Mo Salah helped ensure Egypt’s qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations, while Liverpool’s Dutch duo featured for far too long in the Nations League semi-finals.
Despite coming off the back an arduous season, many of Liverpool’s players are already back in action with their national teams.
Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo both featured as they suffered disappointment, losing 4-2 in front of a home crowd, against Croatia.
From a Liverpool point of view, it couldn’t have gone much worse for the Reds, with the game going to extra time meaning that Van Dijk played the full 120 minutes and Gakpo came off after 105 minutes.
They don’t even get to miss out on playing another match, the final, thanks to the defeat.
Instead, they are faced with a third-place play-off against either Spain or Italy, on June 18, which neither side will be up for.s
This does at least pose the possibility of Liverpool’s duo being rested for the match.
Elsewhere, Salah was in action and kicked off his 31st birthday celebrations, as he helped ensure Egypt’s qualification for January’s AFCON.
Coming up against Guinea, for whom Naby Keita played the full match, Egypt initially fell behind after 26 minutes.
A few moments later, Salah missed a golden opportunity to level when he managed to clear the crossbar from two yards out with an open goal gaping.
Thankfully for Salah, he was involved again just before half time, setting up teammate Mahmoud Trezeguet for an equaliser.
Mostafa Mohamed then got the winner for Egypt after 79 minutes, finishing powerfully on his right foot from 11 yards out.
There are still plenty of international games to come with EURO 2024 qualifiers beginning on Friday, and the European European Under-21 Championship getting under way on June 21.
Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott will feature in the tournament for England, while Sepp van den Berg will be in action for the Netherlands.
Leave a Reply