Matchday 3 of the EURO qualifiers began on a very successful note for BVB players Gregor Kobel of Switzerland and Salih Özcan of Türkiye. However, the German national team succumbed to a 1-0 defeat in their friendly fixture with Poland.
BVB custodian Gregor Kobel kept goal for 90 minutes in Switzerland’s EURO qualifying match against Andorra. The Swiss took an early lead through Remo Freuler, with Zeki Amdouni making it 2-0 around the half-hour mark. Andorra did manage to pull a goal back in the 67th minute of the match, but Kobel and his team successfully held onto their slender lead. With three wins from three games, Switzerland are now ideally placed to reach the European Championship finals.
Midfielder Salih Özcan watched the first 78 minutes of Türkiye’s 3-2 away victory over Latvia from the bench, before coming on as a substitute during a thrilling finale to the game. Kristers Tobers restored parity at 2-2 for the Latvians in the fourth minute of stoppage time, prompting great celebrations, only for Irfan Kahveci to score and seal a 3-2 victory for Türkiye, who now lead Qualifying Group D with six points, seconds later.
There was no reason for the four German BVB players to celebrate in Jakub “Kuba” Blaszczykowski’s emotional farewell match for Poland against Germany. Emre Can played the full 90 minutes in the 1-0 loss. Julian Brandt and Marius Wolf came off the bench in the closing stages. Nico Schlotterbeck was an unused substitute.
The next international fixtures with BVB involvement
Julian Ryerson will represent Norway against Scotland at 18:00 CET on Saturday. Switzerland and Türkiye will then face Romania and Wales respectively on Monday. Both games will take place at 20:45 CET. Then, on Tuesday, Norway will play Cyprus and Germany will take on Colombia. Those games will kick off at 20:45 CET too.