Chapter 334 A Ray of Light

“Sergio Ramos——!!!” The Spanish commentator roared, dragging out the syllables, "He did it! Beautiful goal! The aggregate score is now 3-4! Real Madrid is only one goal away from Wembley!”

Marcel Reif had barely finished speaking when Ramos blasted the football into the goal. He leaned back in his chair. What he had feared all along had finally happened. In the eighty-eighth minute of the match, Real Madrid had closed the gap to just one goal. Now, although there was very little time left, Real Madrid only needed to score one more goal. And for them, with their morale soaring, scoring another goal didn't seem too difficult.

Chinese fans watching on television were also very anxious. To date, no Chinese player had ever appeared in a Champions League final. As the event with the highest gold content and the highest technical level, the absence of Chinese players had not been much of a concern before. After all, Chinese football was at a low level back then, and there were no outstanding Chinese players to speak of. The number of players playing abroad was incomparable to Japan, South Korea, and Iran. But now that we have so many players who can play as starters or even core players in European teams, it is only natural to hope that they will appear in the Champions League final.

After He Ying, Yang Muge, and Sun Pan were all eliminated one after another, Zhou Yi shouldered the expectations and hopes of all Chinese fans.

Everyone hoped that he could become the first Chinese player in history to appear in a Champions League final.

At this moment, even some Real Madrid fans were probably cheering for Zhou Yi.

※※※

In the earth-shaking atmosphere of the Bernabéu stadium, Ramos, who had scored the goal, rushed into the goal, fished out the football, and turned to run back. They didn't want to waste a second.

And around him, most of the Dortmund players were stunned. They didn't expect that after defending for more than eighty minutes, they would be on the verge of collapse in the last six minutes…

Real Madrid players hoped that the stunned state of the Dortmund players would last as long as possible, preferably until the end of the match, so that they could score a few more goals.

But it's not as if all Dortmund players were in a daze.

At this time, Zhou Yi found Götze and Reus.

Both of them were still in pain because of the goal they had conceded, but Zhou Yi grabbed their arms and said, “Hey, wake up. If we continue to defend like this, I think we will concede another goal.”

The two, who were already in pain because of conceding the goal, looked absolutely desperate when they heard Zhou Yi say this – concede another goal? Wouldn't that mean they'd be eliminated?

“So we have to think of something, at least to stop Real Madrid from attacking so recklessly.”

The two finally came back to their senses. Reus asked Zhou Yi, “Do you have any ideas, Zhou Yi?”

“After the kickoff, I will pass the ball back in our own half first, attracting all their players up. You two should be wandering on the wings, waiting for orders. As long as the opportunity is right, I will pass the ball to you. If you get the ball, you can directly launch a counterattack. At that time, Real Madrid's defense may only have their goalkeeper…”

Zhou Yi revealed his thoughts.

The plan sounded good in theory, but Götze and Reus were worried that before Zhou Yi could pass the ball to them, he would have to pass it back and forth in the backcourt. Facing Real Madrid's crazy pressing in the frontcourt, would the ball be intercepted by the opponent before it could be passed over?

Götze and Reus exchanged glances, and then Reus expressed this concern to Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi waved his hand, “Of course there is a certain risk, but that risk is to be borne by the players passing the ball in the backcourt. Don't worry too much about it. Just run to good positions and be careful not to be offside. If you are offside, everything will be over. We won't have many chances.”

Seeing that Zhou Yi was so confident, the two naturally didn't say anything more. Anyway, Zhou Yi could always be relied on in critical moments.

※※※

Real Madrid didn't give Dortmund too much time to catch their breath. They quickly placed the football in the center circle and waited for the Dortmund players to come and kick off.

Because Lewandowski had been substituted, the kick-off was taken by Götze and Reus. Zhou Yi stood outside the center circle and signaled the two to kick off slowly. Walk slowly, even slower, it would be even better if you could crawl without getting a card…

Of course, this was impossible.

Götze and Reus couldn't be as shameless as Zhou Yi, so although they wanted to delay a little longer, they quickly came to the center circle to prepare for the kick-off.

Even so, the Real Madrid fans in the stands of the Bernabéu stadium still let out piercing boos.

After the two were in position, Webb blew the whistle for the kick-off.

It was now the eighty-ninth minute of the match.

Götze nudged the football out, and Reus followed up with a pass to Zhou Yi outside the center circle. The boos in the Bernabéu stadium finally stopped, replaced by cheers for Real Madrid.

At the same time that Götze kicked off, Real Madrid's players swarmed out, directly crossing the halfway line and rushing into Dortmund's half.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema even came straight for Zhou Yi, intending to sandwich him.

Faced with such a formation, Zhou Yi didn't pass the football out immediately. Instead, he paused for a moment, waiting for the opponent to get closer before passing the football back with his heel.

