The nine Brentford players away on international duty over the past two weeks have all now returned to the Club ahead of the resumption of the Championship season. The nine players were away with seven different national teams at a variety of age ranges and racked up more international appearances across the globe. There were debuts for some while two Brentford players took a big step towards a place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Andreas Bjelland and Henrik Dalsgaard both played two games for Denmark in World Cup Qualifying last week. The two defenders started in the 4-0 win over Poland last week and then again in the 4-1 win over Armenia on Monday. Henrik set up Denmark’s first goal in that match. Denmark are third in their qualifying group, behind Poland and Montenegro. They play Montenegro away from home in their next match before facing Romania in the last fixture and two wins will guarantee them at least a place in qualifying play-offs.

Kamohelo Mokotjo was away with South Africa and involved in their World Cup qualifiers. South Africa played Cape Verde Islands twice and lost both games 2-1. Kamo was named as a substitute in both matches and came on in the first defeat. South Africa have one point from three games in the final qualifying round and are bottom of their four-team group. The leaders – Burkina Faso – have six points from four games and South Africa play them next.

Brentford B attacker Theo Archibald made his debut for Scotland Under-21 earlier this week. Theo came on as a late substitute as Scotland beat Netherlands 2-0, both goals coming in the second half. It was Scotland’s first match in qualification for the 2019 UEFA Under-21 Championships. Defender Chris Mepham was also involved in qualifiers for the same tournament. He played two matches for Wales against Switzerland and Portugal, his first at that level. Wales won the first but lost the second and Chris was sent off for two bookings against Portugal.

Ellery Balcombe was away with the England Under-19 squad during the international break. He played the first half of England’s 7-1 win over Poland, keeping a clean sheet, but was on the substitute’s bench for the 3-1 loss against Germany. Marcus Forss played three games for Finland Under-19 during the past two weeks. He played all three games but Finland were beaten by Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal

The final two played away were Brentford B duo Mads Bech Sørensen and Lukas Talbro. They were away for two matches with Denmark Under-19 and both played in both matches. Mads captained his team in the games, part of a four-team tournament, and helped them to a win over Sweden in the first match. Denmark were, however, beaten by Austria in the final.