© EuroFootball.com
On Wednesday, there were eighteen international friendly matches held in European stadiums. It was a better day for the visiting teams on the debut day of new head coaches, who secured nine victories, while the hosts had to settle for seven wins, with only one match ending in a draw. The only favorite not to secure a win was the world champion Italy, who played with an experimental lineup. Meanwhile, England, Germany, and the Netherlands crushed their opponents, Serbia achieved an impressive victory, and France snatched a late win.
The new coach of the Italian national team, Roberto Donadoni, like his predecessor Marcello Lippi, debuted with a defeat against the Croatian team in a friendly match against Iceland with a score of 0-2. In the qualifiers for the European Championship against future Lithuanian opponents, the Italian strategist allowed all the planet's champions to rest and only called up Marco Amelia, a substitute goalkeeper who previously played in Germany.
In the match held in Livorno, the hosts had better opportunities to score, but a header by the naturalized Brazilian Eduardo da Silva in the 28th minute put Croatia ahead. Towards the end of the half, Milan Rapaičius failed to clear the ball, and another Dinamo Zagreb player, Luka Modrić, doubled the visitors' lead with his second attempt. The score remained unchanged until the end of the match, marking a debut failure for R. Donadoni and breaking Italy's 25-match unbeaten streak.
A completely different start was seen for England's national team head coach Steve McClaren, whose team dominated in the first half against the European champions Greece. The English team took the lead with a header from the new captain John Terry, followed by goals from Frank Lampard and two from Peter Crouch. In the second half, the English had to defend more, but they maintained their lead of four goals and won 4-0.
The Netherlands also won 4-0 away, forcing Ireland to suffer their biggest defeat at home in the last 40 years. Debutant forward Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored two goals for the winners, Arjen Robben scored one after his assist, and Robin van Persie finished the hosts' thrashing in the 70th minute.
In another friendly match, Germany played against Sweden and started the game successfully, with Bernd Schneider scoring in the 4th minute after a pass from Tim Borowski and Miroslav Klose adding a second goal just four minutes later. M. Klose secured the first win for coach Joachim Löw just before the end of the first half with another header.
The Czech Republic's last match under Pavel Nedvěd in the national team ended in failure. They had