Three of West Ham United’s senior players were in action for their respective nations on Thursday and in the early hours of Friday morning.
Konstantinos Mavropanos started and played the full game for Greece, but ended the evening disappointed as Scotland scored a controversial 1-0 win in their UEFA Nations League A/B Play-Off first leg in Piraeus.
The West Ham defender could only watch in horror as his teammate Lazaros Rota was penalised for a foul on Scott McTominay, despite himself appearing to be fouled by the Napoli midfielder, and Scotland were awarded a first-half penalty. To add further to the Greeks’ frustration, McTominay himself converted from the spot.
Mavropanos and his compatriots will hope to turn things around and retain their League A place when the second leg takes place in Glasgow on Sunday afternoon.
Evan Ferguson was introduced as a 76th-minute substitute for Republic of Ireland in their 2-1 UEFA Nations League B/C Play-Off first-leg victory in Bulgaria.
All the goals had been scored before Ferguson replaced Troy Parrott in Plovdiv, where former Hammer Josh Cullen was named in the Irish starting XI and assisted Matt Doherty’s winning goal three minutes before half-time.
Ferguson, who now has 19 senior caps, will hope for more playing time when Ireland welcome Bulgaria to Dublin for the second leg on Sunday evening.
Goalkeeper Krisztián Hegyi, who is currently on loan in his home country with Debrecen, was not involved in Hungary’s UEFA Nations League A/B Play-Off first leg in Turkey, which ended 3-1 in the hosts’ favour.
Defeat in Istanbul means Hungary need to turn around that two-goal deficit when they host the second leg in Budapest on Sunday.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Edson Álvarez was named captain and started at centre-back in Mexico's 2-0 win over Canada in their CONCACAF Nations League semi-final at SoFI Stadium in Inglewood, California, USA. It was the 27-year-old's 83rd senior cap.
Fulham striker Raúl Jiménez scored a goal in each half as Mexico reached their second consecutive final in the competition, having been defeated 2-0 by the United States last year.
The US did not make the final this time around, having lost 1-0 to Panama at SoFI Stadium earlier on Thursday, meaning Mexico will face their Central American rivals in the final at the same venue on Monday evening.
