England see off a very limited Netherlands side, Mohamed Salah scores again and a pair of West Ham players enjoy time off from their club struggles on a packed night of international football.
Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard’s 59th-minute goal handed England a deserved win in Amsterdam, although the quality of the opposition left much to be desired.
A run of four goals in five matches from Gameweek 18 led to his ownership rising to more than 1.1 million, but just one strike since then has seen that dip down to the 630,000-mark, or 9.4%.
Once a Gameweek 33 trip to Man City is done, United’s schedule offers the promise of good returns, starting with a double Gameweek 34 involving a visit from West Brom and an away match with Bournemouth. They should also have another double-header to come, probably in Gameweek 37 comprising of trips to Brighton and West Ham.
That has persuaded 140,000+ FPL managers to make Romelu Lukaku Gameweek 32’s most popular transfer target so far.
Lingard’s inconsistency counts against him, but his 6.0 price tag and the fact that he’s featured in every match since Gameweek 14 – although that included a one-minute appearance against Liverpool last time out – might tempt some to draft him in as a fourth, or fifth, midfielder.
England coach Gareth Southgate opted for a three-man defence and then sent out an eyebrow-raising three right-backs as part of the plan.
Kyle Walker and Joe Gomez partnered John Stones at the back, with Kieran Trippier employed at right wing-back and his club colleague Danny Rose on the opposite flank.
The experiment lasted just 10 minutes before Gomez, owned by 3.3% of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers, limped off with an ankle injury that could promote the domestic claims of his Liverpool team-mate Trent Alexander-Arnold (3.8%). Gomez will be assessed ahead of Tuesday’s meeting with Italy.
Only a late-season trip to Chelsea ruffles an otherwise smooth run-in for the Reds, with a fixture in the reduced Gameweek 35, at West Brom, another reason why many are keeping faith in their squad in the short term despite a lack of double Gameweeks.
Two other members of Jurgen Klopp’s side, Jordan Henderson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain played the full 90 minutes last night, while match-winner Lingard’s club colleague Marcus Rashford started up front and was unlucky not to earn a penalty.
Harry Maguire replaced Gomez and impressed, and Jordan Pickford earned the nod in goal and kept a clean sheet in a relatively untroubled display that spoke volumes for the limitations of the hosts, who had six shots on target to England’s three without ever truly threatening.
Virgil van Dijk, Patrick van Aanholt and Georginio Wijnaldum started and finished the match for the Dutch, with Brighton midfielder Davy Propper introduced after 66 minutes.
Spurs midfielder Dele Alli was given only 22 minutes from the bench last night, but his 11.7% ownership will probably have to endure a longer run-out from their man when England take on Italy on Tuesday.
Jamie Vardy, currently the fourth most purchased player ahead of Gameweek 32, was limited to a substitute appearance last night and failed to get a touch of the ball.
Mixed night for Liverpool trio
Liverpool’s much-vaunted (and well-owned) front three of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane had markedly different international experiences yesterday.
Salah, at 62.3% the most owned FPL player, continued his remarkable season with yet another goal in Egypt’s 2-1 loss to Portugal.
The midfielder played 79 minutes and opened the scoring before two Cristiano Ronaldo goals in stoppage time rescued matters for the Portuguese.
Ahmed Hegazi and Mohamed Elneny played the full 90 minutes for the visitors, as did Cédric Soares for Portugal, while Man City’s Bernardo Silva was given 68 minutes for the hosts.
Firmino’s 48.3% ownership puts him second only to Salah for FPL popularity, but the Brazilian had to make do with a 25-minute appearance from the bench in their 3-0 win over Russia.
The striker came on for Gabriel Jesus in Moscow as the Man City man stepped up his return from injury.
Chelsea’s Willian was another starter on the night and the midfielder, who has two goals from his last three league starts, continued his fine form with an assist from a 79-minute run-out.
That should keep his 12.4% ownership happy ahead of a strong schedule that includes a double Gameweek 34 away at Southampton and Burnley and another double, probably involving home matches with Liverpool and Huddersfield, still to be confirmed.
Man City midfielder Fernandinho was an unused sub last night, as was the third member of the Liverpool trio, Sadio Mane, who played no part in Senegal’s 1-1 draw with Uzbekistan.
Everton striker Oumar Niasse started and played 66 minutes, while Crystal Palace’s Pape Souaré was given 74 minutes as he continued his return to match fitness following his car accident.
Big guns in action
All of football’s superpowers were in action last night, some of them facing each other.
Germany and Spain played out a 1-1 draw in Dusseldorf which featured a number of Premier League stars.
