Chapter 129: The Sprint Before the Winter Break

After advancing to the round of 16 of the Champions League with the top spot in the group one round in advance, Dai Zhiwei and others had a lively day, resulting in the 13th round of La Liga almost not slowing down two days later.

In this game, Villarreal sat at home to meet the challenge of Alaves.

In just the eighth minute, Alaves' Edgar Mendes crossed from the right, Devieson's header from 12 yards hit the left post and bounced back, and Ibai Gomez fired into the net in front of the small penalty area, O:1.

In the 17th minute, Musacchio made a mistake, and Camaraça scored from a small angle on the left side of the penalty area, o:2!

After falling behind by two goals, the Yellow Submarine soldiers woke up from a dream, but it was not until the 83rd minute that they pulled a goal back from Dai Zhiwei's long-range shot from outside the penalty area, and finally had to accept the result of a 1:2 defeat at home.

Three days later, Villarreal played their first match of the season in the Copa del Rey – and as La Liga players, they were not finally given the chance to play until the fourth round of the Copa del Rey.

Because the opponent is weak, Escriva sent all the team's substitutes in this game, plus the young players of the reserve team, Dai Zhiwei did not even enter the squad.

Escriva proved to be the right decision, as they comfortably eliminated the Toledo team with a score of 3:o away from home to advance to the next round.

In La Liga at the weekend, the Yellow Submarine took on Leganés away.

In this game, the Yellow Submarine played a particularly difficult game against Leganes, who was defending all the way, and Dai Zhiwei also struggled to find scoring opportunities in the sports battle.

Fortunately, in the 67th minute, Castillejo won a free kick for the team, and Dai Zhiwei's curved shot made another contribution, scoring his 15th goal in La Liga this season and successfully bringing back three points from away!

Villarreal have been playing double fixtures in the past few weeks, with the Copa del Rey in midweek and the final group stage of the Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen in midweek.

After the last round, Villarreal and Bayer Leverkusen locked up the first and second identities in Group E respectively and advanced to the round of 16 of the Champions League in advance, so this game at Leverkusen's home stadium is more or less like a cutscene.

The desire to win after the opening of the double serve was not too strong, until the 3o minute, Leverkusen's Wendel at home broke the ball, and Yurchenko dribbled the ball horizontally with his right foot and shot straight into the dead corner, 1:o! It was his first goal in the Champions League.

In the 48th minute of the rematch, Brandt passed to Calhanoglu and stepped forward, Cha Qiu Wang passed Miao, and Brandt stabbed the goal on the left side of the penalty area, 2:o!

It is worth mentioning that this was Brandt's first goal in the Champions League, setting a record for the youngest goal in the Champions League in team history at the age of 2o years and 219 days.

In the ensuing match, the two sides died down and the game ended at full-time, with Bayer Leverkusen beating Villarreal 3:O.

Dai Zhiwei has been watching this game from the sidelines, saving his strength for the 15th round of La Liga at the weekend.

Their opponent in this round will be Atletico Madrid, one of the "top three in the Western Super League"!

"Yo, it's still Ronaldo!" On the afternoon before Villarreal's match with Atletico Madrid, the whole Villarreal team had already stayed in a local five-star hotel in Madrid, and Dai Zhiwei was reading the "Team Newspaper" at this time.

Yesterday, the winners of the 2o16 Ballon d'Or were announced, with Cristiano Ronaldo beating Lionel Messi for re-election, while Atletico Madrid striker Antoine Griezmann, who has performed well this year, is third behind the two.

After learning that he had won the third place in the Ballon d'Or, Griezmann gave an interview to the French newspaper Les Régimes and spoke about his feelings.

