On Friday, five of our players were in European qualifying action via the play-offs with all five recording important wins in their bid to secure a place at next year's major tournament in Switzerland.

Fresh off the back of scoring her 50th goal for Chelsea last week, Guro Reiten started for Norway in their first round win against Albania. The 30-year-old played 75 minutes and set up the third goal with a superb cross as her nation secured a comfortable 5-0 away victory.

Reiten's Norway are now in pole position ahead of Tuesday night's second leg on home soil. If they see off Albania and progress to the second round, the Scandinavians would take on the winners of Croatia v Northern Ireland.

Erin Cuthbert was named in Scotland's starting XI to take on Hungary in Budapest. A 1-0 win, in which our midfielder featured for its entirety, in the Hungarian capital means the Scots go into the reverse fixture at Easter Road in Edinburgh with the advantage.

Should they progress to the second round, Scotland will then play Montenegro or Finland in their bid to play at a third major tournament. Their previous appearances came at the 2017 Euros and the 2019 World Cup in France.

Our Swedish trio - Zecira Musovic, Nathalie Bjorn, and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd - were all named in the starting line-up to face Luxembourg. Our goalkeeper and defender played the full match, while the Blues winger featured for 76 minutes in the 4-0 win to Sweden.

And in-form Rytting Kaneryd, who was today nominated for October's Women's Super League Player of the Month and Goal of the Month awards, picked up where she left off with Chelsea as she assisted Sweden's first and scored their second.

That victory means the Swedes are in a very positive position ahead of Tuesday night's second leg against the same opponents. If they see off Luxembourg, they would take on the winner of Bosnia Herzegovina v Serbia in the second round of play-offs during the next international window in late November/early December.

Friendlies

In a first meeting of England and Germany since the Lionesses beat the latter to win the European Championship in 2022, four Chelsea players featured from the start at Wembley.

Goalkeeper Hannah Hampton and defenders Millie Bright and Lucy Bronze were named in England's XI, while forward Aggie Beever-Jones took her place on the bench. Sjoeke Nusken lined-up against her club team-mates and featured for just over an hour for Germany, who won this encounter 4-3.

It proved to be an entertaining start at the national stadium as the Germans stormed into a 3-0 lead after only half an hour, but a quickfire brace from Georgia Stanway had the score sitting at 3-2 before the first half was up. The second half was a less lively affair in front of goal, but the visitors did increase their lead and made it 4-2 from the penalty spot in the 72nd minute.

But with just under ten minutes to go, Bronze got another goal back for England. She capitalised on a mistake from former Blue Ann-Katrin Berger and stabbed the ball home to make it 4-3. This was the defender's last involvement of the game as she was then withdrawn.

Wieke Kaptein started for the Netherlands as they hosted Indonesia. A dominant display in Doetinchem saw the Dutch defeat their opponents 15-0, with our midfielder playing 76 minutes of the emphatic win.

France recorded a 3-0 win against Jamaica, with Blues winger Sandy Baltimore playing 75 minutes and scoring her country's third in the 48th minute. Her Chelsea team-mate Oriane Jean-Francois came off the bench for the second half, with this appearance being the midfielder's first for the national team since recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Defender Maelys Mpome, who was called up as a replacement in France's senior team from the U-23s on Thursday evening, was not named in the matchday squad for this friendly.

Canada had Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence in their ranks as they took on reigning world champions Spain in Almendralejo. Both featured for the entire match which finished 1-1.

On Friday afternoon, Lexi Potter - who is currently on loan at fellow WSL side Crystal Palace, featured for just over an hour and scored the second goal in England Under-19s' 3-1 win over Netherlands in the Algarve Cup, a friendly invitational tournament in Portugal. Academy players Scarlett Kagalwala and Tia Young were unused substitutes.

Thursday's action

Meanwhile on Thursday, before being called up to France's senior squad for the first time, Mpome played 90 minutes for the Under-23s in their 3-0 defeat to Germany.

Also in U23s action was midfielder Julia Bartel who made her Chelsea debut in the UEFA Women's Champions League last week. She started and played the opening 45 minutes in Spain's narrow 1-0 defeat to Italy.

Representing the same age group for England, Brooke Aspin, who is also on loan at Crystal Palace, came off the bench for the last 19 minutes in the Young Lionesses' 1-1 draw with the Netherlands, while Birmingham City loanee Ashanti Akpan was an unused substitute. Katie Cox has been involved with the U23s this international window as a training player.