Chapter 151: There Will Come a Time to Ride the Wind and Break the Waves

The Yellow Submarine took the free kick quickly. Castillejo received the ball and drove forward, leaving Schmelzer no choice but to charge toward him and prepare to commit a foul, hoping to halt Villarreal’s attack for the moment.

Castillejo, however, had already seen through his opponent’s intentions. The instant Schmelzer rushed toward him, he swept the ball across with his right foot, sending it into the middle and giving Schmelzer no chance to get close enough to foul him.

The cross traveled at tremendous speed. While everyone worried whether a Villarreal player would be able to reach it, a figure suddenly sprinted forward. Even Borussia Dortmund’s fans, accustomed to fast attacks, could not help but brighten at the sight of that acceleration.

Wearing Villarreal’s garish pink away kit, Dai Zhiwei surged ahead of Papastathopoulos and got the slightest touch with his toe. The ball immediately changed direction, evading Papastathopoulos as he prepared to step in.

Dai Zhiwei then quickened his stride and brought the ball firmly back under his control.

Every Dortmund player on the pitch was racing back, while the relatively small number of Villarreal supporters in the stands shouted Dai Zhiwei’s name in unison, cheering him on as he broke forward.

Once he had settled the ball, Dai Zhiwei adjusted his stride and charged toward Dortmund’s penalty area, all the while watching the positions of his teammates ahead.

Dortmund’s defensive line continued to retreat, hoping their teammates would hurry back. But Dai Zhiwei soon reached the edge of the box, and the Dortmund defense could retreat no farther.

Bender raced back through the middle along a straight line. The two men met in front of the penalty area as they ran diagonally toward one another.

Dai Zhiwei feinted with his right foot, nudged the ball outward with his left, and kept it close to his body, avoiding Bender’s challenge.

Bender continued to defend with his customary ferocity. He thrust out his right leg to block Dai Zhiwei’s route, then planted his left foot and used his body to seal off the way forward.

“Take the man or take the ball?”

Dai Zhiwei instantly understood Bender’s intention and suddenly shaped to shoot.

Every major club in European football knew the power of Dai Zhiwei’s tiger strike. Bender knew perfectly well that this shot might be a dummy, but he did not dare gamble. He had no choice but to rush in and raise a leg to block it.

That was the fearsome reputation Dai Zhiwei had built.

Just as Bender had expected, the shot was a feint.

Dai Zhiwei brushed his instep over the ball and slipped it to Bakambu inside the area.

The two men exchanged a simple one-two at the top of Dortmund’s penalty arc, and the ball returned to Dai Zhiwei. This time he did not hesitate. With his left foot planted on the edge of the box, he unleashed a thunderous shot.

Schmelzer, arriving from the right to cover, threw himself into a sliding challenge, but he was a fraction too slow. Bürki also reacted quickly and flung himself to the ground, yet he was a fraction too late. The ball skimmed past his fingertips and flew into the net.

The strike was immensely powerful and exceptionally quick, skidding along the grass into the lower-left corner.

“Gooooooal!”

The moment he saw the ball enter the goal, Dai Zhiwei could not resist punching the air in celebration. Only afterward did he remember to perform his trademark pretend-gun celebration.

Dai Zhiwei’s finishing efficiency had not been particularly high in recent matches, leading outsiders to wonder whether his form was fluctuating. The doubt had placed increasing pressure on him.

“Two matches without scoring—I was getting rusty!” Dai Zhiwei laughed.

For him, failing to score in two consecutive games already counted as a goal drought.

This was Dai Zhiwei’s fifteenth goal in the Champions League proper this season, not including the three he had scored in the qualifying rounds.

At that moment, Cristiano Ronaldo, second in the Champions League scoring charts, had scored only ten. Even if Real Madrid reached the final again, and even if Dai Zhiwei never scored another Champions League goal, Ronaldo would still have to score six times in the next four matches to deprive him of the Golden Boot.

Villarreal went into halftime leading 2–0, a result that had surprised many people. After all, the Yellow Wall at Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion was never easy to overcome.

The Villarreal supporters who had come to the stadium, however, considered the score entirely natural. After overturning Manchester City and knocking them out, they were no longer satisfied with merely reaching the Champions League quarterfinals. Dortmund, whose form had been ordinary this season, no longer intimidated them.

