While Shinji Kagawa was chatting alone with Klopp, Zhou Yi was squatting on the ground and writing and drawing on the football with an oily pen.

"Hey, Zhou Yi, what are you doing?" Gece noticed Zhou Yi's behavior of hiding in the corner, and he curiously approached to inquire.

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

"How to say hello?" Gotze was very surprised.

"Didn't it mean that the two Carrington training bases are next to each other? Legend has it that you can kick the other side with a big foot."

After hearing Zhou Yi's words, Goce stood up and looked up at the row of dense woods outside the training ground...

"Stop teasing, Zhou Yi. This must be a rumor! Even if you kick a big kick, it is absolutely impossible to kick Manchester City!"

"Even if it's a rumor, I'll have to personally defy the rumor."

While he was talking, Zhou Yi had already written it. He put away his pen, then stood up and estimated the distance, threw the football up, just like the goalkeeper kicking the football over with force.

The bang even alarmed the others in the training ground, but when everyone followed the reputation, they saw nothing. They only saw Zhou Yi and Goce standing on the other end, looking at the woods on the edge of the training ground, and didn't know what they were doing.

"I can't see it at all. I said it's impossible to kick it over." Gotze shrugged.

"Damn, it seems like 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 the main force. "Here you go. Don't tell anyone about this."

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

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

※※※

The game is getting closer and both clubs are ready. Both teams have players who are unable to play in this game due to injuries. Dortmund is the old injured Ovo Moyera, who has missed four league games.

Richards is still in the hands of Manchester City and has not played a single game this season.

Maicon was injured in the last round of the league and was unable to participate in this game.

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

Find ways to curb Zhou Yi's performance in the game.

In the last Champions League group stage, Ajax used the method of building a wall at his doorstep to curb Dortmund's attack. They did not use any special tactics to target Zhou Yi, and even gave up the ball possession outside the penalty area. Their approach was to defend the space in the penalty area and not give Lewandowski, Reus, Gotze and others the space and time to get the ball inside and outside the penalty area, so Zhou Yi naturally had no target pass.

Ajax's approach gave Mancini some idea. Of course, he couldn't let Manchester City play buses at home. This is not his style or Manchester City's style.

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

Zhou Yi's running position is very flexible, and it is not easy to curb Zhou Yi, because he can appear almost anywhere on the court and find someone to follow him, and his team's formation will be messed up. If you use regional defense against him, then in a region, focusing on defending Zhou Yi, it will be difficult to guarantee the defense strength of other Dortmund players.

Not a good practice.

So Mancini thinks that maybe he can learn from Ajax's approach, but he cannot copy it all. If Zhou Yi is in the backcourt, there is no need to care about him. Once he is close to Manchester City's 30-meter area, he has to go to the individual to keep him close to him. At the same time, everyone else does his job well to ensure the integrity of the defense line, try not to have too obvious gaps, so that Zhou Yi does not have a good pass target. The person who is guarding Zhou Yi is responsible for interfering with Zhou Yi and preventing him from controlling the ball and observing calmly.

When Mancini came to Carrington training base the day before the game, Manchester City will do the last training here. The intensity is not high, mainly the offensive and defensive training of set pieces.

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

"Mancho, the equipment administrator is looking for you."

Mancini was strange: "Is there any problem with the training facilities?"

"No, it's actually...uh, let him tell you that he's outside." Kidd thought it was a bit troublesome to talk about, so he simply handed over the task to the administrator.

"Then invite him in."

The equipment administrator of the Carrington Training Base came in, holding a football in his hand.

"My man found this when he was picking up football in the woods, sir. I think he should show it to you..."

Because there are dense bushes next to the training base, and players will always kick football into the woods during training, so after every day, the equipment administrator will always arrange people to go to the woods to pick up the footballs.

Mancini saw the huge Nike logo on the football in the administrator's hand at a glance.

"Manchester United's goal?"

Nike is a sponsor of Manchester United, and their training balls must be Nike. Manchester City's sponsor is Umbro, so it is impossible for Nike football to appear in Manchester City's Carrington training base.

Because the training bases of the two clubs are close to each other, there is indeed a situation where the opponent's club football is picked up when picking up the ball. Although the probability is not high, it is indeed possible.

However, when you pick up the football from the opponent's club, you will temporarily save it first, and wait for a certain amount to return it to the opponent collectively. Although the game is very popular, the private working relationship will not be incompatible.

"Yes, sir. It's from Manchester United."

"Then I'll give it to the other party?" Mancini didn't understand why the administrator just wanted to use Manchester United football to find him. Don't you know that his time is very precious? Especially before the start of the Champions League...

