Wins for Germany, England, but shock defeat for Italy

The Netherlands, starting life under Marco van Basten, performed creditably against Sweden in Stockholm, leaving with a 2-2 draw, but former European champions France, also beginning a new era with coach Raymond Domenech, did not fare so well, their new-look side only drawing 1-1 with Bosnia in Rennes.

There was also a shock for Turkey, World Cup semi-finalists just two years ago. After failing to qualify for Euro 2004 and having to watch arch-rivals Greece win it, Turkey started the season with a shock 2-1 home defeat to lowly-ranked Belarus. Greece, who inherited the European title from the French in Portugal last month, drew 0-0 with the Czech Republic in Prague, the country they beat 1-0 with a silver-goal winner in the semi-finals of Euro 2004 just over six weeks ago.

Denmark scored a one-sided 5-1 win over Poland in Poznan with Peter Madsen scoring a hat-trick, while Russia edged a seven-goal thriller 4-3 against Lithuania in Moscow with Victor Onopko making a record 113th appearance for the home side.

Meanwhile Spain, with 66-year-old Luis Aragones at the helm for the first time, beat Venezuela 3-2 in Las Palmas with Fernando Morientes opening the scoring and Raul Tamudo scoring twice in the second half.

Elsewhere, there was an emphatic 6-0 win by world champions Brazil in their ‘peace match’ against Haiti in Port-au-Prince with Ronaldinho spearheading their victory with a hat-trick. Earlier in the day, Argentina beat newly-crowned Asian champions Japan 2-1 in Shizuoka — their seventh successive win over the Japanese since they first met in 1988.

For most of the European countries, Wednesday’s games were their only warm-ups before their World Cup qualifiers begin early next month, but four European zone World Cup qualifiers were played. In Group One, Macedonia beat Armenia 3-0 and Romania beat Finland 2-1 while in Group Three, Estonia won 2-1 away to Liechtenstein, who finished the match with nine men, while Slovakia beat Luxembourg 3-1.

Apart from Belarus’s unexpected win over Turkey, the biggest shock of the night was in Reykjavik where Iceland beat Italy thanks to goals from Eidur Gudjohnsen after 17 minutes and Gylfi Einarsson two minutes later. Although the domestic Icelandic season is in full swing and the Italian season does not start until the middle of next month, the result was still a surprise.

Italy will need to improve quickly before they start their World Cup qualifiers against Norway on September 4 and away to Moldova four days later. (Reuters)