder Sven Bender.

Inter Milan's formation followed and pressed forward.

Sven Bender originally wanted to pass the soccer ball to Zhou Yi, but he found that Zhou Yi was still in front and hadn't come back yet. He was too far away from himself, and there were Inter Milan players between them. He couldn't guarantee that the soccer ball wouldn't be intercepted after he passed it.

Moreover, if he was going to pass the ball to Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi would definitely receive the ball with his back to the direction of attack. After he received the ball, he would probably pass the soccer ball back to himself, which would be meaningless.

At this time, he saw Götze on the wing.

So he made a long pass transfer, and the soccer ball passed over the head of Inter Milan midfielder Sneijder, who had cut into the middle, and landed on the wing.

Götze received the ball on the wing, and Zanetti was blocking in front of him. The experienced "youngster" Zanetti didn't rush to steal, but blocked the position, maintaining an appropriate distance from Götze.

Not giving him a chance to break through.

Sure enough, facing Zanetti's defense, Götze had no way to break through at all. And Sneijder, who had just rushed up, also turned around and ran towards him.

Just at this moment, Mark, who was originally at the very front, suddenly accelerated and ran back.

And Zhou Yi, who stayed in the front, also moved horizontally from the right ribs to the center.

Inter Milan players followed both of their runs.

Following Mark was Inter Milan's center back Lúcio, and following Zhou Yi was another center back, Samuel.

Realizing that Zhou Yi and Mark had attracted two of the opponent's center backs, Götze decisively made a diagonal long pass, passing the soccer ball to... Mark!

He didn't pass it to Zhou Yi, but chose to pass the soccer ball to Mark.

However, in order to prevent the soccer ball from being intercepted on the ground, Götze chose a high ball. The soccer ball was in the air, and although it was not so easy to be destroyed, it invisibly increased the difficulty for Mark to receive the ball.

If he used his chest to stop the soccer ball, Lúcio would immediately stick to him, so he would have no chance to turn around...

But Mark didn't stop the ball. He obviously knew how to cooperate with Zhou Yi.

He directly used his chest... to bump the flying soccer ball towards Zhou Yi!

And at this time, Zhou Yi happened to be running in front of him!

The distance between the two was very close, and it was almost difficult for Zhou Yi to stop the suddenly bumped soccer ball. And even if he stopped it, Samuel would be in place.

This time, in front of everyone, Zhou Yi showed everyone his rich imagination—he squatted down a little, and then used his head to head the soccer ball back!

The soccer ball went over Lúcio's head!

Lúcio never expected that Zhou Yi would choose to handle the ball like this. When he saw the soccer ball flying over, he was stunned for a moment before remembering that the number forty-five, Mark, who was in front of him just now... had turned around and run behind him!

Damn!

This was a through ball headed out to beat the offside trap!