Chapter 1 The Turn

When Borussia Dortmund gained an attacking opportunity, the football was once again passed to Zhou Yi's feet.

This time, Zhou Yi didn't wait in place, but instead moved to meet the ball, preparing to receive it.

The defender marking him, Javi Garcia, also ran up, wanting to stick close to Zhou Yi and prevent him from turning.

But Zhou Yi didn't even think about turning around. When he reached the ball, he spread his feet and let the ball pass straight through!

The football drilled between his legs, rolled past the caught-off-guard Javi Garcia, and then landed at the feet of Robert Lewandowski, who had dropped back to support.

Then Zhou Yi turned around and ran forward to support Lewandowski.

As soon as Lewandowski saw Zhou Yi coming up, he passed the ball to him, while Javi Garcia chased after Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi, as he received the ball, suddenly stopped abruptly, intending to turn and shake off Javi Garcia.

This sudden stop and turn was indeed unexpected for Javi Garcia, but Garcia's reaction was also quick. Just as Zhou Yi was about to shake him off, he decisively stretched out his foot to block behind Zhou Yi. If Zhou Yi were to turn, he would definitely knock the football behind him, so that his foot would be perfectly positioned to block Zhou Yi's path.

But who would have thought that Zhou Yi didn't knock the football as he turned, but left the ball in place and turned himself. This turn of his happened to collide with Javi Garcia's leg, and naturally, his body leaned back violently, and he was knocked to the ground.

The scene looked very visually impactful, as if Zhou Yi had been hit by a bulldozer coming from behind.

At the same time, the referee's whistle sounded.

In front of the Borussia Dortmund coaching bench, Klopp roared angrily, "That's a foul!"

At the same time, German commentator Marcel Reif was also shouting, "Javi Garcia is kicking someone from behind, a very nasty foul! He should pay the price for this!"

He Ping said, "The referee should show a yellow card. If he continues to let it go, I'm afraid this game will get out of control!"

After landing, Zhou Yi didn't immediately get up from the ground, but lay on the ground, covering his ankle with his hand, his expression pained.

Javi Garcia raised his hands to show that he was innocent, but this time he couldn't escape.

After all, the visual impact of Zhou Yi's fall just now was too great. That kick of his was simply like felling a tree.

Sure enough, after the referee Kralovec blew his whistle, he ran to Javi Garcia and showed him a yellow card.

At the thirty-fifth minute, Javi Garcia also received a yellow card.

Now two Manchester City players have received yellow cards, but this situation has not attracted people's attention as Manchester City has the advantage.

Zhou Yi was surrounded by his teammates, concerned about his condition.

"I'm fine." Zhou Yi had already sat up from the ground. After landing, he fell directly on his back, looking both embarrassed and miserable. He didn't get up from the ground immediately, but covered his ankle with his hand, which made people worried that he had injured his ankle.

"Really okay?" Gotze wasn't very relieved.

"Really, I dodged it at the crucial moment, otherwise why would I have fallen so dramatically?" Zhou Yi said.

He did dodge it. When he stopped abruptly, he expected that Javi Garcia might be waiting for him behind him, so at the moment of contact, Zhou Yi took the initiative to lean back, while kicking his leg forward. Doing so made him fall in a somewhat exaggerated manner, but it protected his ankle well. If Javi Garcia had kicked him solidly, Zhou Yi would probably have had to lie on the ground for a while. Even so, his ankle was still a little sore.

"Zhou Yi, should you reduce the number of times you take the ball?" Reus was worried for Zhou Yi. "If you keep playing like this, the opponent's fouls will all be directed at you..."

Zhou Yi waved his hand, "It's okay, as long as we can get the ball near their penalty area, they won't dare to foul like this."

Fouling in sensitive areas would give Borussia Dortmund a free kick, and a free kick in these positions could directly threaten Manchester City's goal.

"But we have to advance to their thirty-meter area first." Gotze said. "But now their marking makes it difficult for you to control the ball, right?"

Zhou Yi was pulled up by Lewandowski, and then said to his teammates around him, "So I need your help, try not to stay too far away from me, let's pass the ball around."

"No problem." Gotze nodded. He knew what Zhou Yi wanted to do.

The other teammates also nodded.

