There were six Norwich City players starting for their countries this evening ahead of Saturday’s trip to Arsenal when Premier League action resumes.

The evening began with Max Aarons earning his 12th cap for the England Under-21s in his home town of Milton Keynes, as Kosovo provided the opposition at Stadium MK as the Young Lions began their 2023 European U21 Championship qualification campaign.

The right-back played all of the 2-0 win and picked out Rhian Brewster with a pass early in the game, with the Sheffield United striker brought down by the Kosovo keeper to win a penalty, which Brewster converted emphatically.

It was World Cup qualification action at senior level, with a first international start for young defender Andrew Omobamidele as Ireland entertained Serbia, with Adam Idah retaining his starting role.

A bizarre own goal late in the game saw Ireland snatch a 1-1 draw but qualification remains highly unlikely, with Idah playing 78 minutes and Omobamidele playing the full game.

It was a good result, against the team ranked 29th in the world, but nearly became a win as Omobamidele unleashed an unexpected long-range shot in injury-time but his effort was turned behind.

Scotland gave their hopes of at least qualifying for the play-offs a huge boost with a 1-0 win in Austria, which both Grant Hanley and Billy Gilmour started.

Hanley will be suspended for the crunch clash with third-placed Israel in Glasgow next month though after picking up a second yellow card of the qualification campaign, with Gilmour taken off in the 88th minute.

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Teemu Pukki played the full game in Lyon as Finland lost 2-0 to world champions France, missing a big late chance to pull a goal back.

Tin Krul and Ozan Kabak were substitutes in Amsterdam as the Netherlands thrashed Turkey 6-1, with Kabak brought on at half-time with the Turks already losing 3-0 and down to 10 men.

Mathias Normann was an unused substitute as Norway eased to a 5-1 home victory over Gibraltar, to remain level on points with the Netherlands at the top of Group G.

Daniel Barden also earned his second Wales U21 cap, during a European qualifier in Bulgaria, keeping a clean sheet in a 4-0 win. The keeper is on loan at Livingston.

Meanwhile, reports in Greece say Christos Tzolis has recovered from his calf problem and has trained fully ahead of Wednesday night's home clash with Sweden, with City team-mate Dimitris Giannoulis also in the squad.

Milot Rashica and Kosovo are preparing to host Spain and the final Canaries player in World Cup qualification action is set to be striker Josh Sargent, with the USA in Honduras at 3.05am UK time on Thursday.