In the 20th round of the Swiss Super League, Grasshoppers hosted Zurich in the early morning of Beijing 6th, but suffered a reversal with a score of 1-3. It is worth mentioning that our player Li Lei made his first official appearance for Grasshoppers in the 77th minute after recovering from injury. He delivered an eye-catching scorecard of 23 touches, 8 passes, 1 successful long pass, and an overall rating of 6.8. However, behind this debut, Li Lei put in a lot of hard work. He said that it is difficult for him to feel the flavor of the New Year in Switzerland far away from his hometown, but since he has chosen this path, he is not afraid of the wind and rain.
Due to injury problems, Li Lei missed the national football team's two matches in the 12-team tournament away to Japan on January 27 and away to Vietnam on February 1, thus avoiding the team's consecutive defeats as well as the embarrassing situation of losing to Vietnam for the first time in its history.
Over the past month, Li Lei has not only been training hard, but he has also been learning the language and understanding the skills of living abroad. Although he suffered from injuries during this period, he quickly returned to training with will and determination. For Li Lei, the most difficult thing to bear is the pain of homesickness brought by being away from his family for a long time.
In an interview with Beijing Youth Daily, Li Lei said, "This year has been a bit muddled. It's mainly because it feels like there's no New Year's flavor over here." On January 31 (Lunar New Year's Eve), local time, when the people of the motherland were immersed in the joy of the Spring Festival, Li Lei had to spend this important moment alone. "I went out by myself and found a place to eat some dumplings, ate 30 of them and nothing else", Li Lei recalled.
During the period of playing in Europe, Li Lei felt a lot of differences, one of the most profound experience is that every player in the training, after the game, need to take care of all aspects of life. Even for the foreign aid Li Lei from Asia, the club will not be specially equipped with a "nanny", which means that he is training hard at the same time, but also need to adapt to the system of walking training and self-care life. However, this introverted young man thinks that these so-called "difficulties" are insignificant. He smiles and says, "Even during the recuperation period, I have a good appetite. Over here, after training, we go our own way. Everything else has to be taken care of. The club will only organize a meal before and after training. So I'll go back to the premises and fry beef, chicken, fish and have salads."
Grasshoppers hosted Zurich in the 20th round of the Swiss Premier League in the early hours of the morning of 6th Beijing time. Li Lei, who returned from injury, was selected for the first time in the official match. In fact, on the day of the match, he had a feeling that he might be on the "big list", and this anticipation made him forget about his previous injuries and homesickness for a while.
Although Li Lei made his official debut for Grasshoppers as a substitute, according to the soccer statistics website "SofaScore", he won 2 ground chances, 2 aerial chances, 1 foul, 23 touches, 8 passes, and 1 successful long pass in 13 minutes on the field. He finished the game with a 6.8 rating, ranking No. 3 on the team's scoring list.
In Li Lei's opinion, getting the chance to play in an official game a month after playing in Europe is quite an ideal start. Of course, he constantly warns himself to cherish every day of playing in Europe and every second of training, which is the foundation for his steady progress.
