Who Is Hot and Who Is Not in World Football After Weekend of September 4-7
Our usual round-up of the weekend's action takes on an international flavour this time, as we focus purely on those representing their country during this week's break.
Domestic action did continue in some parts, but we'll focus ourselves on friendlies, continental qualifiers and more as we seek out the best and the worst of the weekend's performers.
Feel free to leave your own suggestions below; we're starting and ending with two of the biggest names in the game but there are plenty of less-familiar players getting mentioned in between!
Hot: Zlatan Ibrahimovic
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We kick off with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored twice for Sweden against Estonia on Thursday; a mundane note in itself perhaps, but extremely pertinent for the country's history as it meant Zlatan became the highest all-time scorer of the national team.
His brace saw him overtake Sven Rydell, who played in the 1920s and scored 49 times for Sweden, in so doing also becoming the first Swede to ever hit 50 international goals—and achieving it in 99 caps.
Ibra becomes just the 30th men's player ever to reach that milestone in international football, putting him level with one Cristiano Ronaldo.
Not: Bruno Martins Indi
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Netherlands enjoyed a productive World Cup finals in Brazil 2014 and plenty of players enhanced their reputations in the process.
Even so, a new manager in Guus Hiddink meant a new opportunity to impress, to try out a new system perhaps and see what the Dutch national team might be capable of going forward into Euro 2016—so a red card in the opening 10 minutes of the first game was exactly what wasn't required.
Bruno Martins Indi was the unfortunate soul adjudged to have bundled over Simone Zaza early on against Italy and Hiddink's early plans were left in tatters, two goals and one man down.
Hot: Ikechi Anya
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Ikechi Anya might not be a household name but the Watford winger tormented World Cup winners Germany on Sunday night, with his blinding pace and great willingness to work hard giving them a torrid time on the counter-attack.
Anya several times got away from his marker down the left channel and briefly looked to have given the Scots a chance of a point with a well-taken goal, only for Germany to go on and score a winner.
Only an international since last year, the 26-year-old showed his importance to the side and should feature prominently throughout qualifying for Euro 2016.
Not: Paulo Bento
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Usually our "hot or not" feature is reserved for players, but it seems dreadfully amiss to label just one of Portugal's national side "not" when in truth they have underperformed consistently throughout manager Paulo Bento's tenure.
As such, the manager is getting the vote here after another disappointing result: This time a 1-0 home defeat to Albania in Euro 2016 qualifying.
How much longer the poor performances and results can go on is a big question mark.
Hot: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg
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Bayern Munich's 19-year-old midfielder Pierre Hojbjerg is making plenty of people sit up and take notice with his appearances at club level, while at the weekend he did the same in a competitive international.
Denmark needed to come from behind to beat Armenia in their Euro 2016 qualifier, with Hojbjerg netting a spectacular equaliser on the volley from range, glossing an all-round impressive performance.
In only his third cap he already looks a piece of the team which the qualification campaign can be built around, perhaps sparking a renewal of Danish international football which has been a little disappointing of late.
Not: Kassaly Daouda
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Over to Africa for our final thumbs-down inclusion now, with Niger's goalkeeper Kassaly Daouda enduring an awful match in his side's 3-1 defeat to Cape Verde Islands.
Daouda was culpable for all three goals conceded, none more so than the third—all scored within the first half—which bounced tamely through his hands and into the net behind him.
His only consolation was perhaps a similarly inept piece of keeping at the other end for his team's consolation goal.
Hot: Aiden McGeady
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Aiden McGeady was Republic of Ireland's hero on Sunday as he scored twice to give them an important victory in Georgia.
Not normally a regular scorer by any stretch of the imagination, McGeady had only managed three goals in 69 caps before his brace in the 2-1 win—the second of which was a superb turn, dribble and finish in the last minute of the game.
With Ireland facing the likes of Scotland and Poland in challenging for the automatic second-place qualifying spot (presuming Germany take first place), the away three points could prove enormous.
Hot: Angel Di Maria
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We finish up with an extra-hot performance from just prior to the weekend, as the "replay" of the World Cup final saw Argentina gain some small measure of revenge with a 4-2 win over Germany.
Angel Di Maria was the game's key man, setting up his nation's first three goals with a series of delicious through balls and crosses, before going on to score the fourth himself.
It might not be much of a consolation to losing the final, in truth, but it's certainly the best way possible of getting the result out of their system, and Di Maria was key to it all.
