When Shinji Kagawa was chatting alone with Klopp, Zhou Yi was squatting on the ground with an oil-based pen writing and drawing on the football. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Hey, Zhou Yi, what are you doing?" Gotze noticed Zhou Yi's behavior hiding in the corner, and he leaned over curiously to investigate.

"Say hello to Manchester City in advance. Zhou Yi said.

"How do you say hello?" Gotze was curious.

"Didn't you say that the two Carrington training bases were next to each other? Legend has it that a big kick can go to the opposite side. ”

Ge Ce listened to Zhou Yi's words, straightened up and looked up at the row of dense woods outside the training ground......

"Don't be funny, Zhou Yi. This must be a rumor! Even if you kick it over, you will never kick it to Manchester City!"

"Even if it's a rumor, then I'll refute it myself. ”

As he spoke, Zhou Yi had already written, he put away his pen, then stood up and estimated the distance, threw the football up, like a goalkeeper kicking the football hard.

The bang even alarmed the rest of the training ground, but when everyone came by prestige, they didn't see anything. They only saw Zhou Yi and Gotze standing at the other end, looking at the woods at the edge of the training ground, and they didn't know what they were doing.

"I can't see it at all, I said I couldn't kick it. Gotze shrugged.

"Damn, it looks like it's a rumor!" Zhou Yi said with a frown.

"You also wasted a football. ”

"It's okay, it's Manchester United anyway. Zhou Yi waved his hand. After saying that, he patted his butt and turned to walk towards the main army. "Walked away. Don't tell anyone about this. ”

"So you know it's embarrassing......"

"What, I'm afraid that Manchester United will want me to lose the ball!"

※※※

The game is fast approaching and both clubs are ready. Both teams have players who are unable to play in this game due to injury, with Borussia Dortmund facing old injured Owomoyela, who has missed four league games.

Manchester City, Richards is still in his hands and has not played a game this season.

McCone, on the other hand, was injured in the last round of the league and was unable to play in this game.

During this time, Mancini has been studying Dortmund, mainly studying Dortmund's core player Zhou Yi.

Find a way to curb Zhou Yi's play in the game.

In the last Champions League group game, Ajax used the practice of building a wall on their own doorstep to contain Dortmund's attack, and they did not use any special tactics to target Zhou Yi, and even gave up possession outside the penalty area. Their approach is to defend the space in the penalty area, and do not give Lewandowski, Reuss, and Gotze the space and time to get the ball inside and outside the penalty area, so that Zhou Yi naturally has no target pass.

Ajax's approach gave Mancini a bit of a way to go. Of course he can't have Manchester City on the bus at home, it's not his style or City's style.

But instead of trying to find a way to contain Zhou Yi, it is better to find a way to curb Zhou Yi's goal, which is indeed an idea.

Zhou Yi's running position is very flexible, and it is not easy to contain Zhou Yi, because he can appear in almost any corner of the court, and find someone to follow him, and his team's formation will be chaotic. If zone defense is used against him, then in one area, the focus is on defending Zhou Yi, and it is difficult to guarantee the defensive strength of Dortmund's other players.

None of this is a good practice.

So Mancini thinks maybe he can learn from Ajax's approach, but not the whole thing. If Zhou Yi is in the backfield, then there is no need to care about him. Once he approaches the 30-meter area of Manchester City, he will have to go up to him to keep a close eye on him, while everyone else will do their job to ensure the integrity of the defensive line, and try not to have too obvious gaps, so that Zhou Yi does not have too good passing targets. As for the person who was keeping an eye on Zhou Yi, he was responsible for interfering with Zhou Yi and preventing him from calmly controlling the ball and observing.

The day before the game, Roberto Mancini arrived at the Carrington training base, where City will do their final training session, with little intensity, mainly from set-pieces.

He had just sat down in his office today when assistant coach Brian Kidd knocked on the door.

"Mancho, the Gear Administrator is looking for you. ”

Mancini was curious: "Is there something wrong with the training facilities?"

"No, actually...... Uh, let him tell you that he's out there. Kidd found it troublesome for him to talk about it, so he simply handed it over to the administrator.

"Then invite him in. ”

The equipment manager at Carrington Training Base walked in, a soccer ball in his hand.

"My guy found this while he was picking up a soccer ball in the woods, sir. I think I should show you ......."

Because the training base is next to the dense bushes, and there are always cases where players kick the football into the woods during training, the equipment manager will always arrange for someone to go to the woods to pick up the football after the training session every day.

At a glance, Mancini could see the huge Nike logo on the soccer ball in the administrator's hand.

"Manchester United's ball?"

Nike is a sponsor of Manchester United, and their training ball is definitely Nike's. Manchester City's sponsor is Umbro, so it is impossible for Nike football to be present at Manchester City's Carrington training ground.

Because the training bases of the two clubs are next to each other, there is a real chance that the opposing club will pick up the ball when picking up the ball, although the probability is not high, but it is possible.

However, when they pick up the football of the opposing club, they will temporarily save it first, and then return it to the opponent collectively after a certain amount. Although the competition was very popular, the private working relationship was not incompatible.

"Yes, sir. It's Manchester United. ”

"Isn't that just for the other side?" Mancini couldn't understand why the caregiver was just looking for him with a Manchester United football, didn't he know that his time was precious, especially before the Champions League game began......

