Although the media supporting Manchester United used too much words and there was a sense of gloating in their tone, they were indeed not wrong. After losing to Real Madrid 2:3 away, Manchester City was indeed optimistic.

At that time, it was not just the team, but also the fans and the media.

It is believed that Manchester City has accumulated enough experience in the Champions League last season. Even if they are assigned to the Death Group this season, there is nothing to be afraid of. They are Premier League champions, and the Premier League is the No. 1 European league, so the Premier League championship is obviously higher than that of the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga. Manchester City has a large number of superstars in the team and its strength is not weak. It is not a problem to qualify from the Death Group. The only thing they consider is to be first in the group or second in the group. As for whom they are qualifying with, that doesn't matter at all.

This blind optimism has affected the team.

But in fact, Manchester City's strength is still far behind, and the Champions League and the Premier League are indeed completely different.

Even if the Premier League teams with the "mainland style" have excellent skills in the Premier League, they will find that their skills are still very rough when they go to the Champions League. Faced with faster pace and higher intensity matches, those technical defects are often magnified. For example, if a stop is slightly larger, there is no problem in the Premier League, because there are many people who stop larger. However, in the Champions League, if the stop is slightly larger, you may give up the ball.

If you lack experience in the Champions League, you will inevitably be uncomfortable when you play.

Dortmund's first participation in the Champions League after seven years has been around, and there is still a process of adaptation, let alone Manchester City.

How is Manchester City? Dortmund doesn’t care. Whether Manchester City qualifies for the lineup, Dortmund doesn’t care.

When they took off from Manchester Airport and left the city, they had already left the game behind.

The next time I meet Manchester City again is the last round of the Champions League group stage, with Dortmund playing against Manchester City at home. Who knows what the situation will be? Maybe the result of this game will be meaningless by then?

※※※

When he returned to Germany, Zhou Yi was arranged to go to the team doctor group for treatment the next day.

According to Dr. Marcus Braun's advice, it is best not to play away against Hannover 96 on the weekend to avoid worsening injuries. It is not a big problem. If you force the game, it may become a serious problem. So it is better to be cautious.

Zhou Yi will not participate in this game and there will be no club games. Next, he will return to China to participate in the World Cup qualifiers where the Chinese team will play against Australia at home.

That game is the most critical, and it is only twelve days away. If Zhou Yi is injured in the game against Hannover, he will basically bid farewell to the top ten games. At that time, the Chinese Football Association and Dortmund club will definitely have a lawsuit. The relationship between the two sides was handled well, so there is no need to offend people for a not-so-important game.

At the same time, in order to ensure that Zhou Yi's injury will not affect the national team's game, Dortmund Club has specially arranged an exclusive doctor for him, and only took care of him in the past two days.

Zhou Yi, who was barefoot, sat cross-legged on the physiotherapy bed, raised his head slightly to look at Cortana wearing gloves next to him: "So you are my exclusive doctor?"

Cortana didn't answer his question.

Zhou Yi looked around and saw that there were only two of them in the room, and the door to the physiotherapy room was also closed.

It looks very private.

So he lowered his voice and asked, "We will not be known about it, will anyone?"

This time, Cortana finally turned her head and waited for Zhou Yi: "What are you talking about? What's the matter? What's the matter with us?"

"Live together..." Cortana's series of rebellious questions surprised Zhou Yi. He didn't expect her reaction to be so fierce...

Cortana angrily said, "Tell me clearly, who lives with you?"

"Living together is also called living together..." Zhou Yi felt aggrieved. "I thought the club knew that I lived with you, so I asked you to take care of me?"

"..." Originally, Cortana wanted to deny it, but seeing that Zhou Yi was so confident, she also had some doubts that someone had really learned about her living with Zhou Yi... After all, it was impossible to keep the fire. How could no one know about this kind of thing over time?

But she thought again, if she really knew, why would it be reflected in the arrangement of doctor treatment this time? If this matter was really exposed, with the virtue of the media, how could it be impossible for everyone to spread it without any publicity?

So after she thought about it seriously, she felt that she was overthinking.

So she snorted: "Think too much. Sit down."

Zhou Yi obediently changed his posture, leaned against the physiotherapy bed, then patted his chest and breathed out: "That's good, that's good..."

"What are you doing? Are you so embarrassed to be afraid that others will know?" Cortana came up and pinched Zhou Yi's left ankle with her hands.

Zhou Yi took a breath with a "hiss".

"Does it hurt?" Cortana glanced at him.

"No, it's just that your action is a bit sudden..." Zhou Yi shook his head quickly, "I'm afraid that if someone knows this, it will cause you trouble... You also know what the media means."

"What a big deal? We did nothing, are we still afraid of others saying it?" Cortana shrugged.

"Yes, yes, yes, you are not afraid of shadow slanting when you are upright, and you are not afraid of reporters knocking on the door and asking..." Zhou Yi nodded quickly and agreed. "Do you still want to live in your house all the time?"

"In fact, I'm going to move back next week." Cortana said while giving Zhou Yi physical therapy.

"That's great!" Zhou Yi was very happy.

Cortana raised her head and looked at Zhou Yi suspiciously: "What are you doing so happy?"

Zhou Yi said seriously: "You don't have to live at home all the time, which means Mark's injury should be fine. He can participate in the competition at any time, right?"

Cortana tilted her head and thought for a while, it seemed like this was true. So she nodded: "Yes."

