Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong welcomed the ‘beautiful’ battle with Preston North End captain Alan Browne.

We are in the final days of the international break; Thank god for that.

Our attention will soon turn to PNE’s match against Plymouth Argyle, with very few North End players currently playing for their country.

However, captain Alan Browne has played for Ireland against France and the Netherlands in recent days.

After appearing at right-back against Kylian Mbappé, Browne returned to his more familiar midfield role against the Netherlands. That means facing Barcelona star Frankie de Jong just days after facing Mpbappe.

Few players in the Championship will have to endure such incredible challenges during this international break, when Browne faces two of the best players in the world.

De Jong has been one of the best midfielders in Europe over the past 5 years.

The Dutchman rose to prominence with Ajax before making a huge £65m transfer to Barcelona in 2019.

Now 26 years old, De Jong has nearly 200 appearances for Barcelona and more than 50 caps for the Dutch team. Ireland know full well how important De Jong is to the Dutch team and had Browne alongside him throughout the match.

Browne has followed De Jong everywhere, so much so that we are spoiled for choice in terms of images for this article; almost every photo of De Jong during this match shows Browne nearby!

De Jong was asked about Browne harassing him during the Netherlands’ 2-1 win over Ireland and seemed to enjoy the fight.

Speaking to NOS and translated by The European Lad on Twitter, De Jong called his fight with Browne a “beautiful” bout.

De Jong laughed off a question about becoming friends with Browne after being so close to him throughout Sunday’s match, but added that he has nothing against the PNE ace.

“Haha! No, that’s good! I have nothing against him. I must add that the Irish, Scots, English play hard, but they play honestly, they are great duels! De Jong said.

North End needed some standout additions this summer and have brought in two big signings in Will Keane and Milutin Osmajic.

However, there was another addition as PNE swooped in to sign Liverpool youngster Layton Stewart.

North End decided to sign Stewart on a permanent contract, giving him the opportunity to play senior football after his years with Liverpool.

Born and raised in Liverpool, Stewart was a highly-rated prospect in their academy, but a serious knee injury in 2021 set him back a bit. Now hoping to start with PNE, Stewart faces a slow start to his life at Deepdale.

Stewart featured in pre-season but failed to feature in matches after arriving from Anfield.

We are yet to see Stewart play for North End and he hasn’t even made the bench yet.

It led to questions about the 21-year-old, and boss Ryan Lowe outlined the physical development needed.

Lowe told Lancs Live in August that he felt Stewart was “miles away” from where he needed to be to make an impact in the North End. Lowe added that Stewart “found things difficult” in pre-season and was “not fit enough”.

Stewart remains highly rated by Lowe, praising him as a “fantastic talent”, and his time will come, but for now it’s a matter of hard work and patience.

PNE have released videos of training at Euxton in recent days with the players continuing to work hard during the international break.

The real attention is on Stewart, who is said to be working on some kind of personal training program starting at minute six.

Stewart was tested with a lot of work on the ball as he stepped up his efforts to