When the first goal went in, the Shakhtar Donetsk fans could still muster the spirit to wave their flags. But as the second goal hit the back of the net, the collective mentality of the home crowd shattered.
Throughout the Europa League knockout stages, Shakhtar had been the ones humiliating visitors at the Olympic National Sports Complex. There was no logic, no precedent, for a "provincial" Italian side to come into their fortress and treat them like a training dummy.
The match had devolved into a half-pitch siege. For over 30 minutes, the Ukrainians couldn't breathe. Every time they tried to clear the ball, the purple wall of Fiorentina's high-press slammed shut.
In the live broadcast rooms back in Japan, millions of fans were wide awake. They had never seen the Viola play with such predatory aggression. And at the heart of this storm was Renzo Uzumaki. With his Ball Control now at 90, the ball didn't just stay with him—it danced.
Inside the home locker room at halftime, Manager Werner was incandescent with rage. "The midfield is a sieve! You're letting a 16-year-old dictate the tempo of a European semi-final!"
He turned to his defensive pillar. "Fernando, you're the best DM in Ukraine. Why is that kid invisible to you?"
Fernando looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole. Because he plays one-touch football like a machine, and when I do get close, I can't even smell the ball, he thought. Aloud, he cleared his throat: "Coach, I need help. I can't cover his passing lanes and track his dribbles alone."
Werner sighed. "Fine. Marlos, you join him. Double-team the kid. I don't care if you have to foul him—just don't let him turn."
Fernando (1.92m) and Marlos (1.89m) were typical Eastern European giants—sturdy, powerful, and intimidating. As the second half began, they converged on Renzo like a pair of closing pincers.
But Renzo wasn't the same player from a week ago.
As soon as he received the ball, Fernando lunged. With a flick of his ankle so subtle it barely registered on the cameras, Renzo pulled the ball back and pirouetted. Fernando's momentum carried him three yards past. Marlos tried to sneak in from the blind side, but Renzo's rhythm was "Exquisite." He feinted left, the giant Marlos shifted his weight, and Renzo simply glided right.
Two world-class midfielders, beaten in three seconds without a single physical collision.
By the 68th minute, the frustration of the two "stepping stones" reached a breaking point.
Renzo was advancing down the left-midfield. Fernando blocked the path forward, cutting off the lane to Salah. Marlos closed in from the right, preventing a switch to Aquilani. To Renzo's left was the touchline. He was trapped.
At least, that's what the physics of the game suggested.
Renzo did the unthinkable: he accelerated. He drove straight into the narrow gap between the two giants.
Fernando and Marlos both stuck out their feet simultaneously, creating a "V" shape to trap the ball. In a touch speed nearly invisible to the naked eye, Renzo shifted the ball from his right foot to his left (a La Croqueta executed with surgical speed), dodging Fernando. Then, as Marlos's "gate" stood wide open, he poked the ball through the defender's legs.
Nutmeg.
Renzo darted through the gap like a swallow through a window. The entire Shakhtar defense panicked. Their "trap" hadn't just failed; it had collapsed their entire formation.
As the center-backs rushed to cover the sudden void, Mario Gomez made a clever decoy run, dragging two men with him. Renzo didn't even look. He unleashed a high-velocity, outside-of-the-boot pass along the grass.
The ball curled perfectly into the path of Salah, who was cutting in from the left. Completely unmarked, the Egyptian King took one touch and curled a beautiful placed shot into the far corner.
3-0! The game was dead.
The stadium became a cauldron of boos—not for the visitors, but for their own team. Werner, desperate to salvage something, threw on two more attackers and took off the humiliated Fernando and Marlos.
Shakhtar managed a consolation goal in the 76th minute, but their all-out attack left them exposed. In the 81st minute, Cuadrado capped off a lightning counter-attack to make it 4-1.
As the whistle blew, the Ukrainian powerhouse—a team that hadn't lost at home all season—was left staring at a scoreboard that felt like a nightmare.
While the local fans called for Werner's resignation, the rest of Europe was looking at a different scoreline from the night before. In the Champions League, Juventus had just gone to the Bernabéu and defeated Real Madrid 2-1.
The realization finally dawned on the Shakhtar faithful. If Juve was strong enough to beat the defending European champions in Spain, and this Fiorentina had pushed Juve to the absolute brink just days ago...
Then they hadn't lost to an underdog. They had been steamrolled by a team that was currently playing at a Champions League semi-final level.
And at the center of it all was a 16-year-old with "Exquisite" feet, who had turned the Europa League into his personal highlight reel.
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