With the drums beating for this weekend's European Championships, the Austrian team played a warm-up match against Slovakia in the early hours of Beijing time, and the two sides ended up shaking hands in a 0:0 draw.
Shanghai Seaport's foreigner Arnautovic made a strong return from injury, and his 64th-minute substitute appearance gave the Austrian side two threatening strikes, with one of the shots even hitting the post.
At the pre-match conference, Arnautovic once lost control of his emotions, and he could not help but burst into tears when talking about his long separation from his family due to the New Crown epidemic, a scene that also sparked widespread attention from the Austrian media.
After expressing his thoughts about his family and his excitement about returning to the field, it took a few minutes for Arnautovic to calm down.
Austria's head coach Fouda expressed his understanding of Arnautovic's feelings, arguing that players are ordinary people with emotions.
Fouda also said that he would try to arrange for the players to meet their families despite the fact that the epidemic has left them with few opportunities to reunite with their families, as families are vital to the players and a source of strength for them.
Arnautovic was an immediate threat on his return from injury, and despite the pain of being separated from his family, he scored a 'hat-trick' in the first round of the Super League to show that he's had a great start to the season.
Arnautovic missed training with the national team after suffering an injury in the fourth round of the Chinese Super League, but he is now fully recovered and is looking forward to playing well at the European Championships.
Arnautovic has been recovering and training on his own in the Austrian team's training camp, and finally began practicing with the full squad on Friday.
Fouda was optimistic about Arnautovic's fitness and form and placed him on the bench for the warm-up match against Slovakia.
Arnautovic has certainly lived up to his coach's expectations, as he remains one of the most threatening attacking players in the Austrian team, and his debut has quickly boosted the team's attacking power up front.
After making his debut in the 64th minute, hitting the post with a shot in the 69th minute and nearly breaking through in the 71st minute, Arnautovic said he had fully recovered from his previous muscle injury.
Arnautovic is looking to contribute to the team at this European Championships, especially hoping to score goals.
The all-time leading goal scorer for Austria (26 goals in 87 games), Arnautovic's last appearances for the national team came in UEFA Europa League matches against Ireland and Norway last November, where he dished out an assist in each of those games.
Due to the epidemic and our entry policy, Arnautovic did not participate in the Austrian team's three World Cup European qualifiers in March this year, "Those matches, in my country I was up in the early hours of the morning to watch."
With Arnautovic missing consecutive matches for Austria, he will now have to compete for a starting spot with young striker Karaitz of Stuttgart in the Bundesliga.
The 2-meter tall Karaitz scored 16 goals in the just-ended Bundesliga season, a good efficiency that puts him sixth in the top scorer list. Karaitz started all five of the Austrian team's games this year and contributed three goals.
However, judging from Arnautovic's 30-minute-plus performance in this match, he is still very much in the running for this year's European Championships as long as he is fit.
Arnautovic is one of eight players in this Austrian team who were involved in EURO 2016 and despite finishing bottom of the group stage and failing to qualify, they had held eventual winners Portugal to a 0:0 draw.
Talking about another upcoming European Championship, Arnautovic looked cautious, "Last time and this time we are a strong team. Of course our opponents in this group are also very strong, so it is necessary to go all out and take it seriously."
Joining Austria in Group C at this year's European Championships are the Netherlands, Ukraine and Northern Macedonia.
Austria group stage fixtures
(Beijing time)
June 14th 00:00 Austria vs North Macedonia
June 18 03:00 Netherlands vs Austria
June 22nd 00:00 Ukraine vs Austria
From：Weekly Shanghai Author：Yu Jiong
