International Friendlies Review
A Lionel Messi wonder goal saw Argentina narrowly edge out Brazil 1-0 in Wednesday’s friendly international in Doha.
Messi settled an even contest in the final minute, the Barcelona star picking up Ezequiel Lavezzi’s pass before slaloming past four defenders and stroking the ball home into [...]
Sweden 0-0 Germany
Sweden and Germany ground out a yawn-inducing draw in Wednesday’s friendly in Gothenburg.
Star names were missing from both sides, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic absent for the hosts and Mesut Ozil, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski all out for their opponents.The game missed their quality, with neither [...]
Portugal 4-0 Spain
Portugal inflicted a heavy 4-0 defeat on their Iberian neighbours Spain in an international friendly in Lisbon.
Goals from Jorge Carlos Martins, visiting defender Sergio Ramos, who put into his own net, Helder Postiga and Hugo Almeida sealed a deserved win for the Portuguese, who were knocked out at [...]
Romania 1-1 Italy
An own goal from Ciprian Marica handed Italy a deserved 1-1 draw in a friendly against Romania in Austria.
Marica nodded the ball into his own net in the 83rd minute after substitute Fabio Quagliarella had managed to get a touch to Andrea Pirlo’s corner.Marica had earlier been poised to emerge [...]
Holland 1-0 Turkey
Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored the only goal as Holland defeated Turkey 1-0 in a friendly international in Amsterdam.
Huntelaar struck after 52 minutes when he found the net from the edge of the area.Turkey threatened first when Hamit Altintop’s free-kick was cleared and then Burak Yilmaz saw his [...]
Argentina 1-0 Brazil
Messi struck a superb stoppage-time winner to give Argentina their first victory over Brazil since June 2005.
Brazil, looking to build on promising early results under their new coach Mano Menezes, were the strongest side for most of the match which was staged in Qatar, but they could not stop Barcelona [...]
England 1-2 France
Fabio Capello’s youthful England team were jeered off after a 2-1 defeat to France at Wembley.
Aside from Andy Carroll, who did as well as he could with such little service, and the ever-dependable Steven Gerrard, there were few straws for England to grasp until substitute Peter Crouch did what [...]
Carroll set for England debut
Newcastle striker Andy Carroll will make his England debut against France tomorrow, Fabio Capello confirmed today.
The 21-year-old trained today after sitting out yesterday’s session with a slight injury and will start alongside Sunderland’s Jordan Henderson, who also wins his first cap, [...]
Man United 1-0 Bursaspor
Manchester United began life without Wayne Rooney with a victory at Old Trafford.
Their performance was nothing special once Nani had netted the sixth-minute goal that earned United a Champions League win over Bursaspor.Neither did it do much to dispel Rooney’s claim his club now lack ambition, [...]
England 0-0 Montenegro
Fabio Capello defended his England side after they slumped to a disappointing goalless draw against Montenegro at Wembley.
England should have had a penalty when Montenegro defender Milan Jovanovic clearly handled the ball in the second half but the same player then rattled the England crossbar minutes [...]
Germany 3-0 Turkey
Mesut Ozil helped Germany to their third straight Euro 2012 qualifying win with a goal against Turkey in a 3-0 win.
The Real Madrid forward scored for Joachim Low’s side in the 79th minute after Miroslav Klose had netted his fourth goal so far in the qualifying campaign in the 42nd minute. [...]
Spain 3-1 Lithuania
Spain moved to the top of Euro 2012 qualifying group I after beating Lithuania thanks to three second-half headed goals.
Fernando Llorente, making the most of a rare start in place of the injured Fernando Torres, netted a brace while David Silva added a third late on after Lithuania had earlier [...]
