International round-up: Declan Rice and Tomáš Souček score on busy night for West Ham stars

Declan Rice

 

Declan Rice and Tomáš Souček both scored on a busy night of international action for West Ham United’s players.

Rice scored his first England goal as the Three Lions ended their UEFA Nations League campaign with a 4-0 win over Iceland.

The West Ham midfielder nodded in Phil Foden’s cross to put Gareth Southgate’s side on their way to a comfortable victory at Wembley Stadium.

The 21-year-old’s best friend Mason Mount made it 2-0 before Manchester City youngster Phil Foden’s late brace completed a decent night’s work.

Former West Ham youngster Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson, who spent three seasons with the Irons between 2008-11, appeared as a late substitute for Iceland.

Three points took England onto ten, but they still finished third in League A2 behind finals-bound Belgium and Denmark, who edged them out on head-to-head record despite losing 4-2 in Leuven on Wednesday.

Elsewhere, Souček’s towering header – his fourth goal for his country – opened the scoring for the Czech Republic on a memorable night in Plzen, where the home side beat Slovakia 2-0 to secure top spot and promotion from League B2.

 

Tomas Soucek celebrates his goal

 

Souček’s West Ham teammate and close pal Vladimír Coufal also started and played the full 90 minutes as the Czechs enjoyed a memorable and successful evening.

The Czechs had gone into the November international break four points behind Scotland with two games to play, but the Scots lost 1-0 in Slovakia and Israel, while Souček and his compatriots scored a 1-0 win over Israel, followed by Wednesday’s win over their neighbours to go up to League A.

Darren Randolph celebrated reaching the landmark of 50 caps for Republic of Ireland with a clean sheet in a 0-0 League B4 draw with Bulgaria in Dublin.

The goalkeeper helped the Boys in Green secure the point they needed to avoid relegation, but Ireland still finished their Nations League campaign without a win from their six ties.

Fellow stopper Łukasz Fabiański finished on the losing side as Poland allowed the Netherlands to come from a goal down to win 2-1 in Chorzów.

The result meant the Dutch leapfrogged the Poles to finish second in League A1, with Italy topping the table after beating Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

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