England edged out old enemies Scotland in a five-goal thriller at Wembley in London on Wednesday in what proved to be the pick of a busy night of international action.
The midweek friendly date sanctioned by FIFA is not the most popular among clubs, falling as it does just as Europe’s leading domestic leagues are getting underway, but there was plenty of drama with England beating Scotland 3-2, while Germany shared six goals with Paraguay, Italy lost to Argentina in Rome, FIFA Confederations Cup winners Brazil went down to defeat in Switzerland and reigning world and European champions Spain triumphed in Ecuador.
In a revival of the oldest international fixture in world soccer, Scotland were in front twice at Wembley, goals from James Morrison and Kenny Miller sending 20,000 visiting fans wild with delight, but England hit back each time, first through Theo Walcott and then Danny Welbeck, before 31-year-old Southampton striker Rickie Lambert headed in what proved to be the winner 20 minutes from time on his debut.
Photo: Reuters
“Rickie Lambert has been so enthusiastic — he’s been like a young boy with a new toy,” England manager Roy Hodgson said. “He almost got three and I’m delighted with him.”
While England emerged victorious, Germany displayed defensive weaknesses again in an admittedly entertaining 3-3 draw with Paraguay in Kaiserslautern.
The hosts were 2-0 and 3-2 down in the first half against the 2010 World Cup quarter-finalists — who nevertheless sit bottom of South American qualifying for next year’s finals — before coming back to draw as Ilkay Gundogan, Thomas Mueller and Lars Bender netted for the hosts.
Photo: Reuters
“We only trained twice before this match,” Bayern Munich defender and Germany captain Philipp Lahm said.
Elsewhere, Spain’s latest transatlantic trip to play in a money-spinning friendly saw them beat Ecuador 2-0 in Guayaquil, Manchester City’s Alvaro Negredo and Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla scoring the goals for the visitors.
By contrast, Brazil went down to a 1-0 defeat to Switzerland in Basel, with a farcical Dani Alves own-goal early in the second half separating the sides.
Photo: Reuters
The Barcelona fullback inexplicably headed the ball past his own goalkeeper Jefferson at the back post to give Switzerland — top of European World Cup qualifying Group E — a surprise win.
Brazil’s old rivals Argentina won 2-1 against Italy in Rome, despite being deprived of the presence of World Player of the Year Lionel Messi.
Gonzalo Higuain, who recently moved to Serie A side SSC Napoli, and Ever Banega netted for the visitors, before Lorenzo Insigne got one back for the Azzurri, who were themselves missing star striker Mario Balotelli.
Photo: EPA
“When a team is used to playing with Messi, you can see the difference when he is not there,” Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella said. “Messi is irreplaceable, [but] the character and desire we showed really pleased me.”
In other games, Portugal and the Netherlands drew 1-1 on the Algarve, with a late Cristiano Ronaldo goal earning the home side a draw after Kevin Strootman had put the Netherlands in front.
Paris Saint-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted a hat-trick as Sweden beat neighbors Norway 4-2 in Solna, but France saw their woes in front of goal continue as they drew 0-0 in Belgium.
Les Bleus have now gone more than six hours without putting the ball in the net, with supposed star striker Karim Benzema seeing his international goal drought stretch to more than 19 hours.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier