International Football 11-12 November 2011

A result to remember

England 1 Spain 0 (Wembley friendly 12 November 2011)
England defeated world champions Spain with a Frank Lampard goal early in the 2nd half. Neither side produced any meaningful chances in the first 45 minutes but 4 minutes after the break a Milner free-kick was headed onto the post by Bent for Lampard who was captaining England for the night to head over the line. In the 56th minute Villa picked up a through ball and got past Hart but hit the side netting and 10 minutes later a one-two between Wellbeck and Rodwell caused concern in the Spanish defence, but it was Villa who came closest in the 73rd minute when he took a defensive header on his chest and hit the post with a volley. Fabregas tested Hart with a quick turn and deflected shot in the 89th minute and less than a minute later side-footed the ball just past the England upright as the hosts hung on to claim a victory in front of a packed Wembley on Remembrance weekend.

Darren Bent header beats Reina for Lampard winner

In first-leg Euro play-off matches Estonia who ended their home match with 9 men were thrashed 4-0 by the Republic of Ireland for whom Robbie Keane truck twice and Croatia took a huge step towards the finals with a 3-0 triumph in Turkey while The Czech Republic put 2 past their visitors from Montenegro and Portugal fired blanks away to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In World Cup qualifiers Luis Suarez scored all 4 goals as Chile came undone in Uruguay while Argentina were booed off the pitch after their 1-1 draw with Bolivia and Venezuela earned a 1-1 draw in Colombia while Ecuador lost 2-1 in Paraguay.
Among Asian matches Australia lost 1-0 in Oman and China suffered the same outcome against Iraq in Qatar while South Korea won by 2 goals in the United Arab Emirates and Iran salvaged a 1-1 draw with a last-minute goal away to Bahrain.
In the CONCACAF section Puerto Rico sailed to a 4-0 victory at St Lucia while Barbados lost 2-1 in Bermuda and Canada played a goalless match at Saint Kitts and Nevis. Guyana defeated their visitors from Trinidad and Tobago 2-1 while the Dominican Republic brushed the Cayman Islands aside 4-0 and Haiti lost 1-0 away to Antigua and Barbuda.
The World Cup qualifiers got underway in Africa with Namibia winning 4-0 in Djibouti and Rwanda drawing 1-1 away to Eritrea. Burundi suffered a 1-0 loss in Lesotho while Somalia held Ethiopia to a goalless draw in their home match played in Djobouti and Togo drew 1-1 at Guinea-Bissau.
In friendly matches Germany came from 3-1 down to draw in Ukraine while the Dutch were held to a goalless draw at home to Switzerland and Russia drew 1-1 in Greece. Denmark defeated their neighbours from Sweden 2-0 and Italy achieved the same result away to Poland while Wales hammered Norway 4-1 with 2 late goals from Vokes in Cardiff. The USA lost 1-0 in France while Serbia fell 2-0 in Mexico and Hungary hammered Liechtenstein 5-0 in a memorial match for Florian Albert.