On the eve of the upcoming European Championships this weekend, the Austrian team played a tense warm-up match against Slovakia in the early hours of this morning Beijing time, and the two sides ended up shaking hands with a score of 0:0 after a fierce battle.
Shanghai Harbour's foreign aid Arnautovic, who came on as a substitute in the 64th minute after returning from injury, contributed two threatening attacks for the Austrian team, with one of the shots hitting the goal post.
Before the match, Arnautovic lost control of his emotions and burst into tears at the press conference, a scene that attracted widespread attention from the Austrian media.
Arnautovic said at the conference that he had to be separated from his family for a long time due to the new crown epidemic, which made him feel pain. Speaking on the topic, he was emotional and burst into tears: "When I can't be reunited with my family, it makes me feel a very different life. I haven't seen my two children for months, and that's not easy for me. So I'm happy to be back in Austria and ready to give it my all at the European Championships to make this country proud and my family proud too."
After expressing these words, it took almost a couple of minutes for Arnautovic to calm his excitement.
On the sidelines, Austria's head coach Fouda said that he understands Arnautovic's feelings very well, "People often say that the players are professionals, so that's how they have to be. In fact, we are all ordinary people too, and everyone will have their own emotions."
Fouda also said that even though the players don't have many opportunities to be with their families right now due to the outbreak, he will try to find a way to give everyone the chance to see their families again, "Families are very important to the players and that gives us strength, and we're going to need that strength and support at the European Championships."
Arnautovic, back from injury, showed a very threatening attacking ability as soon as he came back. In the first round of this year's Chinese Super League, he even scored a "hat-trick". Before his injury, he was very active at the beginning of the season, "The time in my country is still very good, we have done a good job preparing. I'm fully fit, I'm training very hard and even though the league has only just started, there have been a lot of warm-up matches beforehand which have put me in good shape."
Arnautovic suffered a thigh muscle strain in the fourth round of the Chinese Super League, during the Harbour's match against Changchun Yatai, "Unfortunately this injury happened two weeks before the national team set-up, which made me miss the previous training. But now I have fully recovered and am happy to be back again."
Arnautovic has been recovering and training in the Austrian team Bad Tazmanasdorf's training camp. On Friday, he finally started practicing with the full team.
Head Coach Fouda was optimistic about Arnautovic's fitness and form, and he arranged for him to come on as a substitute in the warm-up match against Slovakia. Arnautovic did not fail to live up to everyone's expectations, he is still one of the most threatening attacking players in the Austrian team, and quickly improved the team's attacking power in front of the field after his appearance. Fouda said after the game, "Arnautovic showed his strength when he came on."
After coming on in the 64th minute, hitting the post with a shot in the 69th minute, and then nearly breaking through in the 71st minute, Arnautovic said his previous muscle injury was completely fine.
Arnautovic is hoping that he can help his team at the EUROs, especially by being able to score at the European Championships. The highest goal scorer among active Austrian internationals (26 goals in 87 games), the last time he played for his national team was last November in the UEFA Europa League against Ireland and Norway, where Arnautovic 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, "These matches, in my country I was up in the early hours of the morning to watch."
With Arnautovic missing consecutive matches for Austria, he now has to compete for the starting spot with young striker Karaitz of Stuttgart in the Bundesliga. The 2-meter tall Karaitz scored 16 goals in the recently concluded Bundesliga season, a good efficiency, ranking sixth in the top scorer list. Karaitz has started all five of the Austrian team's games this year and has contributed three goals.
Still, judging by Arnautovic's 30-plus minutes of play in this game, he has high hopes of playing as a starter in this year's European Championships as long as he's healthy.
Arnautovic was one of eight players in this Austrian team that participated 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.
Speaking about the upcoming start of yet another European Championship, Arnautovic appeared cautious, "Last time and this time, we are a strong team. Of course, all our opponents in this group are also strong and we have to give our best and take them 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
Source：Weekly Shanghai Author：Yu Jiong