Griezmann said: "I'm very happy to finish third, thank you so much to the people who voted for me, it's a very proud thing for me, and there are some surprises as well as joy. I'm on the right track at the moment and I'm going to keep working on it. ”

Subsequently, Griezmann also talked about Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, who finished in the top two, Griezmann said: "Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi are simply monsters, they are legends, and I am very proud and happy to be behind them. I'm going to keep my form and try to keep scoring goals and keep trying to repay the fans who have supported me with a good performance. ”

Finally, when asked by reporters whether he could beat Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi in the future and win the Ballon d'Or, Griezmann replied: "It's really difficult to surpass Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, but I will continue to work hard and I hope that in the next 2O17, I can do as well as this year." ”

"Do you think Ronaldo and Messi are monsters?" Dai Zhiwei laughed, many people in football also look at these two proud men like Griezmann, "However, the monster is not just the two of them!" ”

This La Liga 15th round tie with Atletico Madrid is important for Villarreal, as they are currently level on points with Atletico Madrid and sit fifth in the table only on goal difference.

In this game, as long as Villarreal wins, then they can squeeze out Atletico Madrid and sit in 4th place in the league standings.

Atletico Madrid's recent record has made Villarreal full of confidence, because Simeone's team has only won one of the last four games, and the Champions League and La Liga have both been blocked, and the team's form is really average.

As the referee's whistle blew and the game began, Villarreal took control of the pitch from the start, and the battle group was in full swing, and even Castillejo, who has rarely started this season, was full of destructiveness.

Castillejo first received a long pass from Musacchio on the left flank, used his skills to shake Atletico Madrid's Juanfran unable to find the north, and then decisively cut inside into the box.

As soon as he crossed the penalty line, Castillejo found a gap in the crowd, forced out an angle, and fired a low shot with his right foot during the dribble.

Castillejo's shot was hard and the ball bounced far after being blocked by Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Oblak with his thigh.

The ball bounced out of the small penalty area, just in front of Trigueros seized the opportunity to pick up the football, Trigueros did not hesitate at all, directly volleyed, the football hung in the upper left corner of the goal!

1:o!

"Well done, Manuel!" Castillejo on the side thought he had missed this good opportunity, but he didn't expect the ball to fall under Trigueros's leg, which was a miraculous goal.

Dai Zhiwei also came over and picked up Triguros, facing the strong opponent of Atletico Madrid, and took the lead in less than 1o minutes at the beginning, which was a wonderful start.

Simeone saw this goal after conceding, immediately depressed, the team recently because of the two-line operation and injuries and other reasons, the team is in a very bad state, originally he planned to stabilize the defense first, waiting for the opponent to make a mistake, but I didn't expect that the goal in less than 1o minutes just opened the game to indicate the bankruptcy of his entire plan, now only to keep this score until the end of the first half, and then adjust it at halftime.

While Simeone was pondering the next tactics for the team, Villarreal took advantage of the goal to launch an onslaught.

Today, the two wings of the yellow submarine, dos Santos and Castillejo, took off at high speed, frequently tearing apart the Atletico Madrid defence, Roberto Soriano and Trigueros in the middle, coupled with an extremely fast and well-rounded center Dai Zhiwei, plus a high-impact Bakambu, Atletico Madrid's goal looked like it was covered with a layer of paper, and it was broken with a single stab.

Dai Zhiwei is determined to score today, in his opinion, the gold content of goals against strong teams and weak teams is completely different, he doesn't want to be a "kitchen knife" like Lukaku - a striker who specializes in scoring goals against weak teams!

Facing the battle-spirited Dai Zhiwei, Atletico Madrid's two central defenders Savic and Godin were worried, if it weren't for the home team's goalkeeper Oblak today's extraordinary performance, they would have been beaten into a sieve.

After nearly twenty minutes of siege like this, Villarreal finally extended the lead again, dos Santos received a pass from Roberto Soriano, used his change of direction to erase the siege of Gabi and Juanfrán, cut inside into the middle, and handed the ball to the feet of Bakambu, who came up before Godin, and then went down the momentum, taking away Juanfrán's defense.

Bakambu picked up a cross from the edge of the box for the first time, and the ball was accurately delivered to the feet of Dos Santos, who was quickly forward, and he was already in the box.

Juanfran saw dos Santos coming in, quickly retreated, ready to intercept, but dos Santos did not continue to advance, and the moment he saw the two central defenders of Atletico Madrid, Godin and Savic, turn around, a straight plug with the outside of his left foot, the ball passed through the gap between the two of them, and accurately sent it to the penalty spot in the penalty area.

