The tunnel was a pressure cooker, a narrow corridor filled with the ghosts of a hundred years of rivalry and the deafening roar of 80,000 screaming fans.
The air was thick enough to taste.
Opposite the stoic blue and black of Inter stood the imposing black and white of Juventus.
Leon's heart hammered against his ribs, a steady drumbeat of adrenaline and focus.
The revelation of Juventus's double-synergy was a chilling secret locked behind his eyes.
Their attack was a linked pair of assassins; their defense, an impenetrable fortress.
The teams stepped out onto the pitch, and the world exploded into a wall of sound and color.
The commentator's voice, already at a fever pitch, climbed to an even higher level of hysteria.
