score football magazine

Crouch double turns table on African kings

England 3 Egypt 1 Friendly (Wembley 3 March 2010)
Newly crowned champions of Africa, Egypt, took the lead at Wembley but were beaten thanks to an improved 2nd half performance by England. El Hadary in the Egypt goal blocked a Lampard side-footer from close range in the 5th minute, but it was Egypt who took the lead when Zidan received a long pass and finished with confidence in the 23rd minute. Capello made several changes in the 2nd half, and it was substitute Peter Crouch who got on the end of some quick passes to knock the ball past El Hadary for a 56th minute leveller. El Hadary could only parry Milner's smashing volley into the path of Shaun Wright-Philips who hammered the ball into the back of the net in the75th minute, and 5 minutes a low cross from Wright Philips was poked in by Crouch to give England a deserved 3-1 victory.

peter crouch
Crouch tucks ball past El Hadary

In other matches a single goal gave Diego Maradona's Argentina victory on German soil while Spain recorded a 2-0 win over France in Paris and Senegal defeated Greece 2-0 in Volos. Several other teams suffered home losses including Algeria 3-0 to Serbia, Romania 2-0 to Israel, Switzerland 3-1 to Uruguay, and there were 1-0 home defeats for Slovakia against Norway, Wales against Sweden and Belgium against Croatia. A goal from Scott Brown gave Scotland a 1-0 home win over the Czech Republic in their first match under Craig Levein, while the Netherlands and Austria won their home matches 2-1 against the USA and Denmark respectively. London hosted Ivory Coast and South Korea at Loftus Road with the Koreans coming out 2-0 winners, and on Tuesday Brazil defeated the Irish by the same result at the Emirates.
The Asian Cup qualifiers reached its conclusion with Kuwait drawing 0-0 in Oman to secure a place in next year's games. The UAE topped their group after a 1-0 win in Uzbekistan who also qualify. Bryan Robson took Thailand to Tehran needing a win against group leaders Iran, but fell to a last minute goal and lost out as a result of a 2-1 Jordanian win at home to Singapore. Syria celebrated winning their group ahead of China by sweeping aside Lebanon 4-0 at home. Japan beat Bahrain 2-0 and Australia finished with an unconvincing 1-0 home win over Indonesia. The teams to qualify are Japan, Bahrain, Australia, Kuwait, UAE, Uzbekistan, Syria, China, Iran and Jordan, plus reigning champions Iraq and hosts Qatar.

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