The main headline for Monday’s internationals action is the penalty save (and additional clean sheet) for Giorgi Mamardashvili as Georgia drew 0-0 with Northern Ireland. The Liverpool backup keeper was among Georgia’s strongest players, making five saves across the match (his side only managed to challenge Northern Ireland with two shots on target, meanwhile).
Elsewhere Liverpool senior players got a few minutes on the board with their national sides, with Dominik Szoboszlai captaining Hungary in their 2-1
win against Ukraine with Miloš Kerkez suspended and thus not involved. On-loan Ármin Pécsi was on the bench as a back-up goalkeeper.
Bradley Barcola started and played 72 minutes for France, though his side’s late comeback occurred after he was subbed off: France was 1-0 down to Belgium until Désiré Doué opened scoring for the French in the 77th minute, and it eventually escalated wildly into a 4-1 win for France. Barcola played well without necessarily generating a lot of highlights. Perhaps worryingly Jérémy Jacquet was forced out of a start for France with what was deemed a “little” injury, though the hope is that his rest was to preserve fitness rather than due to a true fitness issue. Given the strength of his performances thus far it’s very worrying that the young defender was not in the squad against Belgium.
