Atlético’s internationals achieve September successes

The international break is nearly over, and Atlético Madrid‘s full squad will get back to work soon in preparation for Saturday’s visit to Anoeta — where Real Sociedad await, intent on ending the league leaders’ three-game winning streak to start the season.

The good news is Atlético’s internationals seem to have gotten out of their games with not a scratch on them and are heading back to the capital in the next couple days. Here’s how the nine colchoneros have fared with just a handful of games to go.

• Jan Oblak played 180 minutes against Poland and Israel. Slovenia won both games, though Oblak conceded two against Israel during their 3-2 win on Monday night.
• José Giménez played 90 minutes alongside Sebastián Coates during Uruguay’s 2-1 win over Costa Rica. They play again on Wednesday night in a friendly against the United States.
• Mario Hermoso played six minutes against Romania with Spain, and then became the first Atlético starter at centre-back for La Roja in 12 years. Pablo Ibáñez had been the last man to start a game for Spain while playing with Atlético.
• Kieran Trippier is very much back in Gareth Southgate’s plans after the England boss came to watch him play against Leganés. Trippier started for the first time since the Nations League group game against Spain and helped the Three Lions to a 4-0 win over Bulgaria. They play again on Tuesday night against Kosovo.
• Saúl started in his favourite position for Spain against Romania on Thursday night, but he was on the bench and didn’t come off it for the Faroe Islands win.
• Héctor Herrera started in midfielder against the United States in Mexico’s friendly and got himself an assist during the 3-0 win. El Tri play Argentina on Wednesday night in another friendly to round out the international break.
• Thomas Lemar played 84 minutes in France’s win over Albania. The world champions play Andorra on Tuesday night and Didier Deschamps is likely to make changes — which means a potential rest for Lemar.
• Finally, João Félix replaced Gonçalo Guedes for the final 20 minutes of Portugal’s entertaining 4-2 win over Serbia, and he’s expected to get more minutes Tuesday night against Lithuania. Both games are EURO 2020 qualifiers, and the current European champions are eight points behind Ukraine in Group B (though with two games in hand).