More international round-up everyone, and it's a much quieter one than usual with the likes of David Vaughan and Wales not in action, plus plenty other lads on the bench such as Ji Dong-Won and Keiren Westwood.
That said, the break has proven to be a good one in the sense that nobody will be returning to Wearside with an injury, and Nicklas Bendtner seems to have a golden touch at the moment for Denmark, and I hope he can continue it through to the next run of games for us.
Lets see how all they, plus the likes of Ahmed Elmohamady, Asamoah Gyan and Sebastian Larsson got on during the second part of the break...
Well the first man up after the weekend was Ahmed Elmohamady, with his Egyptian side taking on Brazil, or rather Brazil Reserves as it turned out. It was good to see Elmo back in the international fold as he missed the last two games due to the interim management selecting only U23 players for their final two African Cup Of Nations Qualifiers.
It wasn't a surprise to see Elmohamady start the game, but it was a surprise to see him start at left back. Unfamiliar to him, and up against the Brazilian Phil Bardsley, Dani Alves. Elmo however was solid at left-back, no doubt giving Steve Bruce some more zany ideas, and in all honesty was possibly Egypt's best player in a game Brazil won at a canter. A few shots, got up and down the line well and tested Diego in goal well towards the end.
In Beirut now, Korean coach Cho Kwang-Rae was true to his word and dropped Ji Dong-Won from the starting line-up, as his side suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Lebanon in World Cup Qualifying. With the Koreans a goal down at the half, Ji was thrown into action, but neither he now his teammates could break down a stubborn and determined Lebanese side, as they claimed a fully deserved victory. Ji did have the visitors only chance of note in the second half, sending a drive wide of the post, however a draw wouldn't have been deserved.
Might as well get the game everyone (probably) watched out the way too - Sebastian Larsson started for Sweden against England, and for me was poor throughout. Starting on the left hand side, before being shifted over to the right after Christian Wilhelmsson's introduction, Seb just didn't seem to be able to get it going with poor delivery all night from corners and free-kicks. I suppose if he's going to have an off day, better he does it for Sweden than us.
To the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, where Ireland had a stroll in the park to draw with Estonia 1-1 and claim their place at Euro 2012 officially. John O'Shea started at right-back, which shows good signs ahead of us playing Fulham as he managed to come through the 90 minutes. O'Shea's performance in the game was exactly that of someone coming back from injury. Nothing exciting, nothing spectacular, John just came in and did a job as was required. A few hopeful long balls which didn't pan out about the best of things. Also in the game Keiren Westwood was an unused substitute.
And with Asamoah Gyan not selected for the match squad for Ghana against Gabon, that leaves us with the one striker who hasn't deserted us (yet) Nicklas Bendtner. Bendtner is on fire for Denmark at the minute and added to his goal the weekend with another against the Fins. Bendtner's goal was a typically predatory strike, following Tobias Mikkelsen's long distance shot, Bendtner was there to poke in the rebound.
All in all, the theme for this international week has been 'solid and unspectacular'... much like us really. Well, nobody got injured I suppose, and it's another one of these damn weekend's out the way.
Source : Credit to :http://www.rokerreport.com
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