The young man's figure like wind, like lightning, like a startled swan, flashed through everyone's hearts.
Tottenham fans cried out, hoping a player would step up to stop him.
Bastia fans anticipated eagerly, hoping Julien would once again bring a goal for the team.
Countless gazes intertwined and united on Julien as he drove forward with the ball.
The commentators exclaimed as well. The €60 million price tag they spoke of was proving Julien's ability to more and more fans.
Ekotto and Kyle Walker dragged behind on defense, and Bale, seeing Julien with the ball, was also chasing back furiously.
He had just been stopped by Julien and was still annoyed about it.
Lukaku and Sidibé were also sprinting forward at full speed, with absolutely no intention of conserving energy.
Everyone at Bastia knew that each of their opportunities was precious—they had to give their all.
Under the attacking pressure of Tottenham's offensive group, they might only get a few chances all match.
The afro-haired Ekotto rushed to close down Julien, trying to make him slow down.
But as Ekotto approached, Julien at high speed performed one of Ronaldo's pendulum dribbles. Though the movement wasn't as exaggerated, with Julien's top-tier ball control, it still threw Ekotto off balance.
The moment Ekotto stepped forward, Julien shook him off from the other side.
At high sprint speed, one moment of hesitation meant losing position entirely.
Ekotto was left behind.
Bale rushed past him, trying to intercept Julien.
Kyle Walker was ahead of Julien.
Julien was still surrounded by three players, but even at full sprint, he kept his head up, observing his teammates' runs.
Sidibé and Lukaku were slightly slower than him, but they were in good positions.
However...
With the space Kyle Walker had left, Julien felt there was no need to pass.
Whoosh!
Julien exhaled sharply and charged straight at Kyle Walker.
Just as they were about to meet—
Boom!
Julien pushed the ball forward with the simplest knock-and-run!
Kyle Walker immediately understood Julien's intention, but he didn't try to block Julien directly. He was very confident in his own speed, he thought to intercept the ball instead.
However, When he turned to chase the ball, he discovered that Julien, already at extreme speed, had suddenly accelerated again!
Whoosh!
The crowd was stunned by this scene. Kyle Walker's heart was filled with panic, he knew something had gone wrong!
Run!
Walker squeezed every ounce of speed from himself, but still watched as Julien left his defensive zone and went for the ball.
At this point, the situation had completely exceeded the Tottenham fans' understanding.
Ekotto, whom they considered a top Premier League fullback, had been beaten in one move by Julien.
Bale, the king of speed on the wing in their eyes, couldn't catch up because he had started several positions behind Julien.
And Walker, another speed-type fullback, had been eaten alive by Julien's pace!
It could be said that Julien had used Tottenham's own specialty—speed—to completely penetrate their defensive line.
"Julien! Julien!!"
The TF1 commentator was already shouting frantically. On the broadcast screen, Julien was now one-on-one with veteran goalkeeper Friedel.
Everyone's breathing quickened.
On the pitch, After the long sprint, Julien's thigh muscles were burning. Only because he'd suffered multiple injuries before and developed injury resistance could he endure this—otherwise, this string of forced bursts would have injured him already.
But he could feel his stamina had reached a critical point.
"Huff!"
Julien's mind was going somewhat blank. He watched goalkeeper Friedel come out to challenge, rushing toward him.
Seeing Julien charge straight at him like this, Friedel appeared somewhat flustered. In his accomplished career, he had rarely seen a player like Julien.
Fast.
Too fast!
When Friedel dove at Julien's feet based on experience, he found nothing but air!
It's over.
This thought flashed through Friedel's mind.
Whoosh!
Immediately after, he heard the crowd's shocked exclamation.
The Bastia fans roared Julien's name with all their might.
"Julien!!"
"Julien!!!"
Hoarse and desperate, just like Julien's purely instinctive touch past Friedel.
Julien had pushed his speed to the absolute limit.
An open goal!