"So."

"So you're happy for this?" Cortana asked.

"Of course. Mark is my good friend!"

Cortana lowered her head and kept saying, "Well, she is a very good friend, Mark said so."

"Hiss--" Zhou Yi shouted, "It hurts..."

"That's right."

"Female hero, show mercy!"

"Show mercy? Do you still want to participate in the national team competition?"

When he mentioned the national team, Zhou Yi stopped calling out immediately, but gritted his teeth and endured it.

Cortana just said casually, but she didn't expect it to work so well, which instead gave birth to her curiosity.

So she asked, "Is it very important for you to serve the country?"

“For me, yes.”

"Why?"

"Do you have to ask why?" Zhou Yi was very surprised. "I am a Chinese, just like Mark is a German, so it is normal and natural for him to play football for the German team, right?"

"That's right, but the German team is strong and it is a very honorable thing to be able to play football for the German team. But as far as I know, the strength of Chinese football is not strong, and its image in public opinion is not very good, right?"

"Hey, do you still know Chinese football?" Zhou Yi was even more surprised.

"Didn't you win the gold medal in the just-concluded London Olympics? The German media will also report that this is a historic breakthrough in Chinese football, and a brief introduction to the current situation of Chinese football." Cortana said calmly.

"Well, yes, the image of Chinese football is not very good, there are many scandals, and I arrested many corrupt officials from the Football Association in the past two years... But that is our own country's football, no matter what, it represents China. Since I am a football player, of course I hope to become a national player. This has nothing to do with the strength of the team. You see, there are also many low-level teams in Europe, even amateur teams. They have not achieved any decent results for a hundred years or decades, but it doesn't prevent them from having so many fans..."

"Your example is not right. Although those teams are not very famous, they do not have the scandals you mentioned, so their fans can support them." Cortana shook her head.

"Yes. There are indeed many scandals. But let me give another inappropriate example. There is a child who made a mistake and hurt his parents' hearts. Is it possible for normal people to scold him and hope he will die after scolding? Isn't it possible? Shouldn't normal people scold him? After a beat, they still hope that he can correct his mistakes and get on the right path? No real parent will think of giving up his children. I think many Chinese fans, including me, have always had such expectations for our country's own football, hoping that it will get better and get on the right track. In the past, I was just an ordinary fan, a student in school, and I couldn't do anything to Chinese football. But now I am a player and I can wear the national team jersey to play for the country. Then I hope to do something to change the future of Chinese football and push it slightly on the right track. I have the opportunity and ability, so I have no choice."

During the telling, Zhou Yi remembered the past events related to Chinese football when he was a child.

When he was three years old, China had its own professional football league and his hometown also had a professional football team. At that time, his father was a crazy fan and took him to watch the football scene, who was only three years old. For this reason, he was scolded by his mother, saying that it was too noisy to the child.

But in the critical moment of the relegation battle between his hometown team the next year, his father still lied to his mother and secretly took him to the crucial game. The ticket was bought by his father who stayed up all night, lined up with a cotton coat and a stool. That year, he was four years old and witnessed his hometown team defeating his opponent at the critical moment and successfully staying in Class A. At that time, the swelling crowds and deafening cheers in the entire stadium, as well as the tears on his father's face were forever engraved in his heart.

Chinese football, so the enlightenment of football on him is so profound that he will probably never forget it in his life.

Later, when he was ten years old, his father convinced his mother and took him to the stands at Wulihe Stadium, Chenyang on October 7, 2001. At that time, he was wearing a slightly larger Chinese national team jersey, with a red cloth strip with "Must Win" on his forehead and a scarf with a five-star red flag on his neck. He witnessed the most glorious moment in Chinese football history with his father on the spot.

He is a Chinese, he is a Chinese who plays football. Since he fell in love with the sport of football, "Chinese football" has become closely related to him, whether as a fan or a player.

Zhou Yi was deeply spoken, and Cortana was fascinated by the fact that she even forgot the movements in her hands. It was the first time she had seen such a serious Zhou Yi - she had seen serious Zhou Yi before, but those "serious" had some performance elements in front of this "serious" this time. In other words, he was using those "serious" to conceal something, perhaps the real thoughts deep in his heart.

But this time, Cortana could clearly feel that Zhou Yi did not hide anything, and nakedly showed his heart in front of her, his seriousness and sincerity.

But this seriousness and sincerity made her feel incredible.

She really has no idea about Chinese football. The only thing she knows is from the reports of German media during the Olympics. If it weren't for the Chinese Olympic team, Zhou Yi and Yang Muge, two players who played in Germany, I'm afraid the German media would have disdained to mention popular science.

Her entire understanding of Chinese football comes from media reports. In fact, she can only know some labels and a very simple impression.

So it is really hard for her to understand why Chinese football can make a twenty-one-year-old boy suddenly become so deep, like an old man who has experienced vicissitudes.

However, Zhou Yi did not remain so deep. After he finished speaking, he found that Cortana seemed to be stunned, so he smiled and said, "Maybe in Brazil, the Chinese team may still meet the German team?"

"Are you assigned to a group?"

"Maybe it's a knockout round."

"Then your road is over." Cortana snorted, Zhou Yi's imagination was big enough.

"Not necessarily. Let's talk about it then, football is round!"

Cortana patted Zhou Yi's feet: "Okay!"
Chapter completed!