In Second Half
Hadzibegic kept his word. At the 55th minute, he chose to substitute Julien.
When Julien left the field, the Lille players breathed a huge sigh of relief.
After the second half began, although Bastia hadn't scored, Julien's threat on the wing was truly challenging, making Lille play very cautiously.
Now they saw an opportunity to fight back.
Julien hugged Ilan, who was replacing him, then returned to the bench and sat next to Clauss.
Clauss usually rotated with Angoula for the left-back position.
He'd probably have a chance to come on in this match too.
Julien greeted his teammates one by one.
On the field, the Lille players finally dared to attack with abandon. But in the very first sequence, they were taught a lesson by Bastia.
Rothen, who had just put on the captain's armband, assisted Kanté in a double-team on opposing midfielder Martin, stealing the ball from his feet, then giving it to De Bruyne.
De Bruyne went straight for the Belgian connection.
Lukaku charged like a bull.
A semi-one-on-one opportunity, he blasted a shot from outside the box. Landreau didn't save it but touched it, slightly changing the ball's trajectory.
This caused the ball to hit the outside of the post and fly out of bounds.
Lukaku looked absolutely incredulous.
Including on the bench, Julien and the others all held their heads in dismay for him.
This opportunity had been excellent.
The TF1 commentator also said regretfully, "Lukaku, on loan from Chelsea, has actually performed quite well at Bastia this season. Currently he's second only to Julien with 13 goals, ranked second on the scoring chart. But if you add up all those excellent chances Lukaku has wasted, his goal tally might be even higher than Julien's!"
Other fans might not quite believe it, but Bastia fans knew this all too well.
In Bastia's taverns, fans said, "If Lukaku could really finish all those excellent chances, his market value would be even higher than Julien's."
The commentator continued analyzing the current situation: "Lille must absolutely not think that just because Julien has come off, this Bastia team is easy to bully. De Bruyne, Kanté, Lukaku, even their left winger Mané—they're all excellent players."
But clearly Lille didn't hear the commentator's words. In the 74th minute, with Lille's forces pushed forward, they were intercepted.
Rothen played a long ball, passing directly to the front.
Mané charged all the way down the left wing.
Approaching the box, with a feint, he shook off Debuchy defending him and cut into the penalty area.
As Landreau rushed out to block, Mané very calmly played a cutback pass.
Lukaku's forward run had drawn the attention of two center-backs, leaving a vacuum in the left half-space.
De Bruyne made a run forward, received Mané's pass, and very easily pushed the ball into the far corner.
SWISH!
0-3!!
Bastia extended their lead!
This was De Bruyne's sixth league goal of the season. At the same time, with 9 assists, he was tied with Julien for first on the assist chart.
This was also a true reflection of Bastia's attacking firepower this season.
The commentator sighed: "This season's Bastia is absolutely phenomenal. On the attacking end, they monopolize first and second place on both the scoring and assist charts. This is enough to prove that their position at the top of the table is no accident!
They even have greater hope than Montpellier's championship run last season.
Of course, the Paris that Montpellier faced last season and the Paris that Bastia faces this season have completely different fighting strength.
If Bastia can still beat Paris to win the championship, the value would be unquestionable."
'Three goals down.'
Garcia's head drooped. 'Lost to Bastia again.'
He sighed. This sigh continued until the final whistle, only then slowly ending.
Final score: 0-3.
Bastia, temporarily having played one more match, led second-place Paris by 4 points.
Marseille lost again this round.
The only teams that could catch up to Bastia were Lyon, who would play tomorrow night, and PSG.
Post-Match
Hadzibegic spoke about the decision to substitute Julien early: "Julien doesn't need that much time to score many goals. He's still young and needs more time to rest. Too much playing time will exhaust his body. He suffered a serious injury in the summer, and we don't want to see that happen again. In subsequent matches, it will continue to be like this. I'll arrange his rotation time accordingly."
He meant what he said.