Julien felt himself about to collapse, but before falling, he pushed a shot, sending the ball into the net.
The ball rolled unsteadily forward.
Julien, after shooting, was carried by momentum and fell to the ground, sliding a meter.
He was truly exhausted!
Those last few steps had been purely on willpower.
As Julien fell, he looked up at the goal.
Though the ball rolled slowly and unsteadily, no one could catch up to it.
Finally, it rolled into the net.
"Goooaal!!! Julien! This is Julien!! My God! That was an almost 70-meter solo run!! It was all so fast! Really too fast!! This is France's supercar!!"
The TF1 commentator shouted frantically.
ITV commentator Clive Tyldesley said somewhat helplessly, "Oh my God! What kind of match are we watching? What kind of monster is De Rocca?
My heavens, Tottenham have really met their match. This tie, I don't think it's as optimistic as Tottenham fans thought. De Rocca has proven to everyone with his performance why Bastia are top of Ligue 1, why Bastia could beat Atlético Madrid twice."
The commentators' words echoed around the world.
Before the match, few would have favored Bastia, but this goal fully displayed Julien's individual ability.
Extreme speed, extreme ball control.
"Julien!!"
Whether the Bastia fans at White Hart Lane, or those in bars and homes in Bastia—any Bastia supporter who saw this moment shouted Julien's name frantically.
They felt their blood boiling with each step of Julien's run, burning completely at the moment of the goal!
Burning with the fire of Bastia's victory!
This flame burned from their hearts through their entire bodies. They felt hot, felt flushed, felt every cell in their bodies craving to shout, craving release!
Crash!!
At the Sunset Café bar, excited fans smashed their glasses to the floor again.
The smell of alcohol filled the air as they roared and yelled!
Madness!
Utter madness!
The Bastia players at White Hart Lane were the same. Seeing Julien's 70-meter solo goal past four players, their emotions surged nonstop.
They all rushed over.
Lukaku directly lifted the fallen Julien with face full of excitement. "Julien!! You're the king of speed!! You tore through Tottenham!!"
De Bruyne was so excited his face was red—Lukaku was too dark to tell, but it was obvious on De Bruyne. He also came to embrace Julien.
After celebrating, Rothen asked Julien, "Are you okay physically?"
He knew Julien had been injured before from running too fast and was somewhat worried.
Julien high-fived every teammate in celebration, smiling and shaking his head. "I'm fine, just at my stamina limit."
This kind of full sprint, plus the forced second acceleration, had drained him tremendously.
On the sideline, Hadzibegic hugged his assistant coaches and bench players, everyone's faces flushed like it was their wedding night.
Julien's goal simply amazed them. What kind of talent was this?!
Not far from him, Villas-Boas's face was extremely somber.
Watching Julien, he couldn't understand how Julien had single-handedly broken through the defensive line of Kyle Walker and Ekotto combined.
Villas-Boas naturally knew how fast those two were otherwise he wouldn't have kept them as starting fullbacks.
In Villas-Boas's tactics, he wanted a high defensive line, so speed was essential.
Yet now, Their speed, which dominated the Premier League, had been destroyed by this De Rocca alone?!
He'd previously said De Rocca lacked physicality and wasn't suited for the Premier League, but he hadn't even given them a chance to engage physically.
Villas-Boas fell silent.
In the stands, so many people were shocked beyond words by Julien's goal. This talent was truly explosive.
Soriano and Begiristain, both in disguise in the stands, were equally flushed with excitement.
"Did you see that? What kind of talent is that?"
Begiristain also exclaimed, "Everyone says half of Julien's €60 million price tag is for his potential, but in my view, the €60 million is entirely for his immediate impact! If you factor in his potential, it should be €100 million!"
"Alright, after this match ends, let's officially approach them. Show Julien our sincerity and offer him a top-tier contract."
Before contacting Julien, they had already tried to sign Napoli striker Cavani, offering a contract worth £256,000 per week (£13.3 million annually).
