After the match's press conference, Stuttgart's coach, Labbadia, indeed mentioned Sahin's foul. He believed Sahin should have been shown a straight red card, and that if Sahin had been sent off, the game's situation would have fundamentally reversed, and Stuttgart wouldn't have been without a chance to equalize.

To Labbadia's statement, Klopp responded that at that moment, he didn't clearly see what happened on the field. Since the referee had already made a judgment, all anyone needed to do was respect the referee's decision. As for whether Stuttgart could have equalized if Sahin had been sent off, Klopp said the question wasn't worth mentioning and refused to answer.

What Klopp didn't say, Dortmund's media provided the answer. They believed Labbadia overestimated Stuttgart's abilities. Even if Sahin had been sent off, at most the two teams would have the same number of players. With so little time left in the game, Stuttgart didn't have a very obvious advantage. How could they have possibly equalized?

Besides, was Klopp stupid? Knowing that his team was one player short, wouldn't he tighten up the defense? As long as Dortmund tightened up, it wouldn't be so easy for Stuttgart to score a goal.

So Labbadia was just venting his emotions randomly, which was meaningless. Even if Sahin had been sent off, it wouldn't have changed the outcome of Dortmund winning the game.

In fact, Labbadia's words didn't have much impact in Stuttgart itself. It was mainly the Munich media stirring things up, claiming to be speaking out for Stuttgart, but in reality, they were trying to secure benefits for Bayern Munich.

A Munich media outlet even specifically interviewed the referee of the match, Atkin. Atkin also admitted that he didn't clearly see Sahin's tackle. After rewatching the video after the game, he believed that Sahin's action was indeed a foul, and that the foul should have been shown a red card.

These words made the Munich media as excited as if they had taken drugs, frantically hyping up that Dortmund had benefited from the referee's mistakes.

Of course, even if Atkin admitted that he missed giving Sahin a red card, it wouldn't change the outcome of the game. Football doesn't yet allow judgments to be changed on the field based on video replays, let alone after the game is over.

The Munich media was also clear about this, so the reason they were so vigorously reporting the misjudgment in the Dortmund vs. Stuttgart game wasn't in the hope of changing the outcome of the game and ruling a draw for Dortmund—there was no legal basis for doing so.

So does that mean the Munich media's actions were meaningless?

Of course not.

What they were doing was actually creating a public perception that "Dortmund has repeatedly benefited from refereeing errors." When they kept promoting this, many uninformed people would believe it to be true, thinking that Dortmund really received more "special treatment" in games than other teams. Once this public perception was formed, it would affect Dortmund's upcoming games. For example, in a certain game, the referee might be more inclined to support Dortmund's opponents in order to avoid being attacked by public opinion or receiving excessive attention. Some judgments that Dortmund could have justifiably benefited from would become more favorable to their opponents.

One or two such judgments might not matter, but after accumulating over time, they could become an important factor determining the final league title.

This was the Munich media's calculation.

Naturally, Dortmund's media had to speak out for their team.

So the media from the two places started "talking" to each other from afar.

"Talking" is a slightly civilized way of saying it. In Chinese internet slang, it would be "tearing each other apart."

Tearing each other apart sounds bad, so talking sounds much more civilized.

But in reality, it wasn't very civilized either, and both sides were very intense.

Dortmund had won the league title from Bayern Munich for two consecutive seasons. The two sides had been direct competitors during those two years, so their competitive spirit was very strong, and they had to compete in every area. For example, Dortmund's general manager, Zorc, had previously criticized Bayern Munich for poaching talent all over Germany, calling them a cancer affecting the development of German football.

And Bayern Munich, on the other hand, criticized that it was clearly Dortmund who were poaching everywhere. According to statistics, Dortmund was clearly the club that bought the most players from other German clubs.

The league title race this season was even more intense, so the tension between the two sides would naturally be even greater.

And what do the players think about this matter?

As Dortmund's core player, Zhou Yi couldn't avoid such controversial topics. The reporters would grab him no matter what to ask him his thoughts.

