UEFA

Norway showed Brendan Rodgers levels of character by rebounding from Thursday’s heartbreaking 2-1 defeat to Serbia in the Euro 2021 playoffs with a 4-0 win over Romania in Nations League play on Sunday.

It’s obviously small consolation for the nation’s failure to qualify for a first major international tournament since Euro 2000, but today’s victory showed why qualifying for the 2022 World Cup might be within this current generation’s reach. 

Marcus Rashford's penalty and a lucky strike from Mason Mount helped England come from a goal down to overcome top-ranked Belgium 2-1 at Wembley on Sunday and climb above them in their UEFA Nations League group.

Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring for the visitors from the penalty spot in the 16th minute after being brought down by a lunging tackle from England's Eric Dier. It was the Inter Milan striker's 13th goal in his last 11 matches for his country.

KIEV — Germany scored once in either half to beat hosts Ukraine 2-1 in the Nations League on Saturday for their first win in four matches and their first ever victory in this competition.

Matthias Ginter put them ahead in the 20th minutes after good work from Antonio Ruediger, and Leon Goretzka pounced on a mistake by Ukraine keeper Georgiy Bushchan to head in their second goal four minutes after the restart.

MANCHESTER, England — It is 62 years since all four British home nations last qualified together for the finals of a major tournament but after Wednesday's Euro 2020 penalty shoot-out playoff drama, such a prospect is now within reach.

Scotland and Northern Ireland find themselves one game away from qualification for next year's European Championship and the chance to join Wales and England in the delayed finals.

The last time all four made it to a major tournament was the 1958 World Cup finals in Sweden.

Norway’s fledgling golden generation — spearheaded by Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland and Real Madrid’s Martin Ødegaard — fell at the penultimate hurdle to Euro 2021 on Thursday, losing 2-1 to a deserving Serbia after extra time in the qualifying playoffs in Oslo.  

Norway hadn’t qualified for a major international tournament since Euro 2000 — whereas Serbia participated at the 2018 World Cup — but the home side entered this one full of hope after a qualifying cycle that included only one defeat (albeit five draws) in a group with Spain, Sweden and Romania. 

Francesco Caputo was thrilled to finally pull on an Italy shirt at the age 33 but there was also a tinge of regret at what might have been after a career spent largely in the lower divisions of Italian football.

The Sassuolo forward became Italy's second-oldest debutant when he started Wednesday's friendly against Moldova and needed only 23 minutes to score his first international goal in the 6-0 win.

Ukraine have included 45-year-old retired goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskiy in the squad for Wednesday's friendly against France after three other keepers tested positive for COVID-19, the country's football federation (UAF) said.

Shovkovskiy, who retired in 2016 and has made 92 appearances for Ukraine, is currently assistant to head coach Andriy Shevchenko.

NYON, Switzerland — Seven-time European champion AC Milan, winners of a marathon 24-penalty shootout against Rio Ave on Thursday, were rewarded by being drawn against Celtic and Lille in their Europa League Group on Thursday.

Milan, banned from the competition last season for breaching UEFA's break-even Financial Fair Play rule, scraped through 9-8 on penalties after snatching a last-gasp 2-2 draw with the Portuguese side.

Europa League Group Stage Draw 2020

The 2020/21 group stage is set 

The clubs competing in the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League group stage have been announced and boy oh boy do we have some great games to look forward to. Let’s skip the chit-chat and show you the full look of the groups and the takeaways.

The official result of the #UCLdraw!

Most exciting group stage match? pic.twitter.com/d7ynuEjPq3

In-form Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin has earned his first call-up to the senior England squad while Phil Foden and Mason Greenwood were dropped for disciplinary reasons.

England host a friendly with Wales on Oct. 8 before Nations League matches at home to Belgium and Denmark.

Calvert-Lewin has scored eight goals this season in all competitions, including a hat-trick against West Ham United in the League Cup fourth round on Wednesday.