On the pitch with that goal, the atmosphere turned aggressive, and fouls started flying dense and fast between the two sides.
Julien kept his eyes locked on Neymar.
Brazil's entire attacking outlet ran through Neymar, and Neymar alone.
Which meant his situation was growing more dangerous by the minute.
The Colombians were going after him hard whenever he had the ball.
Every few minutes, Neymar was rolling on the turf.
In the end, Brazil went into the break leading Colombia 1-0, courtesy of a goal from Thiago Silva.
Hulk was lively down the left, firing off shot after shot, but Ospina turned back everything.
When the first half ended, the French players stretched and grabbed a bite to refuel.
They talked through the match too.
Everyone was already turning their minds to Brazil to Neymar, especially and how to handle them.
Deschamps' face was grim.
Who knew how many ways to shut Neymar down were running through his head just then.
Julien, for his part, said nothing at all.
He was simply waiting for the match to end.
Soon enough—
To open the second half, Colombia made the first substitution, bringing on Ramos to bolster the attack. Brazil kept control of the game, but a twist came anyway.
In the 64th minute, Thiago Silva interfered with Ospina's goal kick and picked up a pointless yellow—enough, with his accumulated cards, to rule him out.
He would miss the semifinal against France.
Watching it happen—
Back in the meeting room, the French players broke into laughter.
Deschamps finally released a small breath of relief.
Silva mattered immensely to Brazil's back line. In fact, looking at it through the eyes of a World Cup–winning centre back, Deschamps knew David Luiz was simply too error-prone.
He looked fierce enough, but so often he failed to do the actual job in front of him.
As a centre back, he was constantly out of position. And it was always Silva covering for him.
Without Silva, Deschamps had already started thinking about how to exploit his own attacking line to tear straight through Brazil's defence.
But just as Deschamps was working out how to attack that David Luiz weakness—Luiz showed off a strength of his own.
In the 68th minute, David Luiz stepped up to a free kick thirty meters out, dead centre, and drove it with his right foot straight into the top corner. Brazil pushed the lead to 2-0.
The commentator roared: "A worldie! David Luiz scoring in back-to-back matches!"
As the match wore toward its close—
In the 77th minute, Rodríguez sent a perfect through ball. Bacca took the ball in on a run and was scythed down inside the box by Cesar. The referee pointed to the spot. James Rodríguez stepped up, sent Cesar the wrong way, and buried it low to the left. 2-1.
It was his sixth goal of the tournament—his fifth straight match with a goal.
Just like that, the suspense was back.
Brazil responded with a string of substitutions, trying to see out the game.
The closer it got to the end, the more intently Julien watched.
Time ticked away, minute by minute.
Then, suddenly—
Deep in stoppage time, around the 87th minute, Neymar was running with the ball when Colombia's Zúñiga drove a knee viciously into his lower back, right at the base of his spine.
He lost all support in an instant and crashed to the turf.
"AHHHHHH"
Even through the screen you could hear Neymar's scream of agony, his hands clamped over his back, his face twisted, his fist beat helplessly against the grass.
The injury was clearly severe.
The camera locked onto him. His teammates panicked the moment they saw it, sprinting over and crowding around him with worry.
Marcelo got there first. Whatever Neymar said to him, his expression instantly changed.
He was shouting for the team doctor to get out there.
The doctor rushed on and carefully checked his back and legs.
Then he signalled for the stretcher. Neymar was lifted onto it slowly, crying the whole time.
This injury would keep him out for the rest of the World Cup.
Watching it unfolds, Julien felt a strange, helpless kind of sympathy for him as if it had always been written that Neymar would suffer this.
He understood exactly what Neymar meant to Brazil, because it was the same thing he meant to France: the heart of the attack, the hope of the team, the man who broke a game open when nothing else would.
Losing Neymar wasn't just losing a star player. It would tear apart Brazil's entire tactical setup and shake the morale of the whole squad.
And with Thiago Silva also suspended on accumulated yellows, Brazil's back line was about to be tested hard, too.
