After the match against Dusseldorf, the entire Borussia Dortmund team rushed back to their base camp overnight. Fortunately, Dusseldorf was not too far from Dortmund.

Back in Dortmund, Klopp announced that the team would be dismissed. The players who participated in the match against Dusseldorf would not have to come for training the next morning. They could sleep in, rest well, and then come to the team for training in the afternoon.

On Monday, the whole team would take a plane to Madrid to prepare for the second leg of the semi-final.

Some people thought that game would be just a formality, but it might not be as simple as everyone imagined…

Before the game, the Madrid media had launched a total mobilization, calling on fans to support Real Madrid at the stadium for two consecutive days on the propaganda front. The words they used were quite alarming.

“…Real Madrid has reached its most critical moment. It’s time to show our love for the team!”

“Let us unite, put aside all prejudices, and shout and fight for the team at the Bernabéu until the last moment!”

“The team needs us! At this time, any wavering or shrinking back is tantamount to surrender and defection!”

“Go to the Bernabéu! Turn it into hell!! Use our enthusiasm to melt stubborn stones and turn them into rolling lava!”

“This is the final! This is the final! We must treat this game like a final. The players must do their best on the field, and we fans should no longer be gentlemen in the stands!”

…

Other media outlets listed various successful comebacks in history to cheer up Real Madrid fans and the team.

The most mentioned was naturally the miracle of Deportivo La Coruña.

In the round of 16 of the 2004 Champions League, Deportivo La Coruña challenged AC Milan in the first leg, losing 1:4. At that time, everyone thought that Deportivo La Coruña had been eliminated, and the second leg was a foregone conclusion.

As a result, Deportivo La Coruña, back at their home stadium, used a 4:0 to eliminate AC Milan, who seemed to be sleepwalking, with a total score of 5:4.

Some media even specially invited Pandiani, the Uruguayan striker of Deportivo La Coruña who performed well in that game, to advise Real Madrid on how to reverse the situation.

Pandiani said that if Real Madrid wants to reverse Dortmund at home, then the first thing they need to do is catch Dortmund off guard and strive to score as soon as possible at the beginning of the game. As long as there is a goal, the rest of the game will be much easier, and the mentality of both players will undergo some subtle changes, and these changes will have a direct impact on the game.

In addition, the referee of this game has also attracted much attention.

The Madrid media naturally hoped that there would be a referee who would be favorable to Real Madrid to enforce this game, not to say that the referee would really favor Real Madrid, but some probabilities could be drawn from the historical data of his officiating games related to Real Madrid.

According to the content announced by UEFA, the referee who will enforce this game will be the English Golden Whistle Howard Webb.

This choice made Real Madrid fans and the media feel complicated.

First of all, as a referee who has officiated the Champions League final and the World Cup final, Webb is of course very high level, but sometimes he makes some very inexplicable mistakes.

For example, when he officiated the 2010 World Cup final, there was a very obvious controversial penalty in the game—at that time, Nigel de Jong, the defensive midfielder of the Dutch national team, kicked Xabi Alonso, the Spanish midfielder, in the chest. This was a very bad foul, but Webb only gave De Jong a yellow card, allowing him to stay on the field. Webb himself admitted after the game that he should have sent De Jong off with a red card at that time. Fortunately, Spain finally won the World Cup. If Spain had lost the game, this controversial penalty would have been a big topic after the game.

The Madrid media made a statistic on Webb's officiating games related to Real Madrid. Before this game, he had officiated Real Madrid's games three times, and Real Madrid's record was one win, one draw and one loss, a very average record. Two of these games were against German teams.

Webb's first game officiating Real Madrid was the 2007-2008 Champions League group stage, where Real Madrid defeated Werder Bremen 2:1 at home.

Another game related to the German team was the Champions League semi-final last season, where Real Madrid lost 1:2 to Bayern Munich away.

If you have to analyze it, you can say that in the games where Webb officiated Real Madrid and German teams, as long as Real Madrid played against German teams at home, they would win.

But in fact, this kind of analysis is meaningless, because there is too little data and it lacks persuasiveness.

Moreover, in the game where Real Madrid lost to Bayern Munich 1:2 away last season, Webb also had a controversial penalty—when Ribéry scored the first goal for Bayern Munich, Gustavo influenced Casillas in an offside position, but Webb insisted on judging the goal as valid.

Looking at it this way, Webb's officiating this game may not be good news for Real Madrid.

