Lunin starts as Varane and Modrić come off the bench in international friendlies

Andriy Lunin started for Ukraine against Poland in a 2-0 international friendly loss on Wednesday.

Lunin, who hasn’t seen any minutes between the pipes for Real Madrid this season, was given the opportunity to start for his country. He conceded twice, the first goal being a costly error by an overly-aggressive Lunin.

He tried to sweep the ball out by coming far out of goal, but ended up shanking it right to Krzysztof Piatek who soared it into a gaping net.

You have to at least admire Lunin’s confidence given how little he’s played for both club and country. Thankfully, this was just a friendly.

He may not get another chance as Ukraine have two crucial matches against Germany and Switzerland to close out the Nations League group stage. Ukraine usually opt to start Heorhiy Bushchan or the 36-year-old Andriy Pyatov.

Elsewhere around international football on Wednesday, Luka Modrić subbed off the bench against Turkey. He played just under 15 minutes for Croatia subbing in for Mario Pašalić so there wasn’t much time for him to do much.

Both sides played more defensively at this point as the match finished at a 3-3 draw. This was also Modrić’s 130th international cap for Croatia.

Raphael Varane also subbed on in France’s friendly against Finland in a 2-0 loss. Varane played only 10 minutes subbing on for his usual defensive partner Clement Lenglet. Not much happened offensively in the second half as both goals were scored in the first.

Belgium and Germany both played on Wednesday as well but neither Eden Hazard nor Toni Kroos were in the squad. Wednesday was the last day to get some warmup action in before the international matches actually count this weekend.

Most, if not all, of these players will be playing this weekend and next week for their respective countries in the Nations League’s final two match days.