Hit twice over like that—no wonder this host nation had once been torn apart 7-1 by Germany on home soil.
Except this time, the opponent was France.
It was him.
Quietly, in his own head, Julien thought: Brazil is finished.
Deschamps sat in the corner, his face still revealing almost nothing, though something shifted faintly behind his eyes. He gave a small nod and pulled out his notebook, writing quickly.
Neymar's injury, Thiago Silva's suspension—both would completely reshape Brazil's tactics.
Which meant France's preparations going forward would need adjusting to match.
He murmured something to his assistant coach.
Brazil losing its core at both ends of the pitch—for France, that was about as good as luck got.
As Neymar was carried off, the match kept going on the screen. In stoppage time, Ospina even charged up front to contest a set piece, but Ramos' header sailed over the bar.
In the end, Brazil beat Colombia 2-1, reaching the semifinals for the first time in three World Cups.
But the joy on the pitch was dulled by Neymar's injury, and the Brazilian players' celebrations felt heavy.
Afterward, the French players chatted casually among themselves.
Everyone felt more confident than ever.
Some of them were already sure the final was theirs.
Deschamps got up and, without dwelling on the match, simply said, "You all know we're facing the host nation, Brazil, next. Rest well. Let's beat them and get to the final."
"Yes, sir!"
The room roared back at once.
By the time Julien turned back to the television, it had already moved on to the post-match interviews.
On screen, James said, "We lost. Yes, and I'm heartbroken about it. But we gave everything we had out there. And honestly, some of today's calls didn't go our way. Brazil is a very strong team, but we can walk off this pitch with our heads held high, and at peace with ourselves."
Zúñiga, whose challenge had caused Neymar's injury, also spoke to reporters. "I'm sorry for what happened to Neymar. But from where I stood, I never meant to hurt him. It was a fair challenge. I was only fighting for my country, Colombia, for the shirt I wear."
After a short time, the French players drifted back to their rooms to rest. Under Deschamps, there wasn't much in the way of entertainment on offer anyway.
Once Brazil's match wrapped up, the entire football world's headlines turned to Brazil—the host nation, after all.
And a favourite to win it all, on top of that.
So, the attention was enormous. And nothing drew more of it than Neymar's injury.
Plenty of football's biggest names gave interviews or spoke up on social media.
Pelé, for instance wrote:
"Neymar was raised in my Santos FC and it hurts our hearts to know that he can no longer defend Brazil in the World Cup. I was also injured during the 1962 World Cup in Chile, and I was out for the rest of the tournament, but God helped Brazil continue on to win the Championship. I hope the same will happen with our Seleção in this World Cup."
Brazil's President Rousseff posted on her own Twitter: "Like every Brazilian, my thoughts are with Neymar right now. Stay strong, Neymar."
Ronaldo Nazario went further and tore into Zúñiga.
" I sent a message to Neymar offering my solidarity and love, telling him I'm at his disposition for whatever he needs. I told him the whole country is proud of him, and that my story is an example of how it is possible to recover and overcome adversity. He is very young with a long path ahead of him. Watch the slow-motion replay and it's obvious—the Colombian player meant to hurt Neymar. I don't think that's within the normal bounds of football at all. This foul was far too serious."
Ronaldo had reason enough to be furious. Neymar's injury was severe, and yet the referee on the pitch hadn't punished Zúñiga at all.
After the match, FIFA announced it would investigate the incident to decide whether further disciplinary action against the Colombian was warranted.
But by that point, it hardly mattered.
The damage was already done.
And Colombia was already out of the tournament.
Ronaldo added, "I really don't like the way that Colombian player drove his knee up like that. It makes me believe it was deliberate—that he meant to hurt Neymar with that foul. I think this was a genuinely violent act. But none of that matters now. Losing Neymar leaves us heartbroken, and honestly, afraid."
Head coach Scolari was blunt at the post-match press conference: Neymar, he said, had been deliberately "hunted down."
He was furious.
Outside Brazil, too, well-wishes poured in for Neymar.
Messi wrote on Facebook: "Neymar, I hope you recover as fast as possible, my friend."
