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European teams used international friendlies on Wednesday to prepare for critical third and fourth UEFA Nations League matches this international break.
The USMNT is not in action this break but Tata Martino took Mexico to Europe for a notable win before returning home to meet Algeria on Tuesday.
Olivier Giroud scored two to make more French history and Turkey gave Germany headaches thrice in an entertaining draw.
Netherlands 0-1 Mexico
Frank de Boer’s misery against North American opponents moved from MLS to the international scene when Raul Jimenez’s second-half penalty gave El Tri a 1-0 win in the Netherlands.
Mexican goalkeeper Alfredo Talavera was quite good in the win including a late save on Luuk de Jong before Memphis Depay pasted the rebound off the bar.
There was plenty of Premier League presence for the Dutch, as Nathan Ake (Man City) replaced Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) at halftime, and Manchester United’s Donny van de Beek played next to Georginio Wijnaldum (Liverpool), who subbed out after first 64 minutes. Brighton’s Joel Veltman entered the game at half.
Inter Miami’s Rodolfo Pizarro started at left back for Tata Martino’s men and the LA Galaxy’s Jonathan dos Santos came off the bench.
The match-up of these two nations rarely fails to recall the Dutch side’s Arjen Robben theatrics-driven ouster of El Tri from the 2014 World Cup.
Germany 3-3 Turkey
Turkey sent a warning to both Germany’s defense and upcoming Nations League opponent Russiawith not one, not two, but three equalizers against the Germans in Cologne.
Julian Draxler, Florian Neuhaus, and Luca Waldschmidt gave Germany 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 leads, only to the visitors counter through Ozan Tufan, Efecan Karaca, and Kenan Karaman.
The last goal came in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Germany meets Ukraine on Saturday and Switzerland on Tuesday in UNL play.
France 7-1 Ukraine
Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud scored two goals to match and then pass Michel Platini for second on France’s all-time goals list with 42. No word on whether Platini is offering the record book a little something extra to not acknowledge it.
Only Thierry Henry (51) remains above Giroud.
Corentin Tolisso of Bayern Munich had a goal and an assist, as did Kylian Mbappe in the blowout. Wissam Ben Yedder assisted Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann late.
France also got a crazy goal from Rennes teen Eduardo Camavinga, one of such quality we gave it its own post earlier Wednesday.
France’s fifth marker was an own goal and Ukraine’s loan goal came from Dynamo Kiev’s well-regarded 22-year-old midfielder Viktor Tsyganov.
Giroud’s first goal of the game was superb.
Elsewhere
Switzerland 1-2 Croatia
Slovenia 4-0 San Marino
Portugal 0-0 Spain
Poland 5-1 Finland
Italy 6-0 Moldova
Zambia 1-0 Malawi
Cyprus 1-2 Czech Republic
Denmark 4-0 Faroe Islands
Estonia 1-3 Lithuania
Montenegro 1-1 Latvia
Austria 2-1 Greece
