Van Dijk’s recurring rib injury causes concern for his Fantasy owners

Our coverage of the international fixtures played over the weekend continues with this round-up of Saturday’s matches.

All the minutes played, goals, assists, injuries and talking points are covered for the Fantasy Premier League assets involved.

Fantasy owners of Virgil van Dijk will have been encouraged to see him get on the scoresheet for the Netherlands, but his goal against Germany was tempered by his subsequent withdrawal from the national team squad.

Sadio Mane at least came through Senegal’s victory over Sudan without any serious injury concerns, though reports on Monday afternoon claimed he had been treated for a minor hand injury prior to the rematch on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, there was a full Ireland debut for in-demand Wolves wing-back Matt Doherty – and another clean sheet.

READ MORE: A guide to when FPL players are on international duty this week.

The Netherlands 3-0 Germany

• Virgil van Dijk (£5.9m) – 90 minutes
• Georginio Wijnaldum (£5.5m) – 90 minutes
• Nathan Ake (£5.0m) – 13 minutes
• Patrick van Aanholt (£5.5m) – 0 minutes
• Leroy Sane (£9.2m) – 33 minutes
• Bernd Leno (£4.8m) – 0 minutes

Virgil van Dijk‘s owners face a nervy few days after the Liverpool centre-back pulled out of the Netherlands squad for their match against Belgium on Tuesday.

Van Dijk played the full 90 minutes of his country’s impressive 3-0 win over Germany and scored – something he has yet to do in a Liverpool shirt in the Premier League – on the half-hour mark, nodding in after Ryan Babel’s header had struck the crossbar.

Given that the former Southampton stopper completed the Netherlands’ win over their rivals and that the forthcoming fixture against Belgium is only a friendly, it is hoped van Dijk’s withdrawal is purely precautionary, as it appears to be a recurrence of the rib injury that has plagued him for a few weeks since it was inflicted in the win over Paris Saint-Germain in September.

Ronald Koeman’s comments on Monday evening about van Dijk being “ready to play next weekend” will have buoyed his owners – though until Liverpool themselves have repeated those words there has to remain a modicum of doubt.

Van Dijk’s team-mate Georginio Wijnaldum turned in another fine performance, bursting through the German defence to seal his nation’s victory in injury time after earlier firing wide.

Nathan Ake emerged as a late substitute for the hosts, while coming off the bench for Joachim Low’s side was Leroy Sane. The Manchester City winger, whose place in Pep Guardiola’s starting XI is once again uncertain following the return to fitness of Benjamin Mendy (£6.2m), wasted a glorious chance to equalise with the score at 1-0 when firing wide from eight yards out.

Bernd Leno was an unused substitute for the Germans, while Patrick van Aanholt was the fall guy in the Dutch camp as he didn’t make the 23-man squad for Saturday night’s match.

Republic of Ireland 0-0 Denmark

• Shane Duffy (£4.5m) – 90 minutes
• Kevin Long (£4.2m) – 90 minutes
• Matt Doherty (£4.7m) – 90 minutes
• Cyrus Christie – 90 minutes
• Harry Arter (£4.9m) – 65 minutes
• Jeff Hendrick (£5.4m) – 90 minutes
• Shane Long (£4.8m) – 83 minutes
• Ciaran Clark (£4.5m) – 0 minutes
• Kasper Schmeichel (£5.0m) – 90 minutes
• Zanka (£4.5m) – 90 minutes
• Andreas Christensen (£5.0m) – 11 minutes
• Jannik Vestergaard (£4.8m) – 0 minutes
• Jonas Lossl (£4.4m) – 0 minutes
• Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (£4.5m) – 0 minutes

Matt Doherty made his first Ireland start in Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Denmark, lining up in a familiar right wing-back role as Martin O’Neill rolled out a defensive 3-5-1-1 for the UEFA Nations League encounter.

Doherty didn’t enjoy as much freedom to attack as he has at Wolves this season, however, as Ireland ceded most of the possession and chances to their visitors.

The Wolves defender indeed looked like more of an orthodox right-back at times and helped preserve a clean sheet for his side by inadvertently blocking Zanka‘s goal-bound effort while on the ground just before the break.

Speaking of his full debut, Doherty said:

It was different, it was tough, but I enjoyed it. I can’t put my finger on it but it was definitely different to club football.

I started and I was fine. I wasn’t great or anything like that so I’ve got some stuff to work on. It was a good experience though.

I’d like to just have played a bit better, to be honest. It was something I’d love to do again.

O’Neill spoke after the match of “accommodating” Doherty into his side, a strategy that involved moving Fulham’s Cyrus Christie into a central midfield role.

