As the seemingly never-ending extra-long international break rolls into its third week, we finally have some minutes for young Jorrel Hato, who came off the bench to feature in the Netherlands’ 2-1 victory over Serbia in UEFA Nations League last night.
Hato arrived on the scene around the hour-mark, with the scores level at 1-1. It was his first competitive action of the break; in fact, it was just the second time in the last eight games that he’s got to enter the field of play rather than just sit
on the bench for the entire duration.
It’s a situation exactly the opposite of Pedro Neto’s, who got a well deserved night off as Portugal beat Norway, 2-1. Erling Haaland limped off with a knock in that game, to underline the main concern we always have during these international breaks.
Thankfully, there were no such concerns for either Emi Martínez or Valentín Barco, both of whom played in Argentina’s romp over Burkina Faso in a friendly, 7-0. Martínez started and played most of the game while Barco came off the bench with about 20 minutes remaining in the incredibly one-sided “contest” — he even managed to get on the scoresheet by setting up Argentina’s final goal of the night, in stoppage time.
