“Arjen Robben, he delivered that fatal pass to Mandzukic. A truly surprising turn of events…” The television cameras quickly found Robben and gave him a close-up.

In the close-up, Robben was celebrating the goal with his teammates.

“I think Dortmund was also caught off guard by Robben’s pass… Could this final become Robben’s redemption game?”

Bayern Munich’s players were ecstatic after the goal.

Dortmund, on the other hand, was hit hard. The players looked helpless after conceding the goal.

They never imagined that Robben would choose to pass…

Weidenfeller stood his ground. Now that he thought about it, Robben's move was deliberate, not some desperate measure. He lured him out to create a vacuum in front of the goal!

As a goalkeeper, he had faced Robben many times, but this time, the Dutchman seemed different, and he couldn't quite grasp his intentions.

Robben’s pass was indeed brilliant because the next time he cut inside from the right, the Dortmund players defending him would hesitate, wondering whether he would pass or shoot.

And once they had that hesitation, they would easily miss opportunities in defense, giving the opponent a chance to exploit.

The Dortmund fans in the stands and in front of their TVs were silent at this moment.

The first half had gone so well, but they conceded a goal right at the start of the second half.

This rollercoaster of emotions was too much to bear.

Falling behind also made many people regret the team’s generous waste of opportunities in the first half—if they had only seized one of those chances! The situation wouldn't be like this now!

“In terms of threatening shots, Dortmund actually has more than Bayern Munich…” He Ping said. “But Bayern Munich is the one that scored. Although Dortmund’s attack is fierce, their efficiency is indeed lacking. Whether it's Lewandowski, Kuba, or Reus, they all wasted many opportunities…”

After conceding the goal, Klopp immediately rushed to the sidelines to give instructions to his players—but there weren’t any tactical instructions to give. He just reminded his players to stay calm and not panic because of the goal.

It was just one goal behind, and Dortmund was not at a particular disadvantage on the field. It wasn't a dead end yet.

If they panicked at this time, they would really be handing over victory.

He pointed to his head, constantly shouting at the players on the field.

Even if the players couldn't hear what he was saying, they could understand what he meant just by looking at his gesture.

※※※

The Bayern Munich players finally finished their celebration and returned to their own half, while the Dortmund players were already waiting to kick off.

The coach was right, it was just one goal behind.

This season, they had trailed Bayern Munich by as many as twelve points in the league, but didn't they still catch up and win the championship?

They had trailed in their contests with Bayern Munich before. They were seasoned warriors and wouldn't let this one goal throw them into disarray.

After the Bayern Munich players stood in their respective positions, the referee Rizzoli blew his whistle and the game restarted.

Dortmund, who were behind, did not immediately kick the ball to the frontcourt to try for a shot. After receiving the ball, Zhou Yi passed it directly back. After passing the ball, he ran back to provide support.

He knew very well that Bayern Munich, who had just taken the lead, was high in morale. Continuing to attack head-on with Bayern Munich at this time might allow Bayern Munich to exploit the gaps in their defense.

No matter how calm the Dortmund players looked on the surface, they would definitely be affected by this goal in their hearts. They would inevitably fail to defend perfectly, and even the slightest mistake might be seized by Bayern Munich, who would then score another goal.

Zhou Yi had to avoid such a situation.

Klopp, as the coach, had not given such instructions to the team. This was entirely Zhou Yi's idea, based on his experience as a front-line commander.

During the game, Zhou Yi often had actions that seemed to disregard the coach's arrangements, but each time he proved that he was right. So Klopp and the coaching staff did not interfere, as they fully trusted Zhou Yi's judgment in this regard.

After Zhou Yi retreated and asked for the ball again, his teammates cooperated with him. Although they also wanted to equalize the score immediately after losing the ball, they also knew that they couldn't rush this matter. Whatever the reason, if Zhou Yi wanted the ball, they would give it to him. In this team, Zhou Yi was the brain, responsible for thinking and issuing instructions, while others only needed to act according to the instructions.

