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Seven international friendly matches were played on Friday. The only victories in the preparation for the World Cup were achieved by Germany, who defeated Colombia, and Liechtenstein, who narrowly beat Togo, while Sweden failed to beat Chile, Italy, Ukraine, and Tunisia ended their matches with Uruguay goalless, and Angola lost to Turkey.
With one week left until the World Cup, the Germans warmed up in a match against Colombia. Michael Ballack scored for the hosts in the 21st minute, after Bastian Schweinsteiger's penalty kick, jumping higher than two opponents and heading the ball into the goal. In the 38th minute, the Germans scored another goal from a set piece, this time with a long-range shot from 25 meters by Schweinsteiger himself.
The match was officiated by Norwegian referee Terje Hauge, who showed a red card to Jens Lehmann in the Champions League final, but this time the German defense held and did not cause major problems for the goalkeeper. In the 69th minute, substitute Tim Borowski scored another goal with a powerful long-range shot. The Germans won and after previous failures in previous matches, they secured a morale-boosting victory.
Togo's team also finished their preparations positively for the tournament by defeating Liechtenstein. Mohamed Abdel Kader scored the only goal in the match. Meanwhile, the Swedish team ended a series of almost half a year without goals - in a match against Chile, Henrik Larsson scored in the 32nd minute, but Humberto Suazo equalized in the 51st minute, allowing the Chileans to secure a draw.
Angola suffered a second consecutive defeat. This time, the Africans had to acknowledge Turkey's superiority after a closely fought battle. Angola took the lead through Fabrice Akwa's goal in the 32nd minute, but Necati Ateş equalized at the beginning of the second half, and the Turks took the lead in the 71st minute through Nihat Kahveci. Arsenio Love levelled the score in the 83rd minute for Angola, but Halil Altıntop scored the winning goal for Turkey a minute later.
Tunisia also ended a friendly match with a defeat, but they can take comfort in the fact that they only lost to Uruguay on penalties in the final of a friendly tournament played at home, as the main match ended goalless. Libya claimed third place in the tournament, securing a draw in the final minute and also defeating Belarus in a penalty shootout.
Playing out peacefully with a Ukraine without Andriy Shevchenko, Italy extended their unbeaten streak to 18 matches. However, the Italian national team played unimpressively for the second consecutive match and failed to beat their opponents. Italy's defender Daniele De Rossi had the best chance to score, but his header was well saved by the Ukrainian goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskiy. At the end of the match, Ukraine had the opportunity to snatch victory with long-range shots throughout the game, but Ukrainian forward Andriy Voronin failed to beat goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and the match ended goalless.
Results of Friday's international friendly matches: Libya 1 - 1 Belarus (3-1 on penalties) 12' [0 - 1] Sergey Shtanuk 90' [1 - 1] Saad Ahmed Germany 3 - 0 Colombia 21' [1 - 0] Michael Ballack 38' [2 - 0] Bastian Schweinsteiger 69' [3 - 0] Tim Borowski Liechtenstein 0 - 1 Togo 55' [0 - 1] Mohamed Abdel Kader Sweden 1 - 1 Chile 32' [1 - 0] Henrik Larsson 51' [1 - 1] Humberto Suazo Angola 2 - 3 Turkey 32' [1 - 0] Fabrice Akwa 53' [1 - 1] Necati Ates 71' [1 - 2] Nihat Kahveci 83' [2 - 2] Arsenio Love 84' [2 - 3] Halil Altintop Tunisia 0 - 0 Uruguay (3-1 on penalties) Italy 0 - 0 Ukraine
