score football magazine

A couple for Capello

England 2 Switzerland 1 (Wembley friendly 6 February 2008)
England beat Switzerland 2-1 in their first match under the leadership of Italian coach Fabio Capello. Joe Cole presented Rooney with a good chance in the 10th minute, but Benaglio was quickly off his line to make the block. In a rare attack by the Swiss Senderos headed the ball on for Eggimann's glancing header to go wide of the post in the 27th minute, but England regained control and 4 minutes later Jenas got into the box but saw his poor pass towards Cole intercepted by the Swiss keeper. With the crowd getting impatient, Joe Cole and Wayne Rooney tested Benaglio in the 36th and 38th minute, but in the 40th minutes Cole got to the by-line and found Jermaine Jenas who side-footed in his first goal for England. In the 2nd half England created more chances and after 3 minutes a cross fell to Rooney who failed to bring the ball under control and saw it trickle past the post. Benaglio was at full stretch in the 53rd minute diving to his right to deny Jenas from outside the area, but 5 minutes later Hakan Yakin threaded the ball to debutant Derdiyok who rifled it into the bottom corner past David James. England were ahead again within 4 minutes when Gerrard found Shaun Wright-Phillips for a tap-in. Crouch tested Benaglio with a volley in the 67th minute, but England failed to add to their tally.

shaun wright-phillips
Shaun Wright-Phillips celebrates winning goal for England

In other friendly matches world champions Italy beat Portugal 3-1 in Switzerland, while World Cup finalists France lost by a single goal away to Spain. Croatia suffered their first ever home defeat, losing 3-0 to the Dutch and Wales enjoyed an impressive 3-0 victory at home to Norway. Robinho scored the only goal for Brazil in Ireland, and Denmark returned from Slovenia with a 2-1 win. Euro co-hosts Austria lost 3-0 at home to Germany and Latvia recorded a 3-1 win in Georgia while Israel beat Romania 1-0. Edixon Perea scored twice for Colombia in their 2-2 draw in Uruguay, as did Magallon for Mexico who achieved the same result away to the USA. A late goal in Bolivia gave the hosts a 2-1 win over Peru.

Among World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Iraq played their home match against China in the UAE and drew 1-1 while Iran were held to a goalless draw at home to Syria. Japan beat Thailand 4-1 and Australia scored 3 golas in the first half to beat Qatar 3-0 in Melbourne. In the CONCACAF section the Netherlands Antilles won 1-0 in Nicaragua while the Turks And Caicos Islands beat St Lucia 2-1. Dominica drew their home match 1-1 with Barbados while Aruba lost their home game 3-0 to Antigua & Barbuda. Rudis Corrales scored 5 times at home as El Salvador put 12 past Aguilla without reply

Back to index

Home Page