15 November 2015
France 2-0 Germany
Paul Pogba, Patrice Evra and Sami Khedira all appeared in France’s 2-0 win over Germany at the Stade de France on Friday night, in a meeting that paled into insignificance once news from the series of attacks on the city had filtered through.
With both of Juventus’ French representatives Pogba and Evra playing the full 90 minutes, the Euro 2016 hosts were rarely threatened by an experimental German XI that featured domestic team-mate Sami Khedira for the first time in just under a year.
Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud opened the scoring on the stroke of half time, prodding in from Anthony Martial’s mazy dribble and cross before ex-Marseille forward Andre-Pierre Gignac added a second with a fine header five minutes from the end.
Belgium 3-1 Italy
Goals from Jan Vertonghen, Kevin De Bruyne and Michy Batshuayi helped Belgium to a 3-1 victory over Italy in Brussels to end a run of 12 consecutive defeats against the Azzurri.
Following a moving memorial ceremony the night before involving Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini, play was briefly halted in the 39th minute to honour the victims of the Heysel disaster, whose names were displayed on the stadium scoreboard.
Falling behind to Antonio Candreva’s strike, the Red Devils, currently sitting top of the FIFA world rankings, rallied to quickly restore parity ten minutes later courtesy of Vertonghen’s stooping header past Gianluigi Buffon, one of six Juventus players to feature on the night.
Although Italy went close through in-form Sampdoria striker Eder, who saw his shot somehow come back off the crossbar, the Belgians edged in front a quarter of an hour from time as Manchester City midfielder De Bruyne lofted the ball over Buffon following the Bianconeri skipper’s fine stop from Batshuayi.
Batshuayi then rounded off the scoring himself from close range eight minutes later.
Bianconeri Buffon, Chiellini and Claudio Marchisio all started and completed the match while Andrea Barzagli, a late replacement for Leonardo Bonucci, and Simone Zaza were both introduced in the closing stages from the substitute’s bench.
Argentina 1-1 Brazil
In a fixture moved back 24 hours due to heavy rainfall in Buenos Aires, old rivals Argentina and Brazil played out an entertaining 1-1 draw at River Plate’s Estadio Monumental.
Ezequiel Lavezzi had fired the Albiceleste into a merited lead in a one-sided first half but their neighbours fought back and drew level on the hour mark against the run of play thanks to Lucas Lima’s volley.
Spurning golden opportunities throughout, with Sevilla midfielder Ever Banega and Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain both guilty of missing of missing clear-cut chances, Argentina will be left wondering how they were unable to kill off a Brazil side that posed few problems in the final third.
Last year’s World Cup finalists, who handed Paulo Dybala a ten minute cameo on the eve of the Juve top scorer’s birthday, are now winless in three qualifying matches and remain in eight position, three behind Brazil in fifth.
Spain 2-0 England
Alvaro Morata watched on from the sidelines as his compatriots eased past England in Friday evening’s friendly fixture in Alicante.
Bossing from start to finsh, the reigning European champions eventually made their territorial dominance count late in the second half through Mario Gaspar’s superb overhead kick and Santi Cazorla’s cute left-footed finish from the edge of the box.
The result brought an end to the visitors’ 17-month unbeaten run since last summer’s World Cup. Roy Hodgson’s men will now face Pogba and Evra’s France at Wembley on Tuesday evening.
Slovakia 3-2 Switzerland
Despite a spirited late resurgence, Juve defender Stephan Lichtsteiner was powerless to prevent his Swiss side from losing 3-2 to fellow Euro 2016 qualifiers Slovakia in Trnava.
In a game that seemed all but over after 55 minutes as Robert Mak added to Michal Duris’ early brace to hand the home side a commanding 3-0 lead, Lichtsteiner and co. almost staged a miraculous comeback, scoring twice, first through Eren Derdiyok and then Josip Drmic, in four minutes to leave the Slovaks clinging on in the closing stages.
There would be no further goalmouth action after Drmic’s strike however as Jan Kozak’s men defend stoutly to hold the galvanised Swiss at bay.
Serbia U21 1-1 Italy U21
Daniele Rugani’s Italy U21 side battled to a hard-fought Euro 2017 qualifying point in the Serbian city of Novi Sad thanks to Danilo Cataldo’s 56th minute equaliser.
Ever the integral figure for his country’s youth team, Juventus defender Rugani played the full 90 minutes at the Stadion Karadorde as his side preserved their slender lead over Serbia at the top of Euro 2017 qualifying Group 2.
Next up for the Azzurrini is a home tie with Lithuania on Tuesday.
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