World Cup qualifiers: Embolo sets the Swiss on their way to victory

Once again, there were a few Borussia players in action for their countries at the end of this international break. Yann Sommer, Nico Elvedi and Breel Embolo all played as Switzerland came away with a convincing 4-0 win in Lithuania.

SWITZERLAND

The Swiss national team along with Borussia trio Yann Sommer, Nico Elvedi and Breel Embolo (Photo: imago images/Just Pictures) beat Lithuania 4-0 on Tuesday evening in qualifying for the World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Embolo, who was making his 50th appearance for his country, stood out in Vilnius and was in the starting eleven alongside Sommer and Elvedi. He was on the offensive from the outset and the opposition struggled to deal with him. Accordingly, the 24-year-old opened the scoring around half an hour into the contest, heading in from a Xherdan Shaqiri corner (31’). A mere two minutes after Renato Steffen had made it 2-0 (42’), Embolo scored his second goal of the evening (44’).

In the second half, the Swiss slowed things down, but scored their fourth in added time through Mario Gavranovic to cap off a dominant victory (90’+4). Embolo watched this from the dugout having been replaced in the 89th minute after a solid day’s work. Sommer and Elvedi both played the full 90 minutes. Denis Zakaria was shown his second yellow card in two games in the previous match against Northern Ireland (2-0) and so was suspended for this latest fixture.

With their fourth win in six World Cup qualifiers, Coach Murat Yakin’s team are second in Group C and are level on points with leaders Italy (14). During the next international break, we will see the big game in Group C when they go to Rome on Friday 12th November (20:45 CET). They then play their final qualifier on Monday 15th November (20:45 CET) in Luzern, against third-placed Bulgaria who are on eight points.

LUXEMBOURG

Yvandro Borges Sanches made his fourth appearance for the Luxembourg senior side. Borussia’s attacker came on in the 46th minute against Portugal in World Cup Qualifying. At this stage, his team were 3-0 down thanks to two Cristiano Ronaldo penalties (8’, 13’) and a goal from Bruno Fernandes (17’). In the second half, Joao Palhinha (69’) and Ronaldo (87’) both scored to condemn Borges Sanches and co. to a 5-0 defeat.

With six points, Luxembourg are third in Group A after six games. Portugal are second on 16 points and Serbia lead the group with 17 points from seven matches. To end their qualifying campaign, Luxembourg go to Azerbaijan on Thursday 11th November (18:00 CET) and take on Ireland on Sunday 14th November (20:45 CET) who have five points from six games and are in fourth place.

GERMANY U21

A fourth win in four games for the German U21s: The team beat Hungary 5-1 in Szeged on Tuesday evening and have not dropped a point in their qualifying campaign for the European U21 Championships in Georgia and Romania in 2023. The German team leads Group B with 12 points. Borussia defender Jordan Beyer came on in the 67th minute in Szeged with Antonio Di Salvo’s team leading 4-1 with goals from Kevin Schade (5’), Malik Tillman (32’), Erik Shuranov (53’) and Tom Krauß (66’). Tamas Kiss scored for the hosts in the 39th minute but Schade scored again just before the final whistle to make it 5-1 (90’). Luca Netz watched the 90 minutes from the bench.

IRELAND U21

The Irish U21s and Conor Noß were defeated 2-1 in Montenegro in Euros qualifying. Montenegro have now overtaken Ireland in Group F, leaving them in fourth place. Both teams have seven points but Ireland have played two matches fewer so far.