West Ham United youngsters Edimilson Fernandes, Domingos Quina, Kristijan Belic, Harrison Ashby and Rihards Matrevics all enjoyed positive experiences UEFA European Championship qualifying on Tuesday afternoon
Fernandes made his return from four months out with an ankle injury in Switzerland’s 4-2 defeat by Portugal in the U21 qualifying tournament.
The 21-year-old wore the No10 shirt as he earned his sixth U21 cap in Neuchatel, and completed 76 minutes before being substituted.
Defeat leaves Portugal fourth in their group and with an increasingly remote chance of reaching next summer’s finals in Italy, but Fernandes’ return will be welcome news for West Ham manager David Moyes.
Quina’s Portugal secured their place at the U19 finals with a win, Belic netted Serbia’s goal in their U17 Elite Round qualifying draw with Spain, Ashby helped Scotland to a memorable 1-0 win over Germany in the same competition, while Matrevics kept goal for Latvia in their U19 Elite Round qualifying win over Hungary.
Quina completed another 90 minutes as Portugal made it a perfect nine points out of nine with a 4-0 win over Republic of Ireland on home turf in Barcelos.
The Portuguese, who finished as runners-up to England last summer, with Quina in the starting XI, scored ten goals without reply in their three group-stage matches, also defeating Kosovo and Slovakia.
Quina’s West Ham teammate Conor Coventry played the full game for the Irish, who finished second in the group but missed out on qualification.
Matrevics and Latvia looked on course for defeat before Marko Regza completed a memorable hat-trick with two goals in the final two minutes to snatch a 3-2 victory in Skopje, Macedonia.
Unfortunately for the West Ham goalkeeper, Latvia missed out on qualifying for this summer’s final tounament in Finland on goal difference, with England’s 3-0 win over the Eastern European nation on Saturday meaning the Young Lions finished top of their group, despite losing 2-0 to Macedonia on Tuesday.
Midfielder Belic scored his first competitive goal on his third appearance at U17 level, levelling after Real Madrid’s Gutiérrez Ortega had put the Spanish ahead from the penalty spot.
Despite being held to a draw, Spain topped Group 1 to go through to this summer’s finals in England.
Elsewhere, schoolboy Ashby played in a three-man midfield as Scotland scored a famous victory over Germany in Nafpaktos, Greece, where Glasgow Rangers striker Adedapo Awokoya-Mebude scored the only goal of the game 12 minutes into the second half.
Ashby, 16, was making his debut after missing Scotland’s defeats by Greece and group winners Norway.
Meanwhile, Ben Wells was involved as a substitute as Republic of Ireland U18s were edged out 1-0 by their Romanian counterparts in a friendly in Whitehall, Dublin.