International football roundup: Decent Cahill performance in England win

Chelsea and England defender Gary Cahill

Gary Cahill is one of few Chelsea players that has featured so far this weekend, and the defender was involved in a fifth straight England win.

Slovenia came to Wembley with ambitions of getting something from the game, and the visitors got the first goal through a Jordan Henderson own goal.

Cahill could not do much to prevent the midfielder from scoring an own goal, but the centre half played a decent match as the turn-around happened.

Wayne Rooney scored from the spot before a Danny Welbeck double secured a 3-1 win for Cahill and England.

England are six points clear at the top of Group E following that win. On Friday night, Nemanja Matic and Branislav Ivanovic were on the losing side as Serbia lost 1-3 at home to Denmark.

The Chelsea duo played the whole match and did not do too bad, but Zoran Tosic’s goal was not enough for the home side.

Simon Kjær and a Nicklas Bendtner brace ruined the day for the Chelsea players. Serbia are sitting fourth in their qualifying group with just one point from the opening three matches.

The defeat also saw Serbia manager Dick Advocaat resign from his job, which leaves Matic and Ivanovic without an international manager for the time being.

Loic Remy was not involved in France’s 1-1 draw to Albania on Friday night. Kurt Zouma, who had earned his place in the senior squad, was left on the bench for the whole match.

France do not need to qualify for the Euros as they are the hosts for the 2016 tournament, which may indicate that Zouma will get his chances over the next year and a half.

Also left on the bench this weekend was fullback Cesar Azpilicueta, who saw his Spain teammates beat Belarus 3-0. Diego Costa was left out of the Spain squad this time around, while Cesc Fabregas withdrew with injury trouble. Spain are still second in their qualifying group, just three points behind Slovakia at the top of Group C.

In the African Cup of Nations qualifiers, John Obi Mikel played as Nigeria beat Congo 2-0 on Saturday.

On Sunday night it is time for Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard to play when Belgium meet Wales in Brussels, before a bunch of international friendlies on Tuesday will see most of our players on duty feature.