Chapter 376 Group Stage Hope



That would have been a great second goal for Unique FC but Merino was caught offside and that meant that the goal wasn't going to stand.

Unique FC players obviously weren't happy with that decision and they could be seen trying to convince the referee to do something about the decision or go check VAR at least, but it didn't look like the referee was going to do any of that.

"Some referees wouldn't have noticed given the fact that Merino was offside just by millimeters. That said, he was indeed offside and that was the right call from the referee." Jim expressed.

<Well, that goal would have given you guys a little bit of breathing space>

'Yeah, I thought that was a goal for sure.' Dave said subconsciously.

The match continued with Villarreal doing everything they could to try and get a goal, but getting past Unique FC's defense wasn't an easy thing for them.

Fraser was slowly moving toward Roland with the ball, and just before the wingback could get close enough to him, he sent the ball rolling back to Conrad who sent it rolling to Henry with a single touch.

"Henry."

Henry was quickly surrounded by Adolf and Martinez and before he could do anything to try and escape the situation, the ball was taken from him by Martinez who immediately sent it rolling to Minino.

"Unique FC have the ball back here and they're moving fast."

Minino quickly zoomed off down the wing with the ball and just before he could run into the midfielder right on his path, he laid the ball off to Ferran who quickly did a roulette spin with it to get past Conrad who was right behind him.

"Nicely done by Ferran," Steve commented.

Ferran took off down the middle with the ball until he found Merino with a little bit of space down the right and quickly sent the ball flying over to him.

Merino caught hold of the ball with a neat trap, and just before the player running toward him could get to him, he moved a little forward with the ball and passed it to Fredinho who sent it back to Ferran immediately with a backheel pass.

"Unique FC are trying to cook up something here."

Ferran moved a little to the right before sending the ball over to Mateo with a lob.

Mateo had to quickly head the ball back to Roland to avoid losing it to the wing-back who happened to be man-marking him.

Roland caught hold of the ball and quickly zoomed past the player right in front of him before he sent the ball flying into the box.

Fredinho was in the area at that time and was able to get a clean header on it, but his effort ended up hitting the crossbar before going out for a goal kick.

"Oh, that was so close," Jim commented. "It's been clear since the start of the match but I didn't want to say it because I thought Villarreal were going to pick themselves up in this half, but that hasn't happened yet.

"Unique FC has been dominating this match and Villarreal hasn't been able to find any proper way to take advantage of them."

"Yeah, and if they don't find a way to deal with the hosts or better still find a leak in their defense then they are most likely going to lose this match." Steve expressed.

The match had just entered the seventy-fifth minute and right now, Villarreal had won a free kick right at the edge of the box.

Villarreal players had a huge argument about the foul being a penalty kick as Henry fell into the box after he was tackled down by Aima, but the referee confirmed that the foul happened right outside the box and nothing was going to convince him otherwise.

Villarreal had to take what they could get as Fraser could be seen standing over the ball now with his gaze on Unique FC's four-man wall which was set up inside the box.

"Another opportunity for Fraser to try and put his team back on level terms, will he be able to put this one away?" Jim commented.

<Keep your eyes peeled, Dave>

'Roger that.'

Fraser was busy observing everyone's movements especially Dave's as the referee made sure that everything was ready.

After making sure that everything was ready and nothing was out of place, the referee blew his whistle and now it was up to Fraser to do something about his team's current situation.

After hearing the whistle, the winger slowly took three steps backward before he quickly closed up on the ball and fired it toward the goalpost.

"Fraser!"

The ball was sent rolling toward the right side of the goalpost with no form of elevation at all.

The winger had decided had gone from below this time hoping that Dave would be one of those goalkeepers who had a hard time stopping fast-moving ground balls but to his surprise, Dave was able to get to the ball right on time to catch it with both of his gloves.

"Oh, that was so close but Dave's not taking any chances," Jim commented.

'How do you even score against this guy!' Fraser screamed inwardly in frustration as he bit his lower lip.

"Villarreal have not been able to come up with anything so far and now we just have twelve minutes left of normal time.

During those twelve minutes, Unique FC came up with a couple of good chances that they would have put away on any normal day, but that didn't seem to be the case today.

It was pretty obvious that they were equally finding it hard to score against Villarreal and if it weren't for that first-half penalty maybe the match would still be on level terms.

Villarreal also managed to get a couple of chances but none of them were as good as Unique FC's chances.

The first minute of the four minutes of added time had already been exhausted before Unique FC finally won a free kick twenty-five yards away from the goalpost.

It was their first close free kick in this match and this looked like it was a chance for them two goals up even though that wasn't really necessary.

Mateo was standing over the ball now waiting for the referee's whistle and as soon as he heard it, he slowly took three steps backward.

"It won't really matter because the match would probably be over after this kick but adding another goal wouldn't hurt," Steve commented.

After taking three steps backward, the winger quickly closed up on the ball and fired it toward the goalpost.

"Mateo!"

The ball was sent flying toward the top right-hand corner and it looked quite tricky, but the goalkeeper was able to get to it right on time, and with the tip of his glove, he was able to push the ball just enough for it to hit the crossbar and fly out for a corner kick.

"Oh, that was so close."

That corner kick wasn't going to stand as the referee blew his whistle thrice to bring the match to an end.

"Oh, that's whistle, looks like it's all over."

As soon as he heard that whistle, Mateo smiled brightly before letting out a sigh of relief.

"It was a hard-fought battle and at last they made it out victorious," Jim commented.

"It's shocking how they visited Lazio and Villarreal and won against them, I wonder what's going to happen when they go to Bilbeth for their away matches." Steve expressed.

"Unique FC are making it out of this group, that's slowly becoming obvious, and that's surprising given how they were voted as the least favorites."

"I think it's too early to make that conclusion, Jim but still, I also think they have what it takes to survive this group. If they're going to be in the first place then the second place may be in contention as Lazio has just moved past Villarreal to go into second place after destroying West Ham United five goals to one." Steve expressed.

"Looks like they took out their anger of losing to Unique FC on them."

The Man of the Match award for this match was quite a tricky one given the fact that none of the players were exactly outstanding, yeah, even Mateo was nowhere to be found during certain situations.

But still, he scored the only goal of the match and pulled off a couple of good chances so he ended up receiving the award, making it his second one in a row.

After greeting the fans, Mateo was now making his way toward the tunnel alongside Dave when he looked toward the stands and spotted someone waving at him and it didn't take long before another followed.

On getting closer to the area now, he could now see the people who were waving at him and now he had a confused expression on his face.

"Why are they sitting together?" He muttered.

*****

Happy new month guys.

With this month, I've decided to set up a favorable mass-release goal.

For every set of gifts worth 3000 coins, I will do a three chapters mass release.

Every 100 GT= 4 chapters mass release.