A busy night of European qualification matches for the World Cup is marred by a horrific injury to Everton’s Seamus Coleman, while there are routine wins for Spain and Serbia. Here’s how Friday night’s international action panned out.
Rep of Ireland 0 Wales 0
An ill-tempered affair in Dublin ended goalless, with the result completely overshadowed by the broken leg suffered by Everton full-back Seamus Coleman.
The Irish skipper was stretchered from the field following a wild challenge by Neil Taylor which earned the Aston Villa defender a straight red card.
We covered the news – and the repercussions for Fantasy managers – in our story here.
But events have already moved on since last night, with the initial exodus gathering pace. Coleman has now been sold by closing in on 50,000 managers – only Harry Kane has been transferred out of more squads since Gameweek 29 ended.
The defender’s value had just reached a season-high 6.1 on the back of a string of fine performances involving two goals, four assists and eight clean sheets from Gameweek 16 onwards.
While Coleman’s setback illustrates the risks involved in acting early with transfers, those holding the full-back will need to be wary of suffering at least one drop in price as others hurry to bring in replacements.
The Republic have a friendly with Iceland on Tuesday. Wales do not play again this season.
Rep of Ireland Xi: Randolph, Coleman (Christie 72), Keogh, O’Shea, Ward, Meyler (McGeady 80), Walters, Whelan, Hendrick, McClean, Long.
Subs: Westwood, K Doyle, Egan, Hourihane, Hayes, O’Dowda, Pearce, C Doyle.
Wales XI: Hennessey, Gunter, Chester, Williams, Davies, Taylor, Ledley (Richards 72), Ramsey, Allen, Bale, Robson-Kanu (Vokes 45).
Subs: F Williams, MacDonald, Edwards, Wilson, Collins, Walsh, Bradshaw, Woodburn, Ward.
Georgia 1 Serbia 3
Southampton’s Dusan Tadic brought his fine club form with him to a Serbia side that cruised past Georgia.
The 1.7%-owned midfielder opened the scoring with a penalty and then laid on both of his country’s other goals as he continued to make a strong case for inclusion in our squads.
Tadic has a goal and three assists from his last three league starts ahead of an excellent short-term schedule for the Saints which involves Bournemouth and Palace at home and West Brom away.
He has clearly benefited from coach Claude Puel handing him a freer role to support Manolo Gabbiadini up front, and Southampton’s forthcoming two double Gameweeks should make Tadic an even more attractive proposition.
With Gabbiadini currently an injury doubt following the groin problem sustained in the 2-1 defeat to Spurs, Tadic arguably represents the optimum route into the Saints’ attack.
However, their twin fixtures will involve matches with Manchester United and Arsenal, and the Saints also have Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool to play before the season ends.
Tadic started and finished Friday’s match, as did Serbia’s other Premier League players – Nemanja Matic and Aleksandar Kolarov.
Serbia do not play again during this international break.
Elsewhere, David Silva and Diego Costa both scored in Spain’s 4-1 win over Israel. The pair, along with Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea, played the full 90 minutes.
Cesar Azpilicueta, Pedro and Ander Herrera were all unused substitutes who will perhaps see some match-time when Spain are back in action again on Tuesday in a friendly against France.
Stoke City midfielder Marko Arnautovic opened the scoring as Austria saw off Moldova 2-0.
Watford defender Sebastian Prodl also featured, with Spurs centre-half Kevin Wimmer on the bench.
Austria host Finland in a Tuesday night friendly.
A Gylfi Sigurdsson penalty proved decisive as Iceland won 2-1 in Kosovo to keep one of the surprise packages of Euro 2016 well in the mix for Russia 2018 qualification.
The Icelanders, as mentioned above, will face the Republic of Ireland in a friendly on Tuesday.
Mancheseter United defender Matteo Darmian watched Italy’s 2-0 win over Albania from the bench. The Italians will now travel to Holland for a Tuesday night friendly.
Darmian’s team-mate Eric Bailly played the full 90 minutes of The Ivory Coast’s 2-0 friendly win in Russia in which Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha scored his first international goal.
Zaha provided the highlight of the match when he beat four players before finishing at the near post. Priced at 5.6, his form and output warrant monitoring ahead of the Eagles two Gameweek 34 fixtures as a fifth midfielder option in a 3-5-2 setup.
The Ivory Coast will be in action again on Monday in a friendly with Sadio Mane’s Senegal.
