Chapter 11 The Second Half Uprising

After the winter break, Dortmund won both of their league games. Naturally, such a performance was cause for celebration.

It gave Dortmund fans confidence to chase after Bayern Munich.

Time entered February 2013. On February 2nd, Bayern Munich defeated Mainz 3-0 on the road, a game without suspense.

One day later, in the last game of this round, Dortmund challenged Leverkusen away.

Before this game, Dortmund was second in the league, and Leverkusen was third.

This was essentially a contest between second and third place. However, the outcome of this game would not be directly reflected in the standings, because the point difference between Dortmund and Leverkusen was quite large.

Dortmund, ranked second, was only two points behind Bayern Munich in first place. Bayern Munich had forty-eight points, and Dortmund had forty-six. Leverkusen, in third place, had thirty-seven points, a difference of nine points. The outcome of one game couldn't explain much.

Everyone said that the league title race this season was still between Dortmund and Bayern Munich. The rest, whether it was Leverkusen, or Frankfurt, Mainz, or Schalke 04, were just along for the ride.

Dortmund only had Bayern Munich as their opponent, and they didn't pay attention to other teams.

Judging from the progress of the game, this statement made sense.

The game had only just started for three minutes when Reus scored the first goal for Dortmund.

The person who assisted him was Lewandowski.

Just six minutes later, Zhou Yi made a sudden through ball in front of the penalty area, creating a one-on-one opportunity for Mark against the goalkeeper. When shooting, Mark was brought down by Leverkusen's goalkeeper, Bernd Leno, who rushed out to intercept. The referee decisively awarded a penalty and showed Leno a yellow card.

Subsequently, Mark, who created the penalty, personally took the kick and sent the ball into the goal.

Dortmund took a two-goal lead in less than ten minutes of the game. There was no suspense left in this match.

Leverkusen was obviously stunned by Dortmund's blitzkrieg. After the game restarted, they played very chaotically themselves. Some wanted to quickly counterattack and strive for a goal, but other players were worried that the crazed Dortmund would score again, and preferred to defend in the back.

This ideological disunity was reflected on the field, which was a disastrous mess.

Faced with Leverkusen, who were in disarray, Dortmund played very relaxed. They weren't in a hurry either. If they had a chance, they would attack. If they didn't, they would pass the ball around.

Anyway, with a two-goal lead in hand, with our strength and performance, what's there to worry about?

Perhaps because they were too relaxed, Dortmund had some chances in the first half, but they didn't seize them.

As for Leverkusen, they should be thankful that they didn't concede another goal, let alone equalize the score.

Thus, the first half ended with Dortmund leading Leverkusen 2-0 on the road. This score hadn't changed since ten minutes into the game.

This made the commentator Marcel Reif, who asserted that this game would be a high-scoring affair after Mark scored, somewhat disappointed.

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At the beginning of the second half, Leverkusen made a substitution.

Coach Sascha Lewandowski replaced midfielder Simon Rolfes with black midfielder Sidney Sam.

This was because Leverkusen's midfield performance in the first half was poor, which was also considered the reason why Dortmund was able to play so easily.

At the beginning of the second half, Leverkusen launched a fierce offensive against Dortmund's goal. This was completely different from their performance in the first half, which Dortmund did not expect at all.

Why did Leverkusen's counterattack in the second half become so fierce?

There is a statistic that can explain it.

Ten minutes into the second half, Leverkusen had already taken seven shots, while Dortmund only had two.

You should know that in the entire first half, Leverkusen only had five shots, and only two of them were on target.

Of the seven shots in the second half, five were on target.

If it weren't for Weidenfeller's excellent performance, Dortmund's goal might have been breached.

During this period, Leverkusen's attack was threatening, and the Leverkusen fans in the stands were also excited. Their shouts resounded over the stadium, and Leverkusen finally had the feeling of playing at home.

In addition to the fierce offensive, Leverkusen players' fierce defense, even at the cost of fouls, also made Dortmund players very uncomfortable.

In ten minutes, Leverkusen players committed six fouls, while Dortmund only committed one.

This huge difference can explain why Leverkusen is now in the advantage.

