Over the past fortnight, plenty of VfB players have been on international duty in the UEFA Nations League, qualifiers for various competitions and even in the final of an exhibition tournament. Perhaps the busiest of them all was Konstantinos Mavropanos, who played the full 90 minutes of all four of Greece’s matches, at the behest of head coach Gustavo Poyet. The VfB defender ended the two-week period with four clean sheets to his name and four wins, over Northern Ireland (1-0), Kosovo (1-0, 2-0) and Cyprus (3-0).
Japan came off second best in the Kirin Cup final, going down 3-0 to Tunisia. Despite that defeat, it was a good international break for the country’s VfB contingent: Wataru Endo and Hiroki Ito – the latter having made his debut in a friendly earlier in the fortnight – both played the full 90 minutes of the final, which came after a commanding 4-1 semi-final victory over Ghana.
Sasa Kalajdzic’s Austria enjoyed mixed fortunes over the two weeks, recording a 3-0 win over Croatia, a 1-1 draw with France and two defeats at the hands of Denmark (2-1, 2-0). The VfB centre forward played a total of 111 minutes, while defender Borna Sosa featured for Croatia alongside the likes of Luka Modrić for 45 minutes. Zlatko Dalic’s team picked up seven points after losing to Austria in their opening group game – four against France (1-1, 1-0) and three against Denmark (1-0).
In the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, Omar Marmoush helped Egypt to a 1-0 win over Guinea, playing 74 minutes in the process. The Pharaohs then went down 2-0 to Ethiopia, with Marmoush featuring alongside Mohamed Salah and playing 87 minutes.
The players now have time to rest and regenerate before VfB head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo calls his squad back in on 27 June for the first training session ahead of the new season.