CHAPTER 46: CHAPTER 17: COUNTERATTACK

Eating candy in the candy box, singing love songs in the love song stadium.

There are thousands of stadiums in the world, and the name of the love song stadium is undoubtedly one of the most romantic stadium names.

El Madrigal Stadium is also called the "Love Song Stadium," as El Madrigal means love song in Spanish, hence the name "Love Song Stadium."

So generally speaking, most fans use the translation name "Love Song Stadium," as the original name is too long and not as memorable as "Love Song."

Chen Zhong heard The Beatles’ classic "Yellow Submarine" from the players’ tunnel, a song that swept through Europe in the 1960s.

Villarreal doesn’t have a team song, so they usually sing "Yellow Submarine" together to express their emotions.

Later, because Villarreal often ambushed traditional strong teams like a submarine, no one knew when they would "explode" and defeat their opponents, they also earned the nickname "Yellow Submarine," which is the meaning of "Yellow Submarine."

Chen Zhong listened to them singing loudly, "We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine."

In his heart, he suddenly wanted to sing back loudly with "Hala Madrid" as a response. While daydreaming, the people ahead started moving, and Chen Zhong walked out of the players’ tunnel.

The singing of Villarreal fans on the stands has also changed.

"Who defeated Real Madrid?"

"Villarreal."

"Who sank the Galaxy Battleship?"

"Yellow Submarine."

"Who will win the final victory?"

"It’s us!"

The fans’ chanting of Villarreal merged together, not pursuing beauty nor melody, only focusing on momentum and volume, making people feel a bit tingly all over.

They tried to create pressure on the away players by singing together. Chen Zhong felt a slight shock, but more so excitement.

He had never felt such a scene on the spot. This is probably what they call the Devil’s Home Ground!

The players stepped onto the field, and suddenly the stadium lights began to flicker, while Villarreal fans once again sang aloud "Yellow Submarine."

"Like a dance hall," Marcelo muttered softly next to Chen Zhong, "Do they want to start a ball?"

Chen Zhong turned to look at Marcelo. Marcelo saw Chen Zhong’s usual calm face, even with some hidden excitement. Marcelo chuckled twice without saying a word, as he worried Chen Zhong hadn’t seen such a scene before, so he specially wanted to say something to divert attention. But seeing Chen Zhong’s expression, he knew he was overthinking.

"Good evening, football fans."

"This is the second round of La Liga."

"Villarreal’s home game against Real Madrid."

"Here we are at the Love Song Stadium, and we can see the fans are quite excited."

"Villarreal has performed outstandingly in the league, winning 3:0 against La Liga’s strong team Valencia in the first round."

"In the league, they have won 9 consecutive victories, and in various competitions, they have achieved 18 matches unbeaten, 16 wins, and 2 draws."

"The last time the two teams battled, Villarreal defeated Real Madrid at home, creating a team record and sinking the Galaxy Battleship for the first time at home."

"And this time, can they once again defeat Real Madrid?"

"Let’s wait and see."

As the commentary introduced the players and formations, both teams completed their pre-game preparations and stood on the field. Villarreal won the kickoff. In the fans’ singing, they launched a fierce attack on Real Madrid as soon as they started.

Villarreal’s advancing speed was extremely fast, quickly passing the ball to Cazorla on the wing. The short-statured Cazorla was very agile, quickly advancing on the wing. After avoiding Ramos’ tackle, he made a long pass directly transferring it to the other side to Pires.

The French winger Pires got the ball, shaking off Marcelo’s entanglement. Instantly, everyone in the stadium focused their attention on Pires. Facing the tidal noise, Chen Zhong did not rush forward rashly but stood his ground, giving his teammates time to retreat and immediately blocked Pires’ cutting path.

But Pires had no intention to cut in!

The skinny-faced French winger, with deep eyes, looked towards the goal direction and chose to shoot with force outside the penalty area.

His shot was excellent, the ball shot like a cannon towards the far end of the goal.

At this critical moment, Casillas made a diving save, using his fingertips to barely tip the ball beyond the baseline.

"An extremely threatening attack from Villarreal."

"Through rapid passing, they quickly reached Real Madrid’s danger zone."

"Cazorla’s long pass accurately found Pires."

"Pires’ long-range shot was excellent, but unfortunately, Casillas is indeed Casillas."

"He used his fingertips to tip the ball beyond the baseline."

Villarreal fans on the stands expressed disappointment, but soon gave applause to their team’s hero. On the sidelines, Pellegrini also showed a bit of regret on his face. He thought he could take advantage of Real Madrid’s slow warm-up to replicate Atletico Madrid’s "feat" and break Real Madrid’s goal in one minute!

"Damn it! Bastards! TMD." Schuster kept cursing on the sidelines; Villarreal, this counter-attacking team, really wanted to engage in all-out attack duels with him, which was fine. For Schuster, it’s a good thing, but they actually want to break Real Madrid’s goal in less than a minute.

Schuster looked up at the time. Yes, the match had not even exceeded a minute, they completed a high-quality shot on goal and almost broke Real Madrid’s goal.

"Francisco! Francisco!" Schuster loudly called Francisco’s name, pointing to Cazorla, who delivered the deadly pass: "Who is that?"

This match, Schuster was fully prepared with Robert-Emmanuel Pires, the French flying wing, who once performed at world-class levels in Arsenal. Schuster valued him greatly, even deploying Diara as the defensive midfielder, moving Sneijder to the left wing doing what Beckham used to do.

Robinho cut inside to become an attacking midfielder, breaking through in the middle like a sharp dagger.

But just now, the entire team was drawn to the other side, leaving a large space, which was the main reason for this threatening attack. Schuster keenly noticed that the unsung Cazorla might not be that simple.

"Santi Cazorla."

"Sold for 60,000 Euros, just bought back for 120,000 Euros."

"He used to be Riquelme’s good helper, the team’s surprise card; now he seems to be heavily used."

Francisco was also a bit surprised. This player, although short at about 168CM, just showed those few moves that fully reveal his talent and ability. Such level players, 60,000 Euros? 120,000 Euros?

Villarreal is really rich.

"Need any adjustments?" Francisco tentatively asked.

"No, no need."

Schuster shook his head; he wasn’t the type of coach who liked to make on-the-spot adjustments during matches; he prefers to prepare everything ahead of time.

Of course, the main reason was that Chen Zhong just now, facing Pires, performed like a seasoned veteran.

"Chen, can I trust you?"

"Also..." Schuster stood on the sidelines, heavily swung his right hand forward, signaling the attack: "We are Real Madrid."

"In today’s game, I want everyone to understand what it means to engage in attack duels with us!"