Although in the distant, the passion of the European Cup is close at hand. For Chinese fans, this year's European Cup seems to be out of reach, because our soccer team failed to participate. However, there are at least eight players who have sweated in the Chinese Super League, and their presence makes the distance between the European Cup and our fans seem a little closer.
Among the 619 participating players, Turkey's Yilmaz, Belgium's Witsel and Carrasco, Sweden's Danielsson and Wenjarsson, Slovakia's Hamsik, and Portugal's Fonte, all of whom have played in the Chinese Super League. Among them, Danielsson, Wenjarsson and Arnautovic are still active CSL foreigners, while the other five have left the game.
Even though they have left the Chinese Super League, their legend still lives on in our country. In just three matches on June 14, three former and current Chinese Super League foreigners were featured. However, with Fonte's starting position in Portugal having been replaced by Ruben Dias, the opportunity to play was very limited, meaning that the appearances of foreigners with Chinese Super League resumes in the first round of the Europa League group stage basically came to an end.
It is worth mentioning that these old and new foreigners who have played in the Chinese Super League, in addition to Hamsik, the other four have just experienced the season that can be called the peak of life. Yilmaz and Fonte teamed up in Lille in Ligue 1 and beat Paris Saint-Germain to win the title one after the other; Carrasco was the absolute protagonist of Atletico Madrid's victory over Real Madrid and Barcelona again after seven years; and Witsel missed more than half a season of Dortmund due to Achilles tendon ligament injuries, but he remained the team's main back for the first half of the season when he was healthy.
The three current Chinese Super League (CSL) foreign aiders Danielsson, Wenjia Song and Arnautovic are all key foreign aiders in their respective teams in the CSL, but their performances in the Europa League are different. Chinese super "foreign aid" in the first round of the Europa League performance, Arnautovic and Carrasco is the most outstanding. Despite scoring only 1 goal in 4 league matches in the Chinese Super League, the Shanghai seaport winger is still in good shape when he arrives at the national team. Arnautovic in the UEFA Cup qualifiers is still the Austrian team's main center, but from last year's UEFA Nations League, due to the impact of the epidemic is difficult to return to Europe to participate in the main position gradually ceded to the same Serbian descent, can be younger 8 years old, height of 2 meters high center Karadžić.
Arnautovic, who was in the starting lineup at the time of the World Cup qualifiers in March, scored consecutively against Scotland and the Faroe Islands, but then went on a four-game drought streak. Arnautovic, who was dropped from the squad in March due to epidemic control, was only given 28 minutes against Slovakia after being named in the Austrian roster. However, in the opening game against North Macedonia, he came in for half an hour and capitalized, locking up three valuable points for Austria and regaining Fouda's trust.
Yilmaz played the whole game but couldn't break through the Italian defense. Carrasco played 77 minutes and was an important raider on the Belgian left, continuing his excellent form for Atletico. Witsel, on the other hand, was somewhat unfortunate not to make the squad due to injury. While Poland against Slovakia in the early morning of the 15th, Spain against Sweden, Hamsik, Danielsson all get time to enter the game, Vinjasun can only wait for the time on the bench.
Hamsik, who hasn't been back to our country since the end of last year's Chinese Super League, has not been involved in training due to a calf injury, but he insisted on returning to Europe just for the Europa League. Hamsik is still a key part of the Slovakian team's tactics, and apart from having a few good organized attacks and long diagonal passes in the first half, it was he who delivered the key assist in the second half, allowing Škrnjar to counter-attack and fire in the winning goal.
This is the first time since Slovakia's independence in 1993 that it has won its first match in a major tournament, and Hamsik, who has just announced that he has joined Turkish powerhouse Trabzonspor, deserves a lot of credit for that. It is worth mentioning that the manager of Poland, Slovakia's opponent in this match, is Paulo Sousa, an old acquaintance from the Chinese Super League.
Danielsson led the Swedish defense against the mighty Spanish team, in only 19% of the ball possession, the overall disadvantage of the situation, but still strong to let Spain without success. However, Danielsson individual performance is not too good, the Spanish team in the first and second halves of the three scoring opportunities are related to the Dalian center back errors: the first half of his missed kicks to let Morata straight in front of the goalkeeper, the second half of his first error to let Morata to get the timing of the kicks, and then missed the top of the Moreno header from a distance to attack the goal, but fortunately were the goalkeeper Olsson peculiar saves to solve the problem.
