In the stands.
Watching Ramos defend against Julien, Morientes said to Zidane, "It seems Sergio can still defend against Julien. Schuster has been using him as a fullback before, so he still has that defensive awareness."
Zidane shook his head. "It's different. Sergio alone can't stop Julien in a one-on-one situation, but in this match, Bosque clearly won't give Julien any chance to face any player individually."
Morientes agreed with this assessment.
On the field, France kicked off, but after just three passes, the ball was back at Spain's feet.
Morientes watched Julien being marked tightly and suddenly said, "He should be quite suitable for Real Madrid."
Unexpectedly, Zidane shook his head again.
"I've spoken with his father. Julien probably won't choose to join a top club for quite some time."
"Ah?" Morientes was somewhat surprised.
"Why? With this level of talent, he should go to a top club."
Zidane turned to look at Morientes. He originally wanted to say "Julien doesn't want to end up like you," but he would never say that out loud.
As a player who came up through Real Madrid's youth academy, Morientes's loyalty to the club and professional attitude were beyond question.
The "Double R" strike partnership of Morientes and Raúl was an iconic combination for Real Madrid in the early 21st century.
Unfortunately, Florentino's galáctico policy cruelly made him a sacrifice to Real Madrid's commercial transformation, and his outstanding performances after leaving the club only added a tragic tinge to this story.
Such is life at a top club.
But Zidane changed his words, and said, "To each their own path."
Morientes nodded. His eyes suddenly lit up as he shouted, "David!"
Whoosh!
At the same time, Spanish fans let out a gasp, all eyes focused on Silva.
He had just performed an Iniesta-signature croqueta, getting past Matuidi and creating a huge gap.
Bang!
Silva didn't hesitate for a second, and a powerful shot!
The ball flew straight toward the net. Lloris dove to make the save.
He barely managed to push the ball out for a corner, making both French players and fans breathe a sigh of relief.
"Hey! Stay focused!"
Lloris pointed at his temple, shouting to his teammates.
Xavi took the corner kick.
The ball dropped into the center of the box, where Giroud and Ramos battled in the air, neither giving an inch. The ball was headed out of the penalty area.
Silva and Ribéry rushed toward it together.
Both extended their feet. But at the moment of contact, Silva's ankle twisted awkwardly due to the angle, the ball deflecting off his foot.
"Ah!"
He immediately lifted his leg and fell to the ground, crying out in pain.
Ribéry didn't stop because of Silva's fall. He quickly gained control of the ball, preparing to move forward.
Tweet!
But the referee blew the whistle, calling a foul on Ribéry.
Ribéry had made contact with the ball afterward. Ribéry felt wronged, held the ball and began questioning the referee, "This was a fifty-fifty ball, that's not a foul!"
The Spanish players at that moment didn't bother arguing with Ribéry.
They noticed something was wrong with Silva's condition.
Silva was clutching his ankle.
The medical team immediately entered the field.
After examination, their faces were serious. The situation didn't look good, and they gestured to Bosque on the sideline for a substitution.
Bosque frowned and quickly signaled to Cazorla.
Just thirteen minutes in, and already losing a key player, this made Bosque very uncomfortable.
Silva was soon helped off the field.
Cazorla came on.
As a midfielder Arsenal had just bought for 19 million euros in the summer window, his technical ability was equally impressive.
This was Spain's midfield depth.
Just thinking about how even Mata couldn't make the squad showed how fierce the competition was.
The match resumed.
Julien waited for opportunities on the wing while observing Spain's formation. After Silva went off, Iniesta moved forward to play as a winger.
An excellent chance soon arrived!
Iniesta broke through from the left side of the box but was intercepted by Cabaye, the ball deflecting outside the penalty area.
Xavi, at the top of the arc, struck with his right foot!
The ball flew into the box.
However, Cazorla, who had only been on for just over a minute, became a "Lukaku-style" post.
Xavi's shot hit him and was blocked.
But Cazorla immediately got a chance at redemption.
The ball was still controlled by Spain on the perimeter. After several passes by Xavi, he suddenly passed to Cazorla who had infiltrated the left side of the box.
He shot low with his right foot, the ball passing right between the legs of the retreating Giroud, heading toward goal!
However, because the ball grazed Giroud's leg slightly, it wasn't fast, and Lloris easily caught it.