"It has nothing to do with us, right?" Facing the reporters' questions, Zhou Yi asked in return. "The media can fight their verbal battles. They rely on that to attract attention, of course they're going to fight. But we don't need to."

Zhou Yi spread out his hands.

"But won't the public debate affect the team?" a reporter asked.

"Not much of an impact." Zhou Yi shook his head. "Similar verbal battles are often fought, everyone's used to it. It's the media's freedom to say what they want."

"Then are you worried that the public pressure created by Munich will affect the referee's judgment of Dortmund in future games?" another reporter asked.

"Not worried." Zhou Yi said with a straight face, "I believe that every referee has their own judgment and won't be easily influenced by public opinion. Besides, what's the use of worrying about this kind of thing? Just do your best, as long as we perform well enough ourselves, we can offset many other negative factors."

When Zhou Yi said these words, he seemed very confident. Although his team was actually two points behind Bayern Munich in the standings, his statement was said as if they were the ones leading by two points. Isn't the argument of "just do your best, don't worry about others" only usually said by the leaders?

However, as the team's core, it was very normal for Zhou Yi to say this. He needed to use this kind of statement to stabilize morale. If a team's core players showed a lack of confidence, how could they possibly lead the team to victory? Wouldn't the other players be even more panicked? Even more than just a lack of confidence, if he didn't show a confident demeanor, it would be easy for the Munich media to seize the opportunity to hype it up, and then sensational and sensational headlines like "Dortmund's core surrenders in advance" would appear in the newspapers, becoming a psychological warfare against Dortmund.

※※※

Compared to Dortmund's stumbling victory over Stuttgart, Bayern Munich had a much smoother ride. While their media was engaging in verbal battles with Dortmund's media, the team defeated Hamburg with an amazing score of 9-2 in their home game, which shocked German football.

It should be known that this score was achieved in the context of Bayern Munich preparing for the Champions League quarter-finals in the middle of next week—Bayern Munich made rotations. Alaba was slightly injured and absent from the defense. Gustavo, who originally played as a defensive midfielder, played as a left-back in this game.

In the midfield, Martinez and Schweinsteiger, who will be suspended against Juventus, partnered up. Robben and Shaqiri started, Ribery was a substitute, and the veteran Pizarro served as the single forward, with Mandzukic as a substitute.

Even so, Bayern Munich scored nine goals. Veteran Pizarro scored four goals in the game and assisted two goals. With four goals and two assists in one game, he was the first person in the history of the Bundesliga to achieve such a performance.

In addition to Pizarro, Robben scored twice in this game, and Shaqiri, Schweinsteiger, and Ribery each scored one goal. Such attacking power was simply terrifying.

The score of 9-2 also allowed Bayern Munich to tie the Bundesliga's largest single-game goal difference record since the new century. The previous record was also created by Bayern Munich themselves—in the 2011-2012 season, Bayern Munich defeated Freiburg 7-0 at home. There was also a person who completed four goals in that game, and that was Bayern Munich's center, Mario Gomez.

But in fact, that game in the 2011-2012 season wasn't the first time Bayern Munich had won by seven goals against their opponents in the new century. A season earlier, in the 2010-2011 season, Bayern Munich defeated St. Pauli 8-1 away from home. Gomez completed a hat-trick in that game.

It was as if Bayern Munich created a "massacre" every season.

However, compared to the previous two "massacres," Bayern Munich scored nine goals in this game, which was the most goals scored in a single game. So it can be called the "massacre of the century."

Compared to Dortmund's controversial victory, Bayern Munich's performance was simply impeccable and perfect, as dazzling as the sun in the sky.

The Munich media excitedly declared after the game: "This is a championship-level performance!"

"No team can stop Heynckes' team this season!"

"Bayern Munich crushes their opponents with strength, the league title is within reach!"

"Heynckes' team will continue their dominance of the league!"

……

Just looking at these headlines, if you didn't know anything about the current situation in the Bundesliga, you would definitely think that Bayern Munich had already won the league title seven rounds in advance, setting a new European league record...