As Bastia fans celebrated this victory wildly, with Bastia continuing to sit firmly atop Ligue 1, that evening at the training base, Hadzibegic told Julien,
"For the next match in Israel, I'm not planning to include you in the squad. We've already qualified first in the group, there's no need to travel all that way. I've heard those people in Israel are quite rough. I'm worried about injuries."
Julien had no objection. He returned to his dormitory, washed up, and lay in bed looking at his victory points. This win over Lille only added 3 points.
Currently he had only 18 points.
Progress was very slow.
Julien was also gradually discovering some of the basic logic of how victory points were awarded—
First, weak teams yielded few points. Second, if he'd previously defeated an opponent, the points weren't great either.
The reason the second leg against Atlético had decent points was because in the first leg, Simeone's Atlético hadn't gone all out, the second leg was when they faced Atlético's complete form.
Finally, if they were a defeated opponent and the other side's squad strength had declined for various reasons, the points were minimal.
Like this time facing Lille, only 3 points.
This was because last season Bastia had defeated Lille's double-winning squad.
And this season, Lille's core players had left one after another, their strength much diminished from before.
Even head coach Garcia, after coaching these past few years, didn't know if he could continue coaching this season.
Lille was currently in that bad a state.
While Bastia traveled to Israel, Julien didn't go with the team but stayed in Bastia to train.
He also met the team's new signing, Emiliano Martínez. The two met without any awkwardness, mainly because they were both good friends of Giroud's.
Giroud had even specifically called Julien, asking him to look after Emiliano.
Julien was very happy with the team's signing. Although Emiliano was still young, he was absolutely a goalkeeper type with maxed-out talent, at least stronger than the current first-choice keeper Novaes.
Hadzibegic had wanted to replace Novaes many times, but unfortunately the second and third-choice keepers were worse. This winter window, they finally had the opportunity.
At the same time, Julien also remotely directed Pierre to talk with Monaco's youth academy director about having Mbappé sign with Monaco.
Actually, Julien was very clear about Mbappé's ability. He just needed a platform.
So, he didn't change Mbappé's original trajectory.
Let him level up at Monaco first.
That evening, Bastia drew 2-2 away at Hapoel Tel Aviv.
De Bruyne scored twice.
One was a direct free kick, helping Bastia equalize the opponent in the 84th minute, nearly a last-gasp equalizer.
With this result, Bastia successfully advanced from Group B, where defending champions Atlético were located, as group winners.
At this point, all direct qualification spots from the group stage were confirmed.
And because the Champions League matches ended before the Europa League, by this time, all teams advancing to the Europa League knockout stage were confirmed.
Julien took a look.
As expected, Chelsea had come to the Europa League as third in their Champions League group.
Chelsea would have a very good chance of becoming the fourth team after Juventus, Ajax, and Bayern to sweep all three major European cups.
Barcelona also had a sort of small three cups, they mainly hadn't won the Europa League/UEFA Cup, but had won the Fairs Cup, which was the predecessor to the predecessor of the Europa League, so it counted.
Julien thought about it, UEFA later created another competition, the Conference League.
Before he transmigrated, Mourinho had led Roma to win that trophy.
He didn't know if Chelsea had won the Conference League. In the original timeline, if Chelsea really won the Conference League, they'd be the first team in Europe with a UEFA grand slam.
But now, Julien would definitely use all his strength to prevent Chelsea from winning.
Otherwise, if Chelsea won, what would Bastia get?
Julien also looked at the seedings.
Bastia was finally in the first pot this time.
The first pot consisted of Champions League group thirds with better records: Chelsea, Cluj, Olympiacos, Benfica.
Plus, Europa League group winners: Liverpool, Bastia, Fenerbahçe, Bordeaux, Steaua București, Dnipro, Gent, Rubin Kazan, Lyon, Lazio, Metalist Kharkiv, and Hannover.
However, there were quite a few powerhouse teams in the second pot too.
Champions League group thirds with worse records: Zenit, BATE Borisov, Dynamo Kyiv, Ajax.
Europa League group runners-up: Anzhi, Atlético, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Newcastle, Stuttgart, Napoli, Basel, Inter Milan, Sparta Prague, Tottenham Hotspur, Leverkusen, and Levante.