Lloris caught the ball and lay on the ground. He didn't get up immediately.
He wanted to give his teammates a chance to catch their breath. Spain's attacks had been too fierce during this period.
France couldn't even manage five consecutive passes before losing possession.
The TF1 commentator, watching this situation, sighed, "Tonight we may have to rely heavily on Lloris's performance on the defensive end. Fortunately, he's in good form.
But we also have to recognize that Deschamps's extremely conservative three-defensive-midfielder tactic has left France's attacking system fragmented. Julien on the wing is getting no support at all."
The commentator continued, "I think we could learn from how Mourinho dealt with Barcelona to handle Spain.
After all, France versus Spain is like a miniature version of the Spanish national derby from the past two years.
From setting up an extremely conservative three-defensive-midfielder formation to defend deeply, to actively pressing with high intensity in the midfield and attacking third, it took Mourinho two years to figure out how to deal with Barcelona.
Deschamps needs to learn from this."
At that moment, Deschamps stood with his left hand supporting his right, his right-hand fingers at his mouth, occasionally biting his nails.
He continuously observed the match on the field.
This passive situation wasn't what he wanted to see.
Time kept passing.
French fans could only shake their heads watching.
Julien could barely touch the ball. There was no attacking at all.
24th minute.
Fábregas received a chip pass from Iniesta and volleyed toward goal, but Lloris tipped it out for a corner.
Whoosh!
The crowd was stunned, tonight's Lloris was truly a war god.
French fans could only joke self-deprecatingly, "Weak teams really do produce legendary goalkeepers."
Then, Xavi took the corner from the left, and Ramos's header from the center of the box hit the post.
Whoosh!
Another gasp from the crowd.
The French players' hearts jumped, but before they could breathe a sigh of relief, Spain's suffocating attacks continued.
Pedro swept the ball across the goal from the right side of the box.
Lloris dove to the ground. He was already as quick as possible and couldn't do anything else, only instinctively pushing the ball away from the goal mouth.
But he didn't push it far.
Ramos, who had just come up for the corner, pushed the ball into the empty net from the center of the small box with his right foot.
BOOM!!
The entire Calderón Stadium erupted, the whole ground was shaking with cheers.
The ball was in.
1-0, Spain took the lead at home!
Ramos sprinted to the sideline, wildly pumping his fists in celebration toward the stands. Spanish players rushed over to embrace and celebrate together.
The French players could only shake their heads helplessly.
This series of attacks had left their defense completely unable to keep up.
The TF1 commentator was somewhat helpless: "Spain's attack is too strong, wave after wave, every position is an attacking threat point, thriving everywhere.
And everyone knows France's attack mainly relies on the two wings, which is too easy to defend against. This is why Spain has won three consecutive major tournament championships. Their performance truly shows the strength of world and European champions."
Bosque celebrated excitedly.
Deschamps could only shake his head and sigh.
He had always emphasized that defense wins matches.
But the current reality was that not attacking meant losing.
Tweet!
After the celebration at Calderón Stadium, France kicked off.
After Giroud passed to Matuidi, he turned and rushed forward. France wanted to capitalize on the kickoff opportunity to grab an attack.
But Matuidi didn't pass to Giroud's feet.
Instead, he passed to Julien's side. But the pass was slightly inaccurate, going behind Julien. He stopped his forward run and had just received the ball.
Alba rushed up from behind, bumping him and secretly pushing.
Julien's physical confrontation ability wasn't particularly strong to begin with. With this push, he immediately fell.
The referee blew the whistle.
Spanish defensive players were already in position. France took the free kick, Julien received the ball and tried to take it past Alba and Pedro.
But Iniesta came over to block his last route.
He stole the ball.
Clap clap clap!
The home crowd applauded seeing Julien lose possession. Before the match between France and Spain, Spanish media had reported that they needed to watch out for Julien, France's most watched young player this year with exceptional ability.
They even said Julien's market value would likely rise to over fifty million in the next Transfermarkt update.
So Spanish fans were paying attention to Julien.
However, From the start of the match until now, Julien hadn't shown anything exceptional.
After possession returned to Spain's feet, France could barely keep the ball.
The current possession ratio had reached an astonishing 80% to 20%.
Iniesta passed, Pedro cut inside to the left side of the box and shot low with his right foot!
