De Bruyne passed the ball to Julien.
With his back to goal, Julien controlled the ball with his left foot, then smoothly flicked it back with his heel and turned to break past Djemba, who was defending him.
Djemba instinctively tried to grab him but missed his jersey—Julien had already burst away.
"JULIEN!!"
The fans at the Cesari Stadium were already in high spirits tonight, and seeing this fluid stop-and-go move that easily shook off Djemba, they roared his name.
The supporters near the right touchline had even risen to their feet, pumping their fists and cheering.
Many fans who had traveled from other places sat among them, feeling their scalps tingle at this atmosphere.
This is football, this is Bastia football!
Seeing Julien charge forward, Djemba quickly gave chase, but Julien was much faster.
More crucially, Julien was so agile he could execute two feints and direction changes within a single second, putting enormous pressure on their defense!
Gordana, the 22-year-old academy graduate from Tel Aviv Hapoel, felt his confidence crumbling under Julien's relentless attacks.
Djemba was left behind, and Gordana, after just one encounter with Julien, had his center of gravity completely thrown off.
From the other side, Antebi suddenly rushed over. Julien immediately passed the ball away.
But Antebi's defensive action was overly aggressive, completely targeting the man. Even though Julien had already passed and tried to dodge, Antebi still knocked him down.
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The referee immediately blew his whistle and showed Antebi a yellow card.
Antebi pressed his hands to his chest, shrugged, and protested, "No, I pulled back my foot. This doesn't deserve a yellow card."
"Booooooooooo!!"
The crowd erupted in boos, shouting at Antebi, "This is football, not wrestling or rugby!"
Some more extreme fans yelled "usurier"—a French word originally meaning usurer, but often was used by French people to refer to Jewish people who consider this term antisemitic.
Julien rubbed his leg and got up.
The fans applauded him from the sidelines, and repeatedly chanted: "Julien."
"They can't stop him! Tel Aviv Hapoel's players simply cannot contain De Rocca. Perhaps in their Israeli Super League, they've never encountered a player with such outstanding technical ability. Now suddenly faced with one, they're struggling to adapt.
They can only resort to these fouling tactics to stop him, but the problem is: you can foul once, twice, but can you keep fouling forever?
Now Antebi already has a yellow card. For the rest of the match, it's going to be very dangerous."
The TF1 commentator continued: "Many fans might be hearing about Tel Aviv Hapoel for the first time. They come from far away in Asia, on the other side of the Mediterranean, very far from mainland France.
They have no European honors in their history, though they did win the Asian Champion Club Cup in 1967 which was the predecessor to today's Asian Champions League, which you could think of as the Asian equivalent of the Champions League."
Bastia's attacking free kick.
De Bruyne and Rothen stood over the ball, covering their mouths as they discussed how to take it.
De Bruyne said, "Listen to me, we'll take it like this."
Rothen nodded.
Inside the penalty area, players from both sides jockeyed for position. Since the free kick was quite far out, goalkeeper Edel wasn't worried about a direct shot, so he was mainly focused on preventing aerial threats.
Choplin and Angoula both moved up to contest headers.
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The referee blew his whistle and waved for the kick to be taken.
Rothen made his run-up.
As he ran past the ball, De Bruyne struck it into the penalty area with a beautifully curved delivery at high speed.
During his run, Lukaku was elbowed in the head by someone in the crowd and fell to the ground, holding his head and appealing for a foul.
But the referee showed no reaction.
Meanwhile, the ball flew toward the far post, where Angoula and Choplin had been waiting.
Everyone was charging forward.
Angoula actively helped Choplin by pushing away the defending players, creating half a body's worth of space for Choplin.
With just that bit of space, Choplin leaped high, carrying forward momentum, and delivered a thunderous header!
BANG!
The ball crashed into the net.
The shot was too fast and too close—Edel had no time to react. He instinctively tried to make a save, but the ball was already in the net before he could move.
The referee blew his whistle and pointed to the center circle.
Goal!
ROAR!
The entire stadium erupted. Choplin sprinted toward the sideline, and just before reaching the touchline, he executed a front flip, then spread his arms wide like Julien.
"CHOPLIN!"
The fans didn't stint on their praise for any player, and began chanting his name.
Lukaku, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly found his head didn't hurt anymore and forgot about the foul, and beamed as he rushed to join his teammates.
Less than twenty minutes in and two goals ahead.
This scoreline filled everyone at the Cesari Stadium with hope. They no longer saw just victory in this match, they saw the Europa League trophy itself.
Benado bit his lip.
The team's rapid collapse left him feeling frustrated, but the boiling stadium atmosphere kept battering his confidence.
Against Bastia, who sat second in Ligue 1, did they still have hope?
However weak Ligue 1 might be, that was only relative to Europe's other top four leagues, not compared to Israel.
Benado looked toward the pitch. His gaze didn't focus on the goal scorer, but on Julien and De Bruyne, who had created this free kick opportunity.
In them, Benado saw the cruel disparities in human talent.
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The Play resumed.
Benado instructed his players to focus on defense and look for counterattacking opportunities. But Julien's repeated charges down the flank left them increasingly disoriented.
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The whistle sounded again as Gordana kicked Julien's heel from behind.
Julien cried out and fell to the ground.
The referee showed a yellow card.
"Boooooooooooooo!"
The crowd's boos rang out again. Benado's mood sank further: both players primarily defending Julien had now been booked.
The time had only just reached thirty minutes.
This was a massive blow for Tel Aviv Hapoel. It also left Tel Aviv Hapoel fans back in Israel feeling utterly hopeless about their Europa League prospects.
The TF1 commentator said: "Tel Aviv Hapoel lost 0-3 at home to Atletico Madrid in the last round, while Bastia won 4-2 away to Viktoria Plzen.
So, this match is actually a crucial battle for Tel Aviv Hapoel to maintain any slim hope of advancement.
Win, and there's still hope. Lose, and not only is Tel Aviv Hapoel out of contention, they'll drag Viktoria Plzen down with them.
Perhaps no one expected Group B's situation to become so clearly defined after just two rounds."
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