The £81m West Ham duo were unscathed as Lucas Paqueta gets an assist in Brazil loss to Nayef Aguerd’s Morocco.
West Ham boss David Moyes would have been watching through his fingers last night as his record £51m signing Lucas Paqueta and £30m defender Nayef Aguerd went head-to-head.
The Hammers face nine games in 27 days during April, starting with the relegation six-pointer against Southampton next Sunday.
So Moyes needs all his key players fit and available.
The timing of this international break is far from ideal given what is at stake in the last two months of the season.
Paqueta and Aguerd started for Brazil and Morocco respectively as they met for a friendly in Tangier late last night.
Morocco took the lead in the first hald but Brazil levelled in the 67th minute when Paqueta set up Casemiro. Although the goal was the result of a major blunder from Morocco stopped Yassine Bounou who let the ball slip under him and into the net.
Twelve minutes later Aguerd’s men scored what turned out to be the winner, though, with Abdelhamid Sabiri scoring for the Atlas Lions.
Paqueta was substituted late on.
But the big news for West Ham is that both players emerged from the game unscathed.
That was Brazil’s only game of this international break so Paqueta will now be released to return to West Ham to prepare for next weekend’s huge clash.
Aguerd will be back in action on Tuesday against Peru.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Moyes will be keeping a close eye on other key West Ham players.
Captain Declan Rice is in action for England against Ukraine and Wembley. And Gianluca Scamacca and Emerson could be involved as Italy head to Malta.
Due to a run of extremely favourable results in the lead up to the international break, West Ham can go as high as 13th with victory over Southampton on Sunday.
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