Four FC Bayern pros were on international duty on Tuesday evening, and all of them will return to Säbener Strasse with a victory. David Alaba and his Austrian team-mates achieved a remarkable success: a clear 4-1 win over Sweden in Stockholm. They are the fifth team to qualify for the Euro finals in France next year.
Alaba put his team in the lead with a penalty in the 9th minute. Stuttgart's Martin Harnik (38, 88) and Marc Janko (77) scored to make it 4-0 before Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted a consolation goal for the hosts in added time (90+1). With two matches to be played the Austrians cannot be ousted from the top of their group anymore, qualifying for a European championship for the second time.
Juan Bernat and his Spanish compatriots can make arrangements for the Euro finals too. After a 1-0 victory over Macedonia qualification is all but certain. It was after eight minutes that Macedonian keeper Tome Pacovski scored an own goal, which turned out to be the match-winner for Spain. Bernat played for 90 minutes. Spain, on 21 points now, consolidated their lead in Group C, being two points ahead of Slovakia and five points ahead of Ukraine.
Kimmich scores for U-21s
The Germany U-21s successfully started the Euro qualifiers with a clear 3-0 victory over Azerbaijan. The 250 crowd in Baku saw Davie Selke (33, 90+3) and Munich man Joshua Kimmich (88, pen) score the goals for the newly formed XI coached by Horst Hrubesch. Selke and Max Meyer (41, 69) even missed two more penalties.
Douglas Costa too had a reason to celebrate as record world champions Brazil won a friendly against the USA by a 4-1 scoreline. In front of the 29,308 in Foxborough the Seleçao took advantage of their first chance as Hulk scored in the ninth minute. Neymar, fielded after the break, made it 2-0 with a penalty (51) before Rafinha (65), subbed for Costa shortly before, and again Neymar (67) scored, making it 4-0. Danny Williams rounded off the scoreline for the hosts with a long-range effort in stoppage time.
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