Chapter 727 - 727: Chapter-725 The Leisure

The host nation Brazil locked up first place in Group A with a record of two wins and one draw (7 points), while Mexico finished second with one win and two draws (5 points). Both sides advanced to the knockout rounds. Croatia, with one win and two losses (3 points), and Cameroon, winless across all three matches (0 points), were eliminated.

Among the standouts, Neymar's performances were explosive—so much so that Brazilian fans were brimming with confidence about their side's prospects in this tournament. Some were already whispering that Brazil might finally become a six-star nation.

In Group B, billed as the Group of Death—three rounds of play produced no suspense at all.

The Netherlands went unbeaten through the group stage with three wins and 9 points, while Chile finished second on 6 points with two wins and one loss. Australia were eliminated without a win, and the reigning champions Spain with one win, two losses, 3 points suffered the most shocking exit of the group stage.

A side that had scaled the heights of world football and won three consecutive major trophies on the back of their gorgeous tiki-taka philosophy crashed out in the first round; their title defence was extinguished before it had truly begun.

It was one of the biggest upsets of the group stage, and it left countless fans heartbroken.

Julien specifically checked social media.

CCTV commentator He Wei had delivered those words again: "…Seizing a throne has always been hard—but keeping it is harder still. No one can stand at the summit forever. Even with the sharpest vigilance, even with the most careful preparation, you will always find yourself surrounded by young rivals every bit as hungry, passionate, and driven as you once were. They train their microscopes on your strengths and your weaknesses alike; you are their target.

And so I ask you—is defending a championship easy? In life, success is fleeting, and failure is the constant refrain. How we face failure is what sets us apart. Some are broken by it. Others rise again and push forward.

Australia know this, and Spain know it too. True maturity is not the pursuit of perfection—it is looking your own flaws squarely in the face. That is the essence of living. As Romain Rolland once wrote: there is only one true heroism in this world—to see life as it is, and to love it still…"

In Group C, Colombia demonstrated commanding dominance, winning all three matches to top the group on 9 points. Côte d'Ivoire finished second on 6 points. Both sides moved on. Japan (1 point) and Greece (1 point) were both eliminated.

The standout individual was Colombia's driving force, James Rodríguez, who was in hot form and was widely credited as the key to his side's qualification. He had already attracted the attention of Europe's biggest clubs. Multiple media outlets were reporting that the young midfielder who had only transferred from Porto to Monaco the last season—was on Real Madrid's radar, with the Spanish giants prepared to pay a significant fee to bring him to the Bernabéu.

This was the World Cup's magic. Making a name for yourself in a single match was no empty cliché here.

In Group D, many had assumed Italy and England would comfortably advance together. But when the final round of matches concluded, everyone was left dumbfounded.

Dark horses Costa Rica produced the biggest shock of the group, finishing first with two wins and a draw (7 points), while Uruguay advanced second on 6 points. The two traditional powerhouses—Italy and England—both went home.

Across those three group matches, Julien had noticed something: the old familiar scene never appeared. Suárez hadn't bitten anyone. Chiellini escaped unscathed. Perhaps winning so many trophies at Liverpool had mellowed Suárez. Or perhaps he simply didn't want to leave the club.

In Group F, Argentina driven by the incomparable Messi, finished top on 7 points with two wins and a draw. Nigeria advanced second on 4 points. For France's purposes, the draw had been kind: Nigeria had not looked especially impressive throughout.

Group G. Germany topped the group with two wins and a draw (7 points). The United States finished second on 4 points— dging out Portugal on goal difference despite the two sides being level on points and both advanced.

Portugal were eliminated.

Cristiano Ronaldo's World Cup ambitions were once again curtailed. In the post-Figo era, Ronaldo had shouldered Portugal almost entirely on his own, but the national team had never given him the supporting cast to make a real run, and their results in international competition had consistently reflected that.

Group H. Belgium swept through the group stage with three wins and 9 points, while Algeria advanced second on 6 points. Russia (1 point) and South Korea (1 point) were both eliminated. Belgium's collective strength had been genuinely impressive.