There was already a yellow figure plugged in at high speed.

When Dos Santos controlled the ball again, Dai Zhiwei had already cut diagonally into the penalty area for the first time, and when he arrived, the ball also flew over.

He unloaded the ball comfortably, and the ball seemed to stick to his left ankle, and he immediately got ready to hit the goal with his right foot.

"Anyone?" Dai Zhiwei was excited, and he felt a huge shadow looming over him.

He didn't look up, the shooter's instinct caused him to dunk the ball, dodge the block of goalkeeper Oblak, and then flicked his ankle and sent it over the white line with ease.

“goooooooooooooooooooooooooooa1!”

2:o, no doubt!

Dai Zhiwei put his hand to his ear, spread his fingers, and enjoyed the worship of the Villarreal fans - of course, because the game was fought at the Calderón Stadium, the home of Atletico Madrid, the voice in his ears at this time was more of a boo for him!

"That's it!"

Dai Zhiwei laughed, the boos of the enemy fans at this moment are the biggest praise for him!

After Villarreal took a 2:o lead, their attack eased somewhat, and Atletico Madrid also took the opportunity to play some attacks, but the likes of Torres and Griezmann were in average form today, and several good opportunities were not taken.

"Tuo Niu is really old......" Seeing that Torres broke through with the ball again and was intercepted, Dai Zhiwei shook his head, the former Spanish golden boy can only appear in his memory.

In stoppage time of the half, Atletico Madrid launched a final attack, Saul passed the ball in midfield, and Carrasco cut a long-range shot wide to end the first half.

Back in the dressing room, Escriva didn't lay out any tactics, just asked the players on the pitch to continue with the rhythm of the first half, and then let the players rest on their own and left.

After the turmoil in the early part of the season, since reversing Monaco to qualify for the Champions League, Villarreal really didn't let Eskriva worry much, and his form has been very good, even if there are occasional defeats, it is because of the depth of the squad, and Eskriva even feels that he has the hope of competing for the best manager of La Liga this season.

Of course, he also knows who is the real anchor of the current Villarreal team.

The fifteen-minute halftime break ended, and the players on both sides entered the field.

Escriva looked at Dai Zhiwei who walked out of the players' tunnel, and secretly made a decision: if Dai Zhiwei leaves Villarreal at any time, he must also be ready to leave here.

The game restarted, and as soon as Atletico Madrid came up, they directly pressed Villarreal into the half, obviously to strengthen the attack.

Simeone clasped his hands in front of his chest, his eyes were glued to the pitch, facing a situation of 2 goals down, there was no point in holding on at this time, it was better to give it a go.

Atletico Madrid's attack was far inferior to their defence, and they could only threaten with high balls and fight in midfield.

Atletico Madrid obviously intended to use their ferocious scrambling to cut off Villarreal's attack, so once they conceded the goal, they immediately launched a counter-attack, and for a while Villarreal was forced to get caught up in a struggle with the opponent in the midfield.

For about ten minutes into the second half, Villarreal was completely passive on the field, and compared to the ease of the first half, it was as if the opponent had changed teams.

Villarreal couldn't pass the ball quickly, and the offense couldn't be carried out smoothly, so they could only give all the pressure of the offense to Dai Zhiwei and consciously look for Dai Zhiwei.

Dai Zhiwei once again broke through Savic's defense with the ball, and after the shot was saved by Oblak and hit the crossbar and popped off the bottom line, Simeone on the sidelines finally broke out, pointing at the defenders in the backfield is a scolding.

After the training, the Atletico Madrid defenders finally corrected their attitudes and took out the way of defending Ronaldo and Messi to mark Dai Zhiwei.

Diego Godin is 9cm taller than Dai Zhiwei, one size bigger than Dai Zhiwei, and very flexible, under his physical support, Dai Zhiwei has become very difficult to connect the ball, let alone score goals.

With Dai Zhiwei's silence, Villarreal's attack was completely paralyzed for a while, and under Atletico Madrid's attack, their goal was also in jeopardy.