June’s International Round Up
Both Shane Duffy and Alireza Jahanbakhsh were in the goals for their respective nations in June’s international break.
Duffy would have sent his fellow regulars in Molly Malone’s wild with an 85th minute header for the Republic of Ireland which helped earn the boys in green an impressive point towards Euro 2020 qualification away in Denmark.
The Danish were the better side throughout but only had a goal from Southampton’s Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg to show for their efforts.
That arrived on 76 minutes, Hojbjerg rising highest to head home a Stryger Larsen cross just four minutes after he’d replaced Lasse Schöne.
Denmark could have been further out of sight but Duffy was doing what he does best, the Albion’s Player of the Season blocking and heading everything that Christian Eriksen, Yussuf Poulsen and one-time Brighton target Thomas Delaney could throw at him.
Duffy then popped up in trademark style at the other end. His powerful header from an Alan Judge free kick was reminiscent of the majority of his five Premier League goals in Seagulls colours in 2018-19 and enough to ensure a share of the spoils for Mick McCarthy’s side.
They followed that up with a laboured performance against the minnows of Gibraltar at the Aviva Stadium three days later with Ireland eventually running out 2-0 winners.
An unfortunate own goal from Gibraltar’s Joseph Chipolina gave Ireland the lead as he deflected David McGoldrick’s shot past goalkeeper Kyle Godwin.
The hosts enjoyed 70% of the possession after that but couldn’t make the game safe until the 92nd minute when James McClean’s ball in was met by the head of Robbie Brady at the back post for 2-0.
The result means that Ireland remain unbeaten in McCarthy’s second spell in charge so far. They top qualifying Group D, five points clear of Denmark in second although they do have two very difficult games against top seeds Switzerland to come in the Autumn.
Still, it’s a promising position for Duffy and Ireland to be in. Beram Kayal and Israel are looking nearly as good as three points out of six kept them second in Group G behind leaders Poland as they look to qualify for their first ever European Championships.
They hammered Latvia 3-0 thanks to a Eran Zahavi hat-trick in their first June fixture. Kayal played 79 minutes of that match in Riga and he featured for the first 56 minutes of his nation’s 4-0 defeat at the hands of the table topping Poles in Warsaw in their second game.
Davy Propper was an unused substitute for the Netherlands as they lost the inaugural Nations League final to hosts Portugal at Estádio do Dragão on Sunday night.
Goncalo Guedes scored the only goal of the game as Cristiano Ronaldo and co added another continental trophy to the European Championship they won in 2016.
Propper had come off the bench to play in extra time of the Netherlands semi final victory over England. You probably don’t need reminding what happened in that one as two comedy howlers from John Stones and Ross Barkley gifted the Dutch a 3-1 win.
That led many Albion fans to question why Lewis Dunk wasn’t playing for the Three Lions, with the fairly obvious answer being because he’s capable of equally catastrophic errors as well.
Speaking of catastrophic errors, we can all look forward to being told how good Jahanbakhsh is by our Iranian friends again after he managed to score against the might of Syria in a friendly match on Thursday night.
Jahanbakhsh took advantage of some pretty terrible defending to come inside from the left flank, collect a loose ball and bury a one-on-one past Ahmad Madania in the Syrian goal.
That helped set Iran on their way to a convincing 5-0 victory. Their other goals came from Allahyar Sayyadmanesh and a hat-trick from Mehdi Taremi to give new boss Marc Wilmots the perfect start.
Five days later and Jahanbakhsh played the first half of Iran’s 1-1 draw with South Korea before being replaced at the break by Ahmad Nourollahi.
The game was locked at 0-0 at the time of Jahanbakhsh’s withdrawal. South Korea took the lead through Hwang Ui-jo shortly after the interval before an own goal from Kim Young-gwon levelled things up.
