International Football 14 November 2009

Brazil too hot for England

Brazil 1 England 0 (Doha 14 November 2009)
A single goal from Nilmar in the heat of Qatar condemned a reshaped England to defeat against Brazil. England started positively but Brazil gained control and 2 minutes after the interval Elano floated the ball into the box for Nilmar to find the corner of the net with a looping header past the diving Foster who was lucky to stay on the pitch when he brought Nilmar down in the box after Wes Brown chested the ball back into the path of the Brazilian in the 54th minute. England escaped further punishment when Luis Fabiano lofted the spot kick over the bar. Lucio struck the upright with a 25-yard scorcher in the 78th minute and with England only able to create half-chances in the closing stages of he match Brazil held on to a 1-0 win.

Kaka a handful for England

In the European first leg play-off matches Anelka scored the only goal in Dublin to give France a huge advantage ahead of their return match against the Irish on Wednesday and Pecnik gave Slovenia hope with a late away goal after Bilyaletdinov had given Russia the lead with a double in Moscow. Ukraine held Greece to a goalless draw in Athens and Portugal managed a single goal at home to Bosnia & Herzegovina.

A goal from Rory Fallon and a penalty save secured New Zealand a place in the finals with a home win over Bahrain while a 1-0 win in Costa Rica gave Uruguay the upper hand before their return match in Montevideo. In Mozambique an 83rd minute goal ended the hopes of Tunisia with a 1-0 defeat as at the exact same time Obefami Martins was scoring his second goal for Nigeria to give the Super Eagles a 3-2 win in Kenya and a ticket to South Africa. Cameroon also qualified for the World Cup winning 2-0 in Morocco while a last gasp goal for Egypt deep into stoppage time secured the hosts a 2-0 win against Algeria and a reply in Sudan.
In the Asian Cup qualifiers ten-man Australia won 2-1 in Oman and there were also wins for Uzbekistan, Thailand, Syria, Iran, China and Kuwait.
Among friendly matches Spain beat Argentina 2-1 and the Dutch drew 0-0 in Italy while Wales triumphed 3-0 over Scotland in Cardiff. Poland lost 1-0 at home to Romania, and Switzerland suffered the same fate at home to Norway.