Thursday 8th October
Scotland 2-2 Poland
Alan Hutton played the full 90 minutes in their 2-2 draw against Poland. Hutton was lucky to stay on the pitch with some of the tackles he was putting in, especially on Poland forward Robert Lewandowski. Although they forked out the draw against Poland and still had Gibraltar to come, it wasn’t going to be enough to even finish third in the group for the Tartan Terriers.
Columbia 2-0 Peru
Carlos Sanchez represented Columbia in the international break, as they beat Peru 2-0, in their opening World Cup qualifier. Villa’s midfielder Carlos Sanchez actually captained his side for the first time in this game, as several first team players were missing for the Colombians. Sanchez took this opportunity by captaining his side and also putting in a very solid performance for his country.
Saturday 10th October
USA 2-3 Mexico
Villa’s number one shot stopper Brad Guzan was in action, as he replaced Everton keeper Tim Howard in-goal for USA. Unfortunately USA were defeated, to the hands of Mexico, after losing 3-2 in extra-time.
Right from the start, the two sides were going straight at each other, and within 15 minutes both countries had scored. EX Manchester United forward Javier Hernandez put the Mexicans in front in the 10th minute, but were pegged back within five minutes, when Stoke City defender, Geoff Cameron equalised.
It went all the way to extra-time, for one of the sides to try to get a winner, in a very tightly contested match. Again though, USA equalised, after Mexico took the lead for the second time in the match, when Oribe Peralta fired home a brilliant finish past Guzan to make it 2-2, but only nine minutes later it was Bobby Wood who scored for USA, against the run of play.
Guzan wasn’t at fault for both goals, and definitely not the winner either, as moments before the sides were heading for penalties, an unbelievable volley by Paul Aguilar, beat the Americans right at the death.
Scotland U21 1-2 France U21
One of Aston Villa’s new signings Jordan Amavi, featured for the French national side, in their under 21’s game against Scotland. He played the full 90 minutes in their victory against the Scottish, and made a very impressive performance at left-back once again, for his Under 21’s national side.
Sunday 11th October
Gibraltar 0-6 Scotland
Alan Hutton’s country coasted past bottom of the table team, Gibraltar. Alan Hutton was in for quite a quiet game in defence, and took this opportunity to make some fine storming runs, down the wing. Although Gibraltar have little quality in their side, Hutton dominated down the right-wing, and actually assisted two of the three goals that Steven Fletcher scored. Alan Hutton’s Scotland finished the group in fourth place, and unfortunately didn’t qualify for the Euro’s next year.
Tuesday 13th October
Ghana 1-1 Canada
Villa forward Jordan Ayew represented Ghana this week in their 1-1 draw in the friendly against Canada. Jordan Ayew set up fellow Ghanaian winger Albert Adomah for the equalizer, who also plays in England, with Middlesbrough. Ghana were fortunate to hold on to the draw, as Canada made numerous chances, breaking the Ghana defence wide open at times. Ayew sent the ball through for Adomah to race through on goal, and coolly slot past the Canadian goalkeeper, for the equalizer. Jordan Ayew played 82 minutes for Ghana and although he had some decent touches throughout the game, he failed to lighten up the Ghanaian side, and didn’t look a real threat in front of goal.
Algeria 1-0 Senegal
Idrissa Gueye played the full 90 minutes for Algeria who unfortunately were defeated by a late goal by FC Porto’s midfielder Yacine Brahimi. Brahimi hit a fine drilled finish into the far bottom corner, from the left hand side of Senegal’s penalty area, on the 80th minute to separate the sides.
USA 0-1 Costa Rica
Tim Howard was back into USA’s line-up to start ahead of Villa’s goalkeeper Brad Guzan. Fellow Premier League player Joel Campbell scored, after he buried the ball home into the bottom corner. USA manager Jürgen Klinsmann now is under bags of pressure after two disappointing defeats in the international break, and have lost three games on a row now, which hasn’t happened since 1997 for the Americans.
Uruguay 3-0 Columbia
Tuesday wasn’t the best of days for the Villa players, on their international duty, and it was even worse for Carlos Sanchez’s Columbia, who were hammered 3-0 in there World Cup qualifier. Sanchez played the whole game in their poor performance, where centre-half Diego Godin bagged a brace and Hull City centre-forward Abel Hernandez finished the Colombians off on the 88th minute. Columbia are placed 6th in the World qualifying group after one win and one defeat. Although they have been hit with a setback with the poor defeat to the Uruguayans, they will still be hoping for a place in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
France U21 2-0 Ukraine U21
Jordan Amavi’s France side continue to storm on, with an impressive performance and three points against Ukraine. Once again Jordan Amavi started and played the full 90 minutes for France at left-back. Goals from Thomas Lemar and Adrien Rabiot earned the victory in the UEFA U21 Championship qualifier. After another victory for France, they are now placed second in Group 3 with two wins out of three, having also beaten Scotland and lost to leaders Iceland, who have 11 points from five games.
