AC Milan is currently ranked first in the Serie A. Although they performed poorly in the Champions League group stage, they are still very good in the league. This is why Klopp dare not underestimate this team.

Although Kaka was sent away, AC Milan loaned Ibrahimovic from Barcelona. The outstanding performance of the Swedish God Tower helped AC Milan ranked first in the league.

This is not a good team to deal with.

Anyway, it will be harder to deal with than Inter Milan, which was disastrous at the time...

Zhou Yi has fully understood this point during the simulation battles that many days before the game.

It is difficult to conquer AC Milan away.

When the actual competition begins, the situation is similar to what Zhou Yi simulates in the virtual space.

As an Italian team, AC Milan is very strong in defense. On the offensive end, they have the monster Ibrahimovic, so it is still difficult for Dortmund to play.

It is difficult for them to deal with Ibrahimovic in defense, and it is not easy to break through the defense line led by Thiago Silva in the offense.

In the whole first half, Dortmund was unable to break through AC Milan's goal, but AC Milan frequently threatened the goal guarded by Weidenfeller.

And in terms of opportunities, Dortmund has no more opportunities than AC Milan. After all, this is on the away game. From the beginning of the game, AC Milan has dominated.

However, AC Milan failed to break Dortmund's goal in the first forty-five minutes.

Because Dortmund's defense line also performed very well.

After playing twenty-one rounds in the Bundesliga, Dortmund conceded only seventeen goals in this defense line. It is currently the team that conceded the least goals in the Bundesliga and the only team that conceded less than twenty goals.

In the end, the two sides exchanged blank sheets in the first half.

Marcel Leif's analysis at the midfielder believed that after AC Milan did not score in the first half, he would definitely have a strong offensive strength in the second half. As long as Dortmund has enough patience, it is their chance. Because if AC Milan, who plays at home, cannot win this game, it will become difficult to play in the second leg. They must score goals away games and draw at least to tie the opponent. What is the atmosphere of Dortmund's home court? Even Inter Milan lost there without any resistance... How could Allegri place his hope of promotion on the away game in the second leg?

So the key is that Dortmund should not be in a hurry. Even if you win a 0:0 draw in the end, it's OK to go back.

Calmness is very important for Dortmund, and it is also one of the important experiences in participating in the Champions League.

Many teams performed in the group stages with newborn calfs not afraid of tigers, they were very motivated and performed very well. As a result, they became raw melon seeds after the knockout round and were tricked by experienced opponents.

Because the group stage is not a knockout match, there is no need to determine the outcome of one or two games, and you can play for a whole six games, with a higher tolerance rate.

But after entering the knockout stage, there are only two games in each stage of the knockout stage. One away game and one home game, the tolerance rate has dropped greatly. Making mistakes in one game may lead to irreversible consequences. At this time, the momentum is no longer important, but replaced by stable performance and rich experience.

This is also the reason why group stages and knockout stages are completely different events.

Dortmund lacks the experience of eliminating and sprinting. If you rush too hard, you will be afraid of falling in the knockout round. Especially the opponent is a scheming and experienced Champions League giant like AC Milan.

Some of Marcel Leif is worried about, and he is also reminding his players to be patient during the break.

"This is AC Milan's home court, and it is them who want to win the game more than us. Of course, I'm not saying we don't have to win, but we can have more patience than them, because even if the game is tied, we will have ninety minutes to return to the home court. So don't worry, first stabilize the defense in the second half, and then look for opportunities. The opportunity is not good enough. Don't go rashly, don't have a situation where there are only a few people left in the backcourt..."

The players listened very seriously and nodded one after another.

Unlike Klopp who only uses mouth guns to keep the players calm, in the locker room in AC Milan, Allegri almost filled the tactical blackboard.

He is arranging each of his players in detail the tasks, and he has carefully learned how to run...

This may be the characteristic of the Italian head coach. They will talk endlessly when they talk about tactics.

However, it can also be seen that Allegri was a little nervous.

In your home court, you have the best time, place and people. No goals were scored in the first half forty-five minutes. What psychological impact and hints will this bring to your players and the opponent?

This is all about Allegri.

He hopes to score a goal as soon as possible in the second half, otherwise the later the time will be more unfavorable to them.

