06/09/2025 67comments  |  Jump to last

World Cup Qualifiers mean a few of Everton's players are featuring for their national teams this weekend. 

Iliman Ndiaye was in action on Friday for Senegal against Sudan in CAF Group B, winning 2-0. Unable to get on the scoresheet, the forward was brought off after 83 minutes. Senegalese outlet D Sports commented, “True to his style, Ndiaye chained together dribbles and technical moves, making the Sudanese defence suffer.” Idrissa Gana Gueye was an unused substitute on the night.

Harrison Armstrong came off the bench to score an equaliser for England’s U19 side against Spain to secure a 3-3 draw. Arriving late in the box, the 18-year-old was on hand to poke home from Rio Ngumoha’s cross.

On Saturday evening, England take on Andorra at Villa Park, with Jordan Pickford in goal despite him not playing for a club that is giving him European football… Fortunately, he had very little to do in a 2-0 win. 

And he's no longer an Everton player but Issac Price could be one who got away as he has scored against Germany to equalize an earlier goal by the hosts in Germany.

While Everton's new signing Tyler Dibling was in action for England U21s on Monday night, providing an assist for one of the goals for Lee Carsley's side in a 2-0 win over Kazakhstan in Aktobe. 

The new signing from Southampton set up England's second goal midway through the first half of their first European Under-21 Championship Group D qualifier, with his inswinging corner finding the unmarked Jobe Bellingham who headed home from close range to double the Young Lions' lead.

Meanwhile, Beto picked up his eighth international cap as Guinea-Bissau defeated Djibouti 2-0 in a World Cup Group A qualifier. The Everton striker came off the bench in the 62nd minute, with Guinea-Bissau leading 1-0 at the time,.

 

Reader Comments (67)

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Ajay Gopal
1 Posted 06/09/2025 at 12:50:07
Come back healthy, y’all!
Michael Kenrick
2 Posted 06/09/2025 at 12:53:45
A big feature of the fanfare about signing Adam Aznou was that he's a full international who plays for Morocco.

Well, seems they're doing okay without him. Whopped Niger 5-0 yesterday and he was not in the squad.

Grant Rorrison
3 Posted 06/09/2025 at 13:01:38
Michael 2. Must have a right dour, negative dinosaur coaching them.
Paul Hewitt
4 Posted 06/09/2025 at 13:10:28
Aznou is not in the squad because he's just coming back from an injury.
Michael Kenrick
5 Posted 06/09/2025 at 13:21:31
He played almost a full game for the U21s on Tuesday.

He should be fit again.

Dave Abrahams
6 Posted 06/09/2025 at 14:19:16
Harrison Armstrong made a goal and scored the equaliser in a 3-3 draw.

Watching the goal it looks an easy tap in, but watch him signal for the ball having to fight to get past a defender continually blocking his way before slotting it home, then he gives that defender a shoulder charge on his way back to restart the game, he took the captains armband when he came on at the start of the second half.

This was in the second game of their games; they play Holland in the third game next Tuesday 11:00 am BST.

Kieran Kinsella
7 Posted 06/09/2025 at 16:17:15
The World Cup is gonna to be tedious. They've added an extra round so we have to endure 72 first round games just to get down to 32 teams for the second round.

With dynamic pricing I'm going to wait on buying tickets. They're already planning presales of minimum $200. But in the club World Cup they did the same but people who waited until the last minute got semi final tickets for $8!!

I'm just hoping in Kansas City we get some half interesting teams. My nightmare scenario is we get Switzerland, New Zealand, UAE and Honduras.

Les Callan
8 Posted 06/09/2025 at 16:19:55
And England Kieran.
Kieran Kinsella
9 Posted 06/09/2025 at 16:22:00
lol Les. True with this genius Tuchel at the wheel and Jordan Henderson
Geoff Trenner
10 Posted 06/09/2025 at 16:44:13
I watched the Northern Ireland game the other evening to see what all the fuss was about Isaac Price.

I know he has scored a good few goals for Wales (9 in 22 games) and has got a few for West Brom already this season but I can't say that I was that impressed. An off day perhaps? Has anybody seen enough of him to form a more rounded opinion?

Geoff Trenner
11 Posted 06/09/2025 at 17:36:09
Brain fart! He has scored 9 in 22 for NI! Where did Wales come from?
Mike Gaynes
12 Posted 06/09/2025 at 17:42:59
Kieran, I've got games right across Puget Sound from me in Seattle, but the ticket prices made my eyes water.

