Nations League: Five Premier League stars who impressed on international duty

The Premier League returns on Saturday, with a full programme of action taking place over the course of the weekend. 

The north London derby kicks things off, with Tottenham Hotspur making the short trip to face Arsenal at The Emirates in the lunchtime game, before five games start at 3pm.

The Manchester derby is the pick of the games on Sunday, continuing an action-packed weekend on the return of top flight football.

Having played in the Nations League fixtures over the past week, several Premier League stars will have little time for respite before their return to club football.

The final two gameweeks of the Nations League took place over the last ten days, and dozens of top flight players were involved.

Here, we take a look at five Premier League stars who impressed on international duty.

Kai Havertz – Germany

Chelsea star Havertz broke the hearts of England fans when he netted Germany’s late equaliser during their game against The Three Lions at Wembley on Monday. The forward had already scored a long range screamer to double his side’s lead earlier in the match, before his 87th minute strike levelled things up.

Aleksandar Mitrovic – Serbia

Mitrovic continued his fine form by scoring four goals across Serbia’s two games

Fulham striker Mitrovic has started the domestic season in sensational form, scoring six goals in seven games for The Cottagers. The ex-Newcastle United man continued his run by adding four goals to his international tally over the course of Serbia’s last two games, netting a hat-trick against Sweden and then also scoring against Norway on Tuesday.

Virgil van Dijk

Van Dijk’s goal was enough to give Netherlands victory over Belgium

Netherlands are one of the form sides going into the World Cup in November, having remained unbeaten in the 15 games since Louis van Gaal returned to the role of head coach last year. After impressing during a 2-0 win over Poland, Van Dijk followed it up with the only goal of the game as The Netherlands defeated rivals Belgium 1-0 on Monday.

John McGinn – Scotland

Midfielder McGinn enjoyed a successful international break, captaining Scotland to a 2-1 victory over Republic of Ireland, before following that up with a 0-0 draw against Ukraine. The Tartan Army secured promotion to League A of the Nations League with the draw on Tuesday, the first time that they have reached the top flight of the competition.

Jorginho – Italy

Jorginho and Italy are through to the Nations League finals

Chelsea’s Jorginho impressed as Italy secured their place in the Nations League finals, starting both matches. The Italians join Croatia, Netherlands and Spain in the finals, which are set to take place next June. A 1-0 win over England and a 2-0 victory over Hungary won’t have been enough to make up for the failure to qualify for the World Cup, but the European Champions have at least restored some pride.