That day, training was light. Deschamps had promised the squad a half-day off after clinching qualification, a chance to rest.

The reason was simple: the players had brought their families along. France's WAGs (wives and girlfriends of the national football team players) had drawn considerable attention from the French media in the stands.

Throughout the group stage, Deschamps had enforced a strict policy of abstinence—players and their families were kept apart.

The French Football Federation(FFF) had arranged accommodation for the visiting families at a separate four-star hotel near the team's base. But the partners—accustomed to a rather more comfortable existence refused to put up with it, and their complaints came swiftly and loudly.

The FFF, committed as always to the players' welfare, had little choice but to rebook them into a five-star hotel.

Compared to nations like Mexico whose preparations had included far more drastic restrictions on players' private lives, France's approach under Deschamps hadn't been especially extreme. Still, he had decided to enforce abstinence through the end of the group stage. Now that it was over, he had kept his word: players were free to reunite with their families.

Julien would finally get to see Pauline.

By that afternoon, the entire French camp was basically deserted. Everyone had slipped out, or gone straight to the hotel where the WAGs were staying.

Julien and Pauline were in no particular rush. Since France's knockout base was fixed at Ribeirão Preto—conveniently close to São Paulo, where they would train at Botafogo's Santa Cruz stadium for the foreseeable future—the two of them simply wandered the city together.

For Julien, those few hours were precious. He could finally set aside the weight of the World Cup for a while, take Pauline by the hand, and stroll through the streets of Ribeirão Preto, taking in the rhythms of a Brazilian city and enjoying a moment that was just theirs.

Ribeirão Preto sits in the north-central part of São Paulo state, bisected by the Preto River. Founded in 1856, the city had once been a thriving agricultural hub built on coffee. Because of its French colonial history, it carried the nickname of "Little Paris" and for a French visitor, it felt that way, too.

Walking through the streets, you could catch fragments of French drifting from the occasional passerby.

Rather than heading somewhere touristy, the two of them followed the riverside walkway along the Preto at a dawdling slow pace. Beside the path, Mauricio Biagi Park stretched out in lush abundance—broad-leafed local plants in full growth, sunlight through the canopy in patches.

Julien had dressed simply in a white T-shirt, casual trousers, a cap. Nobody recognized him.

In a city with such deep coffee roots, Ribeirão Preto's coffee still had a local reputation worth upholding. They stopped at a street-side café and ordered two cups of freshly ground coffee. The flavour was rich and smooth, opening slowly on the tongue.

Pauline smiled and closed her eyes for a moment, then leaned her head gently against Julien's shoulder.

"It tastes different from what we have in Paris," she said softly. "There's something of the sunshine in it."

Julien smiled.

For dinner, they found a restaurant and Julien ordered a plate of grilled meat and a bowl of feijoada—Brazil's national dish. The two ate slowly.

Pauline lifted a small piece of grilled meat and held it to Julien's lips. "Don't eat too much. You have training again tomorrow. Look after yourself. I don't want to see you get hurt."

Julien took the piece and nodded. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

Still, after days of eating local food in Brazil, he found himself unexpectedly nostalgic for the cafeteria back at Liverpool.

After dinner they retraced their steps, and Julien walked Pauline back to her hotel. In the lobby, they ran into Sagna.

Sagna had married Ludivine in 2010 in a shotgun wedding, as it happened: Ludivine had given birth to their child back in 2009.

Julien grinned when he saw him. "Hey hey hey—isn't Ramadan almost here? You still look pretty energetic."

The twenty-eighth of June was a few days away—the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was a matter with deep roots in French football history: a significant number of the squad—Pogba, Sissoko, Sagna, and others were Muslim.

Sagna let out a big laugh. "Ha! Don't worry about me. There are circumstances where you can be exempt from fasting—I'll be skipping it this month." He gave Julien a meaningful wink.

Julien said nothing more. They each headed to their rooms. There would be plenty of time with his teammates on the training pitch—right now, family came first.

The night passed uneventfully.

The next day, after the brief interlude, the French squad returned to full lockdown training, preparing for the knockout rounds ahead.

