Southampton: 3 Saints round off international break action
By Marc Walker
Three Southampton players were in international action on Tuesday evening and rounded off an eventful international break for Saints players.
Stuart Armstrong and Scotland produced the most notable result of the night as they confirmed their promotion in the UEFA Nations League.
They managed a 3-2 win over Israel at Hampden Park and finished top of group C1 after three wins and a loss in this year’s competition.
After Scotland had fallen behind in the game, Armstrong would play a big part in helping to get his side back into the lead by half-time with some driving runs from midfield; one of which produced the equalising goal for Celtic winger James Forrest.
Forrest would go on to complete a hat-trick and hand his side a hard-fought win, whilst Armstrong was substituted in the 76th minute after a bright display of his own.
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Jan Bednarek played the full 90 minutes as Poland managed a 1-1 draw with Portugal, but Saints right-back Cedric remained an unused substitute.
The Nations League clash had little riding on it with group A3 already decided, but goals from Sevilla’s Andre Silva and Napoli’s Arkadiusz Milik saw a share of the spoils.
Poland finish bottom of the group after two draws and two defeats and are relegated to league B, whilst Portugal go through to the Nations League finals with England, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
A friendly with Kyrgyzstan came for Maya Yoshida and Japan and they had little trouble in seeing off their opponents by a scoreline of 4-0.
Yoshida came on for the final 29 minutes of the clash and saw goals from Ryosuke Yamanaka, Genki Haraguchi, Yuya Osako and Shoya Nakajima put the result beyond doubt.
The game was Japan’s last match before the Asian Cup in January where they will be looking to secure their fifth title in the competition.
All of the 12 Saints out on international duty will now turn their attention back to club football ahead of a crucial Premier League clash with Fulham at the weekend.