Saturday, April 15, 2023
Team Hotel, Florence
7:42 AM
The breakfast room was quiet except for the sound of cutlery against plates and the occasional scrape of chairs on tile flooring, and Atalanta's squad sat scattered across tables eating without the usual morning conversation because everyone understood what the day carried.
Demien sat near the window with a plate of scrambled eggs and toast in front of him while his headphones rested over his ears but no music played, and his eyes scrolled through his phone's lock screen once before he pressed the button and the display went dark, and he set it face-down beside his plate.
Across the room Koopmeiners ate cereal slowly while reading something on his tablet, and De Roon sat two tables away drinking coffee with both hands wrapped around the cup, and neither spoke to anyone because the pre-match atmosphere had settled hours earlier and nobody wanted to break it with forced conversation.
