International

Internationals: Five Gunners feature

Welbeck and Lichtsteiner

We had five Gunners in international action on Tuesday. Read on to find out how they fared for their countries.

England recorded a 1-0 friendly win over Switzerland at the King Power Stadium, where three Gunners were selected to start. Granit Xhaka and Stephan Lichtsteiner played the entirety of the fixture, while Danny Welbeck played 61 minutes.

Xhaka and Lichtsteiner delivered professional first-half performances, as they continually stifled England’s attacks - but Switzerland failed to capitalise on their positive start, and in the second half England took the lead. 

Granit Xhaka

Kyle Walker delivered an inch-perfect cross to the back post, and Marcus Rashford was there to finish from close range.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos played the entirety of Greece’s 2-1 defeat to Hungary in the UEFA Nations League.

Roland Sallai finished from inside the box to give Hungary the lead, before Kostas Manolas equalised just three minutes later with a powerful header into the top right corner. 

Sokratis

But just four minutes before the referee blew his whistle for half-time, Laszlo Kleinheisler restored Hungary’s lead with a fine finish from outside the box.

And finally, Takuma Asano assisted Japan’s final goal in their 3-0 friendly win over Costa Rica.

Sho Sasaki opened the scoring in the 16th minute, before Takumi Minamino doubled their advantage in the second half with a left-footed finish from a tight angle.

Asano came off the bench in the 68th minute - and deep into stoppage time he created their third goal of the afternoon, when he teed up Junya Ito, who cut in from the right wing and fired home.   

Takuma Asano

This all but concludes the international break for our Gunners, with David Ospina the final player who could feature for his country.

Colombia face Argentina in a friendly at 1am (UK time) on Wednesday, September 12.