Vs AC Milan (5)

The tempo had shifted.

For a good stretch of the second half, Lecce played like a team that had found something deeper than tactics. Something raw. Something alive. They weren't just kicking a ball around anymore. Every pass, every run, every shout, it all had weight behind it. They looked like a group with fire in their lungs and belief in their hearts. They moved the ball like they had been practicing for this very moment their whole lives. The scoreboard said 1–0 against them, but the way they played? You wouldn't think they were behind at all. If anything, it felt like they were the ones in control.

The crowd at San Siro noticed. That usual thunder of support? It had dulled into something else. Not silence, but something close. A nervous hum, a low wave of murmurs that passed from section to section. The tension in the air was thick, almost visible. It wrapped around the stadium like fog.