Three Arsenal players featured for France in their stalemate with Luxembourg, while Danny Welbeck scored for England and Mesut Ozil impressed with Germany.
Laurent Koscielny, Olivier Giroud, Alexandre Lacazette, Danny Welbeck, Mesut Ozil, Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey featured for their countries.
Our French contingent had a mixed break, however. They took control of their group by smashing the Netherlands 4-0 – Koscileny and Giroud started the game, while Lacazette appeared as a late substitute.
Giroud laid on the first goal by Antoine Griezmann, while Koscielny had an easy game at the back. His only scare was an ankle knock he picked up in the first half, but he was able to complete the game.
They had a much more difficult time of it last night, however. France produced the limpest of limp performances as they drew 0-0 at home with Luxembourg. Koscielny and Giroud both started. Lacazette appeared a sub again, but was unable to break the deadlock after coming on.
On Saturday, Welbeck made his first England appearance since 2016 when he came on as a late substitute against Malta. He scored the Three Lions’ third goal in a 4-0 victory, latching onto a high ball and deftly lobbing the stranded Andrew Hogg in the Malta goal. England play Slovakia at Wembley tonight and will be looking to take control of Group F.
Aaron Ramsey played 90 minutes for Wales as they resurrected their qualifying campaign with a hard-fought win over Austria. Liverpool youngster Ben Woodburn scored the only goal of the match. Wales travel to Moldova tomorrow for should be a routine victory.
Mesut Ozil provided an assist for Germany in their 2-1 win over the Czech Republic. It was his pass that carved open the Czech defence and led to RB Leipzig’s Timo Werner opening the scoring. A late winner from Bayern’s Mats Hummels gave Germany the win. Germany will be looking to continue their 100% record against Norway tonight.
Switzerland have also maintained their 100% record in qualifying after defeating Andorra and Latvia 3-0. Granit Xhaka played 60 minutes and 77 minutes respectively in what would have been routine games for the Swiss.
It wasn’t as successful an outing for Sead Kolasinac. Despite providing an assist, his Bosnian team went down 3-2 to Cyprus.
Away from Europe, Mohamed Elneny’s Egypt were defeated 1-0 by Uganda, David Ospina kept a clean sheet for Colombia in a 0-0 draw with Venezuela and Alexis Sanchez’s Chile were thumped 3-0 by Paraguay.
Elsewhere, Takuma Asano scored Japan’s opening goal in a 2-0 victory over Australia, while Eddie Nketiah bagged a hat-trick for the England u19s in a 7-1 thrashing of Poland u19s.