Răzvan Raț was the happiest of PAOK internationals this past weekend –and understandably so. He got over his injury and was at the disposal of newly appointed Romania coach Anghel Iordănescu. He produced an assist in his side’s 2-0 win over Northern Ireland and also received an award from UEFA to honour his reaching 100 international caps.

Róbert Mak didn’t need to risk an injury relapse and sat on the bench (Miroslav Stoch took his place on the pitch), as Slovakia comfortably dispatched FYROM (2-0).

Stefanos Athanasiadis came off the bench to relay Fanis Gekas and experienced for 45 minutes the traumatic loss to Faroe Islands. In his short-lived career as Greece coach, Claudio Ranieri didn’t get to see Alexandros Tziolis and Panagiotis Glykos in action, having left them on the bench.

Greece U19s played a goalless draw with France on Thursday, in a tournament held at Katerini and Veria. Koulouris and Τsolakidis were in the starting line-up and were substituted off in the 80th and 67th minute respectively. Vasaitis was brought in for the last ten minutes, while Deligiannidis didn’t get to play.

In Saturday’s encounter against Germany, that ended in a 0-3 defeat, Deligiannidis was among the starting eleven (he played for 55 minutes) along with Koulouris. Vasaitis came off the bench in the 46th minute and Tsolakidis was introduced after 55 minutes of play.