In the 20th round of the Swiss Super League, Grasshoppers were defeated by Zurich 1-3 in the early morning of 6th Beijing time. The injured Chinese international Li Lei made his debut for Grasshoppers as a substitute in the 77th minute in the official competition. He delivered a good scorecard of "23 touches, 8 passes, 1 successful long pass and 6.8 points". And for such a debut, Li Lei behind to pay a lot. Li Lei said, away from his relatives in Switzerland simply can not feel the flavor of the year, but this road is their own choice, has gone out, may not turn back.
Injury affects Li Lei's ability to represent
national soccer team
Participating in the two matches of the 12-team tournament away from Japan on January 27 and away from Vietnam on February 1, of course, thus avoiding the difficulties of two consecutive defeats and the team's first loss to Vietnam in its history.
In the past 1 month, Li Lei has not only practiced hard, but he has also been learning the language and understanding the overseas life skills. Although during this period, he unfortunately suffered from injuries, but with will and determination, he quickly returned to the normal track of practice. For Li Lei, the most difficult thing is the pain of homesickness after being away from his family for a long time.
Li Lei informed Beijing Youth Daily, "This year (Lunar New Year) has been a bit muddled. The main thing is that it feels like there's no New Year's flavor over here." Local time on January 31 (lunar New Year's Day), when the people of the motherland immersed in the joy of the Chinese New Year, Li Lei had to be alone to resign the old and welcome the new. "I went out by myself to find a place to eat some dumplings, ate 30, nothing else," Li Lei said.
In the European performance, Li Lei feel a lot of different, among them, the deepest feeling is that every player in the practice, competition, need to take care of all aspects of their own day. Even for Li Lei such as foreign aid from Asia, the salon will not deliberately equipped with a "nanny", which means that Li Lei in the hard work of practice at the same time, but also need to adapt to the system of walking training and day to day self-care. Of course, in the view of this introverted young man, these so-called "difficulties" is not enough to count. He smiled and said: "Even when I was recuperating, I had a good appetite. On this side, after practice, we walk by ourselves. Everything else is handled on our own. The salon only has to organize one meal before or after practice. So I go back to my quarters by myself, frying beef, chicken, fish, and eating salads."
In the morning of 6th, Grasshoppers met Zurich at home in the 20th round of the Swiss Super League. Li Lei, who has recovered from his injury, made his debut in the Grasshoppers' official competition lineup. In fact, on the day of the competition, he had a premonition that he might enter the "big list", and this expectation and heartbeat also temporarily let him sweep away the troubles of previous injuries and homesickness.
Although Li Lei finished his debut as a substitute on behalf of Grasshoppers, according to the statistics of the soccer statistics website "SofaScore", Li Lei was on stage for 13 minutes in the game, won 2 times on the ground against the opportunity, 2 times in the air against the opportunity, 1 foul, totaled 23 touches, 8 passes completed, 1 success! Long pass, after the game his rating is 6.8 points, in the whole team into the field player rating list ranked 3rd.
In Li Lei's opinion, he can get the opportunity to play in the official competition 1 month after arriving in Europe, this head start is still relatively ambitious. Of course, he cautioned himself from time to time, to cherish every day in Europe to play football, cherish every minute and every second of practice, which is the foundation of their own step by step.
