Five Dortmund first team and youth players took to the pitch for their national teams on Thursday, with others following on Friday and Saturday.

For a long time on Thursday, the German national team had looked like they were heading for a victory over Spain, but in injury time the away team scored an equaliser and it finished 1-1. Dortmund's Emre Can had been on the pitch for over 90 minutes in the match, while Julian Brandt had to take a seat on the bench. Nico Schulz had already left the group on Monday due to injury.

Defender Manuel Akanji also played the entire match for Switzerland in Ukraine (1-1).

Youssoufa Moukoko made his debut for Germany's U20s. Despite losing 1-2 to Denmark, the Borusse managed to score a goal on his debut to temporarily give his team the lead at 1-0. Goalkeeper Luca Unbehaun was an unused substitute.

Ansgar Knauff played for around 15 minutes as Germany's U19s drew 1-1 with Poland.

Samuel Bamba from Dortmund's U19s showed his eye for a goal for Germany's U17s against Belgium: he played in his team’s second friendly against different teams and scored to make it 1-0 after just three minutes. Shortly before the final whistle, the striker found the net again to secure a 3-2 victory.

On Friday, new signing Jude Bellingham made his debut for England's U21s in the European Championship qualifying match against Kosovo and scored in the 62nd minute after coming on as a substitute, firing a powerful shot into the far corner for a final score of 6-0. That made the 17-year-old not only the youngest player, but also the youngest goalscorer for England's U21s.

Erling Haaland also entered the history books with his first goal for the senior Norwegian national team. The striker and his team played against Austria in the Nations League and he scored his side's only goal of the match in the 66th minute as they lost 1-2.

There were Black & Yellows on both sides as Belgium won 2-0 in Denmark on Saturday evening. While Hazard and Witsel made the starting line-up for the Red Devils, Thomas Meunier was among the substitutes. Thomas Delaney played the full 90 minutes for the Danes.

Elsewhere, the England national team came away from Iceland with a 1-0 win courtesy of a penalty awarded for handball in stoppage time. Jadon Sancho played up until the 73rd minute and caught the eye by creating several goalscoring opportunities for his team-mates.

Nations League holders Portugal, meanwhile, commenced their campaign with a 4-1 win at home to Croatia. Raphael Guerreiro played the full 90 minutes for Portugal and was unlucky to see an effort rebound off the post in the first period. After the break, he set up the second goal for Diego Jota with a lovely lofted through-ball. (cr)