Julien pulled back his thoughts. The others were still chatting about the match against Marseille.
Rothen looked at Julien. "Tonight's your coming-of-age night. Let's celebrate with a victory."
"Haha"
The other teammates laughed too, saying Julien should get a hat-trick, score four goals, and so on.
Some said they hadn't realized Julien was only eighteen.
Indeed, Julien's performance on the pitch made them completely forget his age.
Choplin grinned mischievously again. "Hehe, after tonight you can do more other things. Training all day—you're not some extreme ascetic."
His suggestive expression made everyone laugh even harder.
Julien just smiled without responding. This kind of joking also completely dispelled the pre-match tension.
Time flew by.
After 6 PM, Bastia took the team bus to the Vélodrome Stadium.
The stadium was built in 1937. Initially, it even had a cycling track, because Vélodrome means velodrome or cycling stadium in French.
It could hold 60,000 fans. So, around the Vélodrome Stadium, there was a sea of people, densely packed crowds converging from all directions.
Bastia's team bus encountered the same situation that visiting teams faced in Bastia, it was blocked.
Members of Marseille's hardcore fan organizations drove a convoy with blue-white flags circling Bastia's bus, loudly singing Marseille's anthem "Droit au But" while constantly honking, creating a wall of sound, trying to make Bastia feel the pressure from now on.
The Bastia players on the bus smiled helplessly at each other. They had no real complaints about it.
After all, Bastia fans couldn't surround other teams without letting others surround Bastia, right?
This was just normal in France.
As the classical writer François de La Rochefoucauld once said: "In France, anything can happen."
Some Marseille fans even threw blue-white smoke bombs at Bastia's bus, filling the entire street with blue-white smoke.
This behavior of throwing smoke bombs in the streets had always been banned by the government and club, but it still happened frequently.
It couldn't be stopped.
With insufficient police, after much "coordination," Bastia's bus finally entered the stadium.
This was already nearly twenty minutes behind their scheduled time.
Hadzibegic didn't have time to say much, just shouted, "Don't let their little tricks affect your mood. Move quickly, hurry up and warm up."
The players all nodded.
When Rothen turned on the hot water tap, he laughed and said. "It's better than Nice's home ground. Nice didn't even have hot water."
"Ha-ha-ha"
Another round of laughter.
"You need to step up tonight. I'll help you!" As they left the locker room, Lukaku patted Julien's shoulder. "Let's win this match!"
Julien nodded slightly.
As he was about to reach the exit of the player tunnel, he heard a familiar voice: "Happy birthday."
It was De Bruyne.
After saying this, he walked straight onto the pitch. Julien smiled and followed.
BOOM!
BOOM BOOM!!
Entering the Vélodrome Stadium, even though it was still the warm-up phase, they could feel the passion of Marseille fans.
The song "Droit au But" swept through the entire stadium.
At a glance, the stands were a sea of surging blue and white.
Julien couldn't help but grumble inside that Marseille was so stingy, such a big stadium, yet they only gave Bastia 1,500 away tickets.
At this moment, Modoso was leading Bastia fans in singing, trying to let the players hear Bastia's voice amid Marseille's roar.
Unfortunately, the disparity in numbers was too great. Even though Modoso and others were shouting with all their might, they were drowned out.
In the Vélodrome Stadium box, Geronimi was chatting with Marseille's chairman Labrune.
Labrune had just become Marseille's chairman last June. He kept praising Bastia's achievements, while Geronimi kept denying them saying: "Just luck."
At this time, viewership on the TF1 channel was also surging. The commentator was hyping up the match: "Two teams—one bearing the weight and glory of history, the other writing a grassroots underdog story! Yet these two teams from seemingly different worlds have formed an amazing parallel line in the standings!
Can Bastia's youth storm put on another good show tonight? Julien—after Bastia's three-game losing streak, can he, as captain, lead the team to end the losing streak? Tonight is also his 18th birthday..."
Warm-up ended.
Inside Bastia's locker room, everyone put their hands together and shouted with determination: "FORZA BASTIAAA!!"
The players' faces showed resolute determination as they left the locker room and walked toward the pitch.
Chataignier, Hadzibegic, and other staff members shook hands and hugged each player.
When Chataignier hugged Julien, he said, "I'll be watching your performance with your family."
Julien's family usually didn't attend away games, but tonight was different.
It was Julien's birthday.
While waiting in the player tunnel, the players heard the frenzied voices of Marseille fans.
"Let's go."
The referee led the players onto the field.
Instantly, fans stomped on the metal stands in unison, combined with their synchronized chanting. Inside the stadium, you couldn't even hear each other clearly without speaking loudly.
As captain, Julien performed the pre-match ceremony. Bastia won the coin toss and got kickoff.
At this moment, Marseille fans had already lit cold fireworks in the stands and were throwing blue-white smoke bombs onto the pitch.
Ligue 1 smoke, as always.
When the players stood in the center circle waiting for kickoff, if the broadcast gave a wide shot, you couldn't even see people clearly.
Actually, not just the broadcast, the players on the pitch couldn't see people in the distance either.
But everyone was used to it by now.
It was Ligue 1 specialty.
TWEET!
With the referee's whistle, the match officially began.
Baup was already shouting from the sideline for his players to press Bastia. He knew Bastia would definitely use their defensive counter-attacking tactics. Want to sit back?
He wouldn't let Bastia sit back comfortably!
He would force Bastia's tempo. However, this was France, where anything could happen.
BOOM!
Bastia kicked off. De Bruyne, under pressure, spun in a circle, created space, then sent a long pass.
From his perspective, that area was covered in blue-white smoke.
But from others' perspective, that area had Julien making a run behind Marseille's defensive line!
WHOOSH!
Seeing this, many Marseille fans became restless.
Danger!
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