On the fourth match day of the 2014 World Cup qualification, all nine Werder professionals on national team duty played while Francois Affolter and Richard Strebinger suited up for their U21 national teams...
On the fourth match day of the 2014 World Cup qualification, all nine Werder professionals on national team duty played while Francois Affolter and Richard Strebinger suited up for their U21 national teams...
On the fourth match day of the 2014 World Cup qualification, all nine Werder professionals on national team duty played while Francois Affolter and Richard Strebinger suited up for their U21 national teams.
Werder's Kevin De Bruyne had a strong showing in Belgium's 2-0 home victory over Scotland as he set up the opening goal by Christian Benteke. Werder's top scorer picked up his first goal for Belgium and set up another strike on Friday in the team's 3-0 win over Serbia. Marc Wilmots' Belgian side are atop Group A of the qualification with 10 points along with Croatia.
After scoring his first goal for his national team in a win over Malta, things did not go as well for Theodor Gebre Selassie and the Czech Republic as they drew 0-0 against Bulgaria in Prague. Selassie played the full 90 minutes.
Werder new acquisition Eljero Elia celebrated a special comeback as he was a late call-up by Netherlands head coach Louis van Gaal for the match against Romania in Bucharest. And the Dutch won 4-1 and Elia was subbed in just before the end of the match for his first cap in more than a year.
Werder midfielder Mehmet Ekici had little to celebrate as Turkey suffered their third loss, dropping to Hungary 3-1. The 22-year-old Ekici did play the final 26 minutes for his first cap since February.
Werder's trio of Austrians Marko Arnautovic, Sebastian Prödl and Zlatko Junuzovic made up for a poor 0-0 draw against Kazakhstan in Astana by winning 4-0 at home in Vienna. Arnautovic set up the third and fourth goals by David Alaba and Martin Harnik.
Werder centre back Sokratis was once again a strong support for the Greece national team. The defender played all 90 minutes again and once again the Greeks did not concede a goal - the third match in a row. After a goal-less draw against Bosnia-Herzegovina, Fernandos Santos's team beat Slovakia 1-0.
Aleksandar Ignjovski also played a full 180 minutes in the last two matches for Serbia, though both were defeats. The Serbs lost 3-0 against Serbia and then 1-0 versus Macedonia.
The Switzerland U21 national team were knocked out of the playoffs of the European Championship by Germany. Werder's Francois Affolter played a full 90 minutes in Lucerne but must forget about playing the Euro 2013. Richard Strebinger and the Austrian U21 team were eliminated already in the group stage and used the international break to play two test matches. After Strebinger did not play in goal in Austria's 5-1 win over Congo, the Bremen U23 keeper returned between the posts in Austria's 3-1 win over Hungary.
