Nationalmannschaft

Successful conclusion to the international break

There were five victories for the HSV players in action for their countries as the international break drew to a close this week. Filip Kostic picked up an assist, while Bobby Wood scored the winner for the USA.

he international break came to an end for the seven HSV players on duty for their respective countries this week. On Tuesday, the Serbian national team sealed a 2-0 win against Nigeria thanks to a brace from Newcastle United striker Alexander Mitrovic. HSV’s Filip Kostic played the full 90 minutes for the Serbians and set up the second goal. Elsewhere, Rick van Drongelen played for the Netherlands Under-21s and helped them to a 1-0 victory over Andorra in their European Championship qualifier. Van Drongelen played the whole game at left back.

Kyriakos Papadopoulos also went the full distance in international action for Greece. The central defender celebrated a 1-0 win over Egypt with his Greek teammates. Nikolaos Karelis scored the game’s only goal

Wood scores for USA

In the USA’s narrow victory over Paraguay, Bobby Wood scored the winner from the penalty spot (45’). Despite the Switzerland Under-20s also coming away with a 3-2 win against the Italy Under-20s, Vasilije Janjicic didn’t come on for the Swiss side after his first international goal in the previous game against Malta.

Things weren’t so successful for captain Gotoku Sakai and central defender Mergim Mavraj. Sakai lost on Wednesday evening against Ukraine, while Mavraj and his Albanian teammates suffered a narrow defeat to Norway in a friendly. The 31-year-old played the whole game.

After the largely positive international break, the HSV first team players now return to Hamburg to take part in the final preparations for this weekend’s upcoming away trip to play VfB Stuttgart (Saturday 31st March, KO 15:30 CEST).
Caption: Bobby Wood won his 36th cap for the USA in the game against Paraguay.