Youthful spirit was on full display at the moment.
Yes, There were indeed three goals.
But not for Atlético, for Bastia!
This moment was captured by countless cameras.
At this moment, Bastia was celebrating.
In the bar, glasses and alcohol mixed on the floor as usual; throughout Bastia's streets and alleys came screams and exclamations.
On every broadcast screen, TF1's commentary rang out in passionate unison—
"OH LA LA! C'EST MAGNIFIQUE! DE ROOCA! Rocca! DE Rocca scores for Bastia!!
His continuous movements in front of the box, this is who knows how many times he's shaken off Filipe! He burst into the box and struck suddenly! The ball goes in! In! In! The score is rewritten to 3-1!
Look at the silence of the Atlético fans in the stands. I believe Bastia is now in ecstasy! This is their historic moment!
De Rocca has written his own legend in this Europa League match!
France breathes, opponents tremble!
This is the poetry of French football!!"
Bastia was celebrating.
The Calderón fell silent.
Courtois helplessly fished the ball from the net, frowning deeply. This match was much harder than he'd imagined.
The other Atlético players basically shared this thought.
Koke stood on the pitch, hands on hips watching Julien, replaying in his mind Julien's series of moves. Koke saw the upper limit of dribbling ability.
His dribbling was strong, but in front of Julien, Koke seemed to see a long road still ahead of him.
He was called a genius. But Julien seemed more deserving of that title.
At the corner flag.
Bastia players swarmed around Julien, everyone's face had a smile.
Rothen grabbed Julien in a hug. "Great, great, great! Our hard work defending wasn't in vain! We were waiting for this goal from you!"
"Hahaha"
The others laughed, feeling all the defending this half had been worthwhile.
Defense consumes tremendous mental energy. But Julien's goal boosted their morale enormously.
And on the sideline, seeing Julien's gesture after scoring, Simeone knew it was directed at him.
This actually calmed him down instead. He seriously considered the current situation.
Did Atlético have any cards left?
Yes.
Falcao.
In fact, Simeone had originally wanted to rest Falcao and let Costa start. But now it seemed the team was having problems in attack and needed adjustments.
Costa couldn't come off, he needed to partner with Falcao.
The two wings needed adjusting, and Raúl García's position also needed changing, none had been effective.
Simeone quickly determined in his mind how to adjust for the second half.
He naturally couldn't use all three substitutions at once.
Priority was replacing Raúl García, but with whom?
Thinking through his squad, Simeone decided on Cristian Rodríguez.
After settling on the adjustment, Simeone turned his attention to the pitch, waving for the players to stabilize and get through the first half.
Hadzibegic taunted again. Imitating Julien, he held up three fingers toward Simeone.
The two coaches were really going at it today.
De Rocca family, Mbappé, Saliba, and the other Julien fans and supporters joined the away supporters in wildly chanting "Julien."
Though they hadn't filled the away section, each person shouted from the heart.
Hearing Bastia's chants, seeing Atlético's silence.
Deschamps smiled. "Two more months until they announce the Golden Boy Award winner. I think this year it's definitely Julien. Turin will probably release the candidate list next week. Based on Julien's current performance, it's hard for anyone to compete with him. The media discusses Julien most frequently."
Zidane nodded. "Julien has a great chance, but it still depends on the next month or so. I think the only ones who can challenge Julien are AC Milan's El Shaarawy and La Liga Málaga's Isco."
Zidane followed these things closely.
Because Real Madrid also had young players now, hyped by media as potentially competing for the Golden Boy Award, like Jesé and Varane.
But in Zidane's view, they were still far behind Julien.
Since its establishment in 2003, the past nine years of European Golden Boy Award winners had all proven worthy of the honor, becoming top stars.
The Golden Boy Award had high prestige.
Some called it the Ballon d'Or for Under-21s.
After all, it was judged by an expert panel of 30 journalists from 20 European countries, with authoritative media like France Football, L'Équipe, The Times, Marca, Mundo Deportivo, and Bild all voting.
