Chapter 270 The Rising Champions League Rivals

Perhaps too complacent, after the Champions League game ended, Dortmund was tied 0:0 by Augsburg, the third-last team in the league, on the road.

Bayern Munich defeated Hoffenheim 7-1 at home.

However, judging from the huge points gap between the two teams, this small setback has no impact at all.

Now there is still a nine-point gap between the two teams...

It is the next Champions League opponent that will really have a huge impact on Dortmund.

They will face defending champion Barcelona in the quarter-finals!

This is not good news for Dortmund. Barcelona can be said to be at the height of its popularity in today's European football.

In the Champions League final last season, they defeated Manchester United with an absolute advantage and won the fourth Champions League trophy in the club's history.

Barcelona has won four Champions League titles since its establishment, three of which were won after entering the new century. It can be said that the first decade of the 21st century is the decade of Barcelona. In 2006, the Dream Team II led by Frank Rijkaard defeated the then very strong Arsenal in the final and won the Champions League. In 2009, the Dream Team led by Guardiola defeated Manchester United, who was aiming to defend the title, 2:0 in the final. That year they not only won the Champions League, but also became the unprecedented six champions of European football - they won all the championships they could win that year!

Since then, Barcelona has begun to dominate European football, and their dominance has even affected world football.

In the 2008 European Cup, the Spanish national team, which was based on Barcelona's tiki-taka football tactics, shed its hat of "King of Qualifiers" and defeated powerful enemies in the European Cup and won the European Cup championship.

In the past summer of 2010, the Spanish national team, also led by Barcelona, ​​won the Hercules Cup for the first time in history under the leadership of Vicente del Bosque.

For a time, there was a "Barcelona whirlwind" in the world of football. Everyone was talking about "tiki-taka" and learning Barcelona's passing and controlling style. The media took the trouble to introduce to everyone how advanced Barcelona's tactics are. In the eyes of the fanatical Barcelona fans, their football is no longer just football, but has been sublimated into a beautiful "artwork"!

In this context, if anyone dares to say that Barcelona's football makes them sleepy, then they do not have basic aesthetics.

But Barcelona’s strength is indeed real.

It's not what the fans say.

They are something that almost all teams are unwilling to encounter in the Champions League.

The result was Dortmund.

AC Milan fans must feel a little secretly happy now - you eliminated us!

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Dortmund's encounter with Barcelona was the focus of media coverage.

Because with Barcelona's current strength, whoever encounters them will be unlucky.

In the quarter-finals that just ended, Leverkusen became such an unlucky guy. In the first round, Leverkusen lost to Barcelona 1:3 at their home court.

This is still a normal score after all. With Leverkusen’s strength, even if they are playing at home, it is already very good to be able to play like this with Barcelona. After all, they have scored a goal, so they will not be shaved off by Barcelona at home. .

As for the fact that Leverkusen was eliminated in the first round, it is not too important.

Everyone understands this.

However, after the game, some media broke the news that in this game, Messi exchanged two jerseys in one game. Because two Leverkusen players fought among themselves to grab Messi's jersey, Messi had to change in the first half. Take out one piece, and change out another piece in the second half.

For Leverkusen, who lost the game, this was simply unacceptable news. On one side, the team lost at home and almost missed the Champions League quarterfinals. On the other side, when the fans were dejected in the stands, two Leverkusen players competed for Messi's jersey. They did not seem to feel pain about losing the game. And shame, in their eyes, Messi's jersey is the most important, more important than the team's victory.

Such a performance naturally attracted constant criticism from the media and fans.

Leverkusen management also intervened, and the two jerseys were eventually recovered by the club and announced that they would be auctioned online, and the proceeds from the auction would be used for charity.

Leverkusen also issued an internal ban prohibiting players from exchanging jerseys with Messi in the second round.

This incident was considered by the media to be a "shame and humiliation" for the Leverkusen club.

But after the second round of the game, everyone realized that this was the real "shame and humiliation"!

Leverkusen faced Barcelona away from home, but was beaten 1:7 by Barcelona. Messi scored five goals by himself! This startled everyone. No matter how miserable Leverkusen is, they won't lose so miserably in the away game, right? All I can say is that Barcelona is terrible.

After the game, Messi made headlines in almost all sports media around the world.

UEFA officially confirmed that Messi is the first player to score five goals in a game since the Champions League was restructured in 1992. He is the eleventh player in the history of the Champions League to score five goals in a single game, and the first player to "score five goals" in thirty-three years.

The media exclaimed, "Scoring three goals in a game can be called a 'hat trick', scoring four goals in a game is called a 'Big Four', so what should we call scoring five goals in a game?"

In addition, Messi's 49 Champions League goals also tied the number of Champions League goals scored by Real Madrid legend Di Stefano.

Some reporters said that Messi's performance made him afraid to write because he didn't know how to write. He complained: "Reporting Messi is the most distressing job in the world, because no matter how I write, it feels like there is nothing to say and it is all routine." "...I don't know how to praise Messi anymore, because all I can think of is All the words to praise him have been exhausted!”

But who can ignore such a player who scored five goals in a single game, so even if they don’t know how to write it, reporters have to bite the bullet.

After Messi scored five goals, even the players expressed their admiration for Messi.

For example, "Alien" Ronaldo even cursed: "He plays so f****** well!"

Rooney said again that Messi's performance was like a joke.

More players said that Messi is the highest version of the player in video games...

The whole world seemed to fall at Messi's feet, touching his toes with their foreheads, expressing the feelings of mere mortals when they see a god.

The German media also felt that it was very unfortunate that Dortmund was drawn against Barcelona.

Originally, they expected Dortmund to break through last season's results and go one step further to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Now it seems that Dortmund's Champions League journey this season is coming to an end.

Although it is a pity, what else can you do if you encounter Barcelona?

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After the Champions League opponents were announced, Zhou Yi was interviewed by reporters and he was asked about Barcelona.

"Barcelona is very strong." Zhou Yi told the truth as soon as he came up. "I don't think I need to repeat how powerful they are, right? But since we are drawn together, we must be determined to fight them. There is nothing to say."

"Some people say that your playing style is somewhat similar to Xavi's."

"Harvey is a great player, and it's an honor to be similar to him." Zhou Yi did not emphasize that he is himself, Harvey is Harvey, and he did not feel there was any shame in being similar to Harvey.

"Does this mean that your playing style is similar to Barcelona's football style, and will you consider playing in Barcelona in the future?" The question was asked by a reporter from Barcelona, ​​with some Catalan in his German Zhou Yi once heard He Ying read Catalan while holding a textbook, so he was somewhat familiar with it.

He shook his head: "I will not answer this question when we are about to play against Barcelona."

He knew what the Catalan reporter wanted to get - if he showed respect for Barcelona like the way he answered the question before, then the reporter would probably write that he wanted to join Barcelona. Doing this before the Champions League quarter-finals would cause him to make a fuss.

This will also shake Dortmund's military morale. No matter how much he explains, it can't stop some people from thinking, "Maybe Zhou Yi really wants to go to Barcelona. After all, who can refuse the call of a team like Barcelona?"

This kind of thing will definitely affect the team's preparations for the Champions League quarter-finals.

But the Catalan reporter didn't want to let this opportunity pass easily, so he asked: "Can we talk after the quarter-finals?"

Seeing that this reporter was trying so hard to get him into trouble, Zhou Yi decided to take the initiative to end this boring hypothesis. He smiled and said to the Catalan reporter: "I have already rejected Barcelona once. So I feel like I can say no to Barcelona again."