International Round-up

With the final international break before the World Cup thankfully now fizzling out, here is a summary of how the lads representing their respective national teams have fared in recent days.

Eric Dier and Harry Kane both turned out for England in both of their Nations League matches over the past week: Friday’s 1-0 defeat to Italy and yesterday’s hectic 3-3 draw with Germany, with Kane netting one of his trademark penalties straight into the side-netting to put England 3-2 up in the closing minutes against Germany. Alas, an error from Nick Pope meant that England could not see out the victory. Him and Eric Dier completed 90 minutes in both matches, and England now have no more fixtures until the World Cup in Qatar.

Heung min-Son netted again in South Korea’s 1-0 victory over Cameroon in Seoul last night, adding to his sumptuous free-kick in his country’s 2-2 draw with Costa Rica on Friday. South Korea also have completed their

Another player who has been in rich goalscoring form for his country the past week has been Richarlison, who netted a brace in Brazil’s 3-0 friendly win over Ghana in France last Friday. The Brazilians take on Tunisia tonight at 7.30 PM BST, where Richarlison will be hoping to stake his claim as his country’s starting number nine in Qatar.

There were contrasting fortunes for Rodrigo Bentancur, who was booked and substituted after 85 minutes in Uruguay’s 1-0 friendly loss to Iran. Bentancur starts again tonight in Uruguay’s final warm-up match ahead of the World Cup away to Canada, where they are currently leading 2-0 at the time of writing.

Staying in South America, Cristian Romero was embroiled in a visa-related debacle that saw him miss out on Argentina’s friendly match against Honduras last Friday, a match where Giovani Lo Celso completed 72 minutes in a 3-0 victory for the Argentinians. Romero will be hoping to get some action in tomorrow morning’s (1 AM BST) friendly match against Jamaica.

Meanwhile, Yves Bissouma got a valuable 30 minutes as a second-half substitute in Mali’s 1-0 friendly victory over Zambia on Friday.

Despite his Sweden team losing 4-1 to Serbia on Saturday night, Dejan Kulusevski was heavily praised by his country’s media, being rated as Sweden’s “best player”, registering an assist and receiving the following plaudits from Swedish outlet Fotbollskanalen:

“World class in the build-up to Sweden’s 1-0 goal. Always tried to be creative but didn’t really have the teammates with him. Was the team’s best player.”

Kulusevski and Sweden will be hoping to put things right in a Nations League match against Slovenia tonight, kick-off 7.45 PM BST.

In more worrying news, Ivan Perisic suffered an injury scare for Croatia in their 2-1 victory over Denmark last Thursday, being substituted after 71 minutes, ironically following a seemingly innocuous challenge from teammate Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. Nevertheless, Perisic made a recovery from the effects of Hojbjerg’s challenge and turned in a stellar performance in Croatia’s victory over Austria in the Nations League, completing 90 minutes and registering an assist in a 3-1 victory for the Croatians.

Speaking of Hojbjerg, the Dane completed 90 minutes in his country’s Nations League 2-0 victory over France on Sunday.

Matt Doherty and on-loan striker Troy Parrott both put in laboured performances as the Republic of Ireland slumped to a 2-1 defeat to Scotland, with both players guilty of missing good chances and Parrott having a goal disallowed in the defeat on Sunday at Hampden Park.

Staying with loanees, Joe Rodon put in a disappointing performance for Wales in their 2-1 defeat to Belgium on Thursday, with WalesOnline giving him out 5 of 10, stating:

“Anchoring the backline, he backed off too much with the hosts’ opener. Rose well with a header for Wales’ best chance of the first half. Will be disappointed with the second, too.”

According to Football.London, our younger players fared relatively well, with Ryan Sessegnon, Oliver Skipp and Djed Spence coming up against Destiny Udogie in England U21s’ 2-1 victory over Italy U21s. The English trio completed 71 minutes, with Udogie coming on as a second-half substitute, and, despite ending up on the losing side, the latter impressed in his 26-minute battle with Djed Spence in a tantalising glimpse into our wing-back future.

Udogie then went from second-half substitute to being subbed off at half-time in Italy U21s’ 1-1 draw at home to Japan last night.

England U21s take on Germany at home tonight, 7.45 PM KO BST, where Spence, Skipp and Sessegnon will hope to get more minutes; here’s hoping the former two get to build up their match fitness even more tonight.

Meanwhile, Bryan Gil registered an assist in Spain U21s’ 4-1 victory over Romania U21s on Friday, completing the best part of an hour in their 4-1 rout of Romania. As I write, Gil has just registered another assist in Spain’s U21 friendly at home to Norway (follow here, in Spanish), with his team 1-0 up shortly after the restart. There’s clearly a player there, and these minutes and assists will hopefully do his confidence some good as he looks to make an impression on the first-team squad before the World Cup starts. However, I still strongly suspect that he’ll move on in January should the right offer materialise.

Some minutes for players that need it, goals and assists all around, and so far, no injuries…God-willing and touch wood, it stays this way going into Saturday’s showdown at the Emirates!