I'm definitely gonna wait until the last minute and try to get resale tickets for myself and my nephew.

Stan Grace
13 Posted 06/09/2025 at 19:03:29
Geoff #17,

Here's your answer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Wales

Tom Bowers
14 Posted 06/09/2025 at 22:09:21
So, yet another yawnfest for England against a team no higher than National League standard.

It took 66 minutes for a England player to get on the score sheet. Madueke and Rashford for all their possession created nothing apart from that one poor cross that their defender headed in. Tuchel has no idea just like he proved at Chelski. He is just winging it and collecting a big paycheck. Notice how he picked a lot of London players.

When is Fifa going to put all teams like Andorra into a larger qualifying group and let them fight it out for the right to play the top ranked teams.

Pickford could have had a 90 minute snooze.

Kieran Kinsella
15 Posted 06/09/2025 at 22:16:32
Tom

It’s amazing how charlatans land these roles. I read a German papers insight into Ten Haag this week. Apparently he favored push ups over ball work, refused to speak to anyone unless absolutely necessary, didn’t deliver team talks, told players to figure out their own tactics, and only wanted to sign players listed with his agents. Leverkusen weren’t too proud to admit their mistake and immediately sack him. But the more I watch the more I suspect Tuchel is a similar charlatan

Andrew Keatley
16 Posted 06/09/2025 at 22:31:59
Dave (6) - Armstrong certainly scored the equaliser but he didn’t make either of the other England goals; he only came off the bench after 69 mins when the game was already 2-2.

Also Everton’s Douglas Lukjancics played the 90 minutes in goal for England is the same game. He made an absolute howler for the first Spain goal - think Lloris in the 2018 World Cup final - and was then beaten from 25 yards in a shot he probably should have managed to get a decent hand on. Not a good day for him. Couldn’t do anything about the 3rd Spain goal, which was one of the softest penalties I have even seen given (for a flailing hand).

This is a very good group of youngsters - including Dowman and Monga playing up a few age groups - and they could and should have beaten Spain comfortably.

Paul Kossoff
17 Posted 06/09/2025 at 23:06:14
I fell asleep watching the England game. I woke up at the end and asked my son if the paint eventually dried, he said it hadn't, and was still wet to the touch. I'm so glad I don't really support England, and have never liked the risk of our players getting injured, and Ive got an exiting attacking team to watch.
Paul Kossoff
18 Posted 06/09/2025 at 23:27:15
Kieran. Ten Hag spent, wasted, £616 million while at United, I wonder how much he got from those transfers?
Colin Glassar
19 Posted 06/09/2025 at 23:28:59
I couldn’t be bothered watching. I just seen the final score. Bring back Sam!
Rokas Grajauskas
20 Posted 06/09/2025 at 23:48:06
It’s always kind of amusing to be reading these comments about the English national team. Since this World Cup qualifying cycle I started doing the Lithuanian national team games on the national TV as a commentator. Trust me, what you consider “watching paint dry” sounds like an extremely exciting preposition. Two days ago we played home against Malta after drawing 0-0 away against them in June, and we ended up snatching a draw at home after being given a shabby penalty in the 97’ minute. Malta was seconds away from getting their fourth World Cup qualification win in 117 games. Yeah, I know. Tomorrow I’m going back to the national stadium to do the game against… the Netherlands! Can you imagine working as a commentator on national TV in a game, where 0:4 would realistically be considered as a positive result? It’s not watching paint dry, it’s watching “paint” dropping the T and consistently stomping you in the nuts time and time again, making your soul dry out in the process.

Anyway, I was able to get my tickets to the Chelsea game in March. 7th home game, the first one in HD after falling in love with the Grand Old Lady from the first sight. Spare me a thought tomorrow when you see the LTU-NED scoreline. UTFT!

Kieran Kinsella
21 Posted 07/09/2025 at 00:03:42
Rokas

Must be rough mate. Especially as Latvia, Georgia and now Uzbekistan of former smaller Soviet states have all qualified for major tournaments. But at least your guys are no worse than the larger, more established footballing nation of Belarus? Anyway enjoy the Everton visit mate.

Kieran Kinsella
22 Posted 07/09/2025 at 00:03:44
Rokas

Must be rough mate. Especially as Latvia, Georgia and now Uzbekistan of former smaller Soviet states have all qualified for major tournaments. But at least your guys are no worse than the larger, more established footballing nation of Belarus? Anyway enjoy the Everton visit mate.

