The majority of focus for the current international break was placed on the UEFA Nations League clash between Germany and France, in which Bayern Munich had a total of eight representatives; Jerome Boateng, Leon Goretzka, Mats Hummels, Joshua Kimmich, Thomas Müller, Manuel Neuer, and Niklas Süle for Germany, and Corentin Tolisso for France.

In addition to the savory matchup between Germany and France, Bayern also had Robert Lewandowski, David Alaba, and Renato Sanches on respective international duty. Lewandowski played for Poland in a UEFA Nations League match vs. Italy while both Alaba and Sanches played in friendlies with Austria and Portugal, respectively.

Alaba’s strike

Alaba scored for Austria in its 2-0 win over Sweden in a well deserved victory before they take on Bosnia & Herzegovina in the UEFA Nations League. Although the match was relatively even, Austria was always the side who looked more threatening and really started to express themselves after Filip Helander’s own goal in the 11th minute that put Austria 1-0 up.

In the 64th minute, Alaba popped up with a moment of magic with an absolutely sensational left-footed curler that found it’s way into the upper right corner. Marko Arnautović had done well to attract defenders toward the byline with his solo run and find Alaba just inside the 18-yard box, but take nothing away from Alaba’s sublime finish; he had three defenders coming to close him down and he had to adjust his body to really come across the strike to make the right contact to bend it into the far post. Alaba’s goal capped off what was a true captain’s performance, playing as a left midfielder as opposed to left back, as he is so used to playing for Bayern.

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Lewandowski’s beautiful assist vs Italy

Robert Lewandowski’s name usually goes down on the score sheet as the goal scorer, but in Poland’s 1-1 draw vs. Italy in the UEFA Nations League, he provided a sublime assist to Piotr Zielinski for Poland’s goal. In the buildup to the goal just before the stroke of halftime, Poland had done well to close down Italy with their high press and win the ball off of Jorginho before Lewandowski beautifully picked out Zielinski with his lofted cross.

Additionally, per WhoScored, Lewandowski’s performance was deemed worthy of the the man of the match, as he boasted the joint most key passes in the match alongside Italy’s Lorenzo Insigne, recorded a total of three shots, and won six offensive aerial duels; all in addition to his assist. Lewandowski made himself a complete nuisance to an Italian side that are still in a transitional phase under new manager Roberto Mancini.