Chapter 156: An Old Woman's Foot-Binding Cloth

As the season reached its closing stages, the intervals between league rounds became exceptionally tight. Between the 34th and 35th rounds of La Liga, teams were afforded only three to five days of rest.

In the 35th round, Villarreal took the field first, hosting Sporting Gijon at home.

In the 33rd minute of the first half, a desperate-to-score Dai Zhiwei struck the ball with his right foot from the center of the penalty area, sending it flying into the bottom right corner of the net—one to nil!

In the 47th minute of the second half, Cédric Bakambu unleashed a right-footed shot from the center of the penalty area, steering the ball into the bottom right corner—two to nil!

In the 59th minute, Dai Zhiwei delivered a precise through-ball into the box, creating a one-on-one opportunity for Bakambu. The latter made no mistake with Dai Zhiwei's assist, finishing it clinically to make it three to nil!

In the 73rd minute, Sporting Gijon's Víctor Rodríguez provided an assist for Douglas, who struck the ball with his right foot from the right side of the penalty area into the bottom left corner, pulling one back for his team to save some face.

Ultimately, the scoreline was locked at three to one, and Villarreal comfortably defeated Sporting Gijon.

Among the two other matches of this round that Villarreal closely monitored, Atletico Madrid secured a resounding five-to-nil away victory against Las Palmas, venting the frustration of their fruitless siege against Villarreal in the previous round. They remained three points behind Villarreal, holding onto fourth place in the standings.

Sevilla, however, slipped up, suffering a two-to-four away defeat against Malaga. Winless in their last five away league matches, they sat three points behind Atletico Madrid in fifth place.

With Sevilla's defeat, Villarreal's points advantage over them had stretched to six points. With only three rounds of the league remaining, securing a Champions League berth for the following season was practically a certainty.

The match Dai Zhiwei cared about most in this round was not the games involving Atletico Madrid or Sevilla, but rather the Barcelona derby.

Though called a derby, in recent years, Espanyol's strength was simply incomparable to that of city rivals Barcelona.

In the end, Barcelona cruised to a comfortable three-to-nil away win over Espanyol, with Luis Suárez scoring a brace and Lionel Messi assisting Ivan Rakitić.

Seeing that Messi failed to score, Dai Zhiwei breathed a sigh of relief.

Thus, after the 35th round, both Dai Zhiwei and Messi were tied at 33 goals, and their fierce battle for this season's Pichichi Trophy would continue!

With the UEFA Champions League semi-final mid-week clash against Juventus looming, Dai Zhiwei was substituted after playing only 59 minutes against Sporting Gijon, as facing Juventus in the Champions League semi-finals was undoubtedly a formidable task!

Although Juventus was still marshaled by Massimiliano Allegri this season and their defensive stalwart BBC trio remained intact, only Claudio Marchisio was left in the central midfield. That golden midfield of previous Champions League finals had long since disintegrated.

For a Juventus side lacking megastars of the caliber of Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, "Uncle Allegri" was their greatest weapon.

Over the past two years, despite the successive departures of Arturo Vidal and Paul Pogba, Allegri had continuously overcome unfavorable circumstances, leading the team to impressive performances in both the league and European competitions. This season, he switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation, forging a new tactical approach and pathway for Juventus.

It was hard to say that the current Juventus was inferior to the teams of 2015 or 2016. After all, this battle-hardened squad had engaged in numerous intense battles against Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich in recent years, consistently displaying great resilience.

Juventus had conceded only two goals in the Champions League this season and kept a clean sheet against Barcelona over both legs in the quarter-finals.

Juventus was difficult to play against—this had already become common consensus.

Fortunately, the first leg of the Champions League semi-final took place at the Estadio de la Cerámica.

For this match, Allegri shifted to a 3-4-1-2 formation, with Andrea Barzagli returning to the starting lineup, Dani Alves and Alex Sandro patrolling the flanks, and Juan Cuadrado losing his spot. Marchisio replaced the suspended Sami Khedira, while Paulo Dybala provided support for Gonzalo Higuaín and Mario Mandžukić.

It is worth noting that this match marked Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon's 100th appearance in the Champions League.

Meanwhile, Villarreal maintained the same starting lineup from their two-to-nil victory over Atletico Madrid; clearly, Fran Escribá hoped the team could sustain their recent fine form.

Juventus Starting Lineup: Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Alves, Pjanić, Marchisio, Alex Sandro; Dybala; Higuaín, Mandžukić

Villarreal Starting Lineup: Fernández; Gaspar, Rukavina, Musacchio, Costa; Dos Santos, Trigueros, Bruno, Castillejo; Dai Zhiwei, Bakambu

Before the match began, rumors regarding Dai Zhiwei's impending transfer were once again rampant. Juventus hoped Dai Zhiwei could replace the aging Mandžukić, Real Madrid favored Dai Zhiwei to become the Galacticos' next dazzling star, and Manchester United sought to find their next superstar.

