France, Belgium, Spain, and Denmark ease to international friendly victories; Portugal and Poland qualify for 2022 World Cup in Qatar
Tuesday 29 March 2022 23:49, UK
Steven Bergwijn scored his third goal in two matches as Holland fought back to earn a 1-1 draw against Germany after Thomas Muller's opener in Amsterdam.
Muller capped a dominant first-half display for the visitors in the Amsterdam ArenA when he fired into the roof of the net on the stroke of half-time after Jamal Musiala's cross fell invitingly for the Bayern Munich striker.
Bergwijn, who scored twice against Denmark on Saturday, came on as a second-half substitute and equalised with a powerful volley after Denzel Dumfries headed the ball back across the face of the goal.
Spain cruised to a 5-0 win in a friendly at home against Iceland as coach Luis Enrique continued his experimenting ahead of the World Cup.
Alvaro Morata scored twice in the first half and Yeremi Pino and Pablo Sarabia added goals in the second to secure Spain the easy victory in A Coruna.
Morata was the only player kept in the starting line-up after Spain's 2-1 win against Albania on Saturday in Barcelona.
In Brussels, an experimental Belgium team enjoyed a comfortable night in a 3-0 win against Burkina Faso.
The Red Devils were without Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku as coach Roberto Martinez fielded a team with fewer than 50 international appearances.
The lack of experience within the Belgian defence was clear but goalkeeper Matz Sels kept a clean sheet as the hosts more than made up for their mistakes with a good offensive display, capped with goals from Hans Vanaken, Leandro Trossard and Christian Benteke.
France extended their winning run to seven matches as two goals from Kylian Mbappe inspired the reigning world champions to a 5-0 friendly victory over South Africa in Lille.
Les Bleus, who have not lost since being knocked out of Euro 2020 at the last-16 stage by Switzerland on penalties, were never troubled by a team they had not faced since their debacle at the 2010 World Cup.
That year France exited the finals after an infamous off-field meltdown in which the players went on strike, but Didier Deschamps' side were very business-like on Tuesday with Olivier Giroud on target in the first either side of Mbappe's efforts, before Wissam Ben Yedder and Matteo Guendouzi added late goals.
Italy began their rehabilitation from their crushing World Cup play-off elimination to North Macedonia with a 3-2 victory over Turkey.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, heavily criticised in the wake of the defeat to North Macedonia, was at fault again for both of Turkey's goals, as Cengiz Under's shot went through his legs at his near post inside four minutes before he was undone by Serdar Dursun late flick-on.
Donnarumma did atone for his errors with two fantastic saves, however, laying the foundations for a much-changed Italy to equalise through Bryan Cristante's 35th-minute header.
The Azzurri turned the match around completely four minutes later when Giacomo Raspadori found the net.
Raspadori, who had only scored once before for Italy, pounced again in the 69th with a close-range effort into the near bottom corner after Biraghi had nodded on a cross.
Christian Eriksen scored on an emotional return to the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen on Tuesday evening as he captained the side to a 3-0 friendly win over Serbia.
The 30-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest during Denmark's opening Euro 2020 group game against Finland last June, needing lifesaving treatment on the pitch after his collapse.
Following his recovery, former Tottenham playmaker Eriksen had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) device fitted and after leaving Inter Milan, he joined Brentford in January to resume his career.
Eriksen had made his international comeback in the 4-2 defeat by Holland on Saturday, when he scored two minutes after coming on at the break.
Denmark took the lead in the 15th minute when Joakim Maehle drilled the ball in after it dropped to him at the edge of the penalty area following a corner.
Eintracht Frankfurt midfielder Jesper Lindstrom slotted home his first senior international goal eight minutes into the second half.
Eriksen soon brought the Denmark fans to their feet again in the 57th minute when he swept the ball into the bottom corner after being picked out by Norgaard at the edge of the Serbia penalty area.
Bruno Fernandes scored twice as Portugal sealed their place in their sixth consecutive World Cup finals with a 2-0 win over North Macedonia in Porto.
Fernandes ended the visitors' resistance with a 32nd-minute opener after being played in by a neat bit of skill by Cristiano Ronaldo.
From that moment on there was little danger of the North Macedonians repeating the heroics that saw them dump Italy out of the tournament with a dramatic late winner in Palermo last week.
Fernandes sealed his side's passage to Qatar in the 65th minute when he finished off a lightning counter-attack by stroking the ball past keeper Stole Dimitrievski.
Poland joined Portugal in Qatar after securing a similarly straight forward 2-0 win over Sweden in Chorzow.
The Poles, granted a bye to the final qualifying stage following the expulsion of Russia, led through Robert Lewandowski's 49th-minute penalty before a 74th-minute effort from Piotr Zielinski sealed the deal.