Mike Keating
23 Posted 07/09/2025 at 00:10:12
Rokas

Try this one to cheer yourself up

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1530708.Stamping_Grounds

Mike Keating
24 Posted 07/09/2025 at 00:11:34
Ant Sorvoja
25 Posted 07/09/2025 at 01:45:22
Still unsure why I watched Republic of Ireland match against Hungary. Happy to report that Jake O’Brien played full game as a right-back and had a very good game. Jake played often in a more advanced marauding wing-back role and putting plenty of inviting crosses in. By the way Jake looked better player in this game than his opposing RS left-back Kerkez.
Kieran Kinsella
26 Posted 07/09/2025 at 02:12:51
Ant

What confuses me is the BBC commentary generally damning of Ireland for failing

to win. Ireland is a country of 3 million people with a low level poorly paid “professional” league of 10 teams. While football arguably ranks behind rugby, hurling and Gaelic football in terms of popularity. Hungary has three times the population, recent and historic success in football and at least one world class player — something Ireland presently lack. In reality, based on population, league strength etc Ireland is at the level of Armenia. But somehow people seem to expect them to be rubbing shoulders with Portugal. Similarly, Scotland although at least Scotland has a semi competitive league and a much longer football history. I say this as someone with a Scottish Mum, and two Irish grandparents but expectations are out of whack. Meanwhile the Welsh similarly sized population wise seem to accept their limitations and population size and are just excited for the odd major tournament appearance.

Ant Sorvoja
27 Posted 07/09/2025 at 03:19:40
Kieran.

It was an old-fashioned game of two halves. Ireland was in a real trouble most of the 1st half and then fully dominating the second one. Irelands weakness is that their team has a real soft centre in both defence and midfield.

By the way and according to Wikipedia, Ireland's population is over 5 million which is one million plus more than Croatia. Just underlines how great the Croats have been in the international competitions over the years.

Kieran Kinsella
28 Posted 07/09/2025 at 03:57:21
Ant,

Yeah, even before independence, Croatia has punched above its weight producing top class players. Maybe it's something in the Adriatic water?

Martin Farrington
29 Posted 07/09/2025 at 08:13:41
I will be painting a wall and watching the paint dry. Way more exciting than this tedious bunkum, if anyone wants to come round and join in the fun.
Geoff Trenner
30 Posted 07/09/2025 at 10:52:07
Thanks, Stan.

My U in O-Level Geography was justified after all!

Sean Kelly
31 Posted 07/09/2025 at 11:09:57
The problem for rip-off Ireland is that most of their players are playing in lower leagues or bench warming for their clubs.

I haven't watched Ireland since big Jack was there but he was lucky as most of his starting 11 were playing for Premier League clubs.

Sean Kelly
32 Posted 07/09/2025 at 11:10:27
Starting 11
Sean Kelly
33 Posted 07/09/2025 at 11:18:09
Kieran we are nearer 5 million than 3 and that’s excluding norn iron.
Dave Abrahams
34 Posted 07/09/2025 at 11:47:31
Andrew (16), Yes you are correct.

I got my information off another Everton website which stated “ An assist and a goal for Armstrong” which I thought was right but I'll take your word that it wasn't.

I definitely read the subs wrong, I thought they all came on at half time but re read the report and he came on as you said in the 69th minute, sorry for the misinformation.

Peter Gorman
35 Posted 07/09/2025 at 11:48:56
Wow Sean, that's like a 20% population increase in the last 20 years.

Where have all these babas come from?

Stan Grace
36 Posted 07/09/2025 at 12:36:18
Peter #35,

Here's your answer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_Laid_an_Egg

Sean Kelly
37 Posted 07/09/2025 at 13:22:22
Peter there was f..k all on tele and we took our fair share of immigrants. Also our welfare system is fairly generous.
Steve Brown
38 Posted 07/09/2025 at 14:47:56
Ridiculous post.
Brian Denton
39 Posted 07/09/2025 at 14:58:17
Yeah, I believe we beat them there in the world tiddly-winks finals a few weeks ago too.

Source, Scott?

Ian Wilkins
40 Posted 08/09/2025 at 12:37:37
Good to see Issac Price coming good for Northern Ireland and West Brom (3 in 4 games is it?).

Maybe we released him a tad soon...

