Valverde and Ødegaard feature in international qualifying matches

Fede Valverde started and played the full 90 minutes in Uruguay’s World Cup qualifying match against Chile.

The 22-year-old put in another impressive performance for Uruguay where he was paired alongside Rodrigo Bentancur for the majority of the match. They match up with each other quite well, there’s clearly some good chemistry there.

Valverde had instant involvement early on as he registered a well-placed shot on goal that went off the crossbar with just about 10 minutes played. It was a hard-hit shot, but the bar was able to get enough of the ball to prevent an early goal.

Uruguay opened the match in Montevideo with a goal from the penalty spot and Luis Suarez. The penalty for handball was given after it appeared to go off of Sebastián Vegas.

Alexis Sanchez tied the match shortly after the resumption of play in the second half. Uruguay, however, would respond in stoppage time with a late goal from Maxi Gómez.

Several minutes prior in stoppage time there were shouts for handball against Uruguay after it seemingly touched the arm of Sebastián Coates. No penalty was given.

Valverde and Bentancur appears to be a formidable midfield pairing moving forward for Uruguay. It’s a good mix of young, bright players as well as experienced veterans whom Valverde can continue to learn from when away from Madrid.

Martin Ødegaard took part in the EURO Qualifiers with Norway on Thursday as well. He played over 110 minutes before being subbed off for Mohamed Elyounoussi. It wasn’t one of Ø’s best performances as he just appeared to be non-involved for a good majority of the match.

The chemistry wasn’t really there between Ødegaard and Erling Håland, clearly a big reason why Norway were not able to win this match. Ø had an assist on Norway’s lone goal from Mathias Normann, though it was mainly Normann doing most of the work to earn it.

Sergej Milinkovic-Savić doubled up for Serbia to give them a 2-1 victory. Luka Jović once again sat on the bench for the duration of the match. This is starting to become a trend as Serbia manager Ljubiša Tumbaković does not seem to trust the 22-year-old.

With Norway’s loss they are now unable to qualify for the EUROs. Serbia will play Scotland in another qualifier in November to get the chance to make Group D in the competition.

Serbia have to more matches upcoming this week in the Nations League against Hungary and Turkey, perhaps we will see Jović in at least one of them. Norway also take part in the competition this week against Romania and Northern Ireland.

Uruguay and Valverde take part in another World Cup Qualifier match against Ecuador on Tuesday.