International preview

A busy week of international action gets underway on Wednesday evening with a host of our players set to be involved for their respective countries.

Following his impressive start to the season, Erik Lamela has been named in the Argentina squad for their friendly against Germany on Wednesday.

The dynamic forward has started all three of our Premier League fixtures to date, setting up two goals in our 4-0 win against Queens Park Rangers and lighting up our 2-1 Europa League Play-Off first leg victory away to AEL Limassol with two further assists.

It’s those performances that have caught the eye of his international bosses ahead of this week’s replay of the World Cup final. Erik has six senior international caps to date.

Elsewhere, Andros Townsend and Danny Rose are in England’s 22-man squad for their friendly against Norway at Wembley on Wednesday with a Euro 2016 qualifier in Switzerland still to come next Monday, September 8.

It’s a similar schedule for Christian Eriksen’s Denmark. They host Turkey in a friendly on Wednesday before they embark on their qualifying campaign for Euro 2016 with a home match against Armenia on Sunday, September 7.

Thursday night sees Belgium return to action for the first time since their run to the quarter-finals of the World Cup with Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele and Nacer Chadli all remaining in the Red Devils’ squad for their home friendly against Australia.

France, who are captained by Hugo Lloris, are also in action on Thursday with a home friendly against Spain. Les Bleus, who qualify automatically for the Euro 2016 finals by virtue of being the host nation, will then travel to Serbia for a further friendly on Sunday.

Togo, who include Emmanuel Adebayor among their number, face the first of two qualifying matches for the African Cup of Nations on Friday as they travel to Guinea. They’ll then host Ghana next Wednesday, September 10.

Nabil Bentaleb and Algeria are also in qualifying action for the same competition with an away match against Ethiopia on Saturday followed by a home contest against Mali next Wednesday, September 10.

Defenders Vlad Chiriches and Ben Davies face solitary international fixtures with their respective nations. Vlad and Romania travel to Greece on Sunday while Ben’s Wales are away to Andorra next Tuesday, September 9 – both fixtures are Euro 2016 qualifiers.

Several players are due to be in action at Under-21 level as well. Harry Kane, Tom Carroll and Alex Pritchard – the latter duo currently out on loan – have been named in the England Under-21 squad for their European qualifiers away to Lithuania (Friday, September 5) and Moldova (Tuesday, September 9), although Eric Dier has been forced to withdraw from the squad due to injury.

In other European Under-21 qualifiers, goalkeeper Jordan Archer – presently on loan at Northampton Town – is with Scotland Under-21s for their matches away to Slovakia (Thursday, September 4) and Luxembourg (Monday, September 8), Kenny McEvoy – on loan at Peterborough United – has been named in the Republic of Ireland squad for their away fixture against Germany (Friday, September 5) while Aaron McEneff has joined up with Northern Ireland as they host Milos Veljkovic’s Serbia (Tuesday, September 9). Milos and Serbia are also away to Italy on Friday, September 5.

Meanwhile, Dominic Ball has been called up for England Under-20s for their home friendly against Romania (Friday, September 5), Harry Winks is on Three Lions duty at Under-19 level with an away game against Germany (Monday, September 8) and Josh Onomah is with England Under-18s for consecutive home friendlies against the Netherlands (Wednesday, September 3, and Friday, September 5).

In addition, Filip Lesniak and Slovakia face home friendlies against Georgia (Wednesday, September 3) and Italy (Friday, September 5).

We wish all our players on international duty this week the best of luck.