Julien walked onto the pitch with his teammates. He became the center of attention for the entire stadium.
"Julien!"
At the Stade de France, tens of thousands of fans shouted his name in unison, waving their arms toward him.
Ever since Henry and Trezeguet had faded from the French national team, attack had been the team's weak point—until Julien's emergence.
He gave the fans hope for France's offensive revival.
Down by one goal, there was still time.
Tweet!
The referee blew the whistle to start the second half.
Belarus kicked off, then immediately retreated into deep defense.
This was midfielder Kondratiev's tactical arrangement.
Everyone back to defend!
Hold onto this one-goal lead—that was the objective for every Belarus player in the second half.
The ball came to Julien's feet. He tried to advance down the right flank, but as soon as he touched the ball, three players were already surrounding him.
Putsila, Bressan, and Rodionov—the goalscorer from the first half.
All three closed in around him, preventing any forward movement.
Behind this defensive line, Verkhovtsov lurked menacingly.
Apart from this concentrated defense on Julien, Belarus basically had one player marking each French player elsewhere.
This showed just how much Kondratiev feared Julien.
Julien's breakthrough at this summer's European Championship had truly shocked many people.
As a coach of one of these smaller footballing nations, Kondratiev envied France's ability to continuously produce world-class stars.
First there were Zidane and Henry, and just when France seemed on the verge of a generational gap, Julien burst onto the scene.
On the pitch, after Julien passed the ball, Putsila who was defending him deliberately held back on his challenge, bumping into Julien.
Julien stumbled slightly and instinctively pushed back at Putsila.
Putsila theatrically collapsed to the ground, clutching his face and screaming.
"Ah!"
However, the referee ignored the display, having seen clearly that Putsila's performance was overly dramatic.
Boos!
The French fans in attendance didn't spare their disapproval, showering Putsila with jeers.
Putsila currently played for Freiburg in the Bundesliga as a rotation starter. He had some skill and was Belarus's midfield lynchpin in this match.
He was trying to provoke Julien emotionally, hoping to make him lose his temper—like with that push, intending to get Julien booked.
Julien completely ignored him. He continued making runs, watching his teammates' positions and the ball's location.
After waiting for a reaction that never came, Putsila sheepishly got back up.
French fans could clearly see that after Julien came on, France's attack became much more threatening.
The most important reason was that Julien attracted so much defensive attention.
Ribéry was thriving down the left flank.
Bang!
In the 50th minute, Ribéry cut inside and unleashed a high-quality shot that unfortunately went just wide of the goal.
Two minutes later, Giroud received a pass from Valbuena in front of goal and had a quick shot, but it went straight into goalkeeper Veremko's arms.
Julien's side seemed quiet. But other positions finally came alive.
The TF1 commentator said, "Now this looks like France on the attack. The first half was too sluggish. We still have time. Although Julien hasn't made any direct impact yet, his drawing of defenders is immediately effective."
Indeed, immediately effective. But this wasn't the situation Deschamps wanted to see. He needed someone to free up Julien. France needed another threat.
Currently, they could only rely on Ribéry.
Additionally, he hoped Belarus's defensive intensity wouldn't last much longer, and that the poor defensive habits typical of Belarusian leagues would emerge.
Belarus's various league levels were known for high-scoring games—four or five goals were normal, earning them the nickname "big goal leagues."
Fan analysis suggested that loose defense and aggressive attack were the main causes. Some even joked, "Watching Belarusian leagues, you don't need to buy lottery tickets—just bet on total goals."
Wow!
Suddenly, exclamations erupted from the crowd.
Julien received the ball on the flank again. Facing Bressan near the touchline, he flicked the ball outward with his foot, shifting his weight toward the outside. Bressan instinctively followed.
But in the next moment, Julien suddenly pulled the ball back, pushed it forward, and quickly cut inside.
A cow-tail flick!
Bressan's heart jumped, but his center of gravity was already off-balance—he couldn't match Julien's rhythm.
From the other side, Putsila charged over.
He came in hard. Julien could see from his momentum that he was going for the man, so he immediately dropped his shoulder and accelerated toward the inside.
Putsila quickly reached out with his hands.
But just as he was about to make contact with Julien, Julien suddenly cut the ball back and poked it forward with his right foot.
He accelerated to follow it.
Putsila could still keep up at this point, twisting his body and extending his leg to intercept.
However, Julien was already at full speed.
After receiving the ball with his left foot, he quickly flicked it to his right foot, dodging Putsila's outstretched leg. Then his right foot knocked it back to his left foot as he accelerated forward.
The entire sequence was incredibly smooth.
Gasps!
This brilliant move past two defenders left the entire stadium open-mouthed, with some fans crying out in amazement.
Kislyak and Verkhovtsov quickly converged on him.
Bang!
But this time, Julien chose not to continue dribbling and instead played a cross-field pass to Valbuena.
Valbuena had practiced this combination with Julien in training. He didn't stop the ball.
He made a direct through pass!
Julien shifted into a second gear of acceleration, using his speed advantage to run behind Verkhovtsov.
The ball arrived perfectly!
Belarus's two defensive lines crumbled!
Julien found himself in the left side of the penalty area, facing goalkeeper Veremko one-on-one.
The keeper rushed out.
Julien's feet moved with incredible frequency. While controlling the ball, he even performed a couple of stepovers, observing the goalkeeper's weight distribution.
Just as Veremko couldn't resist coming out to challenge for the ball, at the very moment he committed, Julien fired a left-footed shot into the near corner.
With his weight shifting, Veremko couldn't make a proper save. He awkwardly extended his left foot and barely grazed the ball, but couldn't change its direction.
Swoosh!
The ball nestled in the near corner.
1-1.
ROAR!
The stadium instantly erupted with thunderous cheers from French fans. Julien had scored again!
Seeing the ball hit the net, Julien turned and sprinted toward the corner flag with his arms spread wide. On his way, he cupped his hands to his ears, as if listening to the fans' cheers.
The French supporters didn't disappoint him.
They roared his name with all their might—"Julien!!"
"Allez Les Bleus! Allez La France! Allez Julien, on va gagner!"
The fans also sang France's classic rallying cry: "Come on, Blues! Come on, France!"
However, the fans changed the last line to "Come on, Julien, we're going to win!"
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