After defeating Bayern Munich in the league, Dortmund will challenge Arsenal away.

Dortmund has already qualified from the group in advance, but Arsenal has not.

With seven points in four group matches, they only scored three more points than Marseille, who was third-placed.

In this round of group stage, Marseille will face Olympiacos, the weakest in the group, at home. Is there any suspense to the victory?

If Arsenal failed to beat Dortmund at home, their second-team group would be a bit dangerous.

The worst result is that they lost to Dortmund at home, while Marseille defeated Olympiacos at home.

Arsenal and Marseille are the same, and Arsenal is ranked second only with the results of the two sides' battles.

In the last round, they had to beat Olympiacos away to ensure their qualifying.

Some people may think that beating Olympiacos away is not a problem. But who is right about the football game? Besides, the seed team has to fight to the weakest team in the group away to qualify, which is an embarrassing fact in itself.

So in order to avoid this fact, the best solution is to defeat Dortmund at home in this round of group stage.

Before the game, Zhou Yi and Arsenal were once again linked together.

Because before the first match between the two sides, Arsenal management, including Wenger, said that they did not sign Zhou Yi and there was nothing to regret.

As a result, Zhou Yi led Dortmund to defeat Arsenal at home.

So will this embarrass the Arsenal management?

Wenger refused to answer the question: "I'm more concerned about the next game."

※※※

This is the first time Zhou Yi has stepped on London's land after becoming a Dortmund player. Unfortunately, Sun Pan is no longer in London, otherwise he would have asked Sun Pan to invite him to a meal.

Sun Pan said that he was simply far-sighted. The reason why he did not stay at Chelsea was that he did not want to invite Zhou Yi to dinner.

Zhou Yi can only roll his eyes.

Zhou Yi was in a relaxed mood for the match against Arsenal.

It’s not because Dortmund has already shown that he has qualified in the group, but that he doesn’t know what tension is. Heartless people often don’t understand what tension is.

In the pre-match simulation game, although Dortmund challenged Arsenal away, he did not have any obvious disadvantages.

This opponent is not worth the nervousness.

But after the competition began, the situation still developed somewhat unexpectedly.

Twenty-five minutes into the game, neither side scored a goal, and the game was in a deadlock.

For Arsenal, this is a deadlock, and they want to work hard to break through this deadlock.

But for Dortmund, there is nothing wrong with it.

But in the 26th minute, Dortmund's main midfielder Sven Bend had to be replaced in advance due to injury!

The person who replaced him was the team's captain Sebastian Kyle.

Since Kyle's physical condition has declined, it has been difficult for him to play as the main player at Dortmund. Most of the time, he is a substitute, or even has few chances of playing as a substitute.

He has played thirteen rounds this season. He has only played four times in the league, and he has also played as a substitute, and has never played once.

Dortmund's midfield configuration is usually between Sven Bend and Zhou Yi. If Zhou Yi needs to be replaced in advance, who will be replaced depending on the situation. If you need to strengthen your defense, you will replace Kyle. If you need to strengthen your control and continue to maintain the pressure on the opponent on offense, then go to Gundoanto.

Now that Sven Bend is injured, Kyle can only be replaced, because Kyle is the only one who can defend in the midfield.

Although Kyle was on the top, it still had a great impact on Dortmund's midfield defense.

In the 38th minute, Arsenal, who played at home, seized the chaos after Dortmund's midfield defense substitution and scored a goal.

"Arsenal! Van Persie! He scored the first record for the team!" The British commentator was very excited.

The Arsenal fans in the stands were even more excited, and they cheered.

"It seems that Sven Bend's injury has a great impact on Dortmund..." Marcel Leif felt sorry for the concealment of the goal.

After scoring the goal, Arsenal planned to take advantage of the victory to pursue it. Dortmund regained its defense at all and finally survived until the end of the first half, without allowing the opponent to score another goal.

There are still some kicks in the second half. If you play two goals, the hope of winning will be very slim, and it is good to be able to tie the opponent.

※※※

During the halftime break, Klopp re-arranged Dortmund's midfielder, allowing Shinji Kagawa to retreat a little deeper and contact Zhou Yi. The purpose of this is to allow Zhou Yi to avoid frequent forwarding and organize attacks.