"Well, but this one is quite special, so I thought maybe I should show it to you, sir. "The administrator is actually a little hesitant to give this football to the head coach of a team, maybe people don't care about these things at all?

But Mancini took the football, held it in his hand, and turned it around, and a line of crooked English appeared in front of him on the pale red sphere.

"Hello, Blue Moon, this is a greeting from Bumblebee. ”

The inscription is "Zhou Yi", and a smiley face and V gesture are also drawn on the back.

Seeing this scene, Mancini was a little stunned, seeing that the head coach's reaction was very strange, Kidd also leaned over to take a look, and after seeing this sentence, he frowned: "This is ...... What do you mean?"

"I don't know. Mancini shook his head.

"Could it be Zhou Yi's prank?"

"Is he so boring?" Mancini didn't believe it. He felt that Zhou Yi must have a good intention in doing this, but what was the intention, he didn't think of it for a while.

Regarding Zhou Yi, he has heard some rumors that he has the best brain among young players, and everyone plays football with his body, but he plays football with his brain. Regarding this, Mancini believes it, because Zhou Yi's body is not superior, but he can achieve such an achievement by relying on his brain.

There is also a rumor that Zhou Yi is known as the "Oriental Wizard" in Germany, saying that he can do mystical Oriental witchcraft. When Barrios was in a goal drought and was questioned by public opinion as a parallel import, it was he who saved Barrios, and with the blessing of his witchcraft, Barrios scored goals one after another, and finally Barrios won the cannon-shaped trophy that symbolizes the honor of the top scorer that season.

At that time, there were still many people in Germany who specially blocked Zhou Yi outside the training base in Dortmund, just to obtain his blessing, which is said to be quite effective.

Mancini had heard that Chinese medicine was magical, and that acupuncture was not uncommon, and that doctors could treat diseases by sticking a needle into the body. He also once saw cupping, where the doctors took the glass jar with fire and pressed it on the person, and when he took it off, there was a dark circular scar on the body, according to the doctors, the bad "qi" in the body was pulled out, and those scars were proof.

And the point is, it seems to really work.

Mancini thought it was incredible, and in his eyes it was almost indistinguishable from witchcraft.

Now holding a football, he linked Zhou Yi's nickname with the oriental "witchcraft" he had seen, and felt more and more that Zhou Yi was probably not as simple as a prank to play a football.

Could it be that Zhou Yi is using this ball to cast spells?

Thinking of this, he handed the ball to the administrator: "Return this ball to that side immediately." ”

The Administrator wondered: "But we picked up this one......"

"Then return this one. "Mancini is stern and unquestionable.

The administrator didn't understand why the manager was suddenly so serious, but he complied, took the football and turned to leave.

As soon as he left, Kidd asked Mancini, "Mancho, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just a little worried. Mancini muttered to himself.

"Worried about what?"

"Hmm...... It's just a guess. Okay, let's talk about today's training......" Mancini realized he had inadvertently slipped through the cracks, and quickly diverted the subject.

※※※

The last day of training before the game was over, and the entire Dortmund squad gathered to return to the hotel.

Jurgen Klopp came to everyone with a soccer ball.

He turned the football with one hand, and then called Zhou Yi out of the column.

"Did you write this, Zhou Yi?" he asked.

Zhou Yi didn't answer the question for the first time, but looked at Ge Ce.

Gotze in the team spread his hands: "I swear I didn't say it. ”

"It was given to me by someone from Manchester United. Klopp said.

"I wrote it. Zhou Yi replied honestly.

"What are you writing this for?" Klopp continued.

"I want to say hello to Manchester City before the game, and by the way, see if the training bases of the two clubs are really that close. Zhou Yi explained his original intention for doing this.

"You're boring. Klopp was also speechless about Zhou Yi's completely unusual brain hole, and he threw the football to Zhou Yi. "Keep it for yourself. ”

Zhou Yi was very worried when he took over the football: "Does Manchester United want me to pay?"

"Manchester United said it and gave it to you as a souvenir. Klopp waved his hand to let Zhou Yi return to the team, and then began to summarize the results of the training.

Gotze whispered to Zhou Yi next to him: "I just said that you definitely can't kick it, no, you were picked up by the people of Manchester United, right?"

"How do you know if you don't try, Mario. ”

"And what about you?"

"I tried it and found that I really couldn't kick it. ”

"......Shh

"But at least I know that the distance between the two clubs' training bases is not close enough to kick a football with a big foot, and if I hadn't tried, I would never have known. Mario, do you know what the spirit of science is? The spirit of science is to make bold assumptions and be careful to verify them!"

Zhou Yi said that his brain-opening behavior was so lofty that Ge Ce didn't even know what to say.

When the team returned to the locker room and was about to change clothes and get on the bus, everyone ran to Zhou Yi to ask Zhou Yi if this was a provocation to Manchester City, just like a flying arrow challenge book.

But Zhou Yi shook his head and denied: "No, no, this is actually the literal meaning, there is really no subtext." I just wanted to say hi to them. ”

"Really?"

"Of course it's true. I have no grudge against Manchester City, what are I provoking them to do? Provoke them to black-foot me in the game? Am I that idiot? So it's a friendly greeting of defeat. Zhou Yi explained very seriously.

"Hey, Zhou Yi, you're really boring......" Everyone dispersed.

Seeing that everyone was saying this, Zhou Yi pointed to himself and asked Ge Ce: "Are you bored?"

Gotze shook his head: "No, it's very boring. (To be continued.) )