Football News: Summary of how Liverpool FC players perform for their national teams

Image from: freelargeimages.com

Part 1:

First of all, something that transcends football is the tragedy before the Madagascar v Senegal game when one fan was killed and forty injured in a stampede at the entrance. Apparently there was only one gate open for 20,000 fans to get in. Sadly, this sort of thing happens all too often in African football. The match went ahead regardless and ended in a 2-2 draw, Sadio played the whole game as the number 10 but wasn't involved in either goal.

Andy Robertson captained Scotland as they were soundly beaten 4-1 by a very strong looking Belgium. Robbo didn't have a bad game really and Scotland were doing okay in the friendly fixture at Hamden until some poor play at the back let Dembele steal in and set up Lukaku to open the scoring before halftime. Then in the second half the Belgians just blew their opponents away and Andy will be hoping for a better performance and result tonight in the nations league vs Albania.

Xherdan Shaqiri fared MUCH better in Switzerland's 6-0 nations league thrashing of Iceland. Our third-choice attacking midfielder simply ran the show in the number 10 role showing pace, quick feet, clever passing and good running both with and without the ball. He caused a normally solid Iceland defense problems all game and two of his freekicks resulted in goals. He must surely be pushing for a Liverpool start very soon.

Alisson, Firmino and Fabinho all played in Brazil's 2-0 friendly win over USA. Yet another clean sheet for Alisson, this time helped out by Fabinho who played at right back and was very solid as well as notching an assist for winning a penalty that was converted by some no-mark named 'Neymar', or something. Bobby played well and scored a lovely early goal getting on the end of Douglas Costa's whipped cross with an inspired little jinked movement to get away from his marker on the run. A combo that really should've graced the World Cup a lot more than they did.

Mo Salah had a quiet game for Egypt in their 6-0 win over Niger, only managing to bag two goals, two assists and see two penalties saved, (scoring the rebound from the second) . It definitely appears our one-season-wonder is all washed up, but hopefully he'll come back a bit happier than he looked against Leicester after the Egyptian FA finally copped on and granted his request for heightened security and to generally cut the crap.

Joe Gomez played 90 for England in their 2-1 home defeat to Spain and continued his fine form with a generally solid display up against the tricky Isco. Hendo started in the midfield anchor role but was overrun all too often, although largely thanks to Alli in particular leaving him exposed. He was replaced by Dier on 64 mins and I think if he starts on Saturday it shouldn't be as a number 6. Trent watched on from the bench wondering what all the fuss is about and thinking to himself how much more enjoyable his next visit to Wembley is going to be.

Virgil van Dijk captained Netherlands against France and produced some great defending and some not so great defending in his battle with the frightening French firepower. Gini Wijnaldum battled hard in midfield but couldn't prevent a 2-1 defeat with Ryan (still only 31) Babel scoring the consolation goal for the Dutch.

Naby Deco captained his country Guinea to a 1-0 win over CAR.

Liam Millar got his 2nd full international cap for Canada against the US Virgin Islands. He rather oddly played the 90 as a sort of right wingback in a 2-5-3 formation and bagged a classy assist in an 8-0 rout of the part-timers.

Of our Welsh lads only Ben Woodburn got any minutes, coming off the bench in the 79th minute in Wales' 2-0 defeat to Denmark. Wilson warmed the bench for the entirety of both their games.

Mignolet wasn't involved in Belgium's games due a sore finger that is likely to keep him out of the Spurs game and hand a place on the bench to one of the U23's bright young keepers. As an Irishman I'll be rooting for our Caoimhín who trained with the Irish senior squad for a few days after the defeat to Wales but made a swift return to Merseyside rather than travel to Poland for their friendly.

U21
Dom Solanke came on for the last 15 minutes in England U21s 0-0 draw with Netherlands
Corey Whelan played 90 at LB for Rep. Ireland U21 in their 1-1 draw away to Kosovo.
Kamil Grabara played 90 for Poland U21 in their 1-1 draw with Faroe Islands.

U20
Adam Lewis played 90 as a left winger for England U20s in their 2-0 win over Switzerland.

U19
Rafa Camacho played on the left wing for Portugal U19 in their 1-0 defeat to Italy.
Glen McAuley played on the right wing for Rep. Ireland U19 in their 1-0 defeat to Wales.

U18
Last, but certainly not least, Curtis Jones played all three games for England U18s at the Limoges Tournament and tasted glory as they won it by beating Netherlands 3-0, Russia 3-0 and finally hosts France 2-1.

Written by Jurgen Meister September 10 2018 20:50:33