Because Shinji Kagawa came to serve as the linker, before Mark was injured, this task was completed by Mark, and he has always done it very well.

If Zhou Yi doesn't need to go forward frequently, he can stay in the backcourt to participate...defense.

"Yes, the first major task in the second half is defense." Klopp said to Zhou Yi who was a little surprised.

Not only Zhou Yi was surprised, but everyone else was surprised too.

Doesn’t Klopp understand what Zhou Yi is good at and what he is not good at?

Everyone knows that organizational offense is good at Zhou Yi, and most of the time he is just acting in defense, mainly relying on Sven Bend.

Facing everyone's surprised and puzzled eyes, Klopp did not explain much, but said to Zhou Yi: "You know what to do, Zhou Yi. In fact, you have an advantage in defense."

Everyone was even more surprised and looked at Zhou Yi's defense so bad. What advantages does he have? If he wants strength but no speed, he may fly if he is squeezed out in the defense. How can he defend this?

Amid everyone's puzzled eyes, Zhou Yi's expression gradually became serious. He did not think that the head coach was talking nonsense. He felt that there must be a reason why Klopp said this.

So what are my advantages in defense?

Zhou Yi frowned and thought hard.

He began to review the games he played in his mind, whether real or virtual, and wanted to find out the characteristics of his defense.

Although Zhou Yi has always been the core of the organization, he still has to participate in defense, but he is not involved in defense, so he can only appear in that position. Klopp does not require him to become the steal king like Sven Bend. Sometimes defense is actually in the right position and can play a defensive role...

When Zhou Yi thought of this, his mind suddenly lit up.

The right location!

Yes, location!

Zhou Yi understood what his advantage in defense was.

Sense of position.

This is a perfect advantage that he has demonstrated in offense and is also useful when defending!

No one stipulates that defense must have direct physical contact with the opponent. As long as it can destroy the opponent's attack or force them to change their original offensive route, this is actually a successful defense.

As long as they don't let their direct threats to the goal.

So I don’t need to intercept the ball directly from the opponent’s feet, nor do I need to defend the opponent’s breakthrough one-on-one.

As long as he appears in the right position at the right time and then makes the right move, he can complete a defense...

Taking a deeper step, Zhou Yi thought of his game against Inter last season during the review. He met Inter Milan for the first time in the group stage. Dortmund, who had one less person at the beginning, was beaten like a dog in the first half. But in the second half, Dortmund set off a frenzy of counterattacks, and one of the key balls was initiated because he directly intercepted the ball in the backcourt and finally scored.

How did I defend and intercept the ball at that time?

He did not contact the opponent's body, but was stuck on the opponent's passing route, and then when the opponent passed the ball, he directly intercepted it...

This kind of defense is not difficult for Zhou Yi, because it is easy for Zhou Yi to judge the opponent's passing route. He has a "God's perspective". He can easily find all the possible passing routes of the opponent, and then through the continuous accumulation of experience in virtual games, he can guess the opponent's passing routes.

But Zhou Yi never thought of using his talents in defense before.

Because he himself fell into a misunderstanding of thinking, that is, he felt that with his physical condition, his position and his style of playing football, he was not good at defense. Even if the head coach asked for defense, he was more about dealing with errands and did not have subjective initiative in defense.

And now, he was awakened by Klopp.

He realized that defense... was not as difficult as he thought!

※※※

Klopp noticed Zhou Yi, who had been frowning, suddenly his brows stretched out and a light burst out from his eyes.

He knew that Zhou Yi must have figured it out, so he also grinned.

He felt relieved.

Why do you need to let Zhou Yi defend?

Because after Sven Bend got injured, Kyle, who did not play often, was not in good shape, and the goal was conceded in the first half because of this reason.

If you don't want to lose to Arsenal away, stopping the goal from continuing to concede is the top priority.

If Zhou Yi can play a greater role in defense, it can of course effectively improve Dortmund's defense success rate.

Secondly, there is one of the biggest benefits of Zhou Yi participating in defense, that is, if he can cut the ball, he will not need to pass it through a turnaround, and he can directly launch an attack. A true combination of offense and defense.
Chapter completed!