I changed football.

The 30th round of Ligue 1 was held two days after the Europa League knockout stage, and on March 13, Jardim naturally made a wide-ranging rotation.

Li Yuan and Mbappe sat high in the stands.

Watching Monaco play Reims at home.

"Did you see that player?"

Which one?

"That one!"

Li Yuan looked in the direction Mbappe was pointing, but he definitely couldn't see it.

"It's that number 9."

"You know him?"

"No, I mean it's hard to imagine a player like that playing in Ligue 1."

"Hey, I thought you were going to say something."

Li Yuan ignored Mbappe's incessant chatter beside him and focused on watching the game. Mbappe, seeing that Li Yuan was ignoring him, wasn't angry and also started watching the game.

The first half was rather boring, as Reims is currently ranked 18th in the league and is deep in the relegation zone, so Reims spent the entire first half defending.

Honestly, this kind of defensive style makes the game less interesting to watch.

"Do you know why Ligue 1 is so unwatchable?" Li Yuan suddenly asked Mbappe.

Mbappe looked at Li Yuan suspiciously: "I used to be the one criticizing Ligue 1, why is it your turn today?"

"Look at today's match. Reims, as a relegation-threatened team, should have tried to defend their position and secure a point, and we shouldn't blame the opponent. But this match was just too ugly to watch. One side defending so fiercely while the other side attacked relentlessly—it's not entertaining. Think about it, relegation-threatened teams in other leagues at least try to attack, but we've encountered many relegation-threatened teams in Ligue 1, and they all just defend. The match was really too ugly to watch."

Mbappe sighed: "The main problem is that the overall technical and tactical level of Ligue 1 is a bit lacking. Even when they play an attacking style, it's not as exciting to watch as other leagues because the overall style is too direct. Only Paris Saint-Germain has some style because they want to perform well in the Champions League. Other teams seem indifferent to European competitions. If it weren't for Monaco's owners having money, they wouldn't care about European competitions."

Once this topic is discussed, it's hard to stop, so the two of them only touched on it briefly.

In the second half, Reims finally showed a weakness and Monaco scored with a header.

Monaco leads 1-0.

Once Monaco takes the lead, the outcome of the match is already decided.

Because Lance simply didn't have the ability to fight back.

After conceding a goal, Reims stopped defending and seemed to have given up entirely.

Because they lack offensive capabilities, they don't even dare to consider launching a major counter-attack after conceding a goal.

From then on, they could only let Monaco ravage them.

2-0, 3-0.

The final score was 4-0.

……

March 17, Europa League Round of 3, second leg.

Monaco will host Bayer Leverkusen.

With two away goals in hand, Monaco are poised for victory.

Leverkusen's fighting spirit doesn't seem very strong.

In particular, Schmidt's remarks at the pre-match press conference sparked a barrage of criticism from Bayer Leverkusen fans, who felt that he had already surrendered.

"I'm a pragmatic person. We were down 0-2 in the first leg, and then we conceded two away goals at home. Under these circumstances, I had to shift the team's focus to the league. Although it sounds like I'm surrendering, it's the result of considering the practicalities. We're not a powerhouse like Bayern Munich, nor are we oil-rich teams like Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain. We don't have that much budget or bench depth, so we have to make choices."

Then I got scolded.

When the starting lineup was announced an hour before today's match, Schmidt was even more likely to be criticized.

Because he really did field a completely reserve lineup, making a major rotation in the second leg of the Europa League round of 16 knockout stage.

This is undoubtedly a blow to Bayer Leverkusen's traveling fans. They came to Monaco's home ground hoping to see their team turn things around and fight hard for victory, but instead, the coach chickened out and surrendered.

How could this not upset the fans of the away team?

After the match started, Leverkusen tried to push forward, but the team's overall strength was indeed insufficient.

Schmidt was right; their bench depth is indeed insufficient, and their overall strength is lacking.

Monaco quickly gained the upper hand on the field.

Li Yuan responded first, making a strong run down the right flank against the full-back, then quickly cutting inside with a left-footed tap.

Facing the pharmaceutical company's defensive midfielder, Li Yuan calmly cut inside the ball and then dribbled past him. Next, facing the onrushing center-back, Li Yuan feigned a shot, fooling his opponent, and then flicked the ball with his left foot, creating an opening.

The transition was very quick; he lifted his foot and shot, kicking the ball towards the lower edge, sending it flying rapidly towards the upper left corner of the goal.

The goalkeeper didn't react at all.

"The final score is 3-0! Advancing to the quarterfinals is a sure thing!"

Just as Zhan Jun said, although the game was still going on, the score seemed to be already decided, and the situation on the field was completely one-sided.

Leverkusen had lost all will to fight; all that remained was to be slaughtered.

In the remainder of the match, Monaco scored two goals, one by Mbappe and one by Bernardo.

The goal that Mbappe scored was assisted by Li Yuan, who once again completed a goal and an assist.

In the final leg, Monaco defeated Bayer Leverkusen 3-0, sweeping their opponents 5-0 on aggregate. Such a victory was a great morale booster for Monaco.

Especially impressive was their achievement of advancing to the Europa League quarterfinals at home.

This is Monaco's best result in the history of the Europa League.

Strangely enough, Monaco's best result in the Champions League is that they finished as runners-up, but they have rarely participated in the Europa League before, and their best result is that they failed to advance from the group stage.

This is already a rare achievement in history.

After the match, Li Yuan attended a press conference.

Li Yuan arrived at the venue with Yaldin.

This was Li Yuan's first time attending a post-match press conference at home.

At the press conference, Li Yuan was naturally very happy.

"You've made it to the Europa League quarterfinals, which is a very good achievement. Now, which team do you hope to face in the quarterfinals?"

"No matter which team we face, we will face them the same way. Now that we have reached the Europa League quarterfinals, our goal remains the same: to continue moving forward."

"You've already scored 6 goals, and you're only 2 goals behind Aubameyang, who's at the top of the Europa League scoring charts. Do you think you can earn this honor?"

"Right now, I'm not thinking about the Europa League Golden Boot; I'm thinking about the team's victory. The team's victory is what I'm pursuing, not my personal statistics."