International Round-Up
Wednesday, 26th Mar 2025 09:59 by Kallum Brisset
The last international break of the season has come and gone, with Town seeing 11 first-team players depart to represent their countries during the March window, here’s a summary of how they all got on.
George Hirst was a part of the Scotland side for the first time after his switch of allegiance was confirmed shortly before the Tartan Army’s UEFA Nations League play-offs against Greece.
The Sheffield-born frontman, who had previously represented England at youth level, earned his senior international debut from the bench as the Scots won the first leg 1-0 in Piraeus on Thursday.
Hirst became the fifth Town player to play for Scotland before adding his second cap as a substitute in the Sunday’s second leg at Hampden Park.
Steve Clarke’s side were beaten 3-0 by the Greeks to relegate Scotland to League B.
Hirst, who says he is hopeful this month will be the first of many international call-ups, was joined by Blues teammate Cieran Slicker in the squad for his second senior camp.
The goalkeeper is still awaiting his maiden cap having captained Scotland’s U21s previously.
Town’s contingent of England U21s internationals all got themselves on the scoresheet as the Young Lions played two friendlies against their French and Portuguese counterparts.
Liam Delap, who missed out on a place in the senior squad but got the opportunity to train with Thomas Tuchel’s side, scored his third goal for England U21s in their 5-3 thriller in France on Friday.
The Blues striker started alongside Jaden Philogene and both were also involved in England’s opener that was scored by Manchester City’s James McAtee.
Omari Hutchinson featured from the bench but was sent off just seven minutes after his introduction for a studs-up challenge on French striker Thierno Barry.
Town’s record signing made amends in the second clash against Portugal at the Hawthorns on Monday, heading in his second goal for the Young Lions after starting as a false nine while also earning England’s Player of the Match award.
Philogene, who came off the bench alongside Delap, completed the scoring with a curled finish into the bottom corner for his fourth goal at the level in stoppage time.
Delap now has 12 caps, Philogene nine and Hutchinson took his total tally to four.
Julio Enciso was on target as he became the first Blues player to represent Paraguay during their latest round of World Cup qualifiers.
The on-loan Brighton and Hove Albion forward started in both the 1-0 home victory over Chile and the 2-2 draw away to Colombia to put the Paraguayans in a strong position to qualify for their first World Cup since 2010.
Having come from two goals down, Enciso scored the equaliser in Tuesday’s draw in Barranquilla to net his third senior goal for his country.
At the age of 21, he now has 25 senior caps for the South American nation.
Two of Town’s Republic of Ireland internationals featured as the Boys in Green beat Bulgaria in their UEFA Nations League play-offs to retain their League B status for a fifth straight campaign.
The Irish won both legs 2-1, the first seeing Dara O’Shea start to earn his 33rd international cap in Plovdiv on Thursday while Blues teammate Jack Taylor appeared off the bench for the second time.
Taylor added his third cap as a substitute in Sunday’s second leg in Dublin, while O’Shea remained unused.
The pair were not joined by Sammie Szmodics and Chiedozie Ogbene through ankle and Achilles injuries respectively.
Town defender Cameron Burgess played his part as Australia took a big leap towards the World Cup with two victories in their Asian qualifying group.
Burgess played the full 90 minutes in both matches as the Socceroos beat Indonesia 5-1 in Sydney on Thursday before despatching China 2-0 away from home on Tuesday.
That took the centre-back to 15 full caps for Australia, who remain second in their group ahead of the final round of fixtures in June where the top two will directly qualify for the World Cup.
Burgess was not joined by Blues teammate Massimo Luongo despite the midfielder coming out of international retirement in October.
Nathan Broadhead was involved with Wales as the Dragons got their World Cup qualification campaign underway.
While he did not feature in the victory over Kazakhstan on Saturday, Broadhead was introduced from the start in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with North Macedonia in Skopje.
That latest appearance for Craig Bellamy’s side took the Town forward to 14 caps for his country, all of which have come as a Town player.
Broadhead was the Blues’ sole Welsh representative with Wes Burns absent from the squad through his season-ending knee injury.
Kosovo faced Iceland in UEFA Nations League play-offs and goalkeeper Aro Muric was involved as the Kosovans earned promotion to League B for the first time.
Muric made six saves in the 2-1 victory in the first leg where he earned his 43rd cap for his country on Thursday.
The Swiss-born glovesman was not involved in Sunday’s second leg on neutral turf in Spain due to a knock he picked up in the opening clash in Pristina.
Elsewhere, Jens Cajuste was left out of the Sweden squad this month to manage the midfielder’s workload while defender Axel Tuanzebe was denied the chance to add to his DR Congo caps due to the hamstring problem he picked up in the FA Cup tie at Nottingham Forest.
Striker Ali Al-Hamadi, who is currently out on loan with Championship side Stoke City, was initially named in the Iraq squad for their World Cup qualifiers against Kuwait and Palestine, but pulled out with a knock he sustained in the Potters’ defeat to Millwall before the break.
There was some international recognition for three of Town’s academy players during the last week, which included a successful maiden Northern Ireland U21s call-up for forward Rio Morgan.
Morgan scored on his debut from the penalty spot against their Moldovan counterparts on Thursday as the Northern Irish competed in a friendly tournament in Turkey.
The Blues forward would go on to feature against Ukraine U20s and Uzbekistan’s U21s to take the 19-year-old to three caps at U21s level.
Right-back Daniel Babb was with the Republic of Ireland U19s although the Irish youngsters missed out on qualifying for the European Championships in the summer.
The 19-year-old Blues defender did not feature in the opening two games but did earn his second cap at the level and first with Town in the 1-0 defeat to hosts Germany on Tuesday.
Goalkeeper Woody Williamson was not named in the initial squad for Scotland U19s, but was drafted into the group for two friendlies against Sweden and Poland in Spain.
The shot-stopper, who spent time on loan at Chelmsford City earlier this season, earned his 11th cap in the draw with the Swedes but was an unused substitute in the 4-1 defeat with Poland.
_Photo: REUTERS/Louiza Vradi_
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