Euro 2020 Qualifiers: 5 Players who dominated the international break with excellent performances
The first international break of 2019 culminated on Wednesday with several top teams giving a good account of themselves.
The fixtures mostly comprised of qualification games for the Euro 2020 as sides looked to make the most of their exposure to seal their spot at the competition.
The likes of Belgium, England, France, and Spain played two games apiece and emerged victorious on both occasions whereas sides such as Germany played a solitary encounter.
Over the matches, there were numerous superb performances by players, whether it be stupendous defensive displays or exceptional offensive showings.
Thus, through the course of this article, we would delve a little deeper into those performances and chalk out five players who dominated the international fixtures in the past week.
Without further ado, here is a look at them:
#5 Memphis Depay (Netherlands)
The Dutch international hasn’t been in the best of form for his club Lyon this term. However, whenever he has donned the Netherlands jersey, he has looked a man possessed. And this week’s games against Germany and Belarus weren’t any different.
Depay set the world alight with his twin performances. The brace against Belarus was followed by another goal against Germany. In the process, he took his international goal tally to 16 in 46 appearances.
On both occasions, the forward was at the peak of his powers. His movement was top notch as he ran into channels and created space for his teammates.
In addition, his mazy dribbling tied the Belarusian defence in knots whereas he also caused the Germans plenty of problems in the second half.
However, the most impressive aspect of his game-play was his end product. Over the years, Depay’s quality on the ball has never been in question. Yet, the Dutchman hasn’t always translated that potential into goals.
However, with him hitting a purple patch recently, many are starting to opine that the winger could just have come off age.
Depay has been an enigma ever since he broke onto the footballing scene. But, with one scintillating performance close on the heels of another, he is slowly but surely casting himself as a reliable option for the Dutch side.
Hence, he makes our list.