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topicnews · September 11, 2024

International matches | Mosquera scores first goal for Colombia | First men’s team | News

International matches | Mosquera scores first goal for Colombia | First men’s team | News

Yerson Mosquera scored for the first time in his international career, helping Colombia to a historic victory over Argentina in World Cup qualifying.

After Colombia missed out on the final spot in the Copa America squad this summer, the centre-back proved what his country was missing by rising up at the back post and powerfully heading a James Rodriguez cross past Emi Martinez to give his team the lead in the 25th minute.

Mosquera burst into tears as he celebrated his first senior goal, but he pulled himself together and produced an excellent defensive performance that helped Colombia to a 2-1 victory – although he was taken off with a few minutes to go, presumably due to injury.

This result means that Colombia has now beaten both Brazil and Argentina in the same qualifying round for the first time in history, giving Mosquera’s team an excellent chance of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. They are currently second in the CONMEBOL rankings thanks to their 16 points from eight games.

The rest of Wolves’ South American team also aimed to reach the World Cup in two years’ time, with the eighth matches of their CONMEBOL qualifying group all taking place in the early hours of this morning.

After Mosquera’s heroics with Colombia, Uruguay were next in line and fellow centre-back Santi Bueno was again in the starting line-up as his country played an away match in Venezuela.

The defender played the full 90 minutes and kept a clean sheet, allowing Uruguay to add another point to their 15 points already and sit third in the group standings, just one point behind Colombia.

Andre was another Wolves player who played the full 90 minutes for his country in the early hours of the morning. However, the defensive midfielder could not lead Brazil to victory, losing 1-0 away to Paraguay. Joao Gomes was also in the squad but sat on the bench and did not play.

Hee Chan Hwang was also among the goalscorers for South Korea this week, scoring the first goal in his country’s 3-1 win over Oman.

The striker scored the 15th He scored the goal of his international career just ten minutes into Korea’s second World Cup qualifier in September, when he took a pass from Heung-min Son 23 yards from goal and fired the ball flat into the bottom corner of the net without the Omani defense being able to block the ball.

Although Oman equalised before half-time, Hwang โ€“ before being substituted in the 89th minute โ€“ played a part in his team’s victory, which turned the result around in the second half thanks to goals from Son and Min-Kyu Joo.

Back in Europe, Wolves players also played for their countries in the Nations League this week: Nelson Semedo and Matt Doherty played for Portugal and the Republic of Ireland respectively.

Semedo had already made two international appearances earlier in the week and Doherty followed suit, coming on as a substitute in the second half of Ireland’s 2-0 loss to Greece after starting against England at the weekend.

Jorgen Strand Larsen, who played the final 20 minutes of Norway’s goalless draw with Kazakhstan last week, was an unused substitute on the bench for Monday night’s 2-1 win over Austria. The result leaves his country top of League B Group 3 after opening matches with Slovenia.

Finally, Carlos Forbs scored his first goal for the Portugal U21 national team, coming on as a substitute to score the second goal in his team’s 2-0 away win against Croatia in the U21 European Championship qualifier.

Rodrigo Gomes started and played the full 90 minutes at right-back, while Forbs replaced Fabio Silva with ten minutes to go and sealed the victory in the closing stages. His goal gave Portugal 21 points in qualifying and a place at next summer’s U21 European Championship.

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