Just as he passed the football back, Ronaldo rushed in front of him… If it had been a little later, Zhou Yi would probably not have been able to pass the ball.

So after Zhou Yi passed the ball, a cry of surprise erupted from the Bernabéu stands – because the pass and Cristiano Ronaldo's pounce were so close, many Real Madrid fans even thought that the ball had been poked away by the Portuguese… But in the end, it just made them happy for nothing.

After passing the ball, Zhou Yi did not run forward, but pulled away horizontally, and then asked for the ball after finding an opening.

His teammate passed the football to him again, and he quickly passed the football away again, and then ran to the next spot to continue to prepare to meet his teammate.

It wasn't just Zhou Yi who was facing the pressing of Real Madrid players, other Dortmund players would also have to face it, so it wasn't just Zhou Yi's passing ability that was required, but also that of the other Dortmund players.

However, this requirement was not actually high, because in Dortmund's Brackel training base, the small black room called "footbonaut" trained this ability.

After two seasons of continuous training, the Dortmund players' passing ability had greatly improved in high-intensity, fast-paced confrontations.

Especially later, when Klopp upgraded the "footbonaut" training method, it was no longer just one person passing the ball inside, but also adding defensive players, which greatly increased the difficulty.

The Dortmund players who were trained in this way had a significant improvement in their passing ability when facing pressing, and they also greatly exercised their mental quality.

In the last few minutes of the match against Real Madrid, the training that the Dortmund players had received showed its value.

Faced with the pressing of Real Madrid players, their passing was very stable.

Zhou Yi, while fully participating in this process of passing the ball back and forth, did not forget to turn his head to observe the situation in the frontcourt.

He saw that with Dortmund passing the ball back in their own half, the Real Madrid players gradually pressed up. After Coentrão was substituted, Essien, Varane, and Ramos formed a three-center-back defense line. But in the final stages of the match, Ramos went to the front and transformed into a center forward, and Essien's position was also pushed forward, forming a double defensive midfielder with Khedira. This liberated Modrić, allowing him to be more forward, and supporting the attack with Özil and Di María. Khedira also had to often rush to the front to defend Zhou Yi, so in fact, most of the time, the real defensive midfielder was only Essien.

But in this way, Real Madrid only had Varane left as a genuine defender…

Although Varane was a very talented young player, no matter how powerful he was, he could not cover the entire half of the field.

As soon as Varane pressed to the center circle, there would inevitably be a lot of gaps on both sides.

This was also why Zhou Yi wanted Götze and Reus to pay attention to moving on the wings.

During his observation, Zhou Yi also noticed that Götze and Reus would occasionally participate in the passing, but their positions were relatively forward. If they wanted to launch a counterattack, they could quickly get involved.

The time was ripe.

Zhou Yi ran to the next point to meet the ball. After arriving, he did not immediately ask for the ball, but adjusted his body, changing from facing away from the direction of attack to facing the side of the direction of attack, while the front was facing the right wing position where Reus was located. Why not Götze? Because Zhou Yi was now on the right wing where Götze was, and there was a gap here. If he ran over and took the ball, this would definitely become the focus of Real Madrid's defense. Although the football was now on the right, when the football was passed to the left, all of Real Madrid would also shift to the left, so the right would have a gap instead.

Zhou Yi was waiting for this opportunity.

After adjusting, he raised his hand to signal for the ball.

Gündoğan quickly passed the football over.

As he expected, with the transfer of the football, Real Madrid's defensive focus was also shifting towards him. Among them, Khedira ran particularly fast. He arrived in front of Zhou Yi almost at the same time as the football.

Zhou Yi's left foot made a gesture of receiving the ball, but at the same time that it was about to touch the ball, he suddenly buckled his ankle and gently bounced the football back to his right foot. At the same time, Khedira's foot also stretched out, and he pounced into empty space!

After Zhou Yi's left foot knocked the football back, he quickly jumped up to avoid Khedira's rush.

He was going to wipe past and get rid of Khedira!

How could Khedira easily let Zhou Yi get his wish?

Although he rushed past due to inertia, his hand was still dragging behind, grabbing Zhou Yi's clothes, preventing him from getting rid of the ball.

But Zhou Yi had no intention of dribbling the ball at all. After dodging Khedira, he directly raised his right foot and forcefully passed the football to the right!

The football soared into the air and flew to the right wing, where Reus was sprinting forward at high speed!

The football landed not far in front of Reus, slowing down a bit, and then bounced once, slowing down even more. Reus chased after the football like a gust of wind, dribbling the ball towards Real Madrid's goal!

“Reus!!! Well done! Dortmund's counterattack! Real Madrid's goal is in danger!” Marcel Reif exclaimed excitedly.