"Uh, but this is quite special, so I think I should show it to you, sir." The administrator was actually hesitant whether he should use this football to the head coach of the first team. Maybe they don't care about these things at all?

However, Mancini took the football, held it in his hand, and turned it around for a while, and a line of English written in crookedly on the light red sphere appeared in front of him.

"Hello, Blue Moon, this is a greeting from the Hornet."

The signature is "Zhouyi", and there is a smiley face and V gesture behind it.

Seeing this scene, Mancini was a little surprised. Seeing that the head coach's reaction was strange, Kid also came over to see what happened. After seeing this sentence, he frowned: "What does this mean?"

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

"Can it be Zhou Yi's prank?"

"Is he so bored?" Mancini didn't believe it. He thought Zhou Yi had to do this with a purpose, but he didn't expect what it was.

Regarding Zhou Yi, he has heard some rumors that he is the best brain among young players. People play football with their bodies, and he plays football with their brains. Mancini believes this because Zhou Yi is not in the body, but he can achieve such achievements by his brain.

There is also a rumor that Zhou Yi was called the "Oriental Wizard" in Germany, saying that he knew mysterious Eastern witchcraft. When Barrios was deeply trapped in goals and was questioned by public opinion as a parallel product, he made a contribution to save Barrios. With his witchcraft blessing, Barrios scored consecutive goals, and finally that season Barrios won the artillery trophy that symbolizes the honor of the best scorer.

At that time, there were still many people in Germany who specifically blocked Zhou Yi outside the training base in Dortmund, just to get his blessings, which was said to be quite effective.

Mancini has heard that Chinese medical skills are magical. Acupuncture is no longer a rare thing. Doctors can actually treat diseases by slashing a needle into the human body. He has also seen cupping. Doctors tucked the glass jar with fire and pressed it on the human body. When they took it off, there was a dark round scar on their body. According to doctors, the bad "qi" in the body was pulled out, and the scars were proof.

And the key is that it seems to be useful.

Mancini thought this was incredible. In his eyes, it was no different from witchcraft.

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

Is Zhou Yi using this ball to cast spells?

Thinking of this, he handed the football to the administrator: "Give this ball back to the other side immediately."

The administrator was surprised: "But we picked up this one..."

"Then let's give this one." Mancini was harsh and harsh.

The administrator didn't understand why the head coach suddenly became so serious, but he did as he did and turned around and said goodbye with the football.

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

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

"What are you worried about?"

"Well...it's just a guess without any basis. OK, okay, let's talk about today's training content..." Mancini realized that he had missed his mouth inadvertently, so he quickly changed the subject.

※※※

The training for the last day before the game was over, and Dortmund's team gathered together to prepare to return to the hotel.

Klopp came to everyone with a football.

He turned the football with one hand and called Zhou Yi out of the line.

"Did you write the words on it, Zhou Yi?" he asked.

Zhou Yi did not answer the question immediately, but looked at Goce.

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

"It was given to me by Manchester United's people," Klopp said.

"I wrote it." Zhou Yi answered honestly.

"What are you writing this?" 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 so close." Zhou Yi explained his original intention of doing this.

"You are so bored." Klopp was speechless about Zhou Yi's completely unusual mind. He threw the football to Zhou Yi. "Check it yourself."

Zhou Yi was worried about taking the football: "Does Manchester United want me to pay?"

"Mar United said that, I'll give you a souvenir." Klopp waved his hand and asked Zhou Yi to return to the team, and then began to summarize the training results.

Goze whispered to Zhou Yi: "I just said you definitely can't play. Isn't it? Is it picked up by Manchester United?

"How can I know if I don't try it, Mario."

"Then what have you tried?"

"I tried it and found that I couldn't beat it."

"whispering sound……"

"But at least I know that the distance between the two club training bases is not so close that it can kick football with one big foot. If I don't try it, I may never know and can only follow the crowd. Mario, do you know what the scientific spirit is? The scientific spirit is to make bold assumptions and be careful to prove it!"

Zhou Yi said his brain-opening behavior so highly that Gece didn't know what to say.

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

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

"Really?"

"Of course it's true. Manchester City and I have no grudges. Why do we provoke them? Angry them and let them play black feet on me in the game? Am I that idiotic? So it's just a friendly greeting for failure." Zhou Yi explained seriously.

"Jiu, Zhou Yi, you are so bored..." Everyone dispersed.

Seeing everyone saying this, Zhou Yi pointed at him and asked Goce: "Are you bored?"

Gotze shook his head: "No, it's very boring."
Chapter completed!