Sunderland international round-up: Hume and Ballard suffer World Cup blow, Ellborg one step closer | OneFootball

Northern Ireland’s World Cup bid ended on Thursday with a 2-0 play-off defeat to Italy, leaving Sunderland’s Trai Hume and the injured Dan Ballard heartbroken. Sweden’s victory the same night kept Melker Ellborg on course.

Sunderland Echo notes Northern Ireland reached the play-offs through their Uefa Nations League showing. They then faced a one-off in Bergamo after Italy finished second to Norway in qualifying.

Hume captained Michael O’Neill’s side, completing 90 minutes on the right of a back three. Second-half strikes from Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean decided it. Hume posted a team-high 7.3 FotMob rating, while Ballard missed out through injury as both saw a North American World Cup chance slip away.

Ellborg, signed from Malmo in January to back up Robin Roefs, has already featured four times for Sunderland because of Roefs’ injury. He was an unused substitute as Sweden beat Ukraine 3-1 in qualifying, Viktor Gyokeres making it 3-0 by the 73rd minute before Matviy Ponomarenko’s late consolation. Sweden face Poland in Solna on Tuesday, the winner to qualify.

Elsewhere, Noah Sadiki was in DR Congo’s squad for a friendly win over Bermuda in Mexico. Chris Rigg played the final 20 minutes as England lost 2-0 to Serbia in a U19 European qualifier, and Milan Aleksic started in Serbia U21s’ 2-2 friendly draw with Kyrgyzstan U23s.

Source: Sunderland Echo