Following an impressive 12 months for the Republic of Ireland, Nathan Collins has been named the FAI’s men’s Player of the Year.
The defender has been a consistant presence for the Boys in Green throughout 2022/23, starting each of their last 13 internationals – including Monday night’s 3-0 victory over Gibraltar – while netting twice.
Collins was one of several Wolves players to feature for their countries this week and wolves.co.uk is here to produce a round up of the action featuring Julen Lopetegui’s men in the last few days.
Nathan Collins | Ireland 3-0 Gibraltar
Although he wasn’t able to produce the goods in front of goal as he did in Ireland’s previous fixture against Greece, Collins played the first half of his country’s Euro 2024 qualifying win against Gibraltar. Having kept the scoreline down to zero, Collins was replaced by Vitoria SC’s Michael Johnston, who put Ireland ahead just seven minutes later. But the Wolves centre-back was all smiles come the end of Tuesday evening as he pipped Josh Cullen and Jayson Molumby to pick up FAI’s men’s Player of the Year award, rounding off a remarkable 12 months for Collins.
Congratulations to Nathan Collins who has won the MNT Senior Player of the Year after a fantastic season for the Boys in Green 🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/R30YprJY1B
— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) June 20, 2023
Ruben Neves, Jose Sa, Nelson Semedo, Toti | Iceland 0-1 Portugal
Portugal had to wait until the final moments of their Euro 2024 qualifier against Iceland to make it three wins from four as Cristiano Ronaldo popped up in the 89th minute to earn all three points and mark becoming the first ever player to earn 200 international caps. From a Wolves perspective, only Ruben Neves of the four Old Gold players to be included in Roberto Martinez’s squad this week saw playing time on Tuesday evening, with the midfielder in from the start as he produced a stereotypical Neves display in the centre of the park as Portugal moved to the top of Group J. Semedo, Sa and Toti all remained on the bench in Reykjavik, meaning the latter pair are still awaiting the chance to make their senior international debuts.
Hee Chan Hwang | South Korea 1-1 El Salvador
Hwang was among the providers on the international stage this week as he claimed his ninth assist for South Korea in his country’s 1-1 friendly draw with El Salvador in Daejeon. With the game goalless going into the break, it took the simplest of touches for the Wolves forward to play the ball into the path of Ui-Jo Hwang – who came on the pitch at half-time, just four minutes previously – who guided the ball into the bottom corner of the net. Hwang played for another 20 minutes with his side still ahead before being replaced by Tottenham Hotspur’s Heung-min Son.
Other internationals
Wolves goalkeeper Matija Sarkic earned his sixth senior cap for Montenegro, and his first since November last year, but was unable to help his country to victory as they fell to a 4-1 friendly defeat to the Czech Republic in Podgorica. Dexter Lembikisa came off the bench with 30 minutes remaining as Jamaica let their lead slip to Jordan in a friendly fixture, but the defender did enough to secure a place in the Reggae Boyz’s squad for the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup which starts later this week.
Yerson Mosquera will have to wait a bit longer to earn his first international cap after the defender – currently on loan from Wolves to MLS outfit FC Cincinnati – was on the bench again for Colombia as the South American’s secured a shock 2-0 win over Germany. Having played in Republic of Ireland U21s draw with Ukraine on Saturday, Joe Hodge was absent from the squad as their match with Kuwait was abandoned on 70 minutes with the Irish 3-0 up due to allegations of racist remarks made by a Kuwait player.
Coming up
The 2023 UEFA European Under-21 championships gets underway this evening, and Wolves will hope to have two of their players involved, with Pedro Neto and Fabio Silva included in the Portugal squad out in Romania and Georgia. Second favourites to lift the trophy, Portugal face hosts Georgia in their opening fixture at 5pm today, before group matches against Netherlands on Saturday and Belgium on Tuesday.
𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗧𝗔𝗖 🕰️ A contar os dias para a estreia no #U21EURO! 💫🇵🇹 #VesteABandeira pic.twitter.com/KgGhodmHnV
— Portugal (@selecaoportugal) June 18, 2023
Boubacar Traore is away with Mali under-23s as they build-up to the U23 Africa Cup of Nations with qualification matches against Gabon on Sunday before further matches versus Egypt and Niger.
Jamaica’s Gold Cup campaign gets underway this weekend, with Lembikisa hoping to get his chance against hosts USA in the early hours of Sunday morning, as well as in the other group games against Trinidad & Tobago and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
