Valverde starts for Uruguay in 2-1 win over Hungary

Fede Valverde played just under 70 minutes in Uruguay’s international friendly win on Friday. He played alongside Juventus’ Rodrigo Bentancur.

Óscar Taváres went with a 4-2-2-2 formation, so Valverde played a bit deeper than usual in the midfield. He served well as more of a box-to-box midfielder in this formation and was an important player for Uruguay.

He was a big help in creating chances that led up to Brian Rodriguez’s goal. Edinson Cavani also scored for Uruguay.

While just a friendly for both sides, this was a bit of an important match for Hungary as they were hosting their first home match at the new Puskás Aréna in Budapest. Of course this is named after Real Madrid and Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskás.

Casemiro and Militão start as Rodrygo makes debut for Brazil

It was another landmark moment for Rodrygo this season as he finally made his debut for Tite’s Brazil. While he didn’t start, he was subbed on for Willian late in the match to finally play on the pitch with the national team.

Casemiro looked good as usual, though he was issued a yellow early in the match. He was paired between both Arthur and Lucas Paquetá in a familiar 4-3-3 formation. There was one point in the match where Casemiro appeared to be fouled in the box, but nothing was called. He played a big part in clearances and preventing good chances from going in the net.

Militão also played fine. He also took a yellow, which was common for both sides, after colliding with Lionel Messi, who was the lone goal scorer in the match.

This was another friendly that took place in Saudi Arabia this time around.

Ramos starts for Spain in EURO qualifier win over Malta

Sergio Ramos was another Real Madrid player featuring abroad. Spain took a dominating 7-0 win in Group F over Malta.

Spain were dominant in possession and really didn’t struggle too much at all with the Maltese. There was really no pressing from the Malta attack, so Ramos basically stepped up as a central midfielder, working as an effective distributor. He was able to set up both Alvaro Morata and Pablo Sarabia with good, vertical passes.

Early on Ramos rose for a header off a corner that rebounded to Gerard Moreno, who scored. The referee ruled out the goal, though it wasn’t very clear why. There was no foul and it didn’t appear offsides. VAR was not available for this match so the decision stood regardless.

There wasn’t a whole lot else Ramos did as he only played just over 60 minutes. He and Spain play their final EURO qualifier against Romania on Monday.