A number of West Ham United players were in action in Europe and Africa on Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Jarrod Bowen and El Hadji Malick Diouf secured qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals with emphatic victories for England and Senegal respectively.
Bowen appeared for the final half-hour as England thumped Latvia 5-0 in Riga to top European qualifying Group K with two games to spare.
Harry Kane scored twice before Bowen set up Eberechi Eze to complete the rout as England made it a perfect six wins from six and put themselves beyond the reach of Albania and Serbia, who they face in their final two ties in November.
Moments later, Diouf and Senegal topped African Group B with a 4-0 home win over Mauritania in Dakar, where former Liverpool forward Sadio Mané scored two goals.
Senegal's victory meant Aaron Wan-Bissaka and DR Congo had to make do with the runners-up spot, despite their own 1-0 victory over Sudan. DR Congo will now go into the play-offs.
Both full-backs started and played the full 90 minutes for their respective nations.
Earlier, the action kicked-off with 2027 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers earlier in the day.
Mateus Fernandes captained Portugal U21s as they continued their perfect start to Group B with an 11-0 win in Gibraltar.
Portugal made it four victories from four games played with an emphatic performance at Europa Point Stadium, where Fernandes won his 19th U21 cap.
Fernandes had missed the 3-0 home win over Bulgaria on Friday evening through suspension, having been sent-off in a 2-0 success in Scotland in September, but returned to wear the captain’s armband against Gibraltar.
Nine different players scored for Portugal, with Diogo Travassos of Moreirense and Gustavo Varela of Gil Vicente the only players to find the net twice.
Portugal have 12 points from 12, as do Czechia, who won in Bulgaria on Tuesday. The group winners qualify automatically for the final tournament to be hosted jointly by Albania and Serbia in 2017. The runners-up will go into play-offs, with Scotland and Azerbaijan making up the six-nation Group B
Elsewhere in the same qualifying competition on Tuesday evening, Michael Forbes wore the captain’s armband as Northern Ireland U21s had their hearts broken by Germany in Group F.
Centre-back Forbes, currently on loan at Kevin Nolan’s Northampton Town in EFL League One, led his country at The Oval in Belfast, where Northern Ireland lost 2-1 to two late goals – less than 24 hours after Callum Marshall and the seniors had been edged 1-0 by Germany in FIFA World Cup qualifying at Windsor Park.
Norwich City’s Ruairi McConville put Northern Ireland U21s in front inside four minutes, only for Assan Ouédraogo of RB Leipzig and a penalty converted by Dženan Pejčinović of Wolfsburg seven minutes from full-time to deny them a famous victory.
Greece top Group F with a perfect three wins from three after triumphing 1-0 in Latvia earlier on Tuesday, with Georgia moving above Northern Ireland into third after winning 5-0 in Malta.
Jarrod Bowen, El-Hadji Malick Diouf and Aaron Wan-Bissaka were all hoping to clinch qualification for the World Cup in the evening.
