Tournament football can provide tonic for players out of sorts at club level

Punters betting on international football do not have a huge amount of useful form to go on so it is natural to fall back on club performances.

However, the early games of Euro 2020 have provided a reminder that we should be wary of putting too much faith in club form when assessing international tournaments.

Germany's Lukas Podolski, Ghana's Asamoah Gyan and Northern Ireland's David Healy are a few examples of players who seemed to step up a level when they joined up with their national teams.

Different teammates, different managers, different positional roles and systems are bound to affect players, bringing the best out of some of them and leaving others looking a little lost.

Raheem Sterling shed the frustrations of a difficult season for Manchester City on Sunday, repaying Gareth Southgate's faith in him with a bright performance and the winning goal for England against Croatia.

Ukraine's Andriy Yarmolenko, who made just one Premier League start in an injury-hit campaign for West Ham, unleashed a cracking strike against the Netherlands, extending his superb international record to 41 goals in 95 caps.

As Austria's best player, David Alaba has the freedom to roam anywhere from sweeper to left-winger for his national team while Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum is a goal machine at international level.

Wijnaldum's goal against Ukraine was his 15th in his last 23 competitive internationals – just one fewer than he managed in 179 Premier League appearances for Liverpool.

Another man who flourishes on national service is Olivier Giroud, who could feature for world champions France against Germany on Tuesday.

Les Bleus have some half-decent attacking options – Mbappe, Griezmann, Benzema and Dembele – but Giroud has never let them down and is just five goals short of Thierry Henry's French record of 51.

Not bad for a striker who famously failed to have a shot on target in 546 minutes at the 2018 World Cup.

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