Jermain Defoe grabs the headlines, but Jamie Vardy catches the Fantasy eye as England make fairly light work of a defensive Lithuania.
Scotland and Northern Ireland also win, but there’s an injury scare for Diego Costa ahead of Spain’s friendly in France tomorrow night.
Here’s how Sunday’s action unfolded.
England 2 Lithuania 0
A regulation win for England was lifted, to a degree, by the opening goal from Jermain Defoe, the international return of the Sunderland striker described by his manager Gareth Southgate as ‘a great story’.
But the main Fantasy narrative was provided by England’s second scorer of the evening, Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy.
His cool finish from an Adam Lallana pass was one of a man whose form and confidence has returned – much like his club side – just in time to capitalise on a reasonable run-in and solid short-term schedule.
The Foxes face Stoke and Sunderland at home next and will have a double Gameweek to come, too. A tricky run of four consecutive away matches will take some of the shine off Leicester’s lustre, but Vardy’s three goals and two assists from his last three league starts points to a man back to his best.
Fantasy Premier League managers agree – the forward is currently the third most transferred-in player this week, behind only Man United’s Antonio Valencia and Everton striker Romelu Lukaku.
Indeed, Vardy is the number one striker for transfers in over the last 24 hours as the bandwagon picks up pace.
Sold by over 22,000 FPL managers since the previous deadline, Defoe’s goal, following fine work by Raheem Sterling, would have come as a relief to his 23.6% ownership who have endured his four-match drought in the league.
Sunderland remain favourites for the drop, but have an attractive set of fixtures and double Gameweek to offer plenty of potential for more returns from the Black Cats’ striker.
Second-half substitute Marcus Rashford also caught the eye, enlivening a match in which the referee’s name – Ruddy Buquet – was one of the more interesting aspects.
With Zlatan Ibrahimovic serving the final segment of his three-match ban at home to West Brom on Saturday, the 4.6%-owned Rashford looks likely to lead the line for Jose Mourinho’s men.
England XI: Hart, Walker, Keane, Stones, Bertrand, Dier, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sterling (Rashford 60), Lallana, Alli, Defoe (Vardy 60).
Subs not used: Clyne, Heaton, Shaw, Gibson, Livermore, Ward-Prowse, Barkley, Lingard, Redmond, Forster.
Northern Ireland 2 Norway 0
Southampton midfielder Steven Davis was the man of the match as Northern Ireland saw off a tame Norway.
Davis set up his country’s second goal while a defence containing West Brom trio Gareth McAuley, Jonny Evans and Chris Brunt and Watford’s Craig Cathcart held firm at the other end.
The Norwegians only threatened occasionally, with FPL’s man of the moment Josh King – seven goals and an assist from his last six Bournemouth starts – starved of service.
West Ham midfielder Havard Nordtveit also featured for the visitors.
Elsewhere, Scotland left it very late to secure a 1-0 win over Slovenia that keeps them in the race for second place in the group England currently top.
West Brom’s James Morrison shook off an ankle injury to play 82 minutes and Andrew Robertson and Robert Snodgrass were the only other Premier League starters in Gordon Strachan’s side.
Four Premier League players started the match on the bench as Germany eased to a 4-1 win in Azerbaijan.
Shkodran Mustafi and Emre Can remained there, while Mesut Ozil, who has missed Arsenal’s last two league matches, came on after 61 minutes and Man City winger Leroy Sane was given a late run-out.
Swansea keeper Lukas Fabianski and Hull City wide man Kamil Grosicki were in action as Poland won 2-1 in Montenegro.
Grosicki was replaced deep into stoppage time.
Romania and Denmark played out a goalless draw in which Kasper Schmeichel and Christian Eriksen both played the full 90 minutes for the Danes.
All the South American sides are in World Cup qualifying action tomorrow night and there are also a number of European friendlies.
Early news includes Belgium pair Thibaut Courtois (hip) and Marouane Fellaini (toe) being ruled out of their country’s trip to Russia. They will return to their clubs to be assessed ahead of the weekend fixtures.
And there was an injury scare involving Spanish striker Diego Costa, who suffered an impact injury to his leg and ankle in training ahead of Tuesday’s friendly with France.
The forward, owned by 39.7% of FPL managers, underwent an X-ray but remains with the Spanish squad, with Chelsea informed on his condition.
It remains to be seen if Costa is considered fit enough to turn out against the French tomorrow night with the injury under observation by Spain’s medical team according to reports. The Blues, of course, already have concerns over Eden Hazard, who pulled out of Belgium duties with a calf complaint earlier in the break.
