Richarlison eases FPL injury worries with cameo for Brazil

Our international break coverage continues with this round-up of the matches contested on Friday evening that involved Premier League players.

We summarise the minutes played, goals, assists and injury news concerning Fantasy Premier League assets, with further reviews to come over the weekend and early next week.

Brazil 1-0 Uruguay

• Alisson (£5.7m) – 90 minutes
• Danilo (£5.1m) – 90 minutes
• Roberto Firmino (£9.2m) – 90 minutes
• Richarlison (£6.9m) – 23 minutes
• Gabriel Jesus (£10.1m) – 0 minutes
• Willian (£7.4m) – 0 minutes
• Fabinho (£5.5m) – 0 minutes
• Ederson (£5.8m) – 0 minutes
• Lucas Torreira (£4.9m) – 90 minutes

Richarlison shook off the groin injury he picked up in Everton’s 0-0 draw with Chelsea in Gameweek 12 and returned to action on Friday night, as Brazil edged past Uruguay at the Emirates.

One in four Fantasy Premier League managers own the Everton midfielder and his recovery is a rare piece of good news amid the deluge of knocks, niggles, withdrawals and yellow flags that have plagued our Gameweek 13 preparations.

Richarlison came off the bench with a quarter of the match remaining and indeed should have scored when picked out by Neymar on the six-yard box, but looked lively on the right flank and untroubled by any injury problem he had been affected by at Stamford Bridge.

Alisson and Danilo were part of the Brazil back four that kept out Luis Suarez and co, with the Liverpool goalkeeper called into action on four occasions in order to preserve Selecao’s clean sheet.

Roberto Firmino played the whole 90 minutes for his national team, predominantly used as the spearhead of a three-man attack and registering more penalty box touches than anyone on show – a far cry from the deeper or wider roles he has been asked to occupy at Liverpool in recent weeks.

That being said, Firmino didn’t really trouble the Uruguayan backline enough, and it was Neymar who was both Brazil’s biggest goal threat and creative spark.

Lucas Torreira played the whole match on his home ground, while Gabriel Jesus, Willian, Ederson and Fabinho all remained unused substitutes for Brazil.

Egypt 3-2 Tunisia

• Mohamed Elneny (£4.3m) – 90 minutes
• Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) – 90 minutes

Mohamed Salah scored his tenth goal in eight matches for Egypt by netting the winner in a five-goal thriller in Alexandria.

Salah had already hit the post for his country before grabbing the Pharaohs’ decisive third goal with minutes remaining, playing a one-two with team-mate Salah Mohsen before dinking the ball over visiting goalkeeper Farouk Ben Mustapha.

This was Salah’s only fixture of the international break and the Liverpool midfielder will now return to his club in good time for the trip to Watford a week today.

This was something of a dead rubber between the two sides as both Tunisia and Egypt have already qualified for the 2019 African Cup of Nations, which will take place next summer rather than in January/February as has been the case in previous years.

Mohamed Elneny returned from injury to start the game, having been unavailable for Arsenal for the last few weeks.

The defensive midfielder is yet to play one minute in the Premier League this season.

Wales 1-2 Denmark

• Wayne Hennessey (£4.5m) – 90 minutes
• Ethan Ampadu (£4.4m) – 40 minutes
• Paul Dummett (£4.4m) – 39 minutes
• David Brooks (£5.1m) – 90 minutes
• Aaron Ramsey (£7.4m) – 90 minutes
• Sam Vokes (£5.3m) – 0 minutes
• Danny Ward (£4.4m) – 0 minutes
• Kasper Schmeichel (£5.0m) – 90 minutes
• Andreas Christensen (£5.0m) – 90 minutes
• Zanka (£4.4m) – 90 minutes
• Christian Eriksen (£9.2m) – 90 minutes
• Jannik Vestergaard (£4.7m) – 0 minutes
• Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (£4.5m) – 0 minutes

David Brooks put in an eye-catching performance at the Cardiff City Stadium as Wales’ UEFA Nations League campaign ended at the hands of Denmark on Friday.

The Bournemouth midfielder was, in many eyes, Wales’ best player on the night, putting in an excellent attacking display on the right flank and registering more key passes (four) than anyone on show in Cardiff.

Brooks should have at least had one assist when his cross was nodded wide by James Chester from six yards out, while the former Sheffield United winger almost got on the scoresheet himself when curling an effort wide from outside the Danish box.

Aaron Ramsey didn’t have quite the same impact in a two-man midfield, while Wayne Hennessey was perhaps slow to react for both of Denmark’s goals – as good as they were.

Newcastle United fans would have been concerned to see Paul Dummett limp from the field of play after just 39 minutes, meanwhile – the Wales left-back has kept four clean sheets in ten appearances for the Magpies this season, though is only owned by 0.2% of FPL bosses.

Further news is awaited on the severity of Dummett’s injury.

Kasper Schmeichel impressed in the Denmark goal in repelling Gareth Bale and co, while Zanka – suspended for Gameweek 13 after picking up five yellow cards for Huddersfield – and Chelsea’s Andreas Christensen also clocked up 90 minutes at centre-back.

Christian Eriksen‘s long road to recovery from an abdomen problem continued with a 90-minute run-out in South Wales, with the Spurs midfielder going close early on with a shot that flashed wide and then creating two chances for his team-mates.

