For Chinese fans, the La Liga espanyol away match against Valencia, which started at 11:15 Beijing time last night, is a New Year's Eve battle. But unfortunately, the people who were expecting it did not wait for Wu Lei to play in the game.
The Chinese striker has not been able to play in his last four La Liga games. And it was The club B team youngster Carreras who helped the Spaniards to complete the reversal in the last moments was the same position as Wu Lei. This undoubtedly means that after entering 2022, Wu Lei will face greater competition at espanyol clubs, and it will be more and more difficult to get more playing time.
Espanyol coach Moreno still lined up his most regular starting lineup in the final game of 2021, and Wu Lei continued to stand on the bench.
After a 0-0 draw between the two teams in the first half, Valencia, playing at home, scored first shortly after the start of the second half. Since then, the substitution adjustments made by the Spaniards in order to strengthen the attack have nothing to do with Wu Lei, and Puado and Di Mata have been sent on the front line.
In the 81st minute, Moreno made the last substitution of the match, still not Wu Lei, but the young player Carreras who was transferred from espanyol B. The 20-year-old has appeared in the right winger position, which is basically the same position that Wu Lei has played in the team this season.
This is Carreras' first appearance for Espanyol first team this season, having played five games for the first team last season (3 La Liga and 2 Copa del Rey).
Just one minute into the game, Carreras became the "key gentleman" who decided the final direction of the game. His breakthrough in the penalty area caused Valencia player Douro to foul, not only winning the equaliser penalty for Espanyol, but also causing Douro to be sent off with a red card after receiving the second yellow card of the game.
After De Thomas scored a penalty, the outnumbered Spaniard attacked even more fiercely. In the 88th minute, it was Again Carreras' cross from the right that assisted Puado to score the final winning goal.
The Spaniard won the game in a reversed manner, not only getting out of the relegation zone after halfway through the season, but even rushing into the top ten of the table. But for Wu Lei, his position in the team will become more uncertain.
In the position of substitute center, Wu Lei's pick is behind Morón and Di Mata; on the wing, Moreno also prefers to use Puado, Melendo and Mela mede. Before this game, Wu Lei was at least able to come off the bench in the position of right winger or right winger, but with Carreras also able to perform so amazingly in La Liga, the average European coach will definitely prefer to leave the opportunity to the youngsters.
So far this season, Wu Lei has played a total of 12 games in La Liga, only 3 starts, and has not scored goals or assists. Throughout 2021, Wu Lei played 32 games for Espanyol in La Liga, La Liga and Copa del Rey, only to score two goals in the Copa del Rey knockout match against lower-level teams. It is obviously unrealistic for such data to be fully trusted by the current Spaniard manager Moreno.
Wu Lei can't do much now, train hard off the field, and then have to grasp when he gets the opportunity to play, and use goals and assists to get out of the current predicament step by step.
Espanyol's next match is at 4:00 a.m. Beijing time on January 5 and the third round of the Copa del Rey in Pomferradina (fifth in La Liga this season), which should be Wu Lei's chance.