🌍 🏆 International Awards: Father and son; France thrashing; Gavi's pain | OneFootball

Qualification for Euro 2024 is coming to an end whilst in South America they are battling it out for World Cup 2026.

Here’s our favourite moments from this past international weekend.

Player of the Weekend

Friday was the glorious end to a traumatic few weeks for Luis Díaz.

The Liverpool winger learned two weeks previously that his father had been kidnapped back in Colombia by members of the Los Primos gang.

An agonising 13 days followed but Luis Díaz Snr was eventually released by his captors last Wednesday, with four men then arrested and charged with aggravated kidnap for the purpose of extortion.

Two days later, Diaz was starting in his country’s crucial World Cup qualifier against Brazil.

Things started badly for Los Cafeteros as Gabriel Martinelli netted after only four minutes but as they game entered its final quarter, Díaz burst into life.

The 26-year-old scored twice in the space of four minutes to give Colombia a well-deserved victory, with even the most icy of hearts being warmed by the images of Luis Diaz’s father celebrating in the crowd.

Team of the Weekend

Goal of the Weekend

Dominik Szoboszlai continued his astonishing run as Hungary captain, now going 12 games without defeat since securing the armband early in 2022.

The Liverpool midfielder is his country’s standout player and talisman, and showed all of his qualities on Sunday to book their place at Euro 2024.

He netted two goals in the space of as many minutes to beat Macedonia in Budapest but it was the first of those that really caught the eye.

It was an Eden Hazard-esque mazy run from the right-hand side which saw Szoboszlai jink past three defenders before firing into the bottom corner.

Absolutely glorious.

Result of the Weekend

It’s a result not seen in international football since Kuwait’s 20-0 thrashing of Bhutan in 2000 and a scoreline we’ve never seen in European qualifying.

France, having already qualified for Euro 2024, hosted Gibraltar this weekend and any idea that Les Bleus might take this one easy was quickly dismantled.

Didier Deschamps’ side were 7-0 up at half-time and as footage from inside the dressing at the break revealed, France were very much aiming for a record win.

The country’s previous best was a 10-0 victory over Azerbaijan in 1995 but that was passed with 15 minutes to go thanks to Kylian Mbappé’s audacious lob.

The final, remarkable score, was 14 (fourteen)-0.

Will we ever see the likes again?

Surprise of the Weekend

Before this weekend, Argentina had won 14 games in a row going all the way back to their World Cup victory last year.

But that streak was unceremoniously ended at La Bombonera as Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay came to town and shocked the reigning world champions.

Uruguay had already beaten Brazil during the previous international break and continued their own fine run under the former Leeds boss as Ronald Araújo and Darwin Núñez scored the goals to take the Celeste to second in CONMEBOL qualifying.

The Liverpool striker’s blistering run and finish, late in the second half, secured the three points and showed that life under Bielsa is going to be a fun one for the Uruguay fans.

Stat of the Weekend

Romelu Lukaku scored four goals in 20 first half minutes as Belgium beat Azerbaijan 5-0 on Sunday.

And with it broke a few goalscoring records.

With 78 goals for the Red Devils, Lukaku has now overtaken Pele in the international strike ranking.

The Roma striker has netted 14 in this qualification run, the most ever in a single campaign.

And Lukaku is now third in Europe’s all-time international goalscorer list, behind only Ferenc Puskas (84) and Cristiano Ronaldo (127).

Quote of the Weekend

“I know this is a very difficult moment. This is very hard for the player, for Barcelona, for all his team mates and for me.

“I say this from the heart, in the dressing room it seemed like we lost. The dressing room at half time was broken, it was like a wake.

“I think that this is the hardest, most bitter moment of my career.”

Spain boss Luis De La Fuente was distraught after their win over Georgia on Sunday following Gavi’s shocking knee injury.

Although there has been no confirmation yet, it looks as if the Barcelona youngster will miss the rest of the season and, most likely, Euro 2024 next summer.