As if to prove the prescience of the media hype before the match, Dai Zhiwei put on a magnificent performance that captivated the entire stadium right from the opening whistle!

In the 9th minute of the match, Dai Zhiwei received the ball near the center circle and launched a sudden counter-attack. As Marchisio entangled him, he unexpectedly delivered a long, diagonal cross to find Dos Santos on the right flank.

After a series of unsuccessful feints, Dos Santos drifted into the center. Successfully drawing the opposition's defense, he squared the ball to Gaspar, who was surging up the right wing at high speed.

The Spanish full-back had now fully blossomed in his talent. While solidifying the defense, he also gradually displayed his attacking flair. As Villarreal rose to prominence, he had successfully caught the attention of quite a few powerhouse clubs.

In this attacking sequence, after repeatedly overlapping, he finally seized the opportunity. Gaspar shook off Alex Sandro's fierce pressing near the byline and whipped in a low, rapid cross.

Juventus's central defensive duo, Bonucci and Barzagli, possessed formidable aerial ability, so Gaspar refrained from lofting a high ball, opting instead for a drilled, ground cross.

The delivery was blistering—so fast it barely resembled a pass.

Fortunately, Dai Zhiwei's instantaneous burst of acceleration and adjustment ability were second to none in world football, allowing him to handle all sorts of tricky situations inside the penalty area.

Once again, Dai Zhiwei beat Bonucci to the ball, but the cross had not yet fully opened up an angle, leaving him with a rather tight shooting window.

In the nick of time, regardless of the statistical probability of scoring, Dai Zhiwei resolutely swung his leg forward. Even from a narrow angle, he opted for the optimal finishing technique—a remarkably subtle toe-poke.

Although Buffon was already at the "advanced age" of 39, he remained a top-tier world-class goalkeeper. Though Dai Zhiwei's shot was executed with extreme stealth, a strike lacking full power posed little threat to Buffon, who used one hand to palm the ball out over the byline.

"What an evergreen tree!"

Dai Zhiwei shook his head helplessly as he looked at Buffon. In terms of age, his opponent was practically old enough to be his uncle, yet retirement seemed a long way off.

During the first half, both teams played conservatively and refrained from launching all-out attacks, until the 32nd minute when Villarreal engineered another promising opportunity.

Regrettably, just after Dai Zhiwei received the ball outside the penalty area, he was brought down by a sliding tackle from Marchisio, tumbling heavily and rolling twice on the turf.

"Good grief! Do you even know how to play football? Are you trying to turn this into a no-holds-barred combat sport?" Dai Zhiwei leaped straight to his feet, seemingly infuriated by Marchisio's foul, which in truth hadn't been overly malicious!

Juventus's defense against Dai Zhiwei today was truly stellar, entirely denying him room to operate. Their pressing defense functioned like two chains: as he moved with the overall tactical shift, the first chain locked down the space directly in front of the ball, while the second chain shadowed the first, providing cover from behind.

Even when Dai Zhiwei managed to bypass the first chain, the second line of defense was there to restrict his space for ball control and movement upon the first line's recovery.

In the previous round, it was precisely through this kind of collective defense featuring Bonucci and company that Juventus had completely neutralized Messi.

Feeling the constraints imposed upon him, Dai Zhiwei had to rally his spirits and begin experimenting with alterations to his playing style.

In the subsequent two attacking plays, Dai Zhiwei stepped up his dribbling and short-passing combinations, yielding some effect. Unfortunately, Castillejo, Dos Santos, and Bakambu provided him with meager support; swallowed up by Juventus's defense, the trio vanished without creating the slightest ripple.

In the 40th minute of the first half, Dai Zhiwei collected the ball in the central channel, executed a neat one-two with Bruno to shake off Marchisio's close marking, and suddenly accelerated with the ball, catching the Juventus players off guard in a rare moment.

Dai Zhiwei sliced a sudden through-ball deep into Juventus's half. Castillejo received the ball inside the box amidst a sandwich between Bonucci and Barzagli and unleashed a snapshot. Fearing a block from Dani Alves's sliding tackle, he failed to keep his shot down, sending it high over the crossbar.

Upon witnessing this missed effort, Dai Zhiwei threw his hands up in dissatisfaction. This chance had been painstakingly crafted by him and truly wasn't difficult to convert, but when his teammates squandered opportunities like this, what more could he do?

Time ticked away second by second, and Villarreal's final coordinated attack of the first half also failed to breach the goal.

