Our second set of Scout Notes of the day rounds up the remaining international fixtures from Thursday night and Friday morning, with our focus on Fantasy Premier League assets.
Aleksandar Mitrovic was back on the scoresheet for Serbia, while Bernardo Silva scored a fine individual effort for Portugal in their win over Poland.
Raul Jimenez was also on target – and there could be good news regarding his return date from international duty with Mexico ahead of Gameweek 9.
Andrew Robertson struggled at wing-back for Scotland, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka was omitted from the England under-21s’ match-day squad.
We round up the goals, assists and minutes played of the FPL assets on show for their respective countries.
Montenegro 0-2 Serbia
- Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.9m) – 90 minutes
Aleksandar Mitrovic suffered a price drop in FPL this week after successive blanks in the league, but with Cardiff City, Bournemouth and Huddersfield Town next up for Fulham, the Serbian striker delivered a warning to his knee-jerking sellers by scoring a brace in his country’s 2-0 win over Montenegro.
The first meeting between the former Yugoslav republics was a scrappy affair separated by Mitrovic’s two strikes, the first a confidently dispatched spot-kick on 18 minutes and the second a tap-in after an excellent dummy by Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
The former Newcastle United striker also had another three attempts on goal, all of which were blocked.
Serbia were missing the services of Nemanja Matic (£5.0m), who withdrew from his country’s squad earlier this week after picking up an unspecified injury.
Manchester United said it “remains to be seen” if the defensive midfielder will be fit to face Chelsea a week on Saturday.
The Reds’ boss, Jose Mourinho, was present in Podgorica for this UEFA Nations League encounter, with reports in the press recently linking him with both Milinkovic-Savic and defender Nikola Milenkovic.
Poland 2-3 Portugal
- Lukasz Fabianski (£4.5m) – 90 minutes
- Jan Bednarek (£3.9m) – 90 minutes
- Rui Patricio (£4.6m) – 90 minutes
- Ruben Neves (£5.1m) – 90 minutes
- Bernardo Silva (£7.6m) – 90 minutes
- Cedric Soares (£4.4m) – 0 minutes
- Helder Costa (£4.9m) – 0 minutes
There were five FPL players on show in Chorzow as a Cristiano Ronaldo-less Portugal side edged out their hosts in a five-goal encounter.
Two of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Portuguese contingent played the full 90 minutes, with a third – Helder Costa – an unused substitute.
There wasn’t to be another clean sheet for Rui Patricio, who was beaten by two of the three attempts on target he faced. The Wolves custodian, who has been excellent this season, was perhaps partly culpable for Poland’s opening goal, being caught underneath a corner-kick delivery that Krzysztof Piatek nodded in. There was, however, a slight question over Patricio being impeded in his efforts to claim the cross.
Neves was his usual deep-lying self, seeing a late effort from outside the box fly wide and delivering a fantastic ball from inside his own half onto the feet of Rafa Silva for Portugal’s second goal – the ball ultimately being turned into his own net by Kamil Glik.
Bernardo Silva scored what turned out to be tie’s winning goal on 52 minutes, collecting the ball and dribbling into space to fire a shot through the fingers of Lukasz Fabianski, who ought to have done better with the Manchester City midfielder’s otherwise splendid individual effort.
Bernardo played on the left of a front three in Fernando Santos’s 4-3-3.
Fabianski, who has made the joint-most number of saves in FPL this season, at least carried on where he left off for the Hammers in making five other stops on Thursday evening.
Jan Bednarek, now in the cluster of defenders available for £3.9m in FPL, played the full game at the heart of the Polish defence. His club colleague, Cedric Soares, was left on the Portugal bench.
Israel 2-1 Scotland
- Beram Kayal (£4.4m) – 82 minutes
- Andrew Robertson (£6.3m) – 90 minutes
- Kevin McDonald (£4.4m) – 90 minutes
- Stuart Armstrong (£5.2m) – 0 minutes
- Robert Snodgrass (£5.4m) – 0 minutes
- Scott McTominay (£4.4m) – 0 minutes
Andrew Robertson was the only significant FPL name on show in Haifa as Scotland were well beaten by their hosts, despite the scoreline showing only a narrow defeat.
Robertson lined up as a left wing-back in a 3-5-2 and it was his ball that led to the foul on Steven Naismith in the Israel penalty box on 25 minutes, with Charlie Mulgrew subsequently converting the spot-kick.
Robertson and his team-mates were distinctly unimpressive throughout, however, with the hosts racking up 25 shots on goal and the Liverpool full-back getting his feet in a tangle for Israel’s equaliser.
Robertson was critical of his own performance after the match:
When a new manager comes in and under the old manager near the end the system started to work, and obviously the manager started to change it.
