BartaBangla Desk :: Tetchy Brazil were upset 1-0 in Switzerland while Argentina beat Italy 2-1 even without Lionel Messi on a mostly successful night for South American teams in friendlies ahead of next month’s World Cup qualifiers.
Paraguay, bottom of their qualifying group and with almost no hope of reaching a fifth World Cup finals in a row, managed a shock 3-3 draw away to an unusually sloppy Germany side on coach Victor Genes’s debut.
A largely experimental Spain team earned a 2-0 away win over Ecuador to keep the European flag flying in the steamy Pacific port city of Guayaquil with goals from Alvaro Negredo and Santi Cazorla for the world champions.
England, by no means sure of a direct berth into the World Cup finals, fought back twice for a 3-2 win over Scotland at Wembley in an enthralling first clash between the bitter rivals since 1999.
In the night’s only World Cup qualifier, Russia blew a chance to overtake Portugal at the top of European Group F when they were upset 1-0 by Northern Ireland in Belfast, Martin Paterson scoring the only goal two minutes before halftime.
The 2014 World Cup hosts Brazil, fresh from their Confederations Cup triumph, were disappointing in Berne where they failed to recover from a Dani Alves own goal just after the interval.
Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari argued that his team were less prepared than the Swiss for an international date at the end of the mid-year off-season.