But the media still had to find some things that were beneficial to Real Madrid to cheer up the team and fans.

If not from Real Madrid, then find it from people related to Real Madrid.

The media really found it. The media found that Webb should be an old acquaintance for Real Madrid's current coach Mourinho. When Mourinho coached Chelsea, he had a lot of dealings with Webb. Howard Webb officiated the 2010 Champions League final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich. In that game, Mourinho's team easily won 2:0 against Bayern Munich, and the Portuguese coach won his second Champions League title in his coaching career.

In this sense, Webb seems to be Mourinho's "lucky star."

And there is another thing that can prove that the two seem to have a good relationship—still the 1:2 loss to Bayern Munich last season, although Webb had a controversial penalty in the game, but after the game, Mourinho chose to defend the British referee: "The ball was obviously offside, but it is normal for the referee to make such mistakes, I will not criticize anyone."

This is very rare for Mourinho, who has always been critical of referees.

So if Webb and Mourinho really have a good personal relationship, then perhaps he will intentionally or unintentionally favor Real Madrid in the game? If this is the case, then it would be a major benefit for Real Madrid.

In addition, the Madrid media also discovered that Webb is also a "lucky star" for the Spanish. The South Africa World Cup final was the first time in Spanish history to win the World Cup, and the referee of that game was Webb.

Of course, not everyone thinks that Webb's officiating Real Madrid's game is a good thing for Real Madrid.

First of all, he often makes some inexplicable mistakes in the game, some controversial penalties. Real Madrid was just screwed by Webb last season, and no one can guarantee that everything will go smoothly this time.

In addition, everyone knows that Webb is a Manchester United supporter. And when Mourinho coached Chelsea, his main opponent was Manchester United. At the same time, in the round of 16 this season, Real Madrid just eliminated Manchester United…

※※※

On April 29th, the entire Borussia Dortmund team arrived in Madrid by plane.

At the airport, the players had to face many reporters and the questions they threw out.

Some chose to remain silent, some chose to perfunctorily, but Zhou Yi stopped and made a gesture of actively cooperating.

So the reporters quickly surrounded him, separating him from his other teammates.

Everyone threw the questions they had prepared at Zhou Yi.

Facing the swarming reporters and the questions they raised, Zhou Yi remained calm and replied with a smile: "How do I feel about Madrid? To be honest, I don't even want to come anymore, we've been here too many times this season, ha!"

As soon as he said this, the reporters also laughed.

It's true. In the group stage, Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid were assigned to the same group, so the team had been to Madrid once in the group stage. Then in the quarter-finals, Borussia Dortmund met Atletico Madrid, another Madrid team. So they came again. Now in the semi-finals, they meet Real Madrid again. In this way, they have come to Madrid three times in one season…

"So what do you think about the upcoming game? There are voices outside saying that this game is just a formality for Borussia Dortmund…"

Zhou Yi interrupted the other party and shook his head: "No, no, no. How could it be a formality? Scoring three goals in a game is not difficult for Real Madrid. If we ourselves think that this game is just a formality, I'm afraid we will be kicked out of the Champions League in the end."

A Chinese reporter asked: "Madrid media used the game between Deportivo La Coruña and AC Milan to illustrate, thinking that Real Madrid still has the possibility of a comeback…"

"Of course, even if the probability is only 0.0%, there is still a possibility. So we will not take it lightly, we are not AC Milan… In addition, I think the media is too unfriendly to AC Milan. Whenever they talk about comeback miracles, they always use AC Milan as an example, like the Miracle of Istanbul, the Miracle of Deportivo La Coruña… Really, even I, a non-AC Milan fan, can't stand it anymore!" Zhou Yi joked.

"Marca called on Real Madrid fans to turn the Bernabéu into hell…"

"Isn't that great? We spend half of our season playing in hell-level home stadiums, so this feeling is really familiar to us. If the Bernabéu really becomes hell, I think it will actually help us perform better."

On the one hand, he said that he would not underestimate the enemy, and on the other hand, Zhou Yi showed a lot of confidence.

Zhou Yi has not participated much in pre-match trash talk, but every time he participates, he takes advantage of the other party lightly. This is also his ability.

Some reporters once lamented that if Zhou Yi was keen on trash talk, I'm afraid few people in football could beat him… This was seen during the Olympic Games last year.

But unfortunately, Zhou Yi's "big killer" level mouth does not fire easily, otherwise the media practitioners would feel like it's New Year's every day…