The voting rules were simple too.
Each judge selected five players from the candidates, scoring by ranking: first place 10 points, second 7 points, third 5 points, fourth 3 points, fifth 1 point. The highest scorer won the Golden Boy Award.
"Oh?" Deschamps clearly didn't have much time to follow these things and seemed puzzled.
Zidane continued, "El Shaarawy and Isco are both performing well, scoring goals in Serie A and La Liga respectively. Crucially, they're playing in the Champions League, which is a bigger platform than the Europa League.
Among them, Isco's style is very similar to Julien's—both have exceptional dribbling ability. You might not follow La Liga closely and don't know that Málaga is in financial crisis, yet they're still in La Liga's top four relying on Isco, with decent Champions League results too.
Really, new talent emerges every year. Julien entered professional football at the start of this year and made a splash.
And Isco's professional debut was only a year earlier than Julien's, but now he's already leading his team in the Champions League. He's a very strong young player."
Deschamps strongly agreed with Zidane's statement that "new talent emerges every year."
Football never lacked genius.
Zidane added, "I'll tell you honestly: we've already set our sights on Isco. We'll probably sign him in the summer window. Málaga has no reason to refuse, and the player himself certainly won't refuse a team like Real Madrid."
Deschamps shook his head. "Haha, I don't care about Isco. I only care that Real Madrid doesn't buy Julien. Giants like that aren't suitable for Julien right now."
"Of course."
As Zidane spoke, he heard a commotion at the Calderón Stadium.
He immediately looked over.
Julien bent down to straighten a bouquet of flowers in the corner flag area and placed it on the ground.
Then he made an apologetic gesture to the stands.
Clap clap clap!
The Atlético fans in the stands applauded him. At this moment, they looked at this young player without hostility and only admiration.
Many players who came to the Calderón Stadium didn't know what the flowers at each corner flag meant.
Some even found them in the way and would kick them aside.
But just now,
After celebrating, Lukaku accidentally stepped on a bouquet. Julien immediately picked it up, opened it, and placed it back.
The Atlético fans had been about to curse.
But seeing Julien's action. They applauded him instead.
The broadcast director obviously noticed this scene but didn't immediately know what happened.
Just showed a series of shots.
To the broadcasters, this was just Atlético fans applauding Julien.
Some commentators said, "Julien has conquered the picky fans at the Calderón Stadium."
The match quickly resumed.
Atlético kicked off and didn't abandon attacking, though their defensive end became tighter.
They were not giving any counterattack space.
Seeing this, Hadzibegic frowned. He really wanted to let the players attack, but thinking it might fall into Atlético's trap, he still maintained the low-block deep defense.
In the final minutes, Atlético's attacks became simple, just crosses looking for Costa.
Four crosses, Costa got his head to two.
Making Hadzibegic's heart race, but fortunately stoppage time quickly ended.
Beep!
The referee blew for halftime, entering the break.
Hadzibegic breathed a sigh of relief.
Though they were two goals ahead now, asking him to truly relax was impossible.
This was Atlético, still at their home ground. A two-goal lead wasn't safe.
Hadzibegic walked toward the dressing room, thinking about how to arrange the second half.
As both teams' players walked to the dressing rooms, their expressions were diverse.
Atlético players looked serious. Obviously, this half's result wasn't what they hoped to see, if it was the opposite, that would be better.
In the tunnel.
De Bruyne, who had been chatting and laughing with teammates, suddenly turned cold.
Julien glanced from the corner of his eye and saw Courtois entering, passing by them.
Bastia dressing room.
Hadzibegic felt no relief from the two-goal lead. He said, "Second half, we must continue consolidating our defensive layers. We can't get complacent because we're ahead. Atlético will counterattack like beasts in the second half. After every lost ball, you must track back to position at maximum speed.
Center-backs stay compact, fullbacks tuck in to protect the box. Don't let their wingers beat you one-on-one easily."
