Four Napoli players were in action on Friday: Eljif Elmas, Amir Rrahmani, Piotr Zielinski and Bartosz Bereszyński.
Wonderful Collapse
Eljif Elmas played the full 90 minutes in North Macedonia’s UEFA Euro Group C qualification match. The Napoli midfielder/winger lined up as a No. 10 in the 2-3 defeat to Ukraine. Elmas doubled North Macedonia’s lead five minutes before the break with a wonderful strike from 25 yards out. The ball curled and dipped into the top corner at the far post, giving the home side a 2-0 lead. It seemed as though North Macedonia were going to coast to victory, but they completely fell apart in the second half.
Shortly after the hour mark, Ukraine scored twice in five minutes to pull level. Five minutes later Visar Misliu was sent off after committing a second yellow-card offense. That opened the door for Ukraine to steal the victory. In the 83rd minute, Mykhailo Mudryk picked out Viktor Tsygankov in the area and he headed in the winner. Elmas, who was playing as a lone striker after North Macedonia went down to ten men, could only watch on as Ukraine completed the comeback.
Captain Rrahmani
Amir Rrahmani made his 50th cap (and 23rd appearance with the captain’s armband) in Kosovo’s UEFA Euro Group I qualification match against Romania. Playing on a drenched pitch in Prishtina, the match ended in a scoreless draw. However, despite the playing conditions, both sides had plenty of opportunities to score. Kosovo thought they opened the scoring shortly after the midway point of the second half, when Edon Zhegrova headed in the cross of Bersant Celina. However, after a VAR review, the goal was chalked off due to offside.
Upset Germans
Piotr Zielinski and Bartosz Bereszyński both featured in Poland’s 1-0 friendly upset over Germany. Zielinski played 64 minutes in the centre of Poland’s five-man midfield, while Bereszyński played 72 minutes at left back. Ex-Spezia player Jakub Kiwior scored his first national team goal to give Poland the lead.
Germany had plenty of opportunities to equalize. Joshua Kimmich rattled the bar minutes into the second half. In the 88th minute, Marius Wolf’s header at the second post appeared to cross the line before Wojciech Szczęsny pushed the ball out, but the goal wasn’t given. Finally, in the dying minutes of the match, Szczęsny made another quality save, blocking Leon Goretzka’s header from a Germany corner kick. In the end, Poland held on for only their second victory against Germany in 90 years of international football.
