score football magazine

Gerrard puts Hungry England back on track

England 2 Hungary 1 (Wembley friendly 11 August 2010)
Steven Gerrard scored 2 stunning goals as England came from behind against Hungary to start a new era with a win. England who desperately needed to put their disappointing World Cup behind them should have gone ahead in the 13th minute when Walcott skipped past a defender in the box and pulled the ball back to Adam Johnson who lofted it over the bar. In the 34th minute Gerrard whipped in a free-kick which Kiraly tipped over for a corner but just after the hour-mark England were punished for their finishing frailties when Dawson's slip let Gera in which led to Jagielka deflecting the ball goal-bound with Dawson unable to prevent it crossing the line in the officials' eyes. England trailed for 8 minutes until Gerrard lashed the ball past Kiraly with a dipping shot from outside the area and 4 minutes later Gerrard wriggled past 3 Hungarians in the box before poking the ball past the keeper to positively change the mood of Wembley. Zamora let fly in the 75th minute and was unlucky not to be awarded a corner from Kiraly's fingertip intervention, and his header at the far post was palmed over by the Hungarian keeper 7 minutes later. Gera broke through to threaten England's lead with a minute left but Joe Hart stood his ground to foil the Hungarian captain, and England continued to show hunger with Kiraly needing to tip over a shot from Adam Johnson and keep out a header from Bobby Zamora in stoppage time. The win will restore England's confidence before the Euro qualifiers in September.

michael dawson
Dawson unsuccessful off-line clearance

In other friendly matches world champions Spain playing for the first time since lifting the World Cup needed a stoppage time David Silva goal to avoid losing to a 13th minute Henandez goal in Mexico while the Dutch earned the same result in Ukraine. Brazil beat the Americans 2-0 on their home patch while Etoo netted twice for Cameroon who humbled their hosts Poland 3-0, and Australia lost 2-0 in Slovenia. Italy lost their London encounter 1-0 to the Ivory Coast while France were beaten 2-1 in Norway. Denmark came from behind in Copenhagen to draw 2-2 with Germany, and Greece triumphed 1-0 in Serbia while Switzerland achieved the same score in Austria. Scotland were defeated 3-0 in Stockholm while the Irish Republic were beaten 1-0 at home to Argentina, and Northern Ireland lost 2-0 away to the Montenegrins. The Czech Republic and Wales had big home wins thumping Latvia 4-1 and Luxembourg 5-1 respectively. The Cairo International stadium witnessed a goal fest with Egypt enjoying a 6-3 win over DR Congo while Congo lost 3-0 in Burkina Faso. Ghana returned to South Africa after the successful World Cup to lose 1-0 to their hosts and Nigeria returned from South Korea with a 2-1 loss. Iran beat Armenia 3-1 away from home while Bahrain earned a 1-1 draw away to China.
Saag scored twice in the last minute to give Estonia a 2-1 victory over the Faroe Islands in the first match of the Euro 2012 qualifiers while in the African qualifiers Tunisia won 3-1 in Chad and Botswana drew 1-1 in Malawi.

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