Dominik Szoboszlai was the hero for Hungary as he scored a stoppage-time equaliser in their draw with Germany. The Liverpool midfielder stepped up to score a Panenka penalty in the 99th minute at the Puskas Arena after a lengthy VAR review.
But the Hungary captain wasn’t the only Reds star in action for his country on Tuesday night with Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch, Wataru Endo, Alexis Mac Allister, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz also seeing minutes.
And with a number of Liverpool youngsters also representing their Nations, the ECHO rounds up the fortunes of the Reds’ internationals as the November break comes to an end…
Dominik Szoboszlai
Szoboszlai captained Hungary to a dramatic draw against a much-changed Germany side. Needing to win to stay in the top tier of the Nations League, the draw saw them finish third to set up a play-off next March.
Referee Duje Strukan awarded Hungary a stoppage-time penalty after checking the VAR monitor and ruling that Robin Koch had handled Mihaly Kata’s shot.
Trailing to Felix Nmecha’s 76th-minute effort, Szoboszlai showed nerves of steel to step up to nonchalantly equalise right at the death, chipping his penalty down the middle of the goal past Alexander Nubel. And the midfielder revealed after the match that it was something he had been practising in training.
This week, I practised the Panenka against Peti Szappanos, who was also a little nervous that I succeeded against him,” he said. “So far, I have shot 19 penalty kicks to the right hand of the goalkeepers.
I was of the opinion that if the goalkeeper stays in the middle during extra-time, he deserves all the praise.”
Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch
The Dutch pair were both late substitutes for the Netherlands in a 1-1 draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Virgil van Dijk played no part after returning to Liverpool early.
Wataru Endo
Endo completed the full 90 minutes as he captained Japan to a 3-1 victory over China in World Cup qualifying.
Alexis Mac Allister
Mac Allister was substituted in stoppage-time as Argentina ran out 1-0 winners over Peru. Again playing in an advanced midfield role, he went close to scoring with two headed attempts, with the Argentine media divided on his performance.
Rated 6/10 by TyC Sports, they noted his advanced role when writing: “He was the one who was most likely to be on the verge of scoring. He appeared several times as a third striker. He suffered a foul from Carlos Zambrano.”
However, La Nacion, as they suggested that he made “more wrong passes than good ones” and perhaps should have been substituted sooner.
Mac Allister’s withdrawal does seem to have been the result of a nasty tackle from Zambrano in the 88th minute though. TyCSports reported it was a “tremendous kick on Alexis Mac Allister that seemed to come out cheap, especially due to the violence that can be seen in the replay, which reflects a clear tackle towards the midfielder’s left ankle.”
Darwin Nunez
Nunez was taken off at half-time as Uruguay drew 1-1 with Brazil, but his withdrawal appears to have been a tactical decision rather than enforced because of injury.
El Observador gave the striker a 5/10 as they praised his defensive work but acknowledged his lack of service, writing: “He did a good job on defense and was the team’s first scorer. He had no chances to shoot.”
El Pais also rated Nunez at 5/10 as they signalled his withdrawal had been tactical. They wrote: “Darwin Nunez made way for the man who had emerged from Liverpool. He had had a good first half, but many times, due to the position of the Celeste on the pitch, the Liverpool striker from England had to lean back to the middle of the pitch to get the ball and look for play far from the area.
More accustomed to moving out of the centre-forward zone and capable of mainly playing on the left wing, Marcelo Bielsa opted to have more mobility with Rodrigo Aguirre who can easily change positions with Maximiliano Araújo and Facundo Pellistri with more mobility and versatility in attack.”
Luis Diaz
Diaz completed the full 90 minutes for Colombia as they suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Ecuador. Colombia dominated proceedings with 67% of possession and boasted 25 shots to Ecuador’s four, but were unable to take advantage on a frustrating night.
Diaz was rated at 6/10 by El Tiempo as they said of the forward: “Sometimes imprecise in his passes. When he understood that he had to link up, he created danger.”
The Rest…
Lewis Koumas was an unused substitute for Wales as they won 4-1 over Iceland, while Stefan Bajcetic started for Spain’s Under-21s in their 2-1 friendly victory over Denmark.
Kaide Gordon started for England’s Elite League Squad as they drew 1-1 with Poland while Trey Nyoni featured for England’s Under-19s in a 0-0 with Belgium as the Young Lions progressed into the next phase
Elsewhere, Trent Kone-Doherty, meanwhile, played a little under an hour for the Republic of Ireland’s Under-19s as they beat Iceland 2-1 to also progress to the next stage.
