Merino Gonzalez in goal groove: Women's international round-up

The biggest Leverkusen contingent was found in the newly launched German U23 team, who played two friendlies against Spain and Belgium. In the convincing 3-0 win over the Spaniards, the starting line-up contained no fewer than four Werkself players in Kristin Kögel, Katharina Piljic and debutants Selina Ostermeier and Sofie Zdebel (subbed off after 61 minutes). Julia Mickenhagen also came on in the 61st minute. Kögel, who is being tried at left-back by the DFB, led the team as captain, as she did in the debut match against France, and set up the opening goal for Werder Bremen's Tuana Mahmoud with a precise cross in the ninth minute. The U23s then went down to their first defeat in their fourth match in Belgium. Ostermeier, Kögel (until half-time) and Zdebel again started in the 2-1 loss, but Piljic and Mickenhagen didn't feature this time.

Meanwhile, a Leverkusen duo made a dream start to EURO qualification with the Germany U19s. In the first stage, Estrella Merino Gonzalez and Delice Boboy triumphed in a four-nation tournament in Duisburg with wins over Kosovo (5-0), Greece (3-0) and Denmark (5-1) - and played a big part in the successes. Indeed, the first goal of the camp was the result of a Leverkusen combination, Bobby setting up Merino Gonzalez, who opened the scoring against Kosovo in the 18th minute. Merino Gonzalez played 61 minutes, while Boboy came off after 80 minutes. Merino Gonzalez then played the duration against Greece, with Boboy on the field for 68 minutes. In the final game against Denmark which clinched top spot in the group, Merino Gonzalez scored a brace (7', 39') and Boboy set up her team-mate's second goal before then scoring a penalty to make it 5-1 (53') and missing a second spot-kick just four minutes later. The second qualification phase will also be played in groups of four but unlike the first stage, only the group winners will go through to the EURO finals in Poland in 2025.

Kramer unused, Bragstad plays every minute

At senior level there was a meeting of two team-mates, although only one made an appearance. Denmark's Cornelia Kramer was an unused substitute in her country's 2-0 victory over Iceland, for whom Karolina Lea Vilhjalmsdottir came on after 60 minutes. Vilhjalmsdottir had previously played 86 minutes of a 0-0 draw against Canada. For the Norwegian U23 side, there were two friendlies on the agenda. Centre-back Emilie Bragstad was ever-present in both the 0-0 draw against England and the 3-2 defeat to Netherlands. Her Werkself colleague Julie Jorde was an 80th-minute substitute in the second game against the Dutch.