Mesut Ozil played the full 90 minutes for the hosts. However he has now returned to Arsenal and will miss the friendly with Brazil on Tuesday. There are no confirmed reports of an injury so this may well be an arrangement with the Gunners. Thomas Muller – last night’s goalscorer – has also returned to his club Bayern Munich.
Elsewhere in that match, Man City duo Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane came off the bench to play 37 and 22 minutes respectively for the Germans, while Antonio Rüdiger was an unused sub, which was also the fate that befell Spain and Chelsea pair César Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso.
David De Gea played the full game for the Spanish, who also handed David Silva a 71-minute run-out.
Argentina beat Italy 2-0 in a friendly played at the Etihad Stadium in front of a large crowd that came, in part, to watch Lionel Messi but were ‘treated’ to 90 minutes of the megastar sitting in the stands alongside Sergio Aguero. The Man City striker has now been ruled out of Tuesday’s friendly with Spain.
Aguero’s team-mate Nicolas Otamendi played 90 minutes for Argentina alongside debutant Willy Caballero – first-choice keeper Sergio Romero and his Man United colleague Marcos Rojo stayed on the bench – while West Ham midfielder Manuel Lanzini was another to be given a full run-out and marked it with a goal.
Chelsea win-back Davide Zappacosta played 29 minutes for the Italians, with Matteo Darmian and Angelo Ogbonna unused subs.
Another major Europe versus South America clash involved France and Colombia, with the latter coming from two goals down to win 3-2 in Paris.
Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud scored the opener when he punished an error from Arsenal keeper David Ospina, who joined Spurs defender Davinson Sanchez in playing the full match for the visitors.
Hugo Lloris and N’Golo Kanté did likewise for the French, Giroud played 73 minutes and out-of-sorts Man United midfielder Paul Pogba came on for the final 25 minutes.
Laurent Koscielny and Anthony Martial were unused substitutes. With the former’s fitness being carefully managed at this time.
Arnautovic excels
Austria beat Slovenia 3-0 thanks to a brace from West Ham’s 4.1%-owned asset Marko Arnautovic.
The midfielder’s FPL ownership is close to half that of its 500,000 peak in Gameweek 22, he’s scored just twice in the league since then and the Hammers’ schedule – they’ll face Chelsea, Arsenal and both Manchester sides before the season’s end – is unlikely to arrest that slide.
Stoke City’s Moritz Bauer and Leicester City defender Aleksandar Dragovic remained on the bench for the Austrians, but there were some notable contributions from other Premier League players last night.
Chelsea wing-back Victor Moses earned and converted the penalty that gave Nigeria a 1-0 win in Poland.
He and Wilfred Ndidi played the full 90 minutes, with Kelechi Iheanacho given 82 and Alex Iwobi 59 minutes respectively.
Lukasz Fabianski featured for the first half, and West Brom midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak for the whole match, for the Poles.
Southampton midfielder Dusan Tadic scored Serbia’s goal in their 1-2 home loss to Morocco.
He played 70 minutes, while Nemanja Matic was given 67 and Luka Milivojevic came on at half-time, with Tadic’s club-mate Sofiane Boufal an unused sub for the visitors.
Arsenal wing-back Sead Kolasinac was another to make his mark last night as he played the full match and set up Bosnia and Herzegovina’s winner in their 1-0 victory in Bulgaria, while Huddersfield playmaker Aaron Mooy provided Australia’s assist in their 4-1 drubbing by Norway.
Brighton keeper Mat Ryan joined Mooy in playing the full 90 minutes.
Elsewhere…
Liverpool’s 7.5%-owned full-back Andrew Robertson (90), Newcastle’s Matt Ritchie (87) and Man United youngster Scott McTominay (58) all featured for Scotland in their 0-1 home loss to Costa Rica.
Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser was an unused sub.
Everton striker Cenk Tosun failed in his quest to find the net for a fourth straight match as Turkey beat the Republic of Ireland 1-0.
He played 64 minutes, while Shane Duffy, Kevin Long, James McClean all had a full run-out for the Irish.
Tosun’s club-mate Seamus Coleman played 63 minutes, Jeff Hendrick 80, Shane Long 28 and Ciaran Clark 21.
Greece lost 0-1 to Switzerland, with Watford keeper Orestis Karnezis playing the full match for the hosts and Granit Xhaka doing likewise for the Swiss.
Leicester defender Yohan Benalouane was another 90-minute man as Tunisia beat Iran 1-0, Man City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko played 65 minutes in Ukraine’s 1-1 draw in Saudi Arabia and Johann Berg Gudmundsson was given 81 minutes in Iceland’s 3-0 loss to Mexico, with West Ham striker Chicharito an unused sub for the hosts.
