The commentator, ever the narrator of the drama, noticed the shift instantly. "A smile on the face of Leon! In a match of this magnitude! Is it confidence? Is it arrogance? Or is it the look of a man who knows something the rest of us do not?"
On the pitch, the change was immediate and electrifying.
The ball came to Leon in the 14th minute.
He wasn't just playing football anymore; he was dancing. He received the ball, glided past one midfielder with a feint that was barely a shimmer of movement. He approached the second, a tough-tackling defender, and with a breathtaking piece of skill, he performed a perfect Zidane Roulette, spinning away from the challenge with an elegance that drew a collective gasp from the entire stadium.
He drove forward, the Sassuolo defense in a full-blown panic. He played a quick, clever one-two pass with Cole Palmer, a telepathic connection that left another defender for dead. He was in the box, the goal at his mercy. He could have shot.