So he was very meticulous and complicated, and would rather instill in his players like a cram, than want to miss anything.

He talked the most about Zhou Yi.

Because he is the core of this team.

The videos of Dortmund and Inter Milan in the group stage were repeatedly analyzed by Allegri. He believed that if there were no Zhou Yi, Dortmund might have been able to qualify in the group, but it would definitely be difficult to qualify as the first in the group so easily.

To defeat Dortmund, we must first curb Zhou Yi's performance. As long as Zhou Yi cannot perform, Dortmund's offensive effect will be greatly reduced.

In the first half, his players had quite enough restrictions on Zhou Yi, so Dortmund didn't have any threatening attacks.

However, it was not without paying the price. Midfielder Flamini got a yellow card for a foul on Zhou Yi, which put AC Milan in the second half of the game.

Secondly, another midfielder Gattuso is already 33 years old. After all, he is old. In order to limit Zhou Yi in the first half, he kept running with Zhou Yi, many of which were up and down sprints, which greatly damaged his physical strength. During the halftime break, Gattuso kept doing massages to relax his muscles.

Allegri dare not guarantee whether he can curb Zhou Yi in the second half. He thinks that the more important thing than curb Zhou Yi is to score goals as soon as possible in the second half. As long as he scores the goal, AC Milan at home will have an irresistible trend.

In the face of such a general trend, neither Zhou Yi nor Dortmund will be able to stop it.

※※※

After the start of the second half, AC Milan significantly strengthened its offensive, hoping to score in the shortest time.

Dortmund was also prepared for the first time to stabilize the defense.

At the same time, if you can get the ball rights, even if you don’t have a good offensive opportunity, Zhou Yi will send the football forward, and then control the football through the cooperation between two or three people, compress the AC Milan formation back, allowing them to stay away from Dortmund’s penalty area.

The purpose of defense is achieved through control and offense.

This is actually the decision Klopp made through half a season to repeatedly analyze and compare Zhou Yi’s presence and absence.

That is, although Zhou Yi is not good at defense, this does not mean that he has made no contribution to defense. On the contrary, he has made great contributions.

Directly fighting with opponent players, then intercepting the ball, this may not be Zhou Yi’s defensive method.

His defensive method is to control the football at his own feet and at the entire team. In control, keep the football away from dangerous areas, while consuming time and destroying the opponent's fighting spirit.

Directly intercepting the ball is the first half of the defense, but what should I do after I cut the ball?

Many teams choose to drive out a big foot to get the football out of the dangerous area. This is certainly a way, but it is not the best, because the ball will soon return to the offensive side, and they will continue to launch a fierce attack on the defender, and the pressure has not decreased. Klopp believes that this is a passive defense and a helpless move.

With the Zhou Yi, it means that Dortmund can choose to take the initiative to defend.

After breaking the ball, I handed over the football to Zhou Yi and asked Zhou Yi to handle the next thing. It was like humans handing over calculations to supercomputers, which saved worries and effort. This was a major advance in technology.

Dortmund is now enjoying this progress.

Zhou Yi's brain is simply a supercomputer on the court.

With the help of this supercomputer, Dortmund withstood the fastest offensive in AC Milan.

When Zhou Yi did not need to consider how to send a deadly pass, but just took the football away from the dangerous area and transported it forward, Zhou Yi's super fast thinking and passing ability fully demonstrated.

Unless you don't let him catch the ball, knock him down before he catches the ball, but then you'll be fouled. Otherwise, as long as the football can reach his feet, he will always quickly pass the football to the place he should go, but it's actually just passing it to a teammate. There is no exquisite running position involved at all, such as a scalpel-like direct pass.

So it's very easy, but it also gives AC Milan's defense a headache.

After they pounced on Zhou Yi, the ball disappeared. This was a result that made the defensive players very frustrated and hit their morale a lot.

They wanted to intercept the ball, but the ball was gone. What's the use of pressing Zhou Yi to the ground?

After just doing this, the second half of the game was almost halfway through the game. In the blink of an eye, the game reached 65 minutes, and the score was still 0:0. AC Milan did not be able to break through Dortmund's goal.

Of course, Dortmund will not be dissatisfied with this situation, but AC Milan will.
Chapter completed!