November’s International Round Up: Part Two
It was a big night for Gaetan Bong in the second round of November’s international games as he captained Cameroon for the first time in their 1-0 defeat against Brazil.
The Brighton and Hove Albion left back embraced the world’s most expensive footballer, the Paris Saint-Germain and Brazil captain Neymar before the game as they completed the coin toss at stadium:mk.
That was about as far as Neymar’s evening went though as he was replaced after just eight minutes with an apparent groin problem. Either that, or he snapped his enthusiasm as any sane person would when asked to spend a Tuesday night in Milton Keynes.
Neymar’s place was taken by Richarlison and if Bong wasn’t already sick of the sight of the striker following his two goals in the Albion’s 3-1 defeat to Everton at the start of the month, then he will be now as it was the Toffee’s forward who scored the only goal when heading home a Willian corner.
Beram Kayal scored his second goal for Israel in his 38th appearance for his country, giving them the lead against Scotland at Hampden Park with a brilliant strike from outside the box that left Allan McGregor clutching at thin air.
The Tartan Army came roaring back and eventually won the game 3-2 although it did take a stunning save from McGregor in the closing stages to ensure the win when he somehow kept out Tomer Hemed’s volley.
The victory means Scotland are promoted to UEFA Nations League Group B and most excitingly, ensures them of at least a play-off spot in March 2020 for a place in the European Championships that summer. Because of the way that Euro 2020 is structured with games taking place around the continent, should they qualify then it guarantees Scotland v England at Hampden in the group stage of the tournament.
It wasn’t such a good night for the Republic of Ireland as they were relegated to Group C following a goalless draw away in Denmark. Shane Duffy was one of six defenders named in Martin O’Neill’s starting line up, a selection straight from the tactical playbook of Mark McGhee.
Needless to say, that saw Ireland fail to score for the fourth game in succession as they failed to muster one shot on target against the Danes who had already been confirmed as group winners.
Duffy played a big part in helping secure their second consecutive clean sheet to go with their shutout in November’s first round of international games against Northern Ireland as he blocked from both Christian Eriksen and Nicolai Jorgensen in the first half.
Down in Africa, Percy Tau scored a 93rd minute equaliser for South Africa as they picked a credible 1-1 draw with Paraguay in the Nelson Mandela Challenge.
Tau had wasted a good opportunity to give Bafana Bafana the lead in the 26th minute but his shot was a weak one, allowing Antony Silva to make a routine save down to his left.
Federico Santander punished that miss by giving the visitors the lead shortly after and it looked like that would be enough to give the South American’s victory until Tau struck with virtually the last kick of the game with a cool finish after being played in by Thulani Serero.
Tim Cahill’s final game in the gold and green of Australia saw the Socceroos secure a routine 3-0 win over Lebanon. Cahill was given a raptouos reception when he entered the field at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney for the final nine minutes for his 108th cap.
Maty Ryan had already departed by that point, the Albion goalkeeper not being required to reproduce any of the heroics that saw him named PFA Player of the Month for October as Lebanon failed to muster a shot on goal in the opening 45 minutes before he was replaced by Genk’s Danny Vukovic at half time.
Neither Leon Balogun nor Alireza Jahanbakhsh featured for their countries, Balogun being rested as one of of six changes made by Nigeria for their 0-0 draw with Uganda while Jahanbakhsh missed out on Iran’s 1-0 win over Venezeula, presumably with the same injury that saw him miss their victory over Trinidad & Tobago by the same scoreline on Thursday and the Albion’s 2-1 defeat at Cardiff City in the last game before the international break.
