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Southampton: Saints trio feature for national teams in key games

By Chris Hughes

FLORENCE, ITALY - OCTOBER 03: Manolo Gabbiadini of Italy looks on during a training session at Italy club's training ground at Coverciano on October 3, 2017 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
FLORENCE, ITALY - OCTOBER 03: Manolo Gabbiadini of Italy looks on during a training session at Italy club's training ground at Coverciano on October 3, 2017 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images) /
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Over the course of yesterday afternoon and evening, three more Southampton stars appeared for their respective national sides.

Maya Yoshida featured in an earlier kick-off due to the time difference, as he captained Japan to a win over New Zealand. Yuya Osako opened the scoring for the home team before Burnley striker Chris Wood brought NZ level with a trademark finish.

The game seemed set for a stalemate until late on until Shu Kurata scored two minutes before time, sealing a win Yoshida’s side.

Meanwhile Shane Long played 83 minutes as the Republic of Ireland sealed a comfortable 2-0 win over Moldova to keep their automatic promotion hopes alive.

Second-placed Wales continued to step on the heals of group leaders Serbia, after Dusan Tadic and his side lost 3-2 to Austria. The back-and-forth affair concluded with West Ham’s Marko Arnautovic cancelling out what many thought was a late equalizer from Nemanja Matic, with the game being decided in the final minutes.

TOYOTA, JAPAN – OCTOBER 06: Kosta Barbarouses of New Zealand and Maya Yoshida of Japan compete for the ball during the international friendly match between Japan and New Zealand at Toyota Stadium on October 6, 2017 in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. (Photo by Kaz Photography/Getty Images)
TOYOTA, JAPAN – OCTOBER 06: Kosta Barbarouses of New Zealand and Maya Yoshida of Japan compete for the ball during the international friendly match between Japan and New Zealand at Toyota Stadium on October 6, 2017 in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. (Photo by Kaz Photography/Getty Images) /

The Irish will go head-to-head with the Welsh in their final group game early next week, with the winner of the game having the potential to not only secure automatic promotion, but potentially finish as group winners.

However that is reliant on Serbia – who still lead the group despite being handed a loss last night. They face Georgia who are amazingly yet to win a game in qualifying. They have drawn five of their nine games so far meaning Tadic and co. should go into the game full of confidence.

Meanwhile away from Group D, Manolo Gabbiadini was an unused substitute as Italy threw away any chance of finishing top of their group. The Italians went into the game last night knowing that if they bettered Spain’s result over Albania that they could leapfrog the Spaniards – but it wasn’t to be.

Despite sitting second-from-bottom Macedonia haven’t been too bad in qualifying, with only 14 conceded from eight games going into the match-up.

Giorgio Chiellini gave the home side the advantage but that wasn’t before Aleksandar Trajkovski helped cause a massive upset with 77 minutes on the clock, as he equalized to quash any Italian hopes of bettering Spain.

Another round of Saints players could feature for their national teams tonight.

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