Socceroos winger Awer Mabil was back in the action for Cadiz, playing 20 minutes off the bench in their 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in Spain’s La Liga on Saturday.
Mabil was part of a triple substitution in the 72nd minute for Cadiz, who were trailing 2-0 at the time chasing their first win of the season.
The appearance comes after Mabil tried to force a deadline day loan move away from Cadiz, after the club signed two players in his position, fearing he’d struggle for game time in the lead-up to the World Cup.
Mabil’s decision to try to find a move reportedly led to him being dropped from the matchday squad for last Friday’s game against Celta Vigo.
However, Cadiz president Manuel Vizcaino said: “Awer Mabil deserves respect as an international player that he is. He did not want to give in (on his World Cup hopes).”
Mabil was in training all week and back in the mix for Cadiz, who are bottom of La Liga with no points from five games, scoring no goals and conceding 14. Cadiz boss Sergio Gonzalez is under pressure to keep his job.
Jackson Irvine wore the captain’s armband and scored his third goal of the German 2.Bundesliga season as St Pauli drew with Sandhausen on Sunday.
Irvine leapt high and powered in a bullet header into the top corner from Leart Paqarada’s cross from the left wing in the 38th minute for 1-0.
The Socceroos midfielder put in a full shift, while Connor Metcalfe – who scored last weekend – was a 79th minute substitute.
Alou Kuol wasn’t in the VfB Stuttgart matchday squad that scored a late equalizer at Bayern Munich to draw 2-2 in the German Bundesliga.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Mat Ryan was sold short by an under-hit backpass as FC Copenhagen lost 2-1 to OB in the Danish Superliga.
Denis Vavro’s backpass left Ryan scrambling to clear the ball under pressure, with a slide-tackle clearance falling to Yankuba Minteh who converted the chance. Joel King was an unused sub for OB.
Ajdin Hrustic made his debut for Hellas Verona following his deadline day move from Eintracht Frankfurt, coming on as a 70th minute substitute in their 2-0 loss at Lazio in the Italian Serie A on Sunday.
Fran Karacic got an assist as Brescia won 3-1 at Modena in the Italian Serie B. Karacic came on at half-time and laid off the pass for Stefano Moreo’s goal.
Alessandro Circati started and played 76 minutes as Parma lost 3-2 to Ternana.
Denis Genreau was a 79th minute substitute for Toulouse in a 1-0 home win over Reims in the French Ligue 1 on Sunday.
Mitch Duke scored his seventh goal of the season to boost Fagiano Okayama’s promotion hopes with a 2-1 win over Montedio Yamagata in the Japanese J2 League.
Duke, who played 83 minutes, grabbed the winner in the 76th minute to make it four wins in a row for Okayama who are third, with Thomas Deng‘s Albirex Niigata top of the division. Deng put in a full shift for Niigata who won 3-0 over Ryukyu.
Others
Full games
James Holland, Tyrese Francois, Alex Gersbach, Mitch Langerak, Ryan Edwards, Milos Degenek, Alex Grant, Harrison Delbridge
Minutes
Jimmy Jeggo – ST 63, Jason Davidson – ST 84, Bruce Kamau – SB 69, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos – SB 68, Anthony Kalik – SB 46, Adam Taggart – ST 86, Aaron Calver – ST 63
