World Cup Friendlies: Spain Defeat Italy;Brazil thrash South Africa; Argentina Matched by Romania
With less than 100 days to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, most participating Countries were involved in friendly matches across the world on Wednesday, including Argentina, who drew 0-0 with Romania, and host nation Brazil, who sunk five goals past South Africa in Johannesburg.
Among the fixtures involving two qualified teams, Spain defeated Italy (1-0), Portugal saw off Cameroon 5-1 in Leiria, France had an impressive 2-0 victory over the Netherlands, and Germany almost didn’t beat Chile. England, meanwhile, overcame Denmark 1-0.
In Madrid, the intensity of play exhibited was betrayed by the scoreline as the single goal of the match by Pedro in the 63rd minute didn’t do the game enough justice.
Current holders of the World Cup, Spain made the breakthrough in the second half as Andres Iniesta’s backheel took the Italian defence by surprise and enabled Pedro to pounce on the ball and force it past Gianluigi Buffon.
Spain, helped by the outstanding Thiago, dominated the midfield battle and outshot their opponents by 23 to 4. The Azuris, deprived of the injured Mario Balotelli, again appeared to lack a cutting edge in attack.
In Johannesburg, accompanied by the sound of vuvuzelas reverberating around the stadium, Brazil danced their way through the South African defence on numerous occasions to defeat their hosts 5-0. Neymar scored a hat-trick and Oscar dominated the midfield, with Fernandinho, Hulk and Fred also performing well, the encounter provided many reasons for Brazilian fans to look forward to the World Cup with confidence.
In Bucharest, another World contender, Argentina, put in a disorganised and disappointing display versus Romania. The goalless match was exemplified by a subdued outing from Lionel Messi and the top performer for Argentina was Monaco’s reserve goalkeeper, Sergio Romero.
France, empowered by forward Karim Benzema and holding midfielder Blaise Matuidi, who both scored in Paris, defeated an inadequate and defensively shaky Dutch team 2-0 as a young Portugal team inflicted a heavy defeat on Cameroon (5-1) in a match that saw Cristiano Ronaldo bag a brace. The Africans were on level terms at half-time, but fell away in the second period.
Germany, whose starting line-up included six players from Bayern Munich, got off to an excellent start through Mario Gotze’s early goal, but were subsequently made to suffer by an enterprising Chilean team who didn’t give up fighting till the very end.
England were also made to look second-best at times against Denmark, and had to wait until the 82nd minute to open the scoring via Daniel Sturridge. Switzerland and Croatia played an entertaining 2-2 draw – featuring doubles from Ivica Olic and Josip Drmic – in St. Gallen, while fans in Brussels, where Belgium hosted Côte d’Ivoire (2-2), were also treated to an exciting 90 minutes.
The results
Spain 1-0 Italy
France 2-0 Netherlands
Switzerland 2-2 Croatia
Greece 0-2 Korea Republic
Mexico 0-0 Nigeria
Portugal 5-1 Cameroon
Belgium 2-2 Côte d’Ivoire
Germany 1-0 Chile
Australia 3-4 Ecuador
Romania 0-0 Argentina
South Africa 0-5 Brazil
Russia 2-0 Armenia
Costa Rica 2-1 Paraguay
Bosnia-Herzegovina 0-2 Egypt
Iran 1-2 Guinea
Algeria 2-0 Slovenia
Colombia 1-1 Tunisia
Japan 4-2 New Zealand
Honduras 2-1 Venezuela
Montenegro 1-0 Ghana
England 1-0 Denmark
Austria 1-1 Uruguay
Ukraine 2-0 USA