This season's Europa League draw would take place at the end of the month.
Bastia, as French Cup winners, went straight to the Europa League group stage.
A total of 48 teams would participate in the Europa League.
Seven teams qualified directly for the group stage, including defending champions Atlético Madrid.
Thirty-one teams needed to go through four rounds of qualifying.
Additionally, ten teams eliminated from the Champions League playoff stage would also get Europa League group stage spots.
So, they had to wait until the end of the month for all team spots to be confirmed, then the draw ceremony would begin at the Grimaldi Congress Center in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
There was also the matter of seeding.
This was based on the total of European competition points over the past five seasons.
Bastia, having no previous European competition points, was naturally a fourth-seeded team.
So regardless of which group they were drawn into, it would be a group of death for Bastia.
Julien could only take it as it came.
In the following time, France's training continued.
As the match against Uruguay approached, Deschamps gradually confirmed his starting lineup.
"Giroud, Martin, you two forwards—Giroud as the target man, Martin, you run more."
"Left and right wingers: Ribéry, De Rocca—you're our attacking trump cards, come on."
"Midfield: Mavuba, Valbuena."
"Defenders: Sakho, M'Biwa, Varane, and Réveillère."
"Goalkeeper: Lloris."
This was Deschamps' starting lineup for the first match.
Pogba was somewhat disappointed. He had tried hard to show himself in training, but Deschamps hadn't given him a chance to play.
Yes—not only was he not starting, he hadn't even made the final 23-man squad.
When Deschamps called up players, he brought three extra players for observation during training camp.
Pogba was cut.
In fact, if Zidane hadn't mentioned Pogba to Deschamps, the coach wouldn't have even considered calling him up.
Although he could see Pogba's talent, in Deschamps' eyes, Pogba still needed time to mature.
This time might not be very long. But it definitely wasn't now that he could take the field.
August 7th.
In the morning, the entire French team assembled at Clairefontaine and set off for Le Havre's Stade Océane.
Stade Océane was officially opened on July 12, 2012. The first match was a friendly between Le Havre and Marseille, with Le Havre losing 0-1.
Stade Océane replaced Le Havre's old stadium to become their new home ground.
When the French team arrived at Stade Océane, crowds of fans had already gathered around the area.
Stade Océane could accommodate twenty-five thousand spectators, and tickets for this friendly were completely sold out.
French fans came not just to watch a high-level national team match.
More importantly, they wanted to see what level Deschamps would bring the French team to in his first match of the post-Blanc era.
Two o'clock in the afternoon.
Players from both teams entered the field to warm up.
In the tunnel, Diego Forlán saw De Rocca and took the initiative to greet him, but whether he spoke in Spanish or English, Julien didn't understand.
Giroud came over to help translate: "He says he knows you—Inter Milan wanted to bring you to San Siro this summer."
Julien smiled friendly at Forlán and replied, "Everything is open."
Giroud translated this.
After hearing this, Forlán also smiled.
Then Suárez and Cavani came over, both greeting Julien warmly when they met him. However, due to language barriers, they didn't chat in depth.
This reminded Julien that perhaps he should add language learning to his schedule. At least he should learn English.
As Julien made the decision to start learning English. Soon, the players entered Stade Océane to begin warming up, and about half the fans had already arrived.
The atmosphere began to heat up.
Modoso and other Ultras Bastia die-hard fans came to the scene—they never missed any match with Julien.
"Julien!"
"Julien!!"
During warm-up, when Julien touched the ball, Modoso led the fans in chanting together. Other French fans in the crowd looked toward them.
Remembering Julien's performance at the Euros, they added another layer of anticipation for his performance in this match.
Julien saw the familiar Moor's head flag and knew they were Bastia fans.
So, he waved to them.
Modosso became even more excited—they were already waiting for the first Ligue 1 home match.
They had prepared a grand ceremony for Julien.
Treatment reserved exclusively for the core of their treble winners!
As the players finished warming up, in the dressing room, Deschamps gave final instructions: "Raphaël, and Yanga, your task is very difficult—you must stop the successive attacks from Suárez and Cavani."
Then he looked at Mavuba.
This was a player Deschamps had targeted since 2007 when he was still at Juventus.
Juventus had already agreed on a 7 million transfer fee for Mavuba and offered him a five-year contract.
But at the end of May that year, Deschamps suddenly resigned, causing the deal to fall through.
Mavuba eventually went to Villarreal in La Liga.
So, when Deschamps took charge of the national team, Mavuba was the first midfielder he called up.
He particularly loved this type of hardworking, defensive midfielder.
Players like Mavuba might not have high talent, but they were absolutely diligent and willing to run.
This was Deschamps' favorite type of player.
"You must stick to Diego Forlán!"
Deschamps gave Mavuba one task: mark Forlán closely.
"Right!"
Mavuba nodded firmly.
Julien also had some impression of Mavuba—he could be seen as a lesser version of Kanté.
And there was an interesting story about Mavuba: he was born in international waters and had no nationality until age 20. It wasn't until 2004 that France national team coach Domenech wanted to call up Mavuba that they discovered he had no nationality.
The French Football Federation was quickly urged to sort out Mavuba's nationality issue.
Deschamps continued discussing points of attention.
But they were all about defense.
He talked a lot.
You could see his wariness of Uruguay's attacking trident.
Cavani at Napoli and Suárez at Liverpool were both core attacking players.
Although Forlán had left the top five leagues, transferring from Inter Milan to Brazil's Internacional this summer, veterans like him were most feared for their experience.
"This is Deschamps' first match as France coach! Can this former French captain and World Cup winner bring new energy to Les Bleus? His tactical philosophy is highly anticipated—everyone wants to see where he'll take the French team."
TF1 was broadcasting the entire match. As players waited in the tunnel, the commentator continued: "Deschamps has inherited Blanc's bold style of using new players, with De Rocca and Raphaël—both around 18 years old—in the starting lineup."
"I believe everyone knows De Rocca—he already proved himself at the Euros."
In the footage, the French players made their entrance.
There was a close-up of Julien.
The commentator shouted: "Look! The French empire's star, making his grand entrance!!"
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