"I think facing Spain, we need faster players. We can't just exhaust Julien, and having only him as an explosive option makes it easy for Spain to contain us."
Deschamps watched Julien's close-up on the broadcast.
He was discussing the World Cup qualifier against Spain in two weeks with Stéphane.
Stéphane nodded agreeing with his words.
"Their midfield control is very strong. We definitely won't be able to get the ball out easily, so we must intensify pressure on their midfield and raise the tempo. We need players who can run a lot."
Deschamps naturally understood this.
Spain, like Barcelona, had been placed under a microscope and studied by coaches worldwide. Defensive strategies focusing on them already existed.
The key was having players who could execute the tactics.
Spain was currently on a 23-game winning streak in international competitions, which put enormous pressure on Deschamps.
Who wouldn't want to qualify directly for the World Cup rather than play playoffs?
"We still need someone in midfield who can distribute the ball."
Deschamps had scouted many new players, but none had yet met his standards for midfield.
He shook his head. France's talent pool had actually declined to this extent; many positions were just makeshift solutions.
Back in the day, France had abundant talent. What a spectacle that was.
Even the substitutes were key players for mid-to-upper-tier teams in the top five leagues.
Lower-tier team starters couldn't even get into the French national team.
And now?
Thinking of this Deschamps released a deep sigh.
"In the 70th minute, Bastia makes a substitution. Their captain, number 10 Julien De Rocca, comes on as a substitute, replacing the underperforming Ilan.
De Rocca has appeared four times in Ligue 1, scoring eight goals, two per game on average. He can be called Ligue 1's most efficient striker. Even Ibrahimovic, with the highest market value in Ligue 1, can't match De Rocca's efficiency."
On television, Julien entered the match.
Deschamps and Stéphane's attention returned to the broadcast.
Deschamps couldn't help but comment, "The two wing positions are still the most reassuring."
Stéphane completely agreed. France's wing strength was impressive enough as there were Ribéry and Julien.
One old, one young, a perfect combo to support France's generational transition.
At the Allianz Riviera.
Julien hugged Ilan, tapped his studs on the sideline, then entered the match.
"Julien!"
The away section erupted with Bastia fans excitedly chanting his name.
De Bruyne, Lukaku, Kante, and other teammates all made eye contact with Julien.
Julien's entry meant their playing style would change slightly.
Ilan had indeed been useless. He almost became an attack-killer as he couldn't beat his man-marker, and even couldn't protect the ball.
A winger who can't dribble past opponents makes it harder for teammates.
After Julien came on, Nice still chose to attack. They were two goals down, so not attacking meant waiting to die. And this was at home.
Puel could only hope left-back Kolodziejczak could handle Julien.
Unfortunately, When Julien first touched the ball, he had that hope shattered.
Nice's attack came to nothing.
De Bruyne pushed forward with the ball in midfield. Julien was one-on-one with Kolodziejczak on the wing, so De Bruyne immediately passed it over.
Seeing the ball coming, Kolodziejczak instinctively wanted to intercept, but an instinctive fear of Julien made him resist this impulse.
He just positioned himself in Julien's path.
Meanwhile, Nice's defensive midfielder Digard came over to help.
Julien was familiar with all Nice players from pre-match scouting reports that coaches shared for tactical preparation.
Digard was a typical defensive midfielder, known for his interception ability and physical intensity. He had good coverage, excelled at tackles and disrupting opponent rhythm, but was technically limited with low pass completion rates. He often received cards for overly aggressive defending.
This was an important breakthrough point for Bastia.
Only in the first half, Ilan in this position hadn't achieved the tactical effect.
Julien had the ball one-on-one.
Before Digard could arrive, Kolodziejczak was already beaten by Julien's first move. He had overestimated his defensive ability against Julien.
Kolodziejczak hadn't even figured out Julien's movement when he instinctively reached out to grab Julien's jersey.
But because his balance was compromised, though he grabbed the shirt, he couldn't apply force before being dragged forward a step by Julien.
He nearly fell himself, and stumbled several steps to regain balance.
Digard quickly followed up, joining center-back Pecinovitch who had come out to defend, forming a wall to block Julien.
After observing the central situation, Julien didn't force another breakthrough.
Instead, facing the two defenders, he performed a couple of step-overs, then suddenly knocked the ball toward the byline with his left foot, instantly activating his explosive speed to charge toward the goal line.
Pecinovitch's defensive ability was unquestionable, but facing a player like Julien with both pace and dribbling ability, he was completely outclassed.
He couldn't keep up at all!