If the deal went through, Cavani would surpass Manchester United's Rooney and their own Manchester City's Tevez at £250,000 per week to become the Premier League's highest-paid player.
Unfortunately, Cavani hadn't immediately agreed to join Manchester City, but was hesitating because PSG were also interested in Cavani.
From a purely financial perspective, PSG offered more.
Manchester City could actually offer higher wages now, they were willing to give Julien an even better deal.
2013 was the first year of the Premier League's new broadcasting contract (2013-2016 cycle), and clubs' revenue was expected to increase significantly.
Plus, Manchester City didn't lack money anyway.
Begiristain had no objections. "Good! If we can get him, Manchester City's path to becoming a powerhouse will have a clear direction."
Both men smiled at each other.
On the pitch, The match resumed.
After kickoff, Tottenham continued launching wave after wave of attacks at Bastia.
Just as Bastia had anticipated before the match, Tottenham's offense completely suppressed them. Counter-attacking opportunities like that were very rare.
By the thirtieth minute, Bale had already taken three shots, and Tottenham had eight shots total.
Unfortunately, only three were on target, and all had been saved by Martinez.
This match, Martinez fully displayed his Arsenal DNA.
He always performed well against Tottenham!
And another player with Arsenal DNA, striker Adebayor, indeed wasn't helping Tottenham's cause, wasting three golden opportunities.
In fact, What the commentators called "golden opportunities" were actually due to Adebayor losing physical battles with Van Dijk.
Bastia fans joked, "This Tottenham number 10 has become Virgil's toy, hahaha."
Though they joked like this, In reality, all Bastia supporters were very nervous, they were only leading by one goal.
So, they were really nervous. Especially facing a team like Tottenham.
Clive Tyldesley, watching Tottenham continuously besiege Bastia, commented, "From this half hour of play, Tottenham indeed have the upper hand in terms of strength, but Bastia's counter-attacks are sharper. If not for Friedel's steady performance, Bastia might be leading by more than one goal."
Tottenham fans deeply agreed with Clive Tyldesley's words.
Thank goodness for Friedel. This top-class goalkeeper kept Tottenham from being too embarrassed at home.
At Tottenham, there had been some gossip that Hugo Lloris, the goalkeeper bought from Lille this season, was unhappy with his playing time and having conflicts with Tottenham, planning to transfer to a new team that could give him stable playing time.
However, In Tottenham fans' view, with Friedel performing so steadily, Lloris couldn't replace him.
Fortunately, the club promised he'd be the starter next season, which somewhat appeased Lloris.
Lloris liked to make a fuss. But from Tottenham management's perspective, they definitely had to support Lloris—after all, though Friedel's ability was still there, he was indeed quite old.
Having been born in 1971, the fact he could still compete was already remarkable.
Whistle!
On the pitch, the referee blew for another Bastia foul.
Rothen was a step too slow and flew into a tackle that brought down Lennon.
Fortunately, he didn't get a yellow card.
This match, the referee's threshold was somewhat lenient, which better suited Bastia's style of play.
It also made the match look very intense.
Angoula was in his element under these standards.
Tottenham's free kick.
Bale stood before the ball, his eyes determined, looking toward the goal. Beside him was Dempsey.
After both teams settled into position,
Whistle!
The referee signaled Tottenham could take it.
Dempsey started first, but he ran straight over the ball.
Boom!
Bale powered his run-up and struck an "elevator ball." The ball went over the wall, heading straight for the top corner.
Martinez flew to save it!
His fingertips touched the ball slightly—not enough to keep it out, but the touch slightly changed the ball's trajectory.
Clang!
The ball hit the post and bounced out.
Chaos in the box.
Adebayor finally found an opportunity and blasted a shot, but the ball hit Van Dijk and bounced back.
Kanté held off Lennon and got to the ball first, clearing it.
He didn't have particularly strong passing ability. But in his mind was only Hadzibegic's instruction: "Just kick the ball forward."
Boom!
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