The day everyone had been waiting for was finally here, a clash between two teams that were good enough to make it to the last eight.

    Now, it was going to be one or the other; only one of them could advance to the last four.

    That said, this was only the first leg, so there was a chance that today''s result wasn''t going to determine how everything would end up in the end.

    The match was set to kick off by 3:00 PM and by 2:30 PM, the stadium, although not completely filled, was filled with a lot of people.

    The atmosphere was pretty nice with a bright sky and the gleaming sun illuminating the beautiful greenery that was the pitch.

    The players were already done with the pre-match warm-up and were getting ready in the locker room now.

    This was an away match for Unique FC so they were going into the match with their second kit.

    The black kit with orange polka dots and Dave as the goalkeeper was wearing a lemon kit.

    By the time they were done dressing up, it was time to head out.

    The players met at the tunnel entrance to line up alongside Real Sociedad, who were in their home kit and were looking quite hyper for the match.

    ''It''s almost time.'' Dave said inwardly.

    Almost as soon as that thought passed through his mind, the players were giving the signal to start making their way to the pitch, and without hesitation, they did as they were told.

    The stands were mostly filled with Real Sociedad fans, but there were still a good number of Unique FC fans who made the trip to support their team.

    "You can''t really tell the outcome of this match just by looking at the strength of the teams on paper, right, Steve?" Jim inquired.

    "Yeah, while a team''s strength on paper can give us a bit of perspective on what their performance level will look like, Unique FC were able to comfortably make it out of a group with really tough opponents so you can''t really say." Steve articulated.

    With the usual formalities between the players and the match officials done, the captains met in front of the officials for the coin toss.

    Real Sociedad ended up winning the coin toss, so they had the first choice and were going to be starting the match from the kickoff spot.

    [ Ongoing quest ]

    [ Prevent Merino from scoring against you ]

    Dave kept staring at that quest message as he made his way to his goalposts.

    ''Catherine.''

    Yes

    ''A part of me feels like I got this quest because the system was hurt by Merino''s words but...''

    What?

    ''A part of me also feels like getting this message means that he will be especially dangerous on the attack today.''

    Merino is known to be a very dangerous midfielder and arguably the best midfielder in Laliga this season so I would very much expect him to be a threat to you today

    ''I have to brace myself then.'' Dave responded inwardly before taking a deep breath.

    Unlike Unique FC, Real Sociedad were going into the match with the four-four-two formation and as expected, Merino was playing as the sole attacking midfielder with everyone else backing him up from behind.

    Other than Merino, the rest of the midfield was quite decent, and their attacking duo was nothing to joke about. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have made it this far in all competitions this season.

    "Good job," Adolf said, patting Frankie on the head.

    The midfielder responded with a nod and a smile before moving toward Merino to make sure he didn''t get the ball from the throw-in.

    "That was a close one," Dave muttered before taking a deep breath.

    Where did all your confidence go?

    ''I''m confident I can save normal shots within my saving capacity, not one-on-ones, especially not against someone like him who rarely shoots carelessly.''

    The game was still in motion but the ball wasn''t back on the pitch yet as Nunez was finding it difficult to throw it to anybody in a decent position as they were all tightly marked at the moment.

    In the end, he gave up and threw the ball to their right back, who decided to do something interesting the moment the ball dropped on his feet.

    A single touch was all he needed to send the ball flying to Larick who had Minino behind him at the moment.

    "A quick long ball to find Larick."

    Utilizing his quick thinking, the striker left Minino helpless as he quickly brought the ball down with his chest before using his back heel to nutmeg the midfielder.

    "Oh my goodness."

    Giving the ball a little push just before Frankie could close up on him from the side and Adolf from the front, the striker decided to try something from thirty yards out.

    Pulling his right foot back, he launched the ball forward, aiming for the top left corner.

    "Larick!"

    There was quite a lot of force behind that shot but thankfully for Unique FC, Dave was able to get to the ball just in the nick of time with the tip of his gloves.

    That was enough to derail the ball toward hitting the crossbar.

    "Oh, that''s wonderful from Dave!" Jim screamed. "You can always rest assured when you have this man in between the sticks!"

    The rebound flew toward Luis Roberto who wasted no time heading it away.

    However, his attempted clearance ended up dropping on the chest of Merino on the edge of the D box.

    "Oh, they might still have a chance!"

    Quickly drifting away from Aima toward the right and leaving him to kick nothing but air, Merino fired toward the goalpost, aiming for the furthest point of the bottom right corner.

    "Merino with the second shot!"

    This time there was nothing Dave could do because no matter how fast he was, he just couldn''t get to a shot that fast after making that first save.

    He could only watch the ball fly into the goalpost in the middle of his dive.

    "Goooaalllll!!!" Jim screamed. "You don''t make a clearance mistake like that with Merino around."

    The midfielder couldn''t even move from his spot as his teammates gathered around him screaming in jubilation.

    The fans were also jumping and screaming, most of them chanting the name of the attacking midfielder.

    [ Quest failed ]

    That message popped up for Dave as soon as that ball went in, and he had been staring at it for a while now.

    ''Why do I feel like this was inevitable?''