I changed football.

"Our performance in the first half was decent. Don't let the pressure get to you; we must keep going and do what we've already accomplished!"

Inside the away team's locker room, Jardim was enthusiastically encouraging the team's morale.

"Actually, I feel the team is in pretty good shape, so why is the head coach making it sound like we're down 0-3?" Li Yuan whispered to Mbappe.

Mbappe covered his mouth with his hand: "I feel the same way. To be honest, it's not bad that we only lost by one goal in the first half."

While the two were still talking, Yaldin had already begun making plans for the second half.

"We need to target Rose in the second half. We had two chances against him in the first half. Tottenham aren't invincible; they clearly lost focus in the last few minutes of the first half. They'll definitely relax in the second half, and that's when we'll attack!"

Mbappe suddenly patted Li Yuan on the shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

"I said Rose is a weakness in the second half, so you might get to play in the second half."

"I hope so."

……

The 15-minute halftime break passed quickly, and Jardim's speech only lasted a few minutes. After he finished speaking, there were about 10 minutes left in the first half.

In the locker room, some players were drinking energy drinks, some were eating bananas or energy bars to quickly replenish their energy, and some were simply closing their eyes to rest.

In short, no one was talking, so Li Yuan and Mbappe stopped whispering to each other.

After 15 minutes, the substitutes came out of the locker room first.

Li Yuan looked back before leaving the locker room.

The starting players were seen forming a circle, cheering each other on.

Li Yuan glanced at it once and then looked away.

He believed he would soon be involved in such moments.

Once on the bench, Li Yuan and Mbappe started chatting again.

"Will Tottenham relax in the second half?" Mbappe asked Li Yuan.

"I'm afraid we'll concede another goal before they relax."

"Why do you make it sound like we're destined to lose?"

"The situation we're facing now is that this defense is bound to concede a goal."

"You—"

"So we need to attack aggressively, as long as we score more goals than the opponent."

"You make it sound so simple, it all starts now—"

"Of course we need to play. Do you really think we can rely on our current wingers?"

Li Yuan and Mbappe always chatted so freely. To be honest, Li Yuan really looked down on the two wingers. Lemar wasn't fast enough on the wing; he was better suited to playing in the middle.

Costa on the left wing is even more of a problem. He's on loan from Benfica, his dominant foot is his left, and he's always played on the right wing for the team. But today, Jardim put him on the left, which caused him to get stuck after cutting inside and end up just crossing the ball.

Traore, the center forward in the middle, is even more abstract.

This Traore is not the one from La Masia's youth academy. This Traore is a super tall center forward of 2.03 meters. He can be a good target man, but his turning speed is as slow as a warship, and his footwork is even more ridiculous.

He had an excellent chance in the game; he received the ball with his back to goal in the penalty area, turned around, and was one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

As a result, by the time he turned around, the defender had already returned.

It's not an exaggeration.

Li Yuan found it all too abstract to even think about.

Why does it seem like Monaco's attacking line is completely useless now that I've said that? How come such a team is ranked third in the league?

Monaco's attacking players certainly have ability, but they simply couldn't perform against Tottenham.

The same thing happened in the second half. After 10 minutes, although the ball was at the feet of the Monaco players, their attack was really weak, and they were only playing sporadically.

Finally, at the 55th minute, Jardim waved his hand and called Li Yuan and Mbappe to the sidelines to start warming up.

"We'll probably both be replaced soon."

"Definitely. Tottenham clearly looked a bit tired in the second half. They have a league match in three days, so the players probably wanted to rest a bit. But we had possession, and they played rather casually, as if we were in the lead."

"Who says otherwise? Hey, let's work together more when we go on stage later."

"Huh? You're on the left and I'm on the right, how can we coordinate our attacks?"

"Anyway, it's just the two of us who will take the final shot. I don't trust them."

"Dude, you—"

The two chatted as they warmed up.

After warming up for a while, in the 60th minute, disaster struck: Monaco conceded another goal.

"It's over, do we even need to play? We've conceded two goals already," Mbappe said pessimistically, standing on the sidelines without warming up.

Li Yuan was still jogging.

He saw the goal conceded clearly because it happened right on their side of the goal.

Wallace missed his header, and Kane easily headed it into the goal with no one marking him.

That goal was conceded far too easily.

Kane misjudged the header at the front post, and no one was marking him at the back post.

"I just don't understand. Kane is such a key player, and nobody's marking him. What's the point? Even if we went on, we might have a chance if we were down by one, but down by two?"

"Don't be pessimistic, Killian. Haven't you heard the saying?"

"What did you say?"

"2-0 is the biggest trap in the world of football."

"You said that, right?"

"Yes, that's what I said. Trust me, once we're on the pitch, there will be plenty of opportunities. Tottenham's defense wasn't up to par today, so what we need to do is capitalize on those chances!"

As soon as he finished speaking, teaching assistant Ilora ran over.

"Killian, it's time to enter the game."

"Huh? Where's Li?"

Mbappe didn't go straight over, but instead glanced at Irola with surprise.

Ilora shook her head.

Mbappe turned and glanced at Li Yuan: "I'll go first."

"Alright, you go up and charge them down, wear them down a bit, then I'll go up and finish them off!"

"Haha, then I'll wait for you."

In the 63rd minute, Mbappe came on first, replacing Costa on the left wing.

Li Yuan was still warming up in the warm-up area.

"No way, are we really going to have to wait 7 or 80 minutes before I get on?" Li Yuan thought to himself.

Li Yuan watched from the sidelines, having already stopped warming up. He had already warmed up, and any further warm-up would be a waste of his energy.

He waited on the sidelines for 70 minutes before Irola finally arrived.

"Li, it's your turn."

Well, it really is a case of the formula being replaced.

They change them every 60 minutes, every 70 minutes, and every 80 minutes.

Jardim has made this substitution many times in the past.

Li Yuan took off his substitute vest and handed it to Irola before going to the sidelines to listen to Jardim's instructions.

"When you come on, just like in the last game, do what you do best. We're down 0-2 now. If we attack, we'll either equalize or win, or we'll lose even worse. Things can't get any worse than they are now. We need your performance!"