The injured Mark's current task is to rest and recuperate, striving for a speedy recovery.
Zhou Yi's task, on the other hand, is to lead the team to victory.
After the match against Shakhtar Donetsk, Borussia Dortmund will welcome their league game. In the league, they will face Eintracht Frankfurt at home.
Because the away game against Shakhtar Donetsk was so difficult, the players were extremely exhausted, so Klopp continued to use his rotation policy for this game.
The vast majority of players who participated in the Champions League game were replaced.
Only a very few started continuously.
Zhou Yi was one of them.
Zhou Yi's physical fitness is no longer a major problem, so Klopp doesn't rotate him when he can avoid it.
Borussia Dortmund is currently only two points behind Bayern Munich in the league. It seems like a small gap, but they can't catch up. Moreover, if they lose the game, the gap will widen—in another league game that ended yesterday, Bayern Munich defeated Wolfsburg 2-0 away, temporarily leading Borussia Dortmund, who have one game less played, by five points.
At this time, Klopp didn't dare to let Zhou Yi rest. As the team's absolute core, his presence on the field greatly increased Borussia Dortmund's chances of winning.
In the end, with a goal from Zhou Yi, Borussia Dortmund defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 at home, narrowing the gap between them and Bayern Munich back to two points.
After scoring in the game, Zhou Yi took off his jersey, revealing a white t-shirt underneath with the words "Keep it up, Mark" written on it. He used this method to cheer for Mark and wish him a speedy recovery.
Of course, he also received a yellow card for this celebration.
When the referee, Brych, showed him the yellow card, it drew boos from Borussia Dortmund fans throughout the stadium. Commentator Marcel Reif also felt that Brych's decision, although not a problem in terms of the rules, was a bit impersonal and a verbal warning would have been enough, without the need for a yellow card.
Zhou Yi didn't care about the yellow card. Anyway, he rarely received cards. Suspension due to accumulated yellow cards might not even happen to him once in a season. Exchanging this yellow card for his blessing to Mark was completely worth it.
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The following midweek, Bayern Munich faced Arsenal in the Champions League. Somewhat surprisingly, Bayern Munich defeated Arsenal 3-1 away. Originally, everyone thought it would be an evenly matched game, and Arsenal would definitely have an advantage playing at home. Unexpectedly, Bayern Munich won so easily. Three away goals and a two-goal lead on aggregate meant that Bayern Munich could almost be considered to have advanced to the quarterfinals in advance.
This was not good news for Borussia Dortmund. They certainly hoped that Arsenal could create some trouble for Bayern Munich, allowing Bayern Munich to focus more on the Champions League, thereby affecting their performance in the league.
But now, Bayern Munich only played one Champions League game, and they could refocus their attention on the league to deal with Borussia Dortmund...
The day after Bayern Munich's game, the last Chinese player also made his appearance in the Champions League.
Yang Muge's Schalke 04 challenged Galatasaray away, and the two sides eventually drew 1-1. This result was not bad. They didn't lose the game and had an away goal. After returning to their home court, Schalke 04 only needed to maintain a 0-0 draw to eliminate their opponents.
Yang Muge also had a great chance of making it into the Champions League quarterfinals.
If this were the case, there would be three Chinese players in the Champions League quarterfinals, which would be a historical first.
Chinese media and fans were excitedly fantasizing about the scene of three Chinese players entering the quarterfinals.
The only suspense was who between He Ying and Sun Pan would enter the quarterfinals.
He Ying's fans and Sun Pan's fans were once again arguing fiercely online...
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In the twenty-third round of the league, Bayern Munich swept Werder Bremen 6-1 at home, showing their super good form and super strength. German media, especially the Munich media, exclaimed that Heynckes' Bayern Munich had become godlike. What everyone couldn't understand was why, after announcing the change of coach next season in advance, this Bayern Munich had exploded with enormous energy, even better than their performance in the first half of the season. They had been winning streak after winning streak since the start of the second half of the season.
Some media also criticized the Bayern Munich club's hasty decision to change coaches. They believed that Bayern Munich should let Heynckes continue to lead the team. Based on Bayern Munich's current performance, it could be said that Heynckes was the most suitable coach for Bayern Munich.
Some media joked, "I wonder if Hoeness has started to regret his decision to change coaches now?"
Everyone was exclaiming and applauding Bayern Munich's strong performance, but they forgot that Bayern Munich was not the only team that had been on a winning streak since the start of the second half of the season...
There was another team that had been on a winning streak since the start of the second half of the season, and that was Bayern Munich's opponent, Borussia Dortmund!
In the twenty-third round of the league, they challenged Borussia Mönchengladbach away.
