The German men’s soccer team won this Friday 3-4 against Switzerland, while the Netherlands came back (2-1) against Norway and Uruguay tied ‘in extremis’ (1-1) on their visit to England, and Morocco and Ecuador also drew (1-1) at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano.
In another round of friendlies ahead of the FIFA World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19, the focus turned to Basel. In St. Jakob-Park, the Swiss hosts were twice ahead on the scoreboard, but finally fell because Florian Wirtz gave two assists and scored two great goals.
Virgil van Dijk, Florian Wirtz’s Liverpool FC teammate, headed the Netherlands’ comeback against Norway; Tijjani Reijnders, in the 51st minute, completed a counterattack with a right foot inside the area and sealed the Dutch victory at the Johan Cruijff ArenA.
On the other hand, the draw at Wembley stood out during the busy day of friendlies. Ben White put the hosts ahead in the 81st minute, but Real Madrid’s Fede Valverde equalized the score with a penalty in stoppage time after a rough game and with protests from the English coach, Thomas Tuchel, following a harsh challenge by Ronald Araujo on Phil Foden.
Finally, and with 61,622 spectators in its stands, the Metropolitano witnessed another tie decided in the final minutes. After the 0-0 score at half-time, in the second half John Yeboah opened the scoring for Ecuador; Even though Neil El Aynaoui missed a penalty in the 62nd minute, he redeemed himself in the 88th minute by scoring 1-1 with an assist from Achraf Hakimi.