Internationals – mixed Tuesday fortunes for our World Cup participants
Tue 22 November 2022, 22:50|Tottenham Hotspur
There was a mixed bag of results for our players on duty at the World Cup in Qatar on Tuesday.
Enjoying a good start to the tournament was Hugo Lloris, who captained France to a 4-1 victory over Australia in Al Wakrah during the evening.
While the reigning champions coincidentally began their successful 2018 campaign by edging past the same opposition, it was more comfortable this time around as goals from Adrien Rabiot, Olivier Giroud (2) and Kylian Mbappe cancelled out an early opener from Craig Goodwin as Les Bleus shot straight to the top of Group D.
Hugo completed the full game and is now rapidly closing in on becoming France’s most-capped player of all time.
Earlier in the day, in the same group, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg put in a solid 90-minute shift for Denmark as they were held to a goalless draw by Tunisia in Al Rayyan.
Tuesday morning brought about the most eye-catching result of the day, though, as Cristian Romero’s Argentina were stunned by Saudi Arabia in Lusail.
Involved in match action for the first time since 26 October following an injury problem, Cristian started and completed just under an hour for his nation, but couldn’t prevent them from suffering a shock 2-1 defeat in Group C, as second-half goals from Saleh Al Shehri and Salem Al Dawsari cancelled out Lionel Messi’s early penalty.
Ivan Perisic is our next player set for action at the tournament, as his Croatia side meets Morocco in Group F at 10am UK time on Wednesday.