Internationals, 19. November 2019

On international duty

Sunday 24 November will see one of the highlights of the first half of the season with every ticket in the Mercedes-Benz Arena already sold for the derby, but before that, there was the final international break of the year.

Nicolas Gonzalez played alongside Lionel Messi in a friendly against record World Cup winners Brazil. The VfB striker came on for Argentina in the 74^th minute and helped his team maintain their 1-0 lead. Three days later he was again brought on for the final quarter of an hour by coach Lionel Scaloni in the 2-2 draw against Uruguay.

Wataru Endo was once again selected by Japan, and the 26-year-old defensive midfielder played 77 minutes of their 2-0 win over Kyrgyzstan, their nearest challengers in Group F of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. It was Japan’s fourth win is as many qualifiers and saw them extend their lead at the top of the table from three to six points.

In Freiburg, Maxime Awoudja (Germany U21) faced off against Orel Mangala (Belgium U21) in qualifying for the UEFA U21 EURO, with Belgium winning 3-2.

VfB players’ international fixtures at a glance

Nicolas Gonzalez/Argentinia	15 November Brazil - Argentinia 0-1 (20 minutes) 18 November Argentinia - Uruguay 2-2 (15 minutes)
Wataru Endo/Japan	14 November Kyrgyzstan - Japan 0-2 (77 minutes)
Maxime Awoudja/Germany U21	17 November Germany U21 - Belgium U21 2-3 (0 minutes)
Orel Mangala/Belgium U21	17 November Germany U21 - Belgium U21 2-3 (90 minutes)