Lloris dove but didn't touch the ball. Fortunately, the ball went wide of the near post.
Lloris quickly kicked the ball out.
Julien's side was heavily marked, so France immediately switched the attack to the left.
Ribéry charged forward with the ball.
Facing Arbeloa's marking, seeing Busquets coming to cover, Ribéry played a through ball into the box.
Giroud used his physical advantage against Ramos to get into position and shot low with his left foot from the left side of the box.
Unfortunately, Casillas caught it.
Giroud pounded the ground in frustration. This was France's first shot of the entire first half.
Time kept passing.
Both sides fought intensely, and French fans' hearts were in their throats.
In Paris, in Marseille, in Lyon, in Bastia—in every corner of France where people watched football, fans were in different spaces but shared the same mood.
Heavy.
36th minute: Pedro cut inside from the left and played it back, Iniesta struck powerfully with his right foot from the left side of the penalty arc, but Koscielny kicked the ball out for a corner.
Whew!
Deschamps on the sideline couldn't help but exhale. Spain's intensive attacks were making it hard for him to breathe.
France had no possession.
The two fast wingers, the two sharp blades, had no way to be deployed.
"Julien!"
But just as he was worrying, his assistant coach suddenly shouted out, extremely excited.
Spain's corner was cleared outside the box, and this time Julien got to the ball first.
Julien controlled the ball and turned forward.
An opportunity!
All French fans seemed to see hope.
Julien charged forward with explosive speed.
Busquets was closest to Julien and quickly closed in, sliding in with a tackle. But Julien pushed the ball forward and accelerated again!
He evaded Busquets.
Whoosh!
"Julien!"
French fans eagerly watched.
Charging all the way into the opponent's half, getting closer to the penalty area, Julien kept his head down in a full sprint. His stamina dropped significantly, and just as he was preparing to cut inside or pass the ball—
The deep-lying Xabi Alonso came over to cover, not even going for the ball but directly grabbed Julien and pulled him down.
They both fell to the ground together.
Whoosh!
Spanish fans breathed a sigh of relief seeing Alonso stop Julien.
This sprint made them understand a bit why they needed to be careful of this young man.
Tweet!
The referee's whistle blew while he pulled out a yellow card, pointing at Alonso.
Deschamps was very excited on the sideline. He unleashed a tirade at the fourth official.
"That's a red card! Red card!! No one could stop Julien. If he didn't foul, Julien would have broken through one-on-one!!"
The fourth official could only explain, "That's your assumption. The rules are the rules. Alonso wasn't the last man."
After both sides debated with the referee for a while—
The match continued.
Cabaye took the free kick and sent a 45-degree cross.
The ball dropped into the box.
And Chaos ensued.
Giroud was very conspicuous in the crowd. He didn't shoot directly. His battle with Ramos left him without the energy to shoot, so he headed the ball across to the far post.
Casillas had been drawn to his right by Giroud's header.
But Giroud headed the ball to Casillas's left side.
He couldn't get there in time.
Coming around from the far post, using his speed to beat everyone else, Julien headed the ball into the goal.
Goal!
1-1!
Julien's face lit up with excitement. He turned to rush out of the field to celebrate, but—
TWEET!!
The referee's whistle sounded, his right arm raised, left hand sweeping across to signal: offside.
'What?'
The French players were baffled. What kind of offside was that?
Julien had come in from deep. But the linesman's flag was also raised.
It was offside.
Julien rushed toward referee Bridge. "No, that's absolutely not offside!"
Bridge shook his head. "Not you. Number 9 was already offside when he headed the ball."
Giroud was adamant. "No! Absolutely not!"
The Spanish players came over to push the French players away, saying, "Offside is offside."
Deschamps's face was dark as thunder, extremely agitated, continuously telling the fourth official this was absolutely not offside.
But Bridge had already signaled to continue play.
Julien shook his head helplessly. In this era without VAR, there wasn't even a chance to review and check.
He didn't want to admit that refereeing mistakes were part of football, but the fact was just that.
Casillas kicked the ball out.
Busquets received it in the back and pushed forward, suddenly playing a long diagonal pass directly to Pedro on the left.
Pedro burst into the box.
Koscielny, frustrated, kicked Pedro down!
Tweet!
Bridge's whistle blew!
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