On May 9, Beijing time, the 35th round of La Liga, Espanyol hosted Osasuna, Wu Lei finally returned to the start, but played half a game, was replaced by De Thomas.
The last time Wu Lei made his debut in La Liga, it was back to October 23, 2021, 197 days ago! Espanyol played 45 minutes away from Home to Elche before being replaced at the end of the first half.
Since then, Wu Lei has failed to start 24 consecutive rounds of La Liga, until today he finally survived and ushered in his fourth league start of the season, and the first since 2022!
The reason why Wu Lei can return to the starting lineup, on the one hand, is likely to be related to the contradiction between top scorer De Thomas and coach Vicente. On the other hand, he did win back the trust of the manager by relying on his positive performance after coming off the bench.
After the game began, Wu Lei and Puado teamed up as double strikers, positioning more right. In the 28th minute, he was pushed from behind by Aridane Hernandez, but the referee didn't show anything.
In the 31st minute, Puado burst into the right side of the penalty area, Wu Lei in the middle of the road has been wrapped in place, reaching for the ball, if the pass, it is to push the empty goal, but Puado chose to shoot himself, the result was saved by the opposing goalkeeper!
In the 42nd minute, Balha picked out the goal and the Spaniard was 0-1 behind!
After the start of the second half, Wu Lei was replaced by De Thomas, played only 45 minutes, did not shoot any shots, touched the ball 11 times, passed the ball success rate of 60%, had 3 successful passes, 4 successful confrontations and 2 times, and lost the ball 5 times. And the last time he scored was on April 11, 28 days ago! He recorded his first league goal of the season, breaking the 667-day La Liga goal drought.