After special training at footbonaut, the Borussia Dortmund players have greatly improved their ability to pass the ball, and they can completely keep up with Zhou Yi's passing rhythm.

※※※

After the game restarted, Borussia Dortmund obviously accelerated the speed of passing the ball. The Borussia Dortmund players kept running and passing.

As the attacking hub of Borussia Dortmund, the ball would always be passed to Zhou Yi's feet, but whether it was Javi Garcia or other Manchester City players, they found it increasingly difficult to stop Zhou Yi.

Because Zhou Yi's passing speed was getting faster and faster, he always passed the ball out again as soon as he got it, without waiting for it to stop. He didn't need to observe the situation, nor did he need to look up. He would look back to observe whether Manchester City's defensive players had stuck to him, while passing the ball in the completely opposite direction with his feet.

This was really too confusing.

Through continuous rapid passing, Borussia Dortmund gradually recovered the situation.

Originally, before Javi Garcia received a yellow card, Manchester City had been in the upper hand, and Borussia Dortmund was suppressed to the point where they couldn't even lift their heads.

But now, the situation has reversed. Borussia Dortmund's offensive gradually started, and facing their offensive, Manchester City gradually shrank back.

"Borussia Dortmund has taken control of the game!" Marcel Reif was very happy.

Mark Lawrenson watched this scene with great interest. Zhou Yi's multiple passes without looking at the target were really fascinating to him.

It was as if the entire stadium was in his mind. He didn't need to observe at all, he could know where to pass the ball.

※※※

In the forty-first minute, with four minutes left in the first half, Manchester City had not been able to attack in front of Borussia Dortmund's goal for a while.

Borussia Dortmund had another attacking opportunity.

Zhou Yi did not go to the front, he received the ball in the back. Because he didn't go up, Javi Garcia had no way to rush up to defend him. When Mancini formulated the defensive tactics, he still chose zonal defense instead of man-marking, and did not arrange for someone to follow Zhou Yi every step of the way.

So Zhou Yi could get the ball relatively calmly in the back.

However, he was also relatively far away from Manchester City's goal.

After Zhou Yi got the ball, he didn't directly pass the ball out with a long pass from the back, but dribbled the ball forward.

When he went forward, he entered Javi Garcia's defensive zone.

Javi Garcia quickly greeted him.

Seeing Javi Garcia coming up, Zhou Yi used his right foot to hook the ball to the left, and at the same time, his body also turned to the left, as if he wanted to develop to the left.

Seeing Zhou Yi's move, Manchester City's defense also adjusted its defensive focus, biased towards this side, and quickly filled the gap on the left, so that Zhou Yi had no passing point. At this time, Javi Garcia stuck to him again, so that Zhou Yi had no way to pass the ball forward. If he didn't want to be intercepted, he could only pass the ball back. Then Manchester City's defense would be considered successful.

Mark Lawrenson was high above in the commentary box, seeing the whole picture of the stadium. He noticed that Manchester City's defense had blocked Zhou Yi's offensive direction, but he also saw that in the blind spot of Zhou Yi's vision, there was actually a huge gap—because Manchester City had shifted the focus of the defense to the other side, so the gap naturally appeared there.

The gap was so obvious that not only he saw it, but he believed that some of Borussia Dortmund's and Manchester City's players also saw it, but so what?

The football was now at Zhou Yi's feet, and Zhou Yi was facing away from that direction. He couldn't see the gap at all. The football would not be passed there, and there was no way to pose a threat to Manchester City's defense.

But in Mark Lawrenson's eyes, he had been looking at that gap with anticipation.

He felt that Zhou Yi could "see" it.

So he said, "On the right side of Manchester City's defense, there is a gap, this is Borussia Dortmund's attacking opportunity!"

Manchester City fans in front of the TV must be dissatisfied with his words, thinking that Mark Lawrenson was talking nonsense—how could the gap that Zhou Yi couldn't see be an attacking opportunity for Borussia Dortmund?

But at this moment, Zhou Yi, who was originally facing to the left, suddenly turned around, and at the same time swung his foot to kick the ball!

Javi Garcia, who was next to him, hadn't even reacted yet, and the football had already flown from in front of him to... behind him!

The football flew to the right side of Manchester City's defense, that huge gap!

"Zhou Yi, he passed the ball!" Mark Lawrenson shouted excitedly. "He saw it!!"