Eriksen was mainly deployed as a “number ten” in the Danish side, though roamed across the attacking midfield positions and showed glimpses of his old creative self in the first half especially – though the premium midfielder has plenty to do in the coming fortnight (regular starts, for one) if he is to convince Fantasy managers that he is a viable option when Spurs’ fixtures turn for the better in Gameweek 15.

Sam Vokes, Danny Ward, Jannik Vestergaard and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg all watched this game from the bench.

The Netherlands 2-0 France

• Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) – 90 minutes
• Georginio Wijnaldum (£5.5m) – 89 minutes
• Nathan Ake (£5.0m) – 6 minutes
• Hugo Lloris (£5.4m) – 90 minutes
• Lucas Digne (£4.8m) – 90 minutes
• N’Golo Kante (£4.9m) – 90 minutes
• Olivier Giroud (£7.7m) – 65 minutes
• Moussa Sissoko (£4.9m) – 25 minutes
• Mamadou Sakho (£5.0m) – 0 minutes

A France side missing the injured Paul Pogba (£8.0m), Alexandre Lacazette (£9.7m) and Benjamin Mendy (£6.4m) slumped to a 2-0 UEFA Nations League defeat in Rotterdam, having needed only a draw to progress to the semi-finals of the competition.

Les Bleus were actually indebted to Hugo Lloris to keep the scoreline respectable, with the Dutch much the better side and deserving to win by a greater margin.

Lloris made nine stops in all from Memphis Depay, Ryan Babel, Denzel Dumfries, Frenkie de Jong and Georginio Wijnaldum, but could do nothing to stop the Liverpool midfielder giving the Netherlands the lead just before half-time when he followed up a parried shot from Babel.

Virgil van Dijk was in imperious form at centre-back and snuffed out pretty much everything except for one Antoine Griezmann chance in the second half, with Olivier Giroud indeed hauled off on 65 minutes having not had a single shot on goal.

Lucas Digne and N’Golo Kante both picked up cautions as the French struggled to deal with a vibrant Dutch attack, but the Everton left-back did showcase his attacking threat by bombing forward to create a chance or two.

Nathan Ake and Moussa Sissoko both came off the bench for their respective countries, while Mamadou Sakho was an unused substitute.

Argentina 2-0 Mexico

• Juan Foyth (£5.0m) – 90 minutes
• Raul Jimenez (£5.8m) – 90 minutes
• Erik Lamela (£6.5m) – 1 minute
• Paulo Gazzaniga (£4.5m) – 0 minutes
• Sergio Romero (£5.0m) – 0 minutes
• Roberto Pereyra (£6.4m) – 0 minutes

Juan Foyth shrugged off a facial injury to play the whole 90 minutes for Argentina in the early hours of Saturday, earning the man of the match award on his international debut.

Foyth lined up as part of a back three in Lionel Scaloni’s 3-4-2-1 and was up against Wolves’ Raul Jimenez in the Mexican attack, with Argentina restricting their visitors to just three attempts on goal in the entire game.

Jimenez had the best of those opportunities when nodding a Marco Fabian cross against the bar after just two minutes, but was unable to trouble the hosts’ goal thereafter as a Lionel Messi-less Argentina ran out comfortable 2-0 winners.

Erik Lamela – who had himself picked up a head injury in Gameweek 12 – came on as a substitute in the dying stages of the match, though Paulo Gazzaniga, Sergio Romero and Roberto Pereyra remained unused on the home bench.

Chile 2-3 Costa Rica

• Alexis Sanchez (£10.0m) – 90 minutes

Alexis Sanchez had a somewhat mixed evening as Chile fell to a humbling home defeat to Costa Rica, who raced into a three-goal lead before the hosts recovered to add a gloss of respectability to the scoreline.

Sanchez scored Chile’s second goal of the night, controlling a long ball from Erick Pulgar on his chest and firing past visiting goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado to set up a grandstand finish.

The Manchester United midfielder had, not for the first time in his career, earlier missed from the spot after himself being fouled in the Costa Rican box.

Playing on the left of the front three, Sanchez posted the kind of underlying attacking statistics that had marked him out as a desirable premium Fantasy asset at Arsenal: ten penalty box touches, eight attempts on goal and three big chances.

Sanchez also created more chances than anyone on show in Rancagua.

Round-up

Mohamed Elyounoussi (£6.2m) and Stefan Johansen (£5.1m) started on the flanks for Norway as they deservedly came back from a goal down to draw 1-1 in Slovenia.

Johansen was withdrawn just before the hour mark, as has become a regular occurrence in recent internationals, while Crystal Palace’s Alexander Sorloth (£4.8m) came off the bench in the final quarter of an hour as Norway chased the game.

Elyounoussi lasted the full 90 minutes.

Martin Dubravka (£5.0m) was on the winning side as Slovakia trounced Ukraine 4-1, with Oleksandr Zinchenko (£4.8m) lining up in midfield as usual for his national team.

The game wasn’t quite as one-sided as the scoreline suggested, with Dubravka keeping up his fine recent form for Newcastle by making five stops – one from Zinchenko – as his country scored from all four of their shots on target at the other end.

Gaetan Bong (£4.5m) and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa (£4.4m) both started for Cameroon in their 2-0 defeat to Morocco, who named Wolves’ Romain Saiss (£4.2m) on the bench.

Diogo Jota tapped in Portugal under-21’s winner against their Polish counterparts on Friday, while his Wolves’ team-mate Ruben Vinagre and the Portuguese under-20s had two games in as many days on Thursday and Friday – the wing-back posting a video of himself in action against Poland in the first of those two matches.

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