Thus, the crazy attacking battle saw the first instance of back-passing—before, everyone rushed forward desperately as soon as they got the ball. When had they ever seen such a scene of constantly passing the ball in the backcourt?

Dortmund's back-passing drew boos from the Bayern Munich fans in the stands, who believed that Dortmund was being cowardly and weak. They booed Dortmund desperately, hoping that Dortmund would press forward to attack.

But when it came to thick skin, Zhou Yi would not easily admit defeat. Even under the deafening boos, he calmly led his teammates to continue passing the ball in the backcourt.

His back-passing was not necessarily to lure the Bayern Munich players to press forward and then exploit the space behind them. The main purpose was to slow down the pace of the game and prevent it from falling into Bayern Munich’s desired rhythm.

First, he wanted to wear down Bayern Munich's momentum to prevent them from scoring another goal in one fell swoop.

Dortmund's approach worked. The Bayern Munich players were a bit reckless after taking the lead and were led around by Dortmund's back-passing.

Soon, the Bayern Munich players also came to their senses and realized that this was Dortmund's "trick."

If they continued to chase like this, they would not only waste their energy but also create gaps behind their defense, which could be exploited by Dortmund.

So they stopped pressing forward and slowed down. If Dortmund wanted to pass the ball in the backcourt, then let them do so. Anyway, they were leading in the score.

The pace of the game was thus slowed down.

※※※

During the back-passing, Zhou Yi never stopped his observation and thinking—slowing down the opponent's pace was just a defense, but to equalize the score, they needed to attack. How could they break through Bayern Munich's goal?

Tactically speaking, Bayern Munich's defense was not impenetrable, and there were many opportunities.

But no matter how good the opportunity was, they still had to face Neuer in the end.

Neuer was the biggest problem…

If they couldn't break through his defenses, they couldn't equalize the score.

But how could they break through his defense?

Should he create better opportunities for his teammates?

Weren't the opportunities in the first half good enough?

Zhou Yi would not blame his teammates for squandering the opportunities he created, but he still had to make more preparations.

Just passing the ball to his teammates was not enough, should he try it himself?

But the problem was, even his teammates had difficulty shooting past Neuer, so what could he do to score?

In terms of shooting skills, Zhou Yi was definitely not the best player in Dortmund. Although he used to be a striker, that was during his amateur football days. How he played back then was not a good reference. Any professional player who played amateur football, even as a goalkeeper, could do better than most amateur goalkeepers—physical fitness, reaction speed, and agility were all there. The qualities of a professional player were definitely not comparable to those of an amateur player.

Since his shooting skills were nothing special, Zhou Yi thought about it and perhaps he could only resort to some unexpected methods…

Fortunately, Zhou Yi was good at brainstorming.

Zhou Yi didn't think too carefully about what kind of ideas to come up with. He would improvise based on the specific situation.

※※※

After the pace slowed down, Dortmund began to plan their counterattack.

They quickly completed an attack, and Lewandowski's shot went a bit high again.

When it was Bayern Munich's turn to attack, they did not slowly pass the ball in the back like Dortmund, but quickly advanced to the front of Dortmund's penalty area. Ribery passed the ball from the left to Mandzukic in the middle, but Subotic headed the ball out before Mandzukic could reach it.

The flying ball was then caught by Javi Martinez outside the penalty area, who shot directly, but it also went over the crossbar.

When possession returned to Dortmund's feet, Dortmund still deliberately slowed down the pace, passed the ball around for a while before attacking forward.

This made the "neutral" spectators a little unhappy—a good attacking battle was turned into a cliché by Dortmund.

What a spectacular sight it would have been if Dortmund had continued to attack head-on with Bayern Munich after conceding the goal!

In that case, this Champions League final would have been truly etched in history, becoming the most exciting final in Champions League history.

But alas…