17 November 2023
It was a mixed bag of results for our Bianconeri involved in international duty on Thursday, with both a victory and defeat for our two first team players in action.
In South American World Cup qualifiers, Brazil travelled to Colombia for their fifth fixture of their qualifying campaign. The Selecao started brightly, taking the lead through Gabriel Martinelli after just four minutes, yet a second-half Luiz Diaz double earned the hosts a 2-1 victory, condemning Brazil to their second defeat as they slipped down to fifth in the qualifying table. Gleison Bremer was an unused substitute in the encounter.
Moving up north, Weston McKennie played the full 90 minutes in midfield as the United States of America earned a 3-0 home victory over Trinidad and Tobago in their first leg CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final. The visitors had a man sent off towards the end of the first-half, but held firm until the last ten minutes when the USA scored all three of their goals, courtesy of Ricardo Pepi, Antonee Robinson and Gio Reyna. The second leg will be played on Monday, 21 November.
Earlier in the week, Belgium earned a 1-0 victory over Serbia in an international friendly played on Wednesday, with Dusan Vlahovic playing 67 minutes while club teammate Filip Kostic came on at the start of the second half.
FRIDAY ACTION
Two all-important EURO 2024 qualifiers take place on Friday evening, with Italian quartet Andrea Cambiaso, Federico Chiesa, Federico Gatti and Moise Kean looking to help the Azzurri overcome North Macedonia to put them in good stead ahead of next week’s final qualifying fixture in Group C.
Elsewhere, Wojciech Szczesny will hope to take his strong club form into his national team as Poland host Czech Republic in a must-win encounter, needing all three points from their final qualifier to harbor any hopes of reaching next year’s Championships.
17 November
Italy - North Macedonia, 20.45 CET (European Championship Qualifier)
Poland - Czech Republic, 20.45 CET (European Championship Qualifier)