It must be said that Juventus was a mature team; they maintained a high degree of concentration throughout the match, keeping a vigilant eye on Dai Zhiwei even during the final five minutes of the halves, when errors were most prone to occur.

They were well aware that club statistical data indicated the final five minutes before the end of a match constituted the period when Dai Zhiwei achieved the highest success rate with sneak attacks.

The missed opportunity in the closing stage of the first half left Dai Zhiwei increasingly agitated; as he headed toward the dressing room, he was still discussing positioning issues with Castillejo.

However, today was evidently not destined to be a fortunate day for Villarreal and Dai Zhiwei. Eager to mount a comeback in the second half, Villarreal was struck by a devastating blow right from the restart!

Just six minutes into the second half, Barzagli initiated an attack from the right side of the backline. Marchisio delivered a lofted, cushioned pass with the instep, Dybala cushioned it out of the air on the right side of midfield, and Dani Alves collected the ball and advanced past the halfway line, laying it across to spearhead Higuaín. Higuaín slipped a through-ball through, and Dani Alves surged through the gap between Rukavina and Costa. Holding off Musacchio inside the box, Alves squared the ball back with his heel, and Higuaín arrived rushing in to guide a side-footed shot into the bottom left corner of the net—one to nil!

Villarreal trailed by a goal at home, falling into an unfavorable position on aggregate, and more critically, Juventus had secured a precious away goal!

The Yellow Submarine fans in the stands were unconcerned, for this season's Dai Zhiwei had never let them down.

Barely two minutes after Juventus's goal, Dai Zhiwei manufactured a scoring opportunity.

This time, rather than driving directly through the center, he engaged in a one-two combination with Dos Santos on the right wing to bypass Marchisio's pursuit, curling a diagonal cross toward the far post from a 45-degree angle. Bakambu, surging in at the back post, unleashed a direct volley that Buffon courageously parried away.

Recovering the rebound, Dai Zhiwei used a body feint and drag to carve out space before unleashing a powerful drive. This time, Barzagli threw his body on the line to block the shot out for a corner. The wave of sustained attacks kept Juventus's nerves taut; while reinforcing their defense, they were forced to slow down the tempo of their own attacks.

Villarreal was beginning to gather momentum!

Yet, right at that moment, Dani Alves and Dybala successfully executed a double-team to dispossess Trigueros in midfield. Dybala distributed the ball deep into Villarreal's half, and Dani Alves delivered a 45-degree diagonal cross from the right. Higuaín shook off Musacchio and slid the ball home at the back post with a sprawling finish—two to nil!

"El Pipita" secured a brace, and Dani Alves claimed his second assist!

Following this conceded goal, Dai Zhiwei was utterly incensed, yet all he could do was stand with his hands on his hips in Juventus's half and spit in frustration!

He felt he was just a hair's breadth away from scoring, yet precisely at that moment, his momentum was cut short, leaving him choking on his own breath.

After the restart, Villarreal, anxious to equalize, launched an attack down the right flank. Dai Zhiwei attempted a run ahead when Dos Santos received the ball, hoping for an open space, but received a pass played directly to his feet.

Already in motion, Dai Zhiwei could not stop in time, scrambling to hook the ball backward, but he was a fraction too slow. The ball spun out of control and rolled across the byline.

"Damn this weather, damn this match! Just end it already, this is utterly exasperating!" Dai Zhiwei felt as though he had been wrapped up in an old woman's stinky, unending foot-binding cloth—feeling both nauseated and entirely bound up, unable to perform at all.

Being heavily marked restricted Dai Zhiwei's impact, severely dampening Villarreal's offense. On a grand stage like the Champions League semi-final, Bakambu proved entirely incapable of functioning as a focal point in the front line.

Of course, Dai Zhiwei was not entirely quiet afterward. For instance, in the 78th minute, utilizing a sharp shoulder drop, he glided past Marchisio, then burst forward in a high-speed sprint to break through just before Bonucci and Chiellini could close the gap. Regrettably, to evade Buffon's block, his shot struck the upright.

Though it sent a cold sweat down Allegri's spine, it ultimately failed to hit the back of the net.

In the end, Villarreal suffered a zero-to-two defeat at home. The moment the whistle blew, Dai Zhiwei walked straight down the player tunnel with his head down.

He abhorred such a defeat, yet he was utterly powerless to change it.

Away from home today against the radiant Villarreal of this spring, the Old Lady displayed her most terrifying facet: an astonishing stability and maturity!

A mature mentality, steady execution, a flawless tactical system, resolute defending—Dai Zhiwei's passionate surges crashed against them like water into a bottomless ocean; though they created chances, they failed to stir up waves!