Unwilling to accept defeat, Tuchel made two changes at halftime, replacing the ineffective Bender and Schmelzer with Sahin and Pulisic in the hope of adding more firepower to the attack.

After the restart, Dortmund clearly found a new rhythm. Their fierce counterattacks at the beginning of the second half tore through a Villarreal defense that had relaxed slightly.

Only four minutes into the half, Dortmund pulled one back. Ginter exchanged a quick give-and-go with Piszczek before breaking into the right side of the box and firing a powerful shot. Helton parried it away, but Aubameyang followed up from eleven yards and buried the rebound.

Two-one. Dortmund still had a chance.

Before Villarreal restarted from the center circle, Escribá summoned captain Bruno to the touchline and quickly rearranged the tactics with his trusted lieutenant. He demanded that the team maintain a solid defensive shape while strengthening the counterattacking threat of Dai Zhiwei, Bakambu, and Castillejo, and that they press immediately in the attacking third without conserving their energy.

But the Yellow Submarine’s counterattacking power was limited to those three men. For the remainder of the match, Villarreal continued to rely mainly on a deep, compact defense and counterattacks.

Scoring a goal and then retreating into a shamelessly defensive counterattacking approach had become Villarreal’s standard tactic this season.

After the restart, the front three immediately began pressing aggressively, and their efforts produced results almost at once.

Dai Zhiwei and Castillejo’s energetic pressure forced Dortmund into two passing errors. Castillejo collected a pass from Dai Zhiwei and first delivered a superb cross for Bakambu. Unfortunately, Bürki—the goalkeeper so often capable of either brilliance or disaster—had once again entered one of his inspired spells. He somehow tipped Bakambu’s point-blank header over the bar, leaving the striker utterly miserable. Bakambu restrained himself from banging his head against the post and instead kicked it viciously twice.

The second chance came when Dai Zhiwei received Castillejo’s square pass. He took the ball in the center, used a feint to open a shooting lane around Papastathopoulos, shifted his feet rapidly, and unleashed a furious strike.

This time Sahin saved Dortmund, blocking the shot with his body.

Dai Zhiwei once again displayed his explosive short-distance acceleration. He stabbed a toe at the ball first, but the instant he entered the box, Sahin arrived from behind and tripped him with his attempted block.

Sitting on the ground, Dai Zhiwei raised both arms high and shouted, “Penalty! That’s a penalty!”

Even after the replay was shown, it remained impossible to determine whether Dai Zhiwei’s supporting leg had been inside the area when Sahin brought him down. Different camera angles seemed to produce two entirely different conclusions.

The players on the pitch, of course, could not see the replay. They continued to surround the referee, demanding a penalty.

Dai Zhiwei was growing anxious as well. A penalty could very well have allowed Villarreal to settle the question of reaching the semifinals in the first leg, so he argued with the referee with considerable agitation.

Had Sahin not fouled him, Dai Zhiwei believed he had been almost certain to score.

But this was Dortmund’s home ground, and the referee had to show the hosts at least a little consideration. He awarded Villarreal a free kick just outside the penalty area instead. Sahin’s yellow card, however, was unavoidable.

The free kick was very close to goal—not an ideal position. Indeed, in order to defend, Villarreal’s two center-backs, Musacchio and Ruiz, had not even come forward.

“Curl it, or keep it low?”

Dai Zhiwei stood over the ball, carefully studying the wall and Bürki’s position for a long while.

He had scored curled free kicks from this area before, but the element of chance was simply too great, and he had little confidence.

“I’ll just try to catch someone out.”

Dai Zhiwei glanced once more at the gaps in the wall. Then came a full-power tiger strike.

His shot flew low along the ground. Unfortunately, there were too many bodies inside the area. After barely clearing the first line of defenders, it struck someone else’s foot behind them and deflected wide of the post.

After consulting the assistant referee, the referee awarded Dortmund a goal kick.

“Ah, bad luck!”

Dai Zhiwei was not especially disappointed. A low free kick had always involved a great deal of chance. While the referee and assistant referee discussed whether the restart should be a goal kick or a corner, he ran over to the Villarreal substitutes’ bench, took several sips of water, and promptly spat them out.

