Monday's team talk

+++ Delaney features, Pavlenka watches on from the bench: Thomas Delaney played 90 minutes against Romania in Copenhagen on Sunday evening. The Danes only managed to come out with a 1-1 draw but they were already secured of second place in the group because of results elsewhere. It was much more important to give themselves as much a chance as possible of qualifying for the World Cup finals in Russia next year. Delaney and co. did this by defending second place in their group and so in doing so, qualified for the World Cup playoffs. Jiri Pavlenka’s Czech Republic had a home game on Sunday too. The team coached by Karel Jarolim, with hopes of qualification for next summer already gone, met San Marino in Plzen and comfortably ran out 5-0 winners. Pavlenka watched on from the bench this time. Yuning Zhang put in a great performance again for the Chinese U22 national team on their training camp. The striker scored, just as he had in the first friendly, again against Honduras. +++

+++ Kruse is flying towards his comeback: Max Kruse is in Mallorca at the moment and is completing a part of his rehabilitation programme. In order to ensure his broken collarbone, which he sustained in the game against FC Schalke 04, heals as quickly as possible, the Green-White striker has been trying out alternative methods of recovery on the Island of the Sun. Kruse posted a picture on his Instagram profile whilst he was doing “acrobatic yoga”. +++