The Borussia Dortmund internationals returned from their natioanl teams with mainly positive results. Christian Pulisic set a new record and Ousmane Dembélé made his debut for France.

Ousmane Dembélé made his debut for the French national team and came on as a substitute after one hour in the matches against Italy (3-1) and Belarus (0-0).

Shinji Kagawa helped Japan to a 2-0 victory in Thailand, however Japan and Shinji then lost 1-2 against the United Arab Emirates. Whilst Nuri Sahin had to make do with a place on the bench for Turkey against Russia (0-0) and Croatia (1-1), Emre Mor made an appearance in both games as a substitute in the 84. and 83. minute. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored the 1-1 equaliser for Gabon in their 2-1 win against Sudan.

Raphael Guerreiro celebrated a clear 5-0 win for Portugal over Gibraltar, however they lost their World Cup qualifier 0-2 away to Switzerland, for whom Roman Bürki was on the bench. Marc Bartra helped Spain to a 2-0 win away to Belgium. He was on the bench when Spain trounced Liechtenstein 8-0. Sokratis also had reason to celebrate whilst away on international duty: Greece beat Gibraltar 4-1 and they also won 2-1 against The Netherlands with the Dortmund player in their side. Lukasz Piszczek helped Poland to a 2-2 draw against Kazakhstan in their World Cup qualifier.

As also reported, Mario Götze was in the starting line-up for Germany in their victories against Finland and Norway, Julian Weigl came on as a substitute in both matches. Christian Pulisic scored two goals in the matches against St. Vincent and Trinidad Tobago, which means he is the youngest player ever to start a qualification match for the USA. (br)