After conceding, Baup furrowed his brow. This kind of opening completely disrupted his deployment.
He thought Bastia would play defensive counter-attack. Instead, Bastia attacked from the start!
Now with Bastia leading, Baup could already imagine Marseille facing Bastia's iron defense. He couldn't help but have a headache.
An iron defense was what he feared most!
This season, Marseille's attack wasn't strong. Including this match, in fourteen league rounds, the whole team had only scored sixteen goals.
Among all Ligue 1 teams, they couldn't even rank in the top ten. Most of the time, they relied on 1-0 victories.
Even their entire team couldn't match the goals scored by Julien alone!
After scoring this goal, Julien was now far ahead in the Ligue 1 top scorer list, having played 12 matches and scored 18 goals.
An average of 1.5 goals per game.
Thinking about this, Baup had another headache.
Sure enough!
When the match restarted and Marseille organized their attack, Bastia pulled everyone back. Lukaku, Julien, and Mané had all retreated to their own half.
They just wouldn't give Marseille space, making them pass slowly.
Marseille's midfield core was Julien's national team teammate, Valbuena.
When Hadzibegic was formulating tactics, he specifically asked Julien.
Julien also gave his opinion: Valbuena wasn't stable enough, especially under high-intensity pressure, with weak passing ability.
In the match against Spain, Valbuena had no impact at all.
Completely locked down by Spain's midfield.
In this match, he also faced the harassment of French national team teammate Kanté.
Kanté's task in this match was to lock down Valbuena.
Much of Marseille's attack came from Valbuena.
It was precisely because of his performances at Marseille that he had the opportunity to enter the French national team.
As for Marseille's front line with the Ayew brothers: André Ayew and Jordan Ayew, their independent attacking ability was rather weak.
In less than ten minutes, Marseille fans could already see the current situation: Marseille couldn't break through.
Bastia even got a counter-attack. Lukaku received a long pass and made a fierce run.
If he hadn't pushed the ball too far ahead, and goalkeeper Mandanda hadn't decisively rushed out to grab it first, this might have been another good attacking opportunity for Bastia.
Mandanda, as Marseille's captain, after grabbing the ball, roared at his teammates, telling them to pay attention to defense.
Now that the attack was stalled, defense should be even more vigilant!
Mandanda threw the ball to defender N'Koulou. Marseille began organizing their attack again.
At this time, the broadcast camera once again found Deschamps in the stands.
Just when Julien scored, the camera had found Deschamps with a big smile on his face.
Because of that smile, Marseille fans even created a thread on the forum: "Why was Deschamps so happy seeing Marseille concede?"
Extreme fans naturally had mostly insults.
But there were also rational fans: "Deschamps was just pleased seeing Julien's performance. As both a player and coach, Deschamps' contributions to Marseille were great enough—he won championships.
There's nothing to criticize about that. Now Deschamps coaches the national team, and Julien is the core of the French national team. With such a performance, it's normal for Deschamps, as head coach, to be happy."
But how could extreme fans be rational?
The two groups went back and forth.
Beside Deschamps, this time it wasn't Zidane, but Stéphane.
Stéphane asked with interest, "Didier, do you think Marseille can still turn this around?"
Deschamps shook his head slightly. "It's difficult. Bastia's previous three-game losing streak was due to defensive problems, but after resting in the last round, with no obvious injuries, it will be very hard for Marseille to score."
Deschamps knew very well how resilient a team's defensive line could be after experiencing multiple baptisms by strong teams.
After all, he understood defense too well.
Defensive experience was defended into existence!
It was practiced through mistakes, through being exploited time and time again.
So, Bastia's current defensive line, though none of the players were famous, was actually at the peak of their careers.
Stéphane agreed with this view. He added, "That little guy, I think we can give him more opportunities. Kanté—he's defending Valbuena without mercy."
Deschamps smiled. "Indeed."
Kanté was one of his important discoveries. Deschamps had already decided to focus on cultivating Kanté. This type of player was exactly what the French team desperately needed.
The current French team lacked proper defensive midfielders!
Kanté was the one Deschamps had in mind to nurture.
The two chatted while continuing to watch the match.
The game entered a stalemate, with neither side able to do anything to the other.
But Bastia's counter-attacks still looked more threatening!
In the 28th minute, after several failed counter-attacks, this Bastia counter-attack was very fierce.
Perhaps because the smoke had cleared and visibility was good, De Bruyne sent a long pass, and the ball reached Lukaku's feet.
Lukaku, once again as the spearhead, charged forward. This time when he had possession, he learned his lesson.
Seeing Julien coming up on the right, he made a lateral pass.
The ball reached Julien's feet.
Abdallah and Morel quickly converged, blocking Julien's advancing route.
Seeing this situation, Julien didn't force a breakthrough, which would slow the tempo.
He passed the ball back.
De Bruyne, who had pushed forward, received the ball. Barton, who was defending him, hadn't yet gotten into position.
De Bruyne had time to adjust.
Seeing Marseille's defense was somewhat chaotic and their overall defensive focus leaned toward the right side—
BOOM!
He made a decisive pass to the left to Mané's feet.
Facing only Marseille right-back Fanni's defense, Mané didn't use any fancy footwork—just a feint with a pull-back, then a through ball with explosive speed!
He ate Fanni alive with pure pace!
Fanni was fooled by the feint and couldn't keep up with the follow-through. Mané charged forward like a whirlwind; he was extremely fast.
His tactical position in the team wasn't high. More often, he was used as a quality wingman.
Mané understood his role.
So, when he charged near the penalty area to a wide-open space, he didn't cut inside toward the middle.
Instead, he chose to send a high cross to the middle, looking for Lukaku.
But his pass was slightly too strong. Lukaku, jumping with the defender, couldn't reach the ball.
It flew directly toward the far post on the right.
Even Julien couldn't receive the ball well—he had already run past it.
This was a poor cross. But behind every poor cross was a potential spectacular bicycle kick.
Julien sensed something. Leaning against Morel's defense, he threw himself into the air!
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