Chapter 154 The Six-Point Battle

On the football pitch, a match between two direct rivals is often referred to as a "six-pointer," meaning one side gains three points while the other loses three, totaling a six-point swing.

As two teams striving to claim third place in La Liga, the direct clash between Villarreal and Atletico Madrid in the 34th round was undoubtedly a classic six-pointer.

Atletico Madrid Starting Lineup—
Goalkeeper: Oblak
Defenders: Filipe Luis, Godin, Savic, Gimenez
Midfielders: Saul Niguez, Koke, Gaitan, Gabi
Forwards: Correa, Griezmann

Villarreal Starting Lineup—
Goalkeeper: Fernandez
Defenders: Gaspar, Musacchio, Rukavina, Costa
Midfielders: Dos Santos, Bruno, Trigueros, Castillejo
Forwards: Bakambu, Tsubasa Ozora

Shut down Tsubasa Ozora, and Villarreal will have nothing to fear!

This was the mindset of Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone, and it also reflected the assessment shared by the vast majority of teams facing this Villarreal side.

That was indeed the case. Villarreal's overall attacking output was the weakest among the top five teams in the La Liga standings, but Tsubasa's ferocious individual brilliance elevated the team's total goal tally.

Fortunately for them, they still had Tsubasa continuously scoring for the Yellow Submarine, propelling them to victory after victory!

In this match, the Atletico Madrid midfielder tasked with man-marking Tsubasa was Nicolas Gaitan.

Gaitan possessed the exceptional individual-play ability typical of South American players, but today Simeone's assignment for him was not to attack, but rather to glue himself to Tsubasa.

Tsubasa roamed the attacking third, not anchored to a single fixed position. Yet Gaitan seemed entirely disinterested in attacking; no matter the situation, he refused to push forward, instead remaining constantly by Tsubasa's side.

His positioning was extremely tight, not aiming to completely shut down Tsubasa in a single duel, but rather to stall Tsubasa's acceleration and rely on teammates for collective defensive cover.

Noticing Gaitan's positioning, Tsubasa did not take it to heart. He frequently drifted towards the right flank with the ball, where Castillejo was currently his most telepathic partner in the Villarreal squad.

After receiving the ball, Tsubasa exchanged a couple of quick passes with Castillejo before launching a diagonal breakthrough from the right wing.

Gaitan instantly blocked Tsubasa's direct route into the penalty area. Tsubasa felt no rush to accelerate past him, deftly manipulating the ball with both feet as it spun obediently like a well-trained pet under his soles.

Facing Gaitan, Tsubasa tried a step-over to deceive his opponent, but Gaitan held his ground firmly, fully aware of his responsibilities as he lowered his center of gravity and watched Tsubasa's feints.

Following another quick step-over, Tsubasa suddenly pushed the ball forward, covering the distance past Gaitan's flank in a single stride as the two ran shoulder to shoulder.

Lacking the raw pace to keep up, Gaitan experiencedly threw his body into Tsubasa to stall his momentum.

Gaitan aggressively twisted his body around, wanting to "return the favor," but he had not anticipated Tsubasa's exceptional foot speed and vision. Spotting Castillejo's position in a flash, Tsubasa executed a pinpoint through ball at the very first opportunity.

Castillejo and Atletico defender Savic engaged in a fierce tug-of-war, overtaking each other down the flank and charging into the penalty area. Savic showed no weakness either, sliding in to tackle and bringing down both Castillejo and the ball.

Tsubasa shook his head and offered words of comfort to the still-complaining Castillejo: "Don't worry, we'll still have chances. No need to rush!"

Backed by their home advantage, the Yellow Submarine held a slight edge in possession, but Atletico's counterattacks were equally razor-sharp. Griezmann's multiple shots posed a severe threat to Fernandez's goal, though they lacked that final slice of luck.

"Damn it, so many great goalscoring opportunities. If only I could be in the box to poach one," Tsubasa sighed helplessly as he drifted back once more after yet another fruitless attack.

This match was far from easy. Gaitan, assigned to man-mark him, stuck close at every turn. As an attacking midfielder, he neglected his own team's offensive duties entirely, purely focused on severing the connection between Tsubasa and the rest of the Yellow Submarine players.

Yet, for a player of Tsubasa's caliber, didn't difficulty bring the greatest thrill of conquest?

When Tsubasa received the ball again, he drifted toward the right flank according to his previous routine. Before he could even approach the penalty box, Gaitan closed down rapidly to defend.

