International Football February 2011

England back to winning ways

Denmark 1 England 2 (Copenhagen friendly 9 February 2011)
Goals from Aston Villa duo Bent and Young gave England a winning start to the year after falling behind in Denmark. The Danes took an 8th minute lead when Daniel Agger met Eriksen's dangerous cross with a brave diving header to beat Hart in the England goal, but 2 minutes later England were on level terms when Walcott wriggled past his marker to send a low ball across the goal for Darren Bent to tap over the line. Eriksen smashed the ball against the base of the post in the 34th minute, but England survived and grabbed the winner in the 68th minute when Johnson picked the ball up on the right, ran towards goal and squared it to Ashley Young who side-footed it into the bottom right corner past Sorensen.

England fall behind to Agger header

On the same day a goal from Benzema was the difference between France and 10-man Brazil in Paris, while Italy earned a 1-1 draw in Germany and David Villa scored a late goal to win the match for Spain against Colombia in Madrid. A last minute Messi penalty gave Argentina a 2-1 win over Portugal in Switzerland and the stylish Dutch cruised 3-1 past Austria in Eindhoven while Nicola Kalinic scored twice at home in Croatia's 4-2 win over the Czech Republic. Iran beat Russia 1-0 in Dubai and Poland enjoyed the same result over Norway in Portugal while Switzerland drew blanks away to the Maltese as did South Korea away to Turkey. Slovakia fell to a 2-1 defeat away to Luxembourg and Finland drew 1-1 in Belgium, while in Turkey Estonia shared 4 goals with Bulgaria and Latvia defeated Bolivia 2-1. A single goal gave Cameroon a victory over their Macedonian hosts and Serbia returned from Israel with a 2-0 win while Guinea Bissau upset Gambia 3-1 in Portugal and Mexico defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 in the USA. Scotland eased 3-0 past Northern Ireland in Dublin where a day earlier the Republic of Ireland had achieved the same result over Wales.