The international break may have come at a bad time for Everton, who have seemingly started to pick up momentum. Although it may not be every fans cup of tea, the players will look forward to making an impression and cementing a place in their national team. So, how did our lads get on?
The Republic of Ireland were under the spotlight on Thursday against the World Champions, Germany. James McCarthy was the only Everton man out of three to get the starting nod, with Aiden McGeady and Darron Gibson both unused subs.
James McCarthy didn’t look out of place against the worlds elite and put in a man of the match performance. There have been many critics in Ireland about McCarthy and his playing style. He put in a performance that emulated his assistant manager, Roy Keane. Ireland unbelievably defeated the Germans 1-0 when Shane Long strike put them ahead in the 70th minute.
Sadly this form didn’t continue in their next game against Poland. A game in which they could have automatically qualified from the group with a positive result. Gibson was once again and unused sub, McCarthy started but didn’t have the same impact, Coleman made a solid return and McGeady came off the bench and unsurprisingly failed to make an impact as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Poland. They now must try their luck in the play-offs.
James McCarthy fends off Thomas Müller.
With England having already qualified for next summers Euro 2016 tournament, Roy Hodgson had the freedom to experiment with different players. Ross Barkley was one of them and he took his chance. In Fridays game against Estonia he played a fantastic ball, cutting the defence in half to grab himself an assist. He continued the game with his signature powerful runs causing all sorts of problems for his opponents. He was named man of the match for his display.
His impressive outing on Friday left Roy Hodgson wanting more. He selected Ross again and he rewarded the England manager by opening the scoring against Lithuania with a long range effort that took a slight deflection to send it in off the post.
It was also a proud day for Phil Jagielka, who became the first current Everton player to captain England from the start of a game. It went well as he lead them to a 3-0 win as England made it 10/10 in qualifying.
Phil Jagielka before leading England out as captain.
Romelu Lukaku was brought on as a sub in the 66th minute as his team destroyed Andorra 6-0. He started in Belgium’s 3-1 win against Israel.
Ramiro Funes Mori also got his chance for Argentina, but the 24-year-old faces a race to get back to Merseyside in time for Everton’s clash against Manchester United on Saturday.