He watched helplessly as Julien charged toward the byline. Fortunately, it wasn't far to the goal line, so Julien didn't have much space to completely shake him off.
Seeing Julien shape to cross with his right foot, Pecinovitch made a sliding tackle to block Julien's path.
However, when he slid in, Julien simply knocked the ball back, half-turned, and curled a left-footed shot directly toward the far corner!
Whoosh!
This shot was very close to the Nice fans behind the goal, and seeing this scene, they all gasped.
No one expected Julien to shoot directly from this position.
Fortunately, goalkeeper Ospina's instinctive reaction was quick enough.
He managed to get a hand to the ball and deflected it toward the goal mouth.
However, a large black figure charged into the goal along with the ball.
Beep!
The referee blew his whistle, pointing toward the center circle.
0-3!
Bastia had scored again!
Lukaku, who had fallen in the goal alongside Nice center-back Renato Civelli, quickly got up.
His face was creased with smiles as he pointed at Julien, shouting, "Beautiful, Julien!"
He added, "Come on, let's do that celebration I taught you in training."
Julien laughed.
He joined Lukaku on the sideline, facing the Nice stands, performing their celebration, both men placed their hands at their waists, swaying left and right in a rocking motion like putting a baby to sleep.
Lukaku's interpretation of this gesture was that fans could sleep peacefully, with him there, there would be no surprises.
"BOOOOOOOOO"
However, Nice fans saw this as mockery, booing Lukaku and Julien loudly.
Some even threw plastic cups onto the pitch.
Other Bastia teammates quickly joined in the celebration huddle.
At only 73 minutes, they were already three goals ahead.
This match was basically won!
De Bruyne came over to celebrate and said to Julien, "You look like you're in good form."
Julien shrugged and said. "Their fitness has dropped significantly. It's normal they can't defend against me."
This was indeed true.
Lukaku's several charges in the first half had severely drained the Nice defense's stamina.
Beep!
Back at the center circle, play resumed.
Bastia was riding high on confidence. After Nice's kickoff, they pressed high, forcing Nice to play out from the back.
Any attempt to play out created mistakes.
Bastia was targeting exactly these errors.
Soon, Puel made adjustments, substituting attacking players Camel and Boscagli.
He brought on defender Pied and forward Bosetti.
Bosetti was a Nice academy product who, despite his youth, had already shown technical finesse and clinical finishing.
He excelled at finding space through movement and had keen instincts in the box, though his physical duels and consistency still needed improvement. In previous matches as a substitute, he had contributed crucial goals in limited playing time.
Nice's academy was indeed developing excellently.
Current French national goalkeeper Lloris was a Nice academy graduate.
Since chairman Rivère took charge, he had reformed the youth system.
From the youngest academy teams to the senior squad, Nice maintained unified tactical philosophies, meaning players trained here only differed in how early or late they matured.
This facilitated seamless transitions from youth teams to the first team.
However, Bosetti's first touch after coming on wasn't pleasant.
Just as he received a teammate's pass and tried to turn, he was dispossessed from behind by Kante, who was shorter than him.
Bosetti appealed to the referee, thinking Kante had fouled him. But the referee ignored his protests.
Bastia had a counter-attack opportunity, but De Bruyne deliberately slowed the pace instead of pursuing a quick break.
Leading 3-0, and with Nice switching to a five-back formation after the substitutions, there was no need to rush.
De Bruyne knew when to speed up and when to slow down.
This was more like a natural instinct. It was very difficult to learn.
Bastia moved into positional play. De Bruyne appeared more frequently, constantly moving in midfield, dropping deep, pulling wide, creating space, distributing passes.
Nice struggled to cope with this.
Time gradually passed, and just when everyone thought the match would end this way, Bastia suddenly accelerated.
De Bruyne played a through ball. Julien understood his intention, exploding from a standing start and instantly getting behind Digard.
Both Pied and Pecinovitch rushed toward Julien.
Bang!
Julien didn't hesitate for a moment, he made a powerful shot!
The ball flew between them.
Pied and Pecinovitch instinctively threw themselves to the ground to block.
From the fans' perspective, it looked like Julien's shot was like bowling: the ball went through, and two men fell.
Then a third person also fell.
Goalkeeper Ospina.
He stretched his body desperately, trying to stop the ball, but it still brushed past his fingertips into the net.
84th minute, 0-4.
A Massacre!
The TF1 commentator exclaimed, "DE ROCCCAAAA! GOAAALLL! SENSATIONAL!!!
The connection between De Rocca and De Bruyne! They've gone absolutely wild!
This is such an attacking level play that doesn't belong in Ligue 1!"
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