International Friendlies

This gave those teams heading for the World Cup Finals in South Africa later this year the chance to do a little experimentation with formations and tactics before the big event. It also gave the players a chance to stake their claims for positions on the plane to South Africa.

England vs Egypt

England faced a tough test against the Egyptians ranked once place below them as the 10th best team in the world. Having been beaten to World Cup qualification by Algeria, the Egyptians recently won their third African Nations Cup and took shoed their class from the outset dominating England early on before taking a deserved lead through Zidan in the twenty-third minute. Fabio Capello made a few changes at the break, most notably bringing Peter Crouch on for the lackluster Jermaine Defoe. It proved an inspired substitution as Crouch scored twice, one either side of a goal by Shaun Wright-Phillips to ease England to what was eventually a comfortable victory.

France vs Spain

Spain underlined their tag as World Cup favorites with a comfortable 2-0 victory of France in Paris. This was their 22nd win in 23 games since they won the European Championships and their first victory over the French in France since? Goals from Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos and Valencia's David Villa sealed the win. The tough French team turned against their own side with Thierry Henry booed and whistled at throughout following his controversial deliberate handball against the Republic of Ireland to seal qualification for the World Cup Finals. Coach Raymond Domenech wasn't spared either as once again he failed to spark a disjointed French team who were outplayed by the classy Spaniards throughout.
Germany vs Argentina

Argentina put their shaky World Cup qualifying campaign behind them with a strong performance against Germany in Munich, taking victory through a classy goal from Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain on the stroke of half-time. Argentina legend and coach Diego Maradona was in a confident mood after the match.

"This game had the character of a World Cup quarter-final and this is the level we were looking for," he said. "Maybe the press in Argentina won't like it, but we are going to play a very good World Cup in South Africa. What we showed is that we have a team who can become world champions for the first time after 24 years," Maradona said.

"But now I have got to reduce my squad from 30 players to 23. That is not going to be easy.

"We showed a lot of courage and the whole of Argentina was looking forward to this game. Germany has great potential and Argentina showed that they are on a par with them."

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