A busy final day of matches in the first international break of the new season saw several Chelsea players put in stellar performances, not the least of whom were the trio of Nathaniel Chalobah, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Lewis Baker, all three of whom started and all three of whom scored as England U21 dismantled Norway. The other three goals were scored by Marcus Rashford, making his debut at U21 level after already making his debut at senior level.
Norway started well, but with Ward-Prowse and Loftus-Cheek running the show, the visitors, who had zero players with hyphenated names, had zero chance.
Chalobah's goal was perhaps the best of the Chelsea bunch, and even got teammate and hair-twin Michy Batshuayi talking.
@chalobah oh now u score goals ? #chalobeast
— Michy Batshuayi (@mbatshuayi) September 6, 2016
Batshuayi was much less impressed by his own efforts, a 15-minute substitute appearance in Belgium's 3-0 win over Cyprus. After Man of the Match Eden Hazard won a penalty in the dying minutes of the contest, the Batsman stepped up to bat anddddd....
Womp womp womp.
No harshest critic of Michy than Michy himself of course.
F*ck meee disappointing game for me.. fortunatly the team did the job before ✊ congrats @BelRedDevils now let's move forward #WCQ
— Michy Batshuayi (@mbatshuayi) September 6, 2016
I remain cautiously optimistic that Michy can keep up this open and refreshingly direct and honest dialogue on Twitter. As long as he can, his account will remain a must-follow.
In any case, a Lukaku brace and a goal from Carrasco (assisted by Hazard) was more than enough to send Belgium past Cyprus on cruise control. Bosnia also cruised, 5-0 past Estonia, Begović keeping a clean sheet as Courtois did for Belgium. France also kept a clean sheet, but they failed to do the job at the other end and had to settle for a 0-0 against Belarus. N'Golo Kanté played the full 90.
Elsewhere, Eduardo did not feature as European Champions Portugal were dismissed 2-0 by Switzerland, while Brazil and Jamaica were set to play later in the day.