Dai Zhiwei had only learned this particular way of “drinking” after joining Villarreal.

In truth, it was less drinking than rinsing his mouth. The main purpose of spitting the water out was to reduce the sensation of a swollen stomach.

If players genuinely drank a large amount of water during a match, they would find it difficult to avoid feeling bloated. That sensation would put pressure on the nerves around the bladder. To maintain the best possible condition, they therefore did not actually drink very much.

Rinsing the mouth also served to “deceive” the brain. Players could not drink too much, yet the thirst caused by intense exercise was unavoidable. Both the body and the brain needed some moisture. The human mouth contains numerous small sensory receptors, and when those receptors receive water, they send pleasurable signals to the brain.

Thus, the body sometimes does not need to swallow water directly. Simply allowing moisture to pass through the mouth can temporarily ease the brain’s sensation of thirst. This is commonly described as deceiving the brain: the body has not truly replenished its fluids, but the stimulation makes the brain believe that it has, reducing the mental sensation of thirst and helping the player perform better.

Of course, athletes still need to replenish a considerable amount of water after a match. The brief pleasure produced by rinsing the mouth is only temporary, and failing to replace the lost fluids would eventually harm the body.

After rinsing his mouth, Dai Zhiwei relayed the tactical instructions Escribá had just given him to his teammates.

There was nothing complicated about them.

It was time to park the bus.

With Villarreal almost entirely withdrawn into a fortified defensive shell, Dortmund found few genuine scoring opportunities. And because they feared Dai Zhiwei’s speed on the counterattack, they did not dare commit everyone forward. Torn between attack and caution, the Yellow Wall proved incapable of breaking through the Yellow Submarine’s goal.

In stoppage time, Dortmund wasted the best chance of the match. Pulisic crossed from the left edge of the penalty area, and Aubameyang slid toward the ball ten yards out, only to send his effort wide of a largely empty goal.

Dortmund could only swallow the bitter taste of a 2–1 home defeat in the first leg.

For Villarreal, the result was virtually perfect. They not only held the aggregate advantage, but also possessed two valuable away goals—the very advantage that had enabled them to eliminate the powerful Manchester City in the previous round.

Back at home, Escribá would have far more room to maneuver. Even a 1–0 defeat would still send Villarreal into the Champions League semifinals, making their path to the last four remarkably clear.

Although Villarreal were representing La Liga with great distinction in Europe, they certainly did not enjoy the favor of the Spanish football authorities. Upon returning home, they immediately began preparing for the thirty-first round of La Liga. Their match against Athletic Bilbao was the first to kick off that round.

Athletic Bilbao were unquestionably one of the hardest clubs in Europe. Because they insisted on preserving their Basque identity, even the continent’s wealthiest giants could sign away their players only by paying their release clauses.

Whether in the transfer market or on the pitch, Athletic Bilbao were the toughest bone to chew in La Liga.

But even if it were made of iron, Dai Zhiwei intended to bite it apart. This was the same round in which the Madrid derby would be played, giving Villarreal their best opportunity to overtake Atlético Madrid.

Unexpectedly, the hard bone struck first. In the twentieth minute, Laporte scored to break the deadlock and give Athletic Bilbao a shock lead at Villarreal’s home ground.

Fortunately, Dai Zhiwei had returned from Germany in excellent form. He then led Villarreal to three unanswered goals and a comeback victory.

In the twenty-seventh minute, Gaspar delivered a corner. Center-back Ruiz met it with a right-footed shot from the right side of the six-yard box, sending the ball into the lower-left corner and bringing Villarreal level at 1–1.

In the forty-eighth minute, Ruiz surged down the flank on a counterattack and crossed from the byline. Dai Zhiwei met the ball with a header right in front of the goal, sending it through the middle of the net to put Villarreal ahead, 2–1.

This time, Dai Zhiwei did not perform his pretend-gun celebration. Instead, he raised three fingers on each hand, because it was his thirtieth La Liga goal of the season.

Only Lionel Messi remained a genuine threat to him in the scoring charts.

Ten minutes later, Dai Zhiwei assisted Bakambu, securing the victory for Villarreal at 3–1.

The following day, Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid drew 1–1. Thanks to their superior goal difference, Villarreal climbed back into third place.

Their next objective was to step into the Champions League semifinals.