Fabio Capello oversaw a winning start to his tenure as England manager on Wednesday with a 2-1 victory over Switzerland, while his Italian compatriots scored an impressive friendly success over Portugal, which augurs well for the Azzurri's chances at Euro 2008.
Despite England's abject failure to qualify for the European Championships in June, their first game under Capello was always going to merit more than a Wembley sideshow and a healthy crowd was warmed by fine goals from Jermaine Jenas and Shaun Wright-Phillips.
In between times, however, the deficiencies of the Steve McClaren era were apparent at the back as Eren Dediyok stole in to notch a fine Swiss consolation.
From the team that started England's last match, a 3-2 Wembley defeat by Croatia that cost McClaren a place at Euro 2008 and his job, only Steven Gerrard, Gareth Barry and Joe Cole survived, with off-form Newcastle striker Michael Owen dropped.
David Bentley shone in the space vacated by David Beckham on the right of midfield, while veteran keeper David James returned just six months short of his 38th birthday and was in no way at fault for Dedijok's goal.
But England will have to kick their heels in June as the cream of the European game heads for Austria and Switzerland, where Italy will be on short odds to add the trophy to their World Cup triumph of 2006 after swatting Portugal 3-1 in Zurich.
Bayern Munich forward Luca Toni opened the scoring in first-half injury-time and AC Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo doubled the advantage six minutes after the break with a bobbling shot from distance.
Ricardo Quaresma pulled a goal back with less than a quarter of an hour to play, but two minutes later Udinese forward Fabio Quagliarella sealed the victory against a Portuguese side whose defending bordered on the chaotic.
Germany, gunning for their fourth European title this summer, were similarly untroubled as they muscled past Austria 3-0 in Vienna with goals from Miroslav Klose, his 37th for his country, Thomas Hitzlsperger and substitute Mario Gomez.
Also in hot form were the Netherlands, who handed Croatia their biggest home loss since independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, 3-0 in Split.
The Dutch dictated the game from the start despite lacking such luminaries as Ruud Van Nistelrooy and won with goals from John Heitinga, Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Vennegor of Hesselink.
In the Euro 2008 finals Croatia will have to do much better with the Germans in their path.
France also have room for improvement after a 1-0 loss to Spain in Malaga.
Joan Capdevila netted from close range with 11 minutes left of an encounter between two former European champions that are currently rebuilding.
Raymond Domenech's French line-up included three stalwarts of the 1998 World Cup win in the shape of Patrick Vieira, Lilian Thuram and Thierry Henry, but it is the new kids on the block such as Lyon star striker Karim Benzema who have caught the eye in recent months.
Benzema saw a header come off the bar late on to see Spain hold on.
Also on Wednesday, Greece came from behind to see off Finland 2-1 in Athens while in Istanbul, Turkey and Sweden parted 0-0.
Israel beat Romania by the only goal, Slovenia bowed 2-1 at home to Denmark and Poland scored an impressive 2-0 win away to the Czech Republic.
In Dublin, meanwhile, a Robinho strike was enough to give Brazil victory against the Republic of Ireland.
Also see: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, North Korea, Uzbekistan and UAE join Asian victors
Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen yesterday exited at the BWF World Tour Finals in China, losing in the semi-finals to China’s world No. 1 Shi Yuqi. Shi, who was named the BWF Men’s Singles Player of the Year, had a 9-4 record against Chou going into the match. He extended that record to 9-5 with a 21-14, 21-18 victory. Chou advanced to the men’s singles semi-finals on Friday by upsetting top-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a must-win match at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium. The 16-21, 21-18, 21-15 victory saw Chou secure his second semi-finals appearance at the tournament, despite his relatively older
India’s chess star Gukesh Dommaraju returned to a hero’s welcome in his home city yesterday after becoming the youngest world champion aged only 18. Hundreds of fans crowded the arrivals area of Chennai International Airport, cheering alongside banks of television cameras as Gukesh made his way out of the airport after victory in taking the World Chess Championship title. “It means a lot to bring back the trophy to India,” Gukesh told reporters, with garlands of flowers draped around his neck, brandishing the glittering trophy in his hand. “I can see the support and what it means to India, I
Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest chess world champion on Thursday after beating the defending champion Ding Liren of China in the final match of their series in Singapore. Dommaraju, 18, secured 7.5 points against 6.5 of his Chinese rival in the contest, surpassing the achievement of Russia’s Garry Kasparov, who won the title at the age of 22. The Indian teen prodigy has long been considered a rising star in the chess world after he became a chess grandmaster at 12. He had entered the match as the youngest-ever challenger to the world crown after winning the Candidates tournament earlier
China yesterday jailed former English Premier League star and China men’s national coach Li Tie for 20 years for bribery, snaring one of the country’s greatest soccer figures in a sweeping government crackdown on corruption in sport. Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged an unrelenting campaign against deep-seated official corruption since coming to power more than a decade ago. Anti-graft authorities took aim at the sport industry in 2022 and have announced a string of convictions for former soccer administrators this week. In the highest-profile case to date, a court in Hubei Province yesterday said that Li had been sentenced to “fixed-term imprisonment
RSS