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Friendlies round-up

Barcelona star Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick as he inspired Argentina to a 3-1 win over Switzerland.

Wins for Argentina, Slovakia, Jamaica, Austria and Montenegro

Barcelona star Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick as he inspired Argentina to a 3-1 win over Switzerland. Messi opened the scoring in Bern after good work from Sergio Aguero, but the Swiss levelled matters when their own forward sensation Xherdan Shaqiri scored just after the break. But Messi put Argentina ahead with two-minutes left before converting an injury-time penalty to seal the win. Slovakia inflicted an opening defeat on new Turkey coach Abdullah Avci as they claimed a 2-1 win in Bursa. Vladimir Weiss gave Slovakia the lead after 24 minutes and just before the break they doubled their advantage through Miroslav Stoch. Omer Toprak pulled one back five minutes from time for the home side, but they could not find an equaliser. Romania came from behind to draw 1-1 with World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay in Bucharest. The ubiquitous Edison Cavani opened the scoring after just two-minutes, but Romania claimed a draw thanks to Bogdan Stancu's effort on the hour. Austria cruised to a 3-1 win over Finland in Worthersee with Marc Janko, Martin Harnik and Andreas Ivanschitz scoring. Jamaica earned a 3-2 win over New Zealand in Auckland on Wednesday. The Reggae Boyz, ranked 70 places above the All Whites at 50th in the world, were dominant for much of the match and were ahead at the break thanks to Xavian Virgo. Damion Stewart doubled their advantage just after the break before Chris Wood pulled one back for the home side. The win was sealed by Navion Boyd, although Chris Killen's late header gave New Zealand some hope - but they could not find an equaliser. A second-half brace from Stevan Jovetic gave Montenegro a 2-1 win over Iceland in Podgorica. A late equaliser from Valeri Bojinov gave Bulgaria a 1-1 draw in Hungary - who took a first-half lead through Adam Szalai. A young Serbia side, played out a goalless draw in Cyrpus - which was the same score as two international clashes in Antalya, where Latvia drew with Kazakhstan and Moldova held Belarus. Georgia came from behind to claim a 2-1 win over Albania in Tblisi. Edgar Cani put the visitors ahead just three minutes in, but Temuri Ketsbaia's men hit back and secured the win thanks to strikes from Alexander Kobakhidze and Alexander Amisulashvili. Armenia claimed a 3-1 win over Canada, with Brazil-born Marcos Pizzelli claiming a brace. Elsewhere, Luxembourg beat Macedonia 2-1 whilst Malta beat Liechtenstein by the same score.

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