The Good 😀 The Bad 😕 The Ugly 👹: Sterling stars, curious Oranje | OneFootball

You weren’t looking forward to this international break, were you?

How stupid do you feel now?

The Good

Sterling rises

Harry Kane scored a hat-trick on Saturday but it was Raheem Sterling who made England tick against Bulgaria.

It’s become obvious to everyone watching Manchester City of late just how much Sterling has improved under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola.

Every run is precise, every touch of the ball has a purpose, every decision is correct.

It’s no exaggeration to say that by the time Euro 2020 comes around, Sterling could well be the third best player on the planet.

A new force

Kosovo have only been registered as a Uefa nation for five years but they have already the growing force of European football.

Bernard Challandes’ side beat Czech Republic this weekend to take their points tally to eight in Group A, putting themselves above the Czechs in second place.

Amazingly, that took their unbeaten run to 14 games, with their last defeat coming all the way back in October 2017.

Next up for Kosovo is their toughest test yet – England away. It should be a cracker.

Record-breaking weekend

Away from the men’s international game, it was the opening weekend of the Women’s Super League in England – and what a weekend it was.

A record-breaking crowd of 31,000 were at the Etihad to see Manchester City beat Manchester United in the first ever women’s derby, with Caroline Weir winning the game with this stunner.

Meanwhile at Stamford Bridge, 25,000 witnessed Chelsea beat Tottenham with another absolute rocket winning the game for the Blues.

Let’s hope this is just the start of something.

The Bad

You Löw to see it

Germany’s home defeat to Netherlands was undoubtedly the game of the international break, but despite the six goals and endless action it threw up far more questions that answers.

Despite boasting an attacking trident of Marco Reus, Serge Gnabry and Timo Werner, Joachim Löw’s men stuttered going forward, especially when trying to attack at pace.

The Dutch meanwhile, boasted the two of the world’s best centre-backs and a midfielder that joined Barcelona for €65m this summer, yet looked wide open and should have conceded more than two.

Are they two of the most entertaining teams in Europe right now? Yes. Will either of them win Euro 2020? We’re saying ‘no’.

The Ugly

Hang the DJ

There’s no chance of Didier Deschamps getting sacked as French national team coach, but we can’t say the same about whoever is in charge of the PA system at Stade de France.

Les Bleus took on Albania on Saturday, only for the tannoy to blast out the Montenegrin national anthem before the game.

Albania didn’t take too kindly to what they perceived as a lack of respect from the French (whatever gave them that impression?) and that was made even worse when the stadium announcer apologised and insisted that the ‘Armenian’ anthem would be played soon.

Oh dear.