On the same day among other friendly matches Germany lost 2-1 at home to France and Italy were stunned by a single American goal in Genoa while Russia conquered Denmark 2-0 on their travels. Wales lost their Gary Speed memorial match in Cardiff 1-0 to Costa Rica and 2 late goals gave Norway a 3-0 win in Northern Ireland while there were 1-1 draws for the Republic of Ireland at home to the Czechs and Scotland away to Slovenia. Poland opened their new stadium in Warsaw with a goalless match against Portugal while Venezuela were thumped 5-0 in Spain and 2 goals from Sebastian Larsson helped Sweden to a 3-1 win in Croatia. Lionel Messi scored his first ever hat-trick for Argentina as the visitors triumphed 3-1 in Switzerland while South American champions Uruguay drew 1-1 in Romania and Jamaica got the better of New Zealand 3-2 in Auckland. Belgium drew 1-1 in Greece and Slovakia returned from Turkey with a 2-1 win.
In Asia the third round of the World Cup qualifiers reached its conclusion with Australia coming from behind to eliminate Saudi Arabia 4-2 in Melbourne. Oman joined the Aussies from group D with a 2-0 victory at home to Thailand while Iraq topped group A, after smashing Singapore 7-1 in Qatar, ahead of Jordan who qualify despite losing 3-1 in China. Kuwait fell 2-0 away to group B winners South Korea giving Lebanon passage despite their 4-2 defeat away to the U.A.E, and in group C Japan suffered a shock 1-0 loss at home to Uzbekistan to qualify behind their visitors while a 2-2 draw at group E winners Iran sent Qatar through, rendering Bahrain's 10-0 annihilation of Indonesia futile.
In the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers Cape Verde demolished Madagascar 4-0 away from home and DR Congo enjoyed the same result at Seychelles while Nigeria were held to a goalless draw at Rwanda and Cameroon needed a last minute goal to win at Guinea Bissau. Togo lost 2-1 at Kenya and Malawi were defeated 3-2 away to Chad while a single goal gave Liberia a home win over Namibia.