Tsubasa's gaze suddenly swept across to Dos Santos's position on the right. Because of Tsubasa's frequent shifts to the left and his quiet spell, Dos Santos had momentarily become a completely unmarked man on the right wing.

Tsubasa feigned a breakthrough, his nimble dribbling causing Gaitan internal agony—after all, he was not a dedicated defensive midfielder.

Pretending it was a casual movement, Tsubasa passed the ball to Castillejo. Castillejo checked back momentarily, played it right back to Tsubasa, and then burst forward at top speed toward the endline.

This was a tried-and-true routine between Tsubasa and Castillejo, and Atletico's players instinctively shifted their defensive line toward the left corner flag.

Right at that moment, instead of threading a direct pass, Tsubasa cocked his right foot and struck the middle-lower part of the ball, delivering a rapid, flat, cross-field switch that transferred the attack entirely to the feet of Dos Santos on the right.

This was the organizational prowess of a top-tier number ten!

"Here it comes!" Dos Santos shouted excitedly in his mind.

Cherishing the opportunity dearly, Dos Santos focused completely to bring Tsubasa's cross under immediate control before surging toward the Atletico penalty area.

If one were to pick faults, Tsubasa's long-range switches were historically not always pinpoint, but he felt no immediate need to over-refine his long passing. After all, the team rarely required him to execute long-range distribution; his primary duty was to fulfill the responsibilities of a striker without encroaching on the territory of defensive midfielders or deep-lying playmakers.

Tsubasa's short-to-medium passing, however, was sublime, and this delivery to Dos Santos was executed to perfection.

Upon receiving the ball, Dos Santos felt a surge of excitement. Facing Filipe Luis without a shred of fear, his footwork became increasingly fluid, probing both sides of Filipe Luis. The moment the Brazilian defender leaned even slightly in anticipation, Dos Santos was ready to explode past him in the opposite direction.

Yet Filipe Luis was, after all, a mainstay for both Atletico Madrid and the Brazilian national team. He held his ground resolutely, affording Dos Santos no opening.

Amidst the stalemate, Tsubasa suddenly shifted in from central midfield, accompanied by Bruno pushing up to provide an option.

Dos Santos played the ball back to Bruno. Atletico midfielder Koke immediately pressed forward. Although Bruno was not known for flashy footwork, he was a former Spanish international who prided himself on technical ability. Retaining his sound fundamentals, he quickly lifted his head and threaded a pass to Tsubasa in the central channel.

Gaitan glued himself to Tsubasa once again, plugging any potential lane for a breakthrough.

Tsubasa knew Gaitan would not rashly lunge into a tackle here, because conceding a breakthrough in this zone would spell mortal danger for Atletico's defensive structure.

Tsubasa brought the ball under control effortlessly, scanning the surrounding positions of his teammates. With the instep of his right foot, he suddenly nudged the ball toward the left flank.

Gaitan instinctively lifted a leg to block, only to realize it was merely a feint. With a deft sole-roll of his left foot, Tsubasa miraculously redirected the ball straight through Gaitan's legs.

Having easily breezed past Gaitan, Tsubasa sprinted through the central channel all the way to the edge of the D-arc before unleashing a fierce long-range shot. Gimenez lunged desperately to block it with his body, uncaring even if Tsubasa's trademark drive struck him straight in the face.

However, Tsubasa suddenly checked his shot into a short pass, feeding the ball directly to Bakambu's feet.

Tsubasa made a sharp forward dart; Bakambu instinctively laid it off first-time. As Tsubasa met the bouncing ball, central defender Savic lunged in with a reckless challenge to contest the possession.

Savic's foolish maneuver instantly drew a unanimous chorus of criticism from commentators and Atletico fans alike; his tackle was far too rash.

Yet it was already to no avail. Not only was the ball practically glued to Tsubasa's feet, but Savic's foot-speed lagged far behind.

With a cushioned volley using the instep of his foot, Tsubasa lifted the ball directly over Savic's waist.

Suspended mid-air, Savic contorted into a bizarre shape, his arms hovering uncertainly as he wanted to block the ball yet dared not—a truly comical sight.

In the end, professional instinct prevailed, and Savic ultimately refrained from using his hands to intercept the ball.

As the ball sailed into the penalty area, Atletico captain and last-man central defender Godin charged out alongside goalkeeper Oblak to neutralize the threat, but Bakambu was the first to reach the ball between them.

With a gentle flick of his long leg, Bakambu steered the ball looping over Oblak's head.

The 1.89-meter Slovenian international goalkeeper leaped courageously, flailing his extraordinarily long arms backward as he leaned his torso, managing to graze the ball with his fingertips and significantly dampening its velocity.

Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, the ball bounced twice against the crossbar before finally dropping over the line and into the side-netting behind it.

At that exact moment, a yellow-clad figure surged past the Atletico defense and straight into the goal. Tsubasa grabbed the netting in frustration, staring at the ball resting on top of the goalframe.

Had the ball ricocheted in the opposite direction, he would have had a golden opportunity to tap in the rebound.

Alas, fortune was not on Tsubasa's side today.

Even so, Villarreal's offensive wave felt as though it was on the verge of piercing through Atletico's defenses with the slightest touch.

It was bound to break!

Tsubasa applauded Bakambu, acknowledging that the striker's scooped finish had been nothing short of spectacular; summoning that kind of technique and awareness in a split second was truly rare.

Regrettably, Oblak's save was equally world-class, though Tsubasa lacked the enthusiasm to applaud an opponent.

Castillejo ambled over to the corner flag, placed the ball, and scanned the penalty area for his teammates' positions.

After assessing the setup, Castillejo whipped in an exceptionally fast corner kick that bypassed the goalkeeper's zone in the six-yard box, flying directly toward the far post.

Bruno had been quietly lurking at the far post all along. The Yellow Submarine captain's height was unremarkable amidst a sea of towering players inside the box, but his positioning was immaculate. Spotting Castillejo's delivery, Bruno leaped high and headed the ball back across the face of goal.

Due to the shifting movement of the crowd, the penalty area had descended into absolute chaos, with players losing track of their assigned defensive markers. As the ball arrived in front of the six-yard box, goalkeeper Oblak rushed out to punch it clear with both fists, only to find his path blocked by the surging bodies. Straining every muscle in mid-air, he stretched his arms to the absolute limit but failed to make contact with the ball.

Trigueros, positioned alertly right at the penalty spot, snapped his head backward, sending a glancing header soaring over the heads of the crowd. Unfazed by the sprawling Oblak tangled on the turf, the ball sailed straight into the dead center of the empty net.

1-0!

Nobody expected that just after rescuing his team, Oblak would inadvertently present Villarreal with such a generous gift!

Trigueros sprinted away in wild celebration, genuinely ecstatic. For nearly a season and a half, opening the scoring for Villarreal was exclusively Tsubasa's domain; that privilege only fell to others when Tsubasa was marked out of the game or off-form.

Even then, it rarely fell to Trigueros. When had he ever been the one to break the deadlock for the Yellow Submarine?

And to do so in a match of such magnitude!

Trigueros circled the pitch in a frantic sprint, leaving his pursuing teammates in the dust. Even Tsubasa, whose pace was unquestionably the fastest in the squad, was left trailing significantly behind the Spanish midfielder.

Finally, as Trigueros ran out of steam, Tsubasa pounced onto his back, roaring with excitement toward his teammates: "Manuel! Well done! We're ahead! Beautiful goal, we're in the lead!"

Trigueros's unexpected opener completely altered the dynamics on the pitch. Unwilling to accept defeat lightly, Atletico Madrid rapidly adjusted their tactics, pressing fiercely and aggressively across the pitch.

Bruno intercepted the ball in the defensive third and immediately sprayed a direct pass forward to Tsubasa.

Before Tsubasa could even control the ball, Gaitan slammed into his back. Caught off-guard, Tsubasa staggered, but quickly recovered his footing to reach the ball first.

No sooner had he turned with the ball than another Atletico player closed down on him.

Filipe Luis charged in fiercely, contesting a 50-50 challenge with Tsubasa as the two collided heavily.

Gritting his teeth, Tsubasa shouldered Filipe Luis aside and tried to shield the ball to change direction, only for Filipe Luis to cynically deploy a scissor-kick tackle, tripping Tsubasa sprawling onto the turf.

"What the hell is this nonsense? Back in my day..."

The accumulation of fouls by Atletico Madrid had drained considerable energy from Tsubasa. Lying on the grass, he took deep breaths, yet known for his uncompromising temperament, he couldn't resist hurling a stream of verbal complaints at the opponent nearby—acting also as an alternative form of protest to the referee.

Sure enough, the protest bore fruit.

The referee brandished a yellow card at Filipe Luis and, ignoring the Brazilian's protests, summoned Atletico captain Godin over.

"Rein in your challenges, or I will strictly enforce the rules without exception!" the referee warned Godin.

Godin offered a feeble defense, but seeing it fell on deaf ears, he retreated disgruntled.

As Atletico's tackles grew increasingly reckless, Villarreal gradually found themselves pushed onto the back foot.