It could be said that the competition in this edition of the Europa League was actually very fierce.
After all, in Julien's eyes, could you imagine Chelsea, Liverpool, Atlético, Inter, and Spurs all playing in the Europa League together?
However, at this moment, in Julien's eyes, these powerhouse teams were no longer powerhouses but potential big gift packages of victory points.
In Julien's plan, he would transfer to a Big Four league team in the summer window.
That would inevitably mean facing more intense competition, and he was more inclined toward Champions League teams. This would test his ability even more.
Currently in Ligue 1, he could no longer farm many victory points—he was relying entirely on the Europa League knockout stage.
So, he needed to improve himself as much as possible in this final half season.
And after next season ended, there was the World Cup.
This was also one of the trophies Julien most desired in his heart.
As a major European country like France, once they produced a football king, it would have a great impact on French politics too.
Don't underestimate football's role in politics.
So how to become a football king?
Club grand slam, national team grand slam—ideally, successfully defending one of the major trophies.
The next day, when Bastia's players still hadn't awakened from their sleep—they'd returned to Bastia at three or four in the morning last night.
The headline of Bastia Daily prominently read: Our History: From 1978 to 2012, From Papi to Julien
"The bitter defeat in the 1978 Europa League final (UEFA Cup) is eternal pain in Bastia's heart, and pain for legendary players like Papi.
The more than thirty years of European competition absence since then turned those glorious past events into almost museum exhibits.
Bertrand, owner of the Sunset Café bar, caressing the final ticket his father Old Bell left behind, said, 'Every time the old guys would silently drink to the bottom of their glasses.'
And now, Bastia's European dream, suppressed for thirty-four years, has finally awakened at Julien's feet!
This season, the hero has arrived!
Julien's eight goals in five matches, leading the team to beat Atlético twice—this not only secured first place qualification from the group but also completely awakened the team from thirty-four years of European competition dormancy.
Throughout the entire group stage campaign, Julien was the core engine and soul of Bastia's charge on the European stage. With impeccable performances, he became the absolute flag of the team's return to glory.
The loss once so close yet so far from Europe's peak has now transformed into power, flowing into Julien and his Blue Army. Bastia's European story will be written personally by Julien.
Europa League knockout stage—Bastia is coming!"
Bastia fans held the newspaper in their hands, constantly reading through it. They read this headline several times.
Everyone muttered, "Julien will lead us to advance."
Just as they once believed in captain Papi.
Bastia Daily also wrote about which teams Bastia might draw at the upcoming draw ceremony on December 20th, detailing all the teams and particularly introducing the second-pot teams.
Because Bastia would draw a second-pot team.
The paper detailed all teams' records, their league performances, and their situations this season.
The eyes of Bastia's fans and people glowed.
They were confident the team was no worse than any other team!
In this atmosphere, Bastia Daily even had someone contact the club, requesting an exclusive interview with the team.
And the focus of this interview was naturally Julien.
Chataigner mentioned this to Julien. "You can avoid other interviews, but this kind of interview with our own people—I think you might want to participate. I think seeing your statement will be more useful to the fans than anything we say."
Julien understood this point. The new year was about to pass. Currently Bastia ranked first in Ligue 1 and had also qualified first from their Europa League group.
The second half of the season was about consolidating all this and ultimately winning the championship!
Julien nodded and replied, "Okay, but let's wait until after the Europa League draw. Um, let's do it during the day on Christmas Eve. We still have four league matches before Christmas. I want to wait until those matches are finished—this interview can be my year-end summary and New Year outlook."
Chataigner smiled. "Of course!"
This matter was thus settled.
The next day, Bastia immediately set off for Toulouse for their sixteenth round of league play.
Julien didn't start in this match.
Before Christmas, Bastia had matches every three days. Hadzibegic didn't dare take risks.
He was also quite nervous at this stage. At yesterday's PSG pre-match press conference, Ancelotti had explicitly said, "Paris has only one league opponent: Bastia."
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