As for Nigeria—their ability was clearly a step below France's. On top of that, one of their players had been injured in the group stage.

In the match Argentina won 3–2 against Nigeria, a wave of Nigerian pressure had built in the second half. In the sixty-fourth minute, midfielder Onazi unleashed a thunderbolt from outside the box.

The ball struck his own teammate Babatunde's arm and Babatunde immediately crumpled to the ground in visible agony. A stretcher was brought on and he was substituted out. He was later temporarily diagnosed with a broken arm.

A single shot and it had fractured a teammate's arm. Even by the standards of professional football, that was extraordinarily rare.

Julien had heard of players accidentally injuring opponents before. In 2006, during the FA Cup match between Manchester United and Liverpool, a fierce shot by Riise struck United midfielder Alan Smith's standing leg with such force that it broke on the spot. But an incident between teammates? That was rare in a different category altogether.

For France, it was something of a bonus.

From that day's training onwards, Deschamps changed the entire squad's schedule.

France's knockout round opener would kick off at 1 p.m. local Brazilian time—the hottest part of the day, timed to suit European television audiences. To bring the players into peak condition for that specific window, Deschamps completely restructured the team's daily routine.

Under the new timetable, players no longer rose early. Wake-up was pushed back to 8:30 a.m.

One hour later, at 9:30, they would head to the canteen for a specially designed meal the coaching staff called "breakfast-lunch" —a single combined sitting that replaced the conventional two.

The logic was: eat too early, and energy levels would dip by kick-off; eat too close to the match, and a full stomach would impair performance. The menu itself had been meticulously calculated by the support staff.

Everything else aside, the players quickly discovered the main problem: training in this heat was brutal.

Brazil's climate is tropical. In the afternoon, the sun is merciless, the temperature climbs with it, and the humidity compounds everything. For players who had spent their entire careers training in the cool, temperate air of Europe, it was a genuine physical ordeal.

But there was no way around it. They would just have to endure.

At a training break, Deschamps gathered the squad and spoke.

"I know this has been hard on all of you. Adjusting your body clocks, battling the heat, giving everything in training day after day—I see it. I see every bit of it.

We finished top of our group. That is the result of our collective effort.

But do not forget: that was only the beginning. The knockout rounds are an entirely different competition.

The knockout stage is crueller than the group stage. It's one match, one result—there are no margin for error, no second chances.

Our next match against Nigeria is the first hurdle of the knockouts, the first step on the road to the World Cup. We cannot afford the slightest complacency.

I want you to hear this clearly: from this point on, at most four matches stand between us and that trophy. Four matches. Win four, and we lift the World Cup. Win four, and every one of us achieves the dream that brought us here.

Treat every single one of those four as if it's the only match left. Every game is critical. Every game leaves no room for mistakes. Every minute demands everything you have."

The squad understood that this generation was nothing like the one before it. There was a hunger running through the team—a fury that needed an outlet.

Particularly among the young players, every one of them wanted to prove himself.

Beyond Julien, a cluster of French players had attracted interest from Europe's biggest clubs.

The most high-profile name was twenty-one-year-old Pogba, with Chelsea reportedly prepared to break their transfer record with a £60 million bid to bring him in. Pogba's contract with Manchester United had expired two years ago, and he had since made himself indispensable at Juventus in Serie A.

In the last season's league campaign, Pogba had made thirty-two appearances and scored seven goals but more critically, his presence had allowed Vidal and Pirlo to operate in perfect cycle, and Juve's midfield control had visibly improved as a result.

Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain were also said to be in pursuit. The £60 million figure, if confirmed, would shatter Chelsea's existing transfer record. But nothing was certain yet.

Alongside Pogba, Kanté, Griezmann, and Varane had all drawn attention—though apart from Griezmann, the other two looked difficult to yank away.

Time moved quickly. France's preparations in Ribeirão Preto continued steadily, the players were adhering to Deschamps' revised schedule with discipline.

Then, just as the Round of Sixteen was about to begin, an explosive piece of news broke out of the Nigerian camp:

The Nigerian players were threatening to go on strike.

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