Andrew Keatley
41 Posted 08/09/2025 at 13:52:03
Ian (40) - Don't think he was released; he decided against signing the new contract that was offered to him and plumped for a move to Standard Liege instead. And it looks like he made a series of good decisions in terms of how he has developed since.

For what it's worth I'm not sure he'll ever reach the very top and play regularly for a decent Premier League side. His numbers for Northern Ireland are exceptionally good, and he's a decent footballer, but I've seen more that I like in Harrison Armstrong - who I think can be an Everton regular in years to come.

Dave Abrahams
42 Posted 08/09/2025 at 14:14:33
Andrew (41), Yes he was ambitious and wanted regular football not staying at U21 level, even though he was pretty young at the time, I saw him in one game for the U21’s were he wasn’t really interested in the game and got sent off for two silly offences, this was in his last season here.

Let’s see how he progresses maybe he will get to a higher level, it didn’t upset me when he left like it did when Liam Walsh left for Bristol City, I thought he had gone on loan but they bought him for over £2M I think—but like his Everton career he has suffered with injuries which I think has spoiled his chances of making it to the top—- but he was ambitious and really thought he could go further and he trained hard and went back for further training at Everton after most training sessions had finished for the day.

Ian Bennett
43 Posted 08/09/2025 at 19:46:33
Isaac Price continuing to do we at international and league level.

10 in 24 for northern Ireland, 3 in 4 for wba. Scored against Germany.

Rokas Grajauskas
44 Posted 08/09/2025 at 19:50:49
Not that it's relevant in here without my previous comment, but yesterday the Lithuanian team fell behind 0:2 against the Dutch with less than 30 minutes played. And in the 43rd minute they actually equalized! That was one of the most beautiful moments in recent decades of Lithuanian football and I'm still talking with a Rod Stewart/Bryan Adams voice 24 hours later.

The game ended 2:3, Memphis Depay got a brace and became the all-time leading goal scorer for team Netherlands, passing Robin van Persie in the process.

But it was a surreal feeling. And it definitely made me smile to see the Dutch fans going through what we went years ago - most of the social media comments were marked with the hashtag #KoemanOut.

I was waiting for a chance to use the Ronald-McDonald phrase on air, but the game was unexpectedly too intense to do that. Happily threw some sneaky jabs at Van Dijk, though.

Somewhere after the 80th minute Koeman actually made some defensive changes, bringing on J. Timber and De Ligt. It was astonishing to see the 7th ranked national team making defense oriented substitutions and bringing on Arsenal and Man Utd players to protect the slender lead against our bench, who play in the local league and get paid somewhere around 800-900 pounds a month.

"The Netherlands are celebrating their victory against Lithuania, whereas Lithuania is celebrating its victory against the national football apathy" was one of my closing lines. Woof!

Thanks to anyone who have read this, I've been a long time lurker on this forum with the occasional post or two in the past decade. But today I feel like this is the place where I can release all the emotions.

Oh, I went to the game wearing my "We are Everton, we shall not be moved!" T-shirt from Nychyl and left a few "BALTIC BLUES" stickers around the stadium. It was a good evening.

That's my report for "Everton Fans on the International scene this weekend". Love from Lithuania, COYB!

Mike Gaynes
45 Posted 08/09/2025 at 20:16:53
That was definitely a cool volley by Price. Jumped right out of my chair.

But hey, guys, no recriminations.

Ian #40, after he took himself to Belgium (his decision, not Everton's), Price scored one goal in 63 appearances for Standard. And he scored 1 in 15 for WBA last season.

Seems like he's maturing into a class player at 21. Great. But it's a bit early to speculate we might have missed out.

Dave #42, turns out there was no reason to grieve Walsh's departure. He lasted only 18 games at Bristol City, failed again at Swansea, and played for Luton last season, where he was red-carded three times in just 1400 minutes as they were relegated to League One.

Ian Bennett
46 Posted 08/09/2025 at 20:19:41
Yeah, just pleased for him Mike. He's at a good club, and will learn a lot this season.
Christy Ring
47 Posted 08/09/2025 at 20:32:54
Vinny O'Connor reported Branthwaite and Mykolenko were missing from training today, it's probably still a bit early for Jarrad, even though he's upped his training, but we can't lose Garner in midfield to fill the left back position.

Reguilon, the 28-year-old, is a free agent, would he not be worth a gamble?