The players listened and nodded. They knew being ahead wasn't because their overall strength was so strong, mainly it was Julien's individual ability.
Hadzibegic pointed at Rothen and Kanté, saying, "Your chemistry is getting better. You did good job in the first half. You still need to continue cutting off Koke and Gabi's passing lanes, disrupting their connections to Costa early. Second half they'll likely bring on Falcao. You need to find ways to disrupt their passes early and commit fouls if necessary rather than let their attack flow smoothly!"
Rothen nodded.
He was actually very clear about this match in his mind. His only worry was whether his body could withstand this high-intensity game.
The only good news was that Kanté could really run, and was able to share most of the defensive burden.
After finishing, Hadzibegic looked at Julien. His face showed a smile.
"Great job this half. You played to my expectations, but still, be careful. Your breakthroughs will attract double-teams, and they'll give you even higher defensive intensity in the second half. So, pay attention and find moments to quickly distribute the ball."
Saying this, Hadzibegic looked at De Bruyne. "Kevin, when Julien or Sadio attacks, you can make forward runs appropriately."
"Julien, if you're trapped in a double-team, you can pass to Kevin making a late run."
"Kevin, when you receive the ball in these situations, you can make your own decision, shoot from distance or find teammates."
Both nodded.
Through this half, Atlético would definitely mark Julien heavily in the second half, so besides Mané and Lukaku, there needed to be a late-arriving receiving option.
Enhancing attacking layers.
After explaining specific arrangements, Hadzibegic looked at everyone and said word by word, "Don't underestimate Atlético. They haven't lost all season. Perhaps we can be the first team to beat them, but there's still 45 minutes. Your legendary moment hasn't arrived yet. Don't let these 45 minutes ruin all your efforts, don't fail at the last hurdle!
The opening 15 minutes are most crucial! If they get multiple corners or shots without scoring, their mentality will crack. So, the opening still requires full retreat. When you win the ball, immediately boot it into space. Wear down their impatience. The ones who should be anxious now aren't us, it's them!"
"Second half, keep it up and show them who really came to fight!"
In the other dressing room.
Simeone was also constantly arranging second-half tactics.
"Filipe, In the second half I want you glued to Julien! Do you know how to defend?! Look how many times you got beaten in the first half! Didn't I teach you how to defend?
When he dares to receive the ball, hit his knee! Every time he gets the ball, Gabi immediately moves laterally to seal the inside cutting lane, force him wide to cross. That big black guy has no heading ability, crosses are gifts for our counterattacks!"
"And we need to disrupt their long passing connections. Koke, you must stay in the passing lane between their number 17 and Julien. Don't let them connect."
Simeone said much about defensive arrangements for Julien's right flank. This half, seeing Julien rampage on the right, he absolutely couldn't tolerate such defense from his team.
For him, this was unforgivable.
Of course, besides how to defend Julien, Simeone also discussed much about breaking their massed defense.
"Juanfran, Suárez, you need to switch positions more to attack their right side! When crossing from the byline, someone needs to drift into the half-space for cutbacks. Costa attacks the near post, Adrián covers the far post! Also pay attention to vertical acceleration and horizontal stretching, but reduce lateral passing."
"García, you come off to rest. Cristian, after you go on, when you get the ball, immediately slip it to Costa's back. After he holds off the center-back, immediately pass wide. We'll use 45-degree diagonal passes to pierce their defense."
Simeone's arrangements were very detailed.
He didn't want to lose this match!
Not only because Atlético hadn't lost all season, but more importantly, Bastia was a direct competitor for first place in the group.
The other two opponents posed no threat, only Bastia.
Originally Simeone thought Atlético could easily finish first in the group. Now it seemed there was a small setback.
Soon.
Halftime ended.
Players returned to the pitch.
Julien noticed Atlético had made a substitution: number 8 Raúl García was off, replaced by their number 11 "C. Ronaldo."
Julien liked calling him C. Ronaldo.
Cristian Rodríguez, that was not far from C. Ronaldo too, was it?
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