Shane Duffy and Kevin Long were two of Ireland’s three centre-backs and Duffy demonstrated his attacking threat in the air, nodding narrowly wide from an indirect free-kick in the first half and being denied a penalty after the interval in an incident in which he received a yellow card for simulation.

Jeff Hendrick began the match as an advanced midfielder in behind Shane Long, but there was little joy for the pair other than an excellent – and controversial – early chance for the Burnley man when Denmark had stopped playing due to an injury to Harry Arter. The Cardiff midfielder, on loan from Bournemouth, played 65 minutes on his return to the national set-up after a dispute with Roy Keane.

Long is said to be a doubt for the meeting with Wales on Tuesday evening.

Kasper Schmeichel will seldom have a quieter night, only being called into action once when Christie hit a fierce shot from distance.

Andreas Christensen emerged as a late substitute for the Danes, but Ciaran Clark, Jannik Vestergaard, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Jonas Lossl were forced to watch the stalemate from the bench.

Senegal 3-0 Sudan

• Sadio Mane (£9.9m) – 90 minutes
• Cheikhou Kouyate (£4.8m) – 90 minutes
• Idrissa Gueye (£4.9m) – 44 minutes

With Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) an early injury doubt for Gameweek 9 after limping out of Egypt’s 4-1 win over Swaziland, there was better news for Liverpool and 37.8% of FPL managers on Saturday as Sadio Mane made it through 90 minutes of Senegal’s African Cup of Nations qualifier against Sudan in one piece.

Mane was, however, reportedly treated in hospital for a minor hand injury that he sustained in training on Monday afternoon, with conflicting reports on whether the Liverpool midfielder will be sidelined with the problem.

Mane played as a “number 10” behind striker Mbiaye Diagne and provided the assist for Senegal’s second goal, which was scored by Idrissa Gueye.

The Everton midfielder was substituted with an apparent ankle injury just before the break and it remains to be seen whether he plays a part in the rematch with Sudan on Tuesday or indeed the Toffees’ fixture against Crystal Palace next Sunday. Gueye’s ownership in FPL (0.3%) is predictably minimal but an injury to the defensive midfielder would possibly be a blow to Everton’s other Fantasy assets, given that he and Tom Davies (£5.3m) had just started to click in the double pivot in the 2-1 win over Leicester after some mixed displays by Gueye, Davies and Schneiderlin there in previous games.

Crystal Palace midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate started Senegal’s victory at centre-back, meanwhile.

Norway 1-0 Slovenia

• Stefan Johansen (£5.2m) – 80 minutes
• Joshua King (£6.4m) – 90 minutes
• Mohamed Elyounoussi (£6.3m) – 90 minutes
• Alexander Sorloth (£4.9m) – 0 minutes

Joshua King played in a familiar role and system as Norway overcame Slovenia in their UEFA Nations League match on Saturday.

King was stationed up front in a 4-4-2, with Southampton’s Mohamed Elyounoussi and Fulham’s Stefan Johansen providing the width for the hosts.

It was from King’s partially cleared cross that Ole Selnaes fired in the only goal of the match, after the Bournemouth striker and Johansen had produced some neat interplay around the Slovenian box.

King, Elyounoussi and Johansen all had chances of varying difficulties to extend Norway’s lead, with the game more comfortable than the scoreline suggested given that Slovenia failed to register a single shot on target.

Alexander Sorloth was an unused substitute.

Round-up

Alexis Sanchez (£10.0m) missed Chile’s 3-0 defeat to Peru in Miami due to visa issues, but is expected to feature for his side against Mexico in the early hours on Wednesday morning (UK time).

Henrikh Mkhitaryan‘s (£6.9m) Armenia suffered a humiliating 1-0 home defeat to Gibraltar in the UEFA Nations League. Mkhitaryan captained his nation and played the whole 90 minutes, drawing a blank despite having two shots saved, sending another effort wide and creating four chances for his team-mates.

Neil Etheridge (£4.6m) played the first half of the Philippines’ 1-1 friendly draw with Oman, though there was nothing to suggest the Cardiff City goalkeeper’s substitution was injury-related.

Arthur Masuaku (£4.4m) made his international debut by playing 82 minutes of DR Congo’s 2-1 home defeat to Zimbabwe at left-back, with the fit-again Neeskens Kebano (£4.4m) an unused substitute for the hosts. Masuaku has been ruled out of the rematch with Zimbabwe on Tuesday.

Matej Vydra (£5.9m) played 89 minutes of the Czech Republic’s 2-1 away win in Slovakia, forcing Martin Dubravka (£5.0m) into two saves – one of which then struck the upright – with shots from outside the hosts’ penalty area. The Newcastle goalkeeper was fairly blameless for the Czech Republic’s two goals, meanwhile.

READ MORE: Friday’s international Scout Notes.

READ MORE: Sunday’s international Scout Notes.

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