It was a night of ups and downs for Newcastle’s internationals, as our boys from Brazil were beaten by Senegal, Isak’s Sweden suffered a damaging defeat in Vienna and Dubravka shone in a big win for Slovakia.
It was exciting to see both Bruno and Joelinton starting together for the first time in Brazil colours, but the Samba Boys looked exposed defensively and fell to a 4-2 defeat in Lisbon, with Sadio Mane scoring twice for the West Africans.
Joelinton in particular had a moment to forget after seeing his poor clearance land straight at Habib Diallo, who latched onto his loose header and equalised in the first half. Both showed their quality in patches, with Bruno’s raking pass out to Vinicius Jnr playing a key role in Brazil’s opener, but a dream night turned into a frustrating one for the pair as Senegal won a six-goal thriller.
As for Alexander Isak, our club-record signing suffered a costly 2-0 defeat to Austria, leaving his country third in their group behind Belgium and Austria and faced with an uphill battle to qualify for EURO 2024.
Sweden narrowly missed out on last year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, yet their EURO hopes are now hanging by a thread after two late Austria goals handed them a huge win.
Elsewhere, it was a successful night for shot-stopper Martin Dubravka, who made four saves and kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win over Lichtenstein. It’s his seventh shutout in his last nine appearances for Slovakia and saw them move up to second in Group J behind Portugal.
I said this about Big Joe through the season so its not a new comment based on one showing.. Joe is not the same player when he is asked to play on the right side of midfield, last night he looked lost, totally.. He maybe right footed but his brain is wired to play from the left & when there he is in his comfort zone. Play him there and reap the benefit..
George Turner(Quote)