Ben King
48 Posted 08/09/2025 at 20:39:52
#47

Christy
It's a mystery
Why we don't get full back cover
From the free market without bother
The rest would be history

Liam Mogan
49 Posted 08/09/2025 at 20:47:45
International football, outside of the knock out stages of major tournaments, is absolutely garbage.

This long weekend's football has been atrocious. Roll on Saturday.

Mike Gaynes
50 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:04:49
Liam, you should be watching Italy/Israel. Brilliant game, great goals.

Christy #47, I think Reguilon has started one game in the last 16 months. Can't imagine he's remotely game-fit.

Liam Mogan
51 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:06:30
I've got Belarus vs Scotland on, which is a behind-closed-doors game and like being back in lockdown!
Liam Mogan
52 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:08:10
What US channel is it on Mike?
Mike Gaynes
53 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:11:13
Fox Sports 2 Liam.
Mike Gaynes
54 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:12:45
Also being played in a near empty neutral stadium in Hungary. Definite COVID echoes.
Ant Sorvoja
55 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:20:30
Rokas - that's a great opportunity to work as the Lithuanian television commentator. And well done for your national team for giving it a real go against Dutch.

Reading your post makes reflect that football is a game of 11 v 11 and upsets can happen anytime and it was almost one for Lithuanian football's history books.

Liam Mogan
56 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:25:43
Cheers Mike - looks like I missed a good one. 3-2!

I hate international breaks though. The footy is generally abject and ToffeeWeb tends to turn into 'my random views on everything'

Liam Mogan
57 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:27:27
Rokas - I watched the Lithuania game. Crowd were great. Van Djik was awful.
Liam Mogan
58 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:35:44
OMG 4-4
Mike Gaynes
59 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:36:23
Two in the last two minutes for Israel. And now 4-5 Italy. What a game.
Liam Mogan
60 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:36:52
5-4 wtf
Mike Gaynes
61 Posted 08/09/2025 at 21:46:24
And the ref blows the final whistle after Israel wins a corner.

Now THAT'S corrupt.

Liam Mogan
62 Posted 09/09/2025 at 18:34:30
Ireland are awful against Armenia.

Jake O'brien looking all at sea in a Back 3

Kieran Kinsella
63 Posted 09/09/2025 at 19:23:02
Liam,

I cringed reading the BBC commentary early on and Kevin Doyle talking about Ireland winning 4-0. Have Ireland -- even when they had good players -- ever been a team to trash opponents away from home?

That being said, Portugal are far and away the best team in the group. So Ireland were at best competing for second with Hungary, who are stronger than Ireland anyway. Even then, second place might earn you a playoff against Germany or Italy as things stand.

So I don't see it as a surprise or disappointment they won't go to the World Cup while Given and Stephen Kelly seem to be shocked. But the extent of the failure was surprising.

Liam Mogan
64 Posted 09/09/2025 at 19:44:36
The performance was abject tbh, Kieran. Didn't look like they had a clue how to play a 3 back. By the end it was just like random players running anywhere on the pitch
Kieran Kinsella
65 Posted 09/09/2025 at 19:52:24
"Our lads" from Senegal staged a comeback to beat DRC and get Senegal top of the group today. Both played the full 90 minutes.
Kieran Kinsella
66 Posted 09/09/2025 at 20:28:36
Cape Verde Isles are on track to be the second smallest country ever population wise (Iceland being smallest ever) to qualify for the World Cup after beating Cameroon. Just need to beat either Eswatini or Libya to be through, assuming Cameroon win their remaining games.

Great story, for them. On the flip side, Fifa are currently selling "right to buys" for $600 for first round group games. You don't get a ticket for your $600 but you get the option to buy one when they go on sale.

Can't imagine too many RTB purchasers were banking on Cape Verde being in that hat for the draw. With Suriname top of their CONCACAF group maybe some are in for a nasty surprise when the draw is made.

Dave Abrahams
68 Posted 09/09/2025 at 20:29:02
Mike (45,)

Yes I know all about Liam and his career, I felt for the lad, injuries spoilt his chances of proving himself at the top, spoilt him of going to the competition with four or five other Everton young players when England won it.

Loved his attitude, always wanted to win, on the other players' backs when they made a rick and had a go at himself when he made one, a great trainer couldn't get enough of it listening to other people talking about him, I'll always grieve for players with bottle who play for the team first and foremost.

Did you ever see him Mike?


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