Emperor of Football: Julien De Rocca

"Zidane and Vieira have long hung up their jerseys and put on suits; Djorkaeff, Deschamps, Pires, and even Henry have gradually faded from football; France's former European Championship hero, 38-year-old Wiltord, announced his retirement. The golden generation has left us far behind. Who will carry the banner for this France team that has never been so ordinary? Gourcuff? He has already fallen; Ribéry? He's just a raider; Who can support the facade of this traditional powerhouse?"

TF1, France's Television 1, included this narration when creating the pre-match promotional video for the England-France clash.

This made enough French fans start thinking—

Yes, who could become the face of this ordinary France team?

The Four Little Swans?

No one doubted their talent, but they were still missing something.

Menez and Ben Arfa's platforms weren't big enough. Benzema was just a supporting player at Real Madrid. Nasri, with his Premier League title at Manchester City, might have hopes of becoming France's leader.

He thought so too.

But he was ultimately too rebellious and controversial.

In a pre-match interview, he said, "I joked with Joe Hart and Lescott: I hope to see both teams advance, but losing is absolutely unacceptable. If France must beat England to advance, we'll do it."

That was fine.

But when reporters asked about his transfer from Arsenal to Manchester City, he replied. "I'm glad to leave Arsenal because City is competitive—they're winning titles, not dreaming about them."

This statement immediately infuriated Arsenal fans in England.

They elegantly cursed Nasri!

The player with elegant technique who came to the Premier League, winning the French Footballer of the Year award in North London, had been one of the Gunners' most beloved players before transferring to City.

Even when Nasri had various character issues privately, fans tolerated them.

But once he transferred to City, Arsenal fans quickly changed his name from "Nasri" to "Na$ri."

The "Nasri song" at the Emirates also became curses directed at the "greedy little bitch."

Perhaps it was precisely because of Arsenal fans' behavior that Nasri harbored resentment, and spoke thoughtlessly when questioned by reporters.

In fact, compared to Fàbregas, Hleb, Adebayor, and van Persie, Nasri had never claimed lifelong loyalty to Arsenal.

Nasri's behavior added more intrigue to the already focal England-France clash.

Countless fans anticipated this match.

Although England was without Rooney, he was suspended for two matches after a deliberate kick that earned him a red card in qualifying, their squad strength remained solid.

Moreover, in European football's landscape, England and France were longtime rivals.

The two sides had met 28 times historically, with England holding the upper hand at 16 wins, 4 draws, and 8 losses.

But in European Championships, France remained unbeaten against England.

When discussing England-France clashes in the Euros, people naturally recalled their 2004 encounter, when Zidane needed just three minutes to turn defeat into victory for France.

So French fans faced England with full confidence.

At 6 PM on June 12th, the highly anticipated England-France clash officially began!

Julien sat on the bench, chatting sporadically with Giroud. This match was destined to have nothing to do with them.

But the game was actually very dull.

Until the 29th minute, Milner received the ball on the right, and Evra's unnecessary foul gave England a free-kick opportunity.

Gerrard's right-wing free-kick cross found Lescott, who headed home from the edge of the six-yard box as Alou Diarra failed to mark tightly.

France was behind.

Very similar to the match eight years ago, England took the lead through a free-kick.

If Lizarazu's foul eight years ago was unavoidable, then today, French left-back Evra's foul was completely unnecessary.

Julien could hear French fans in the stadium cursing Evra.

In fact, Evra had declined significantly this season.

Manchester United seemed to have some bad luck, any player who renewed with United saw their performance drop dramatically.

Before his renewal, Evra was considered, after Maldini's retirement one of the world's best left-backs alongside Ashley Cole.

After renewal, he crashed.

Not only did he have intermittent brain lapses, but his physical condition declined drastically. Even Roy Keane couldn't stand it, and blasted Evra, "I've seen Evra get eaten alive by opponents in big matches many times."

Julien thought United should try one-year contracts.

Maybe United would be saved.

The on-field situation remained extremely dull, with neither side interested in controlling possession. French fans cursed Blanc. "People who don't know might think we're leading!"

This related to both coaches' tactics.

In today's football world, the sport had become utilitarian to the extreme.

The entire football world's trend of "pursuing results, rejecting process" made Spain look like an anomaly.

Holland had lost their orange madness, since the South Africa World Cup, they'd been a counter-attacking team.

Even five-star Brazil had lost their samba spirit, with efficient counter-attacks bringing them twice the results for half the effort.

As for Denmark, Greece, and Russia, they'd already tasted success from pragmatic counter-attacking.

Abramovich's team's Champions League success led England to pragmatically choose the same path as Chelsea, already pursuing 1-0 counter-attacking football in pre-Euro friendlies.

France, under Blanc, had always pursued beautiful football. He praised Barcelona's style and challenged England to come out and attack before the match.

But after kickoff, he abandoned his usual 4-2-3-1 for 4-3-2-1.

The conservative three-defensive-midfielder setup made the match even duller!

Boos echoed from the stands.

Fortunately, minutes later, France equalized through Nasri, assisted by Ribéry.

However, this was only the beginning of the fans' nightmare.

After 1-1, both sides seemed satisfied with taking one point. Even commentators wondered if this was some tacit agreement between England and France.

After all, if both drew, whoever wanted first place could just massacre the other two teams.

Into the second half, when teams should be fighting for attacking opportunities, England started passing around in their own half while France very cooperatively and lazily pressed symbolically in the front.

Match time flowed away as everyone seemed lost in thought...

Some fans even fell asleep in the stands.

When cameras focused on them, fans worldwide laughed while cursing both England and France's coaches for being inhuman.

They'd turned the entire half into garbage time.

Until the 87th minute.

"Julien, come prepare to go on field."

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