The weekend of international football has come and gone. And boy, did we have an amazing weekend of football! All over the world, different teams battled against each other for a ticket to the FIFA World Cup in Russia.
International football action continues this week in Europe and South America as a number of teams are waiting to join the likes of Nigeria, England and Egypt who gained qualification during the weekend. As we look ahead to the coming days, we take a look at the weekend’s events and what they’ve taught us.
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Records Were Set
When Egypt defeated Congo on Sunday night, there must have been chants of celebration across the Northern African skies. For several years, the Pharaohs of Egypt had been tagged “local champions” because of how well they performed in Africa but constantly failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.
Their 2 – 1 win over Congo changed all that and now the Northern African country will be representing Africa in Russia next summer. But that’s not all. History was made on Sunday night when Egyptian goalkeeper and legend, Essam El Hadary, finally qualified for the FIFA World Cup tournament at the age of 44!
Robert Lewandowski also set two new records. On his way to leading the “Poles” to Russia 2018, he became the country’s highest goal scorer ever and also became the first player to score 16 goals in a major European international qualifying campaign.
- CONMEBOL Drama
If you asked anyone about the World Cup qualifiers in South America before it kicked off, their answer would have been quite simple. They would have probably mentioned Brazil and Argentina as one of the countries that would first qualify out of the bunch.
While Brazil has already qualified, the world is getting ready for the possibility of a World Cup without Argentina. Qualification has gone down to the wire this time and the final round of games will ultimately determine which teams will qualify and which ones won’t.
Which countries will be able to make it through to Russia after the final round of games on Wednesday morning?
Click here to make your predictions and earn yourself some money.
- Injury Updates
It is one of the major reasons why club coaches dread the international break. Apart from their players suffering jet lags and other travel-related issues, there’s the big issue of players suffering injuries.
Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte will obviously not be happy with the way this international break has played out. Marouane Fellaini and N’golo Kante both suffered injuries while representing their countries over the weekend.
What this means is that both players may not feature for their respective clubs when the Premier League resumes this weekend. With both players playing vital roles for Manchester United and Chelsea respectively, the managers must be racking their brains on how to replace them, effectively.
As mentioned earlier, football action continues on the international scene before the players go back to their respective clubs.
After a weekend of international football, which of the results was the best one for you? Which of the games did you enjoy watching? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
Cheers to a great week ahead!
Tags: inter, international break lessons
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