In the night, Li Liang's international flight landed at Nice Airport again.

The time for the return trip was very tight, and after the game at the Ben Yudko Stadium, he said goodbye to Gao Bohong, who had already announced his resignation at the post-match press conference, as well as all his teammates, as well as fitness coach Gao Jianxin, and went straight back to Monaco.

After the national team played the match against Syria, before leaving for Tashkent, Li Liang and Xiaoyu only met in a hurry at Beihua International Airport, and after exchanging heartfelt complaints, the two young people were infinitely reluctant to part.

Looking at the familiar scene of the terminal building of Nice Airport in front of him, Li Liang suddenly felt that in the past three weeks, it was as if nothing had happened - of course, if it was possible, he really hoped that all this could be done again.

Early the next morning, he was the first to arrive at the base of Latubi as usual. For some reason, after seeing the familiar training ground, he felt much better.

As the last player to return to the team after the international break, Li Liang did not participate in the joint training, but started the physical test alone in front of Spinoli and his assistants.

Gradually, the smile on Spinoli's face disappeared, and the Italian, who was anxiously looking through the records, finally broke out.

He slammed the folder in his hand to the ground, and roared at Li Liang, who was sweating profusely and surprised: "Did you go on vacation?"

You're not even as fit as you were when you first came to La Tubi in May, what a hell of a life! What the hell have you been doing for three weeks?! ”

The roar of Italy resounded throughout the base, and the eyes of Jardim and his assistants on another training ground, as well as the first-team players, were all on Spinoli and Li Liang.

In Yaldim's office, Spinoli was still complaining: "Leonardo, I really haven't seen such unprofessional physical training, Li has not maintained systematic training at all in the past three weeks, and our early accumulation has all been in vain."

It's even scarier than the FIFA virus! ”

Yaldim looked at Li Liang's physical test results and frowned.

The team's data analysis team has already counted the specific data of all the players participating in the national team competition, and he noticed that Li Liang only played 15 minutes in the two games after returning to China, and he felt that the situation was not right, but he didn't expect it to be worse than he thought.

He asked, "Carlo, how long will it take for Lee to return to the level he was before he returned home?" ”

Spinoli shook his head helplessly: "At least 10 days." ”

Yaldim asked again: "Will he be able to make it in time for the race in Moscow?" ”

Spinoli shrugged his shoulders: "I'm afraid I won't be able to hold out even for half the game." ”

With the main squad suffering from ongoing injuries, Yaldim felt stretched thin when it came to the line-up.

Dillard, Falcao and substitute wingback Toure have not yet recovered, especially the absence of the first two, which has greatly affected the team's attacking line.

For Li Liang at that time, regardless of the position of the main substitute just established in the team and the impact of the upcoming formal transfer negotiations, he insisted on returning to China before September 26, and Yaldim, who had been persuaded to no avail, was very helpless, but he also wanted to take the opportunity to inspect the team's other substitutes.

After three games with one win, one draw and one defeat, the Portuguese have concluded that among all the substitutes, there is indeed no one who can replace Li Liang's current tactical position.

Two consecutive away games against Toulouse and Champions League rivals CSKA Moscow in the coming week have been tough games for him, and Yaldim has made the decision to end his hiatus as soon as Li Liang returns.

In order to play well in the Champions League away game, he originally decided to let Li Liang fly directly from Tashkent to Moscow, and start training directly after meeting the technical team sent by Monaco locally, but Spinoli, who was worried about the effectiveness of Li Liang's training in the national team, objected.

Spinoli proved to be very predictable, and Li Liang's physical condition was even worse than they expected.

Jardim immediately decided to keep Li Liang out of the squad for the match against Toulouse on 14 October, and Spinoli also stayed with him, so as to get Li Liang back in form as soon as possible.

On October 14, while Li Liang was sweating hard in front of the roaring Spinoli, Monaco embarked on an away trip to Toulouse.

Located in the southwest of France, Toulouse is the capital of the Haute-Garonne department in the South-Pyrenees region and is the fourth largest city in France. The headquarters of the famous Airbus company is located here.

Toulouse have been hovering in the relegation zone of the league in recent years, and last season they were vice-captains – 17th, narrowly missing relegation to the second division.

However, since the start of the new season, the team has suddenly taken on a new look, with an astonishing record of 4 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses in the 8 rounds of league games that have been played, and is currently in fourth place in the standings with 14 points, five points away from Monaco who are second with 19 points.

When the game was about to start, Spinoli and Li Liang, who had dinner at the base, came to the tactical classroom together, along with Falcao and Toure, who were undergoing rehabilitation at the base.

Seeing that the players of both sides had already stepped on the turf of the Toulouse Municipal Stadium, the four men were talking about the upcoming match, and everyone agreed that this game would be guaranteed to get at least one point away from home.

To the surprise of the other three, Li Liang actually knew the two leading stars of the Toulouse team, Argentine striker Trejo and Danish striker Braithwaite, very well.

It turned out that when Li Liang was playing FIFA, he had always loved these two players with high quality and low price, but he regretted that because of participating in the national team, he lost the opportunity to compete with them face-to-face.

At the start of the game, Monaco lined up in a 442 formation, with Subasic in goal, and Mendy, Jemerson, Glick and Raj in the back from left to right.

Jose Moutinho started in place of Tiemoue Bakayoko and was joined by Fabinho in the middle of midfield, flanked by Bosglia and Silva on the left and right. Up front, a combination of Germain and Carrillo was discharged.

It can be seen that Jardim still has some scruples about Toulouse, did not rotate a large area, and for the Champions League away game in Moscow in midweek, he only put Sidibi, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Lemar on the bench.

At the beginning of the game, Li Liang saw the familiar Trejo and Braithwaite at a glance.

The two sides were fiercely contested from the start, with Toulouse playing well at home and not in the slightest hint of being the favourites for relegation last season.

In the first two minutes, Raj threw a throw-in from the right side of the field, but Carrillo did not receive the ball, and after the battle, the ball fell towards the nearby Germain.

When the Frenchman headed back to Fabinho, he was ferociously charged by Toulouse's No.10 Trejo, and the referee blew the whistle and took a free-kick in front.

Silva, Moutinho and Boschlia were all in front of the ball, and after the two Portuguese ran to cover, Boslia lobbed the ball into the box with his left foot.

The two big men, Carrillo and Glick, attracted Toulouse's key defence, and the pulling of Jermelsen and Raj's cover created an easy opportunity for Germain to fight for the ball, only to see him leap high near the penalty spot and get a beautiful header back, the home goalkeeper couldn't save it, and the ball went into the net!

1:0, Monaco got off to a fantastic start just three minutes into the game.

In Latuby's classroom, all four cheered excitedly, and everyone was jubilant, thinking that they could easily defeat their opponents without blood, which would be a great benefit for the Champions League match in midweek.