Messi's Argentina would be playing Belgium the next day, fighting for their own place in the semifinals.
Football wasn't the only sport to weigh in—basketball stars spoke up almost immediately, too.
Kobe Bryant and LeBron James both sent Neymar their well wishes.
And of course, Zúñiga, inevitably, took the brunt of the backlash online.
His social media accounts were basically swarming, buried under a flood of abuse from furious Brazilian fans.
There were all kinds of insults.
Curses of every variety aimed at Zúñiga—the rawest expression of how angry Brazilian fans were over what had happened to Neymar.
As time went on, more details about Neymar's injury kept releasing.
The team doctors finally released their conclusive diagnosis: a fractured vertebra. The good news was there was no nerve damage—his career and his life afterward wouldn't be affected.
The bad news, of course, was that it would take a long time to heal.
Scolari said, "When Marcelo ran over to him, Neymar told him he couldn't feel his legs at all—he was afraid he might be paralyzed. Marcelo was terrified by what he saw and immediately called for the team doctor, but in all the chaos, the doctor couldn't get through right away. Afterward, Neymar was carried onto the helicopter in tears."
The old coach also spoke to what Neymar meant to Brazil: "He's someone this team leans on. He's one of the few players who can decide a match on his own. We're in a difficult spot now, having lost someone that important, and we'll have to face our semifinal against France without him."
Meanwhile—
The Brazilian Football Confederation had already sprung into action, submitting an appeal to FIFA asking that Thiago Silva's yellow card be rescinded.
The CBF argued Silva hadn't meant to interfere with the opposing player, and on that basis, they appealed to FIFA's disciplinary committee.
Under Article 37 of FIFA's Disciplinary Code: "Following a request from a member association, the Disciplinary Committee may rescind a yellow card that did not result in the player's sending-off."
Silva fit the criteria exactly.
A FIFA media spokesperson responded: "I can confirm we've received an appeal from the Brazilian Football Confederation. We're currently reviewing it."
There's also this, one fun bit of trivia: once a team reaches the World Cup semifinals, every yellow card accumulated up to that point gets wiped clean. Meaning a player who picks up a yellow in the semifinal doesn't have to worry about missing the final over accumulated cards.
Red cards, though, still carry a suspension.
Beyond the appeal over Thiago Silva's yellow.
Once Neymar's injury details were out, Brazil's Globo Esporte reported that Neymar was considering a numbing injection to give himself a shot at playing in the final.
According to doctors, although the injury itself was a fracture of the third lumbar transverse process, what actually kept Neymar off the pitch was the pain the fracture caused. If that pain could be suppressed quickly enough, Neymar would have a strong chance to play—possibly even to start.
And among current treatments, a numbing injection could achieve exactly that.
Beyond the injection itself, according to Brazil's Globo TV, the Brazilian medical staff had already exhausted every method available to make what once seemed impossible—Neymar playing in the final—a reality.
For now, it all hinged on whether Brazil could get past France in the semifinal first.
If Brazil beat France, the team doctors would run a full examination on Neymar again, and then Neymar and his family would weigh the risks and decide together whether the injection was worth it.
Because while the injection could get a player onto the pitch, it could also do lasting damage to the body—in severe cases, damage that could follow a player through the rest of his career.
Furthermore, according to the reports, whatever the consequences, Neymar had already made peace with risking his own career for his country.
When Julien came across the story, he joked with his teammates about it: "Hey, guys—you wouldn't want to see a talented player's whole future ruined over one injury, would you?"
Griezmann caught on instantly and burst out laughing. "Relax, Julien. Not gonna happen. We'll just send Brazil home and let Neymar rest up properly."
The others laughed along too.
Griezmann added, "Honestly, last season, going up against Barça, the coaching staff nearly went crazy trying to figure out how to shut them down. Messi alone was already a headache and then Neymar showed up too."
Julien smiled faintly and nodded.
And in his head, one thought kept circling: Germany managed a 7-1 against Brazil. So what happens to Brazil now, against France?
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