Stefan Johansen was the happiest Celt on international duty last night as Norway won 3-0 away to Malta.
The Celtic midfielder played the full 90 minutes as a double from Joshua King and a goal from Mats Moller Daehli gave Norway a win after losing their opening match in Group H at home to Italy.
“We started well, scored an early goal and controlled the match from there,” Norway coach Per-Mathias Hogmo said. “This win gives us motivation for our next match. It is important to find the positives from every game and keep working on those. Joshua King is playing well, let’s hope he continues his fine form.”
On Monday Norway host Bulgaria who lost 1-0 at home to Croatia last night with Alexsandar Tonev appearing for the last 20 minutes.
Nir Bitton had to settle for an eight minute appearance as Israel got off to a winning start away to Cyprus which pleased coach Eli Gutman.
“In the first half we played really well – fast and skilful,” Gutman said. “In the second half we missed a lot of chances, but what really matters is that we allowed Cyprus to get back into the game. That was very dangerous. But to sum up the whole match, we were the better side and my players had one of their best games yet.”
Former Celt, Rami Gershon, now playing in Belguim for Gent, played the full 90 minutes.
On-loan defender Jason Denayer had to settle for 90 minutes on the bench as Belguim beat Andorra 6-0 while Virgil van Dijk was in the stand as Holland squeezed past Kazakhstan 3-1.
At u-21 level there was disappointment for John Guidetti as Sweden lost 2-0 away to France while Holmbert Fridjonsson had a better night helping Iceland to a 0-0 draw with Denmark. The return legs take place on Tuesday with the victors going to the European Championship finals next summer.