Gruda with three assists, Mwene and Onisiwo on track for the Euros

With the break from club football coming to an end, the team are almost back together again ahead of the weekend’s important home game against VfB Stuttgart (Saturday, 15:30 CEST). Before the focus switches fully to the Bundesliga again though, we take a look at how those six 05ers got on for their respective countries on international duty.

Austria all but confirmed EURO 2024 qualification 

Phillipp Mwene and Karim Onisiwo’s Austria side recorded a 3-1 victory in Sweden on Tuesday evening, making a big step towards qualification for EURO 2024. With only three games left to play in the group and a seven-point lead on third place, Austria’s qualification for the Euros in Germany is almost certain.  

Ralf Rangnick’s side also drew 1-1 with Moldova in a friendly match last Thursday. Onisiwo was substituted on in both games, while Mwene made up part of the starting XI in Stockholm and won the penalty that would put Austria 3-0 up, before Sweden scored a late consolation goal. 

Win and heavy defeat for Barreiro’s Luxembourg

The Luxembourg national side played two European qualifiers during September’s break. Leandro Barreiro, Timothé Rupil from the U23s and, for the first time, Aiman Dardari from the U19s were included in the squad. A 3-1 win over Iceland, in which Barreiro played the full 90 minutes and Dardari made his debut in injury time, was followed by a heavy 9-0 defeat in Portugal.

Edimilson Fernandes and his Switzerland team also featured twice in European qualifying in the past few days, gaining four points in total from games against Kosovo (2-2) and Andorra (3-0). The 05er played 90 minutes in the draw on Saturday but wasn’t used in the second fixture. Jae-sung Lee saw plenty of playing time in South Korea’s friendly matches against Wales (0-0) and Saudi Arabia (1-0 win) and was twice substituted off towards the end of the game.

Gruda with hat-trick of assists for the U21s

Brajan Gruda’s Germany U21 side kicked off their European qualification campaign with a 3-0 win over Kosovo, having beaten Ukraine 2-0 in a friendly four days prior. A few minutes after his arrival on the field in the 66th minute, the Mainz forward set up Youssoufa Moukoko’s opening goal from a corner, and then also assisted the BVB attacker’s second goal with a header. Shortly before the end, another corner from Gruda led to his team’s third goal.