Relying on fierce defense and desperate momentum, Leverkusen gradually regained the initiative.

On the other hand, the Dortmund players, after a half-time break, did not expect Leverkusen's counterattack to come so quickly and fiercely. They were caught off guard.

And when they were suppressed, it became difficult to reverse the situation.

Now it has become difficult for them to play smoothly.

Their players would be brought down by Leverkusen players after getting the ball. Sometimes the referee would blow the whistle to indicate that the Leverkusen players had fouled, but sometimes it was reasonable physical contact and not a foul.

The Dortmund players' rhythm was completely disrupted by Leverkusen's tactics, and it was very difficult to reorganize.

In the fifty-eighth minute, thirteen minutes after the start of the second half, Leverkusen's frantic counterattack was finally rewarded.

Their defensive midfielder, Stefan Reinartz, first intercepted Götze's ball in midfield and passed the ball out. Then, he did not continue to stay behind to defend, but directly moved forward, running all the way to Dortmund's penalty area. At this time, the ball had been passed to Kiessling on the wing. Kiessling crossed from the wing, and Reinartz jumped high as he rushed into the penalty area!

Since Reinartz had always been a defensive midfielder, Dortmund did not take him into account when defending, so his sudden appearance in the penalty area caught Dortmund off guard!

No one was defending him at all!

Reinartz, who was unmarked, jumped in the air and comfortably headed the ball, a powerful diving header!

This time, Weidenfeller was unable to stop the ball, and it flew into the goal he was guarding!

"Reinartz—!!!" Marcel Reif shouted excitedly. "Reinartz! Beautiful header! He broke through Weidenfeller's indestructible defense with one header!"

When Reinartz scored, a huge cheer erupted over the BayArena, like a bolt from the blue.

Leverkusen played so badly in the first half, and their fans were very aggrieved watching it. Leverkusen in the second half played in a way that made their blood boil. As they cheered for the Leverkusen players again and again, they had only one thought in their minds—with such a good performance, all that's missing now is a goal!

And the goal finally came!

Leverkusen scored a goal just a few minutes into the second half, which gave supporters hope.

There's still time, the remaining time is enough for them to score another goal, or even two!

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Reinartz did not celebrate after scoring. After landing, he rushed into the goal, grabbed the ball before anyone else could react, turned around, and ran towards the center circle.

Seize the time, anything is still possible!

The other Leverkusen players also followed him back to their own half.

Their performance in the first half was really too cowardly, and now they want to avenge their shame!

Faced with the highly motivated Leverkusen players, the Dortmund players looked bewildered.

After losing the ball, center-back Santana defended at the near post. When he turned around, he saw Reinartz high in the air, heading the ball. He didn't even know how Reinartz appeared in that place...

Like him, other Dortmund players also seemed very helpless and surprised by this goal.

For the losing side, this kind of performance is not necessarily a good thing. Because they have no idea why they conceded the goal.

Some Dortmund players even thought that Leverkusen had gotten lucky—after all, the goal was scored by a defensive midfielder who was not very specialized in offense. Before, who would have thought that he would come up to participate in the attack? In the ten minutes when Leverkusen frantically besieged Dortmund's goal, he didn't participate much in the attack, and was mostly defending in the back...

He only moved forward once and scored a goal. Isn't this just getting lucky?

The consequence of this idea was that Dortmund players did not pay enough attention to it—since it was a lucky goal, then good luck couldn't always be by their side, right?

Moreover, they were still leading, so there was no need to worry or be anxious.

As a result, just four minutes after Leverkusen pulled back a goal, Leverkusen scored again, or to be precise, Reinartz scored again!

The same way of scoring, both headers!

This time, the person who assisted him was changed to defender Boenisch.

"Reinartz!!" Marcel Reif exclaimed. "It's unbelievable! Dortmund took a two-goal lead in six minutes in the first half, and Leverkusen only used four minutes to equalize! Reinartz scored twice! And these are his only two goals this season! Before this, he played sixteen times and didn't score a single goal!"

The entire BayArena has turned into a boiling volcano... The Leverkusen fans' roars almost burned the Dortmund players to ashes!