In the first half of this game, they took a 1-0 lead. Although Borussia Mönchengladbach pulled one back in the second half, they finally won the game 2-1 thanks to a goal assisted by Zhou Yi to Lewandowski.
Although the win was not easy, it was a win after all. After the winning streak in the second half of the season, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich had completely different styles. Bayern Munich had all kinds of arrogant and cool victories, such as winning 4-0 against Schalke 04, or sweeping Werder Bremen 6-1. In six league games, they scored nineteen goals and only conceded one goal, with a huge advantage.
In comparison, Borussia Dortmund was slightly more difficult. They also scored nineteen goals, but conceded four goals, more than Bayern Munich. In specific games, they also experienced close wins like 3-2 against Bayer Leverkusen and 2-1 against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
This could also be seen as a reflection of the difference in strength between the two teams.
Based on this reflection, some media believed that Bayern Munich had a high chance of winning the championship, while Borussia Dortmund was likely to collapse as the Champions League schedule deepened.
"...You have to know that Borussia Dortmund has to face not only the Champions League and the league, but also the German Cup!"
The media said this.
And four days later, Borussia Dortmund will welcome their opponent in the German Cup, Bayern Munich...
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Last season, Borussia Dortmund defeated Bayern Munich 5-2 in the German Cup final. It was a game with a very obvious advantage, which could be headlined as "Borussia Dortmund Slaughtered Bayern Munich".
That game gave Bayern Munich a "Triple Second Place" in the season—they lost to Borussia Dortmund in the league, ranking second; they lost to Chelsea in the Champions League final at their home stadium, finishing as runner-up; and they were defeated in the German Cup final by Borussia Dortmund, another runner-up. They replicated Bayer Leverkusen's tragedy in the 2001-2002 season.
This was a huge shame for Bayern Munich, a long-established powerhouse team.
Now that the two teams meet again in the German Cup, it will inevitably cause many reveries.
For Bayern Munich, this is a revenge battle. The league battle is temporarily unpredictable, but the German Cup is a single-elimination system. As long as Bayern Munich can defeat Borussia Dortmund, they can kick Borussia Dortmund out of the German Cup, completely defeat them, and prevent them from defending their German Cup title.
According to this reasoning, Bayern Munich should go all out in this game to defeat Borussia Dortmund.
But the actual situation is somewhat different from what everyone thought.
In this game, both teams took rotations by appointment without prior consultation...
In other words, neither team sent out their full strength.
Bayern Munich's rotation was limited, while Borussia Dortmund's rotation was even greater, because even Zhou Yi was placed on the bench by Klopp.
What does this mean?
If Bayern Munich's rotation is a normal personnel adjustment, then Borussia Dortmund's rotation makes people suspect that Klopp has other purposes...
Because he even replaced Zhou Yi, who guarantees Borussia Dortmund's victory, doesn't that mean he doesn't care about the result?
He dared to keep Zhou Yi off the field against an opponent like Bayern Munich, so he definitely wasn't going for victory.
Sure enough, in the end, the strong dialogue that everyone was looking forward to ended with Bayern Munich defeating Borussia Dortmund 1-0 at home.
The game was not exciting. It was intense, but not exciting. There was a lot of physical contact between the players. Four Bayern Munich players received yellow cards, and three Borussia Dortmund players also received yellow cards.
In this situation, Zhou Yi sat on the bench for the full ninety minutes without getting a chance to play.
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After the game, Chinese reporters rushed to Zhou Yi, wanting him to talk about his views on the defeat.
"I have no opinion. It's normal for us and Bayern Munich to win or lose."
Zhou Yi wanted to leave after saying something perfunctory, but how could the reporters let him get his wish? They grabbed him and asked, "What was the reason you didn't play in this game?"
"Continuous battles, player fatigue, rotation is normal. It's also normal for me to be rotated. The head coach has his considerations, it's all normal."
Zhou Yi used three "normal"s in a row, but it made the reporters feel that this failure was abnormal.
Some reporters simply asked bluntly: "Was the loss to Bayern Munich intentional? Is it to conserve energy for the league and the Champions League?"
Zhou Yi shook his head, put on a straight face, and said in a very serious and earnest tone: "Absolutely not!"
Then he slipped away. This time the reporters couldn't stop him, because they had already stopped him once, and it would be a bit unreasonable to stop him again.
But everyone felt that Zhou Yi's answers were basically nonsense. None of them were credible, and none of them could be used.
In the end, they decided to report Borussia Dortmund's failure according to their understanding.
"Klopp Abandons German Cup, Focuses on League and Champions League."
"Klopp: A Gambler."