But that is the way he wants to do it, it will take us time to get used to it, but unfortunately, we do not really have the time.
So the lads need to go out and perform and we have not done it. But tonight, I won’t speak for any of the other lads, I was not good enough and that is what I have to look at.
So people can say about formations and all that, but at the end of the day if we do not show up – like I did not tonight – then that is a problem.
Fulham’s Kevin McDonald played the whole game in midfield, where he lined up opposite Beram Kayal. The Brighton player registered the assist for Israel’s winner, which Kieran Tierney sliced into his own net. Kayal could have been on the scoresheet himself, but had two efforts saved by Allan McGregor.
Stuart Armstrong watched the match from the bench, while Scott McTominay and Robert Snodgrass weren’t part of the 20-man squad – both reportedly had knocks, but have remained with the national team for their next fixture on Sunday so the problems aren’t thought to be serious.
Mexico 3-2 Costa Rica
- Raul Jimenez (£5.6m) – 29 minutes
Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Raul Jimenez started Mexico’s 3-2 friendly victory over their CONCACAF rivals on the bench but emerged as a 61st-minute substitute to grab the game’s winner.
Jimenez scored from the spot on 70 minutes and later headed wide from just outside the six-yard box.
The Wolves forward is not certain to feature for his country against Chile in the early hours of next Wednesday morning, with the possibility that he will be released from international duty early in order for him to be ready for Gameweek 9.
England under-21s 7-0 Andorra under-21s
- Jonjoe Kenny (£4.3m) – 73 minutes
- Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.3m) – 90 minutes
- Tom Davies (£5.3m) – 90 minutes
- Lewis Cook (£4.8m) – 90 minutes
- Phil Foden (£4.7m) – 90 minutes
- Ademola Lookman (£5.1m) – 72 minutes
- Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.3m) – 73 minutes
- Dominic Solanke (£4.8m) – 17 minutes
- Ryan Sessegnon (£6.1m) – 90 minutes
- Angus Gunn (£4.4m) – 0 minutes
- Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.3m) – 0 minutes
The headline FPL news in the England under-21s’ demolition of their Andorran counterparts perhaps surrounded who didn’t play: Aaron Wan-Bissaka, as he had been in the previous international break, was overlooked by Aidy Boothroyd and wasn’t even among the substitutes.
Ademola Lookman and Dominic Solanke were both on the scoresheet, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin scoring a brace. Tom Davies and Jonjoe Kenny grabbed assists, meanwhile.
USA 2-4 Colombia
- DeAndre Yedlin (£4.5m)- 90 minutes
- Davinson Sanchez (£5.8m) – 90 minutes
DeAndre Yedlin and Davinson Sanchez played the full 90 minutes in their usual positions (right-back and centre-half respectively) but it was a game to forget for the defences as the USA and Colombia played out a six-goal thriller in Tampa.
Neither player was involved in any of the six goals.
Russia 0-0 Sweden
- Victor Lindelof (£4.9m) – 90 minutes
Manchester United’s much-maligned centre-back played the full 90 minutes and collected a clean sheet as Sweden held Russia to a goalless draw.
There were positive words about Lindelof’s performance in a match admittedly starved of clear-cut opportunities, with the two sides mustering only three shots on target between them.
Lindelof was dropped to the bench for his side’s 3-2 win over Newcastle United on Saturday, though it remains to be seen whether he is handed a recall for the trip to Chelsea after the displays of Eric Bailly (£5.2m) and McTominay in that match.
Italy 1-1 Ukraine
- Jorginho (£5.1m) – 90 minutes
- Oleksandr Zinchenko (£4.8m) – 90 minutes
- Emerson Palmieri (£5.2m) – 0 minutes
- Andriy Yarmolenko (£6.8m) – 0 minutes
There were 90 minutes apiece for Jorginho and Oleksandr Zinchenko on Wednesday night as Italy and Ukraine played out a 1-1 draw in Genoa.
The Chelsea man was in his usual central role, while Zinchenko was deployed – and impressed – as a defensive midfielder for the visitors, having mainly been utilised as a makeshift left-back by Pep Guardiola at City.
Emerson Palmieri and Andriy Yarmolenko were both unused substitutes.
Round-up
Diogo Jota (£6.1m) came off the bench to score for Portugal under-21s in their 9-0 win over Liechtenstein last night, with Ruben Vinagre (£4.3m) also seeing action as a substitute. Diogo Dalot (£5.4m) started the game for the Portuguese youngsters and was substituted after 70 minutes.
Victor Wanyama (£4.9m) played the whole 90 minutes as Kenya were held to a goalless draw in their African Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia.
Scott Dann (£4.4m) and Connor Wickham (£4.9m) each played 45 minutes for a Crystal Palace XI against Dulwich Hamlet, as the pair continue their recovery from injury.
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