#InternationalWerkself: Wirtz assist – Diaby hits the woodwork
Five Werkself players were again in action with their national teams in World Cup qualifiers at the weekend. Three of them were on the winning side and one had to go off injured.
Germany registered their second win under the new coach Hansi Flick in Stuttgart on Sunday night. Florian Wirtz started on the bench. Serge Gnabry (2), Marco Reus and Timo Werner put Germany 4-0 up in the first half and Jonas Hofmann increased the lead at the start of the second 45. Flick made a double substitution on the hour mark with Wirtz coming on for Marco Reus. The Leverkusen player was involved in the sixth and final goal scored by Karim-David Adeyemi as he provided a first assist for the Germany senior team with an excellent one-two setting up Adeyemi.
Chile played Ecuador in the capital Quito last night – the game ended all square at 0-0. Charles Aránguiz started the match but went off injured on 82 minutes. The extent of the injury is unclear.
There was a bizarre incident in Sao Paulo late on Sunday evening in the South America clash between Brazil and Argentina. The match was stopped after seven minutes when health authority staff appeared on the touchline to take three Argentinean players off the pitch. Those players, plus a substitute, had allegedly breached quarantine regulations on entering Brazil. After about an hour, the South American Football Association CONMEBOL finally announced the game would be abandoned. Exequiel Palacios was not in the starting eleven. It remains to be seen what happens with the match.
Greece drew 1-1 with Kosovo on Sunday evening; Panos Retsos did not feature in Pristina.
Pohjanpalo scores the winner
Finland faced Kazakhstan in Helsinki on Saturday. Joel Pohjanpalo, who signed a one-year loan deal with Turkish top-flight club Caykur Rizespor on Sunday, scored the only goal of the game on 60 minutes. Lukas Hradecky in goal kept a clean sheet for his team.
Moussa Diaby was in action with France against Ukraine. That was his second inclusion in the senior squad – and for the second time the France coach Didier Deschamps brought on the 21-year-old. Diaby replaced Kingsley Coman on 63 minutes in Kiev. There was no change to the score after he came on with a shot from Diaby only hitting the post (78’).
Andrey Lunev had a quiet Saturday night – he watched Russia take on Cyprus from the subs bench. The match in Nicosia ended in a goalless draw.
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