International round-up: Samp stars involved in first round of matches
Find out how Sampdoria’s players fared with their respective national sides in the first round of international fixtures.
It was a night to remember for Mikkel Daamsgard as he scored and helped Denmark U21s beat Malta U21s away. The Scandinavians fell behind when Ayrton Attard (52) opened the scoring for the hosts but Nikolai Laursen (68) levelled then the Blucerchiati starlet gave Denmark the lead (84) before Jesper Lindstrom (90+3) wrapped things up. Daamsgard was substituted off in the 90th minute. Three points sees Denmark consolidate their position at the top of Euro 2021 qualifying Group 8: six points clear of second-place Romania with two games left to play.
Omar Colley captained Gambia to a 1-0 friendly victory against Congo in Portugal with Assan Ceesay (55) scoring the only goal. The Doria defender played the entire match.
Maya Yoshida also wore the captain’s armband – and played the full 90 minutes – as Japan and Cameroon played out a goalless draw in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Morten Thorsby‘s Norway saw their hopes of competing in next year’s European Championships ended by Serbia in the play-offs. Sergey Milinkovic-Savic’s 81st-minute opener was cancelled out by Mathias Normann (88) to send the tie to extra time before Milinkovic-Savic netted the winner (102). Thorsby came on as a substitute in the 116th minute.
There was bad news too for Norway U21s and Kristoffer Askildsen as they were beaten 4-1 by Portugal in a decisive match for second place in Euro 2021 qualifying Group 7. Pedro Neto (6, 16), Vitor Ferreira (69) and Dany Mota (88) scored for the hosts with Jorgen Larsen (34) netting Norway’s sole reply. The Samp midfielder played 90 minutes.
Poland meanwhile thrashed Finland 5-1 in Gdansk with Kamil Grosicki scoring a hat-trick (9, 18, 38). Krzysztof Piatek (53) and Arek Milik (87) were also on target while Ilmari Niskanen (68) scored the visitors’ consolation. Bartosz Bereszynski played 62 minutes before being replaced.
Albin Ekdal watched from the bench as Sweden beat Russia 2-1 in Moscow. Alexander Isak (21) and Mattias Johansson (72) put the Swedes 2-0 up before Alexandr Sobolev (90+1) halved the deficit late on.
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