On the first day of fixtures during this November international break, there were plenty of Tottenham Hotspur players in action for their countries in their respective competitions. In the UEFA nations league, Guglielmo Vicario and Destiny Udogie's Italy side were in action away to Belgium, for match day five of the group campaign.
For the game, Italy manager Luciano Spalletti started with both Vicario and Udogie on the bench, preferring both Federico Dimarco of Inter Milan and Gianluigi Donnarumma of Paris Saint Germain respectively.
As for the game itself, it was not the prettiest of showdowns, but Italy certainly created the better chances, and deserved to take all three points. That they did, with a first half strike from Newcastle United’s Sandro Tonali enough to secure all three points for the Italians.
Italy secure big win away to Belgium in the nations league
Of course, as you’d expect, Vicario remained on the bench, but Udogie did come on for Dimarco with around twenty minutes of normal time remaining, to pick up his 8th cap for his country so far.
Furthermore, from a selfish point of view, it has been clear for a while that Udogie has desperately needed some rest, with the defender having to come on as an early sub against Qarabag and Manchester City – two games that had been planned for some rest.
Due to France surprisingly only managing a 0-0 draw at home to Israel in their game, the current situation is looking pretty good for Italy. With this result, they have secured qualification for the quarter-finals of the nations league. They play France themselves in their final game, and due to their head to head record over Les Blues, all they need to do is avoid a defeat by two goals in order to top the group.
Should they manage that, it will mean their quarter-final two legged tie (to be played in March) will be played against a runner up from another group in league A. Should they finish second, they will play a group winner from league A.
In the last two iterations of the nations league, Italy have made the knockout stages, but lost to Spain on both occasions. They will be particularly wanting to finish top of their group in order to avoid them in the quarter-finals here.
That aforementioned game against France is at home on Sunday night, with a 20:45 GMT kick off for that one.