International round-up: Victories for Hernández, Pukki and Sinani
First-team
8th June 2022

Several Norwich City players have been involved in matches for the countries at the start of this week, with victories for Danel Sinani, Teemu Pukki and Onel Hernández.

Luxembourg made it two wins from two in League C of the Nations League. Danel Sinani led the line for Luxembourg, who won courtesy of a second-half penalty from Gerson Rodrigues.

The team now sit level on points with Turkey at the top of Group C1. They will play Turkey next at home on Saturday.

Finland are also level on points with Bosnia and Herzegovina at the top of their group (B3) following a 2-0 win over Montengro, in Helsinki, last night.

Teemu Pukki helped set up the opening goal of the match, playing a net one-two on the edge of the box before squaring the ball across the six-yard box for Joel Pahjanpalo to tap home. Pahjanpalo then added a second, volleying home a free kick that was crossed into the box, to make it 2-0 at half-time.

Finland’s next match in the Nations League will also be on Saturday when they travel to Romania.

There were also two Nations League games played on Sunday, involving Norwich City players. Cuba and Onel Hernández picked up a 3-0 home victory over Barbados, in League B of the Concacaf Nations League.

Onel played the full 90 minutes of the match, in the Estadio Antonio Maceo in Santiago de Cuba. William Pozo-Venta opened the scoring curling home a shot from outside the box. Aricheell Hernández then added a second when a shot ricocheted into his path. Then Onel Hernández won a penalty early in the second half, which Luis Paradela converted. Onel went close to getting two more assists with some excellent wing play, but Paradela skied a shot when he should have done better and Maikel Reyes was denied by a good save from Barbados keeper Kishmar Primus.

Cuba are in action next in the early hours of Friday morning when they take on Antigua and Barbuda away.

Back in Europe on Sunday evening, Milot Rashica played 60 minutes of Kosovo’s 1-0 defeat to Greece. Dimitris Giannoulis was on the bench for Greece, but did not feature.

Outside of the Nations League, Max Aarons was also an unused substitute for England Under-21s as they beat Albania Under-21s 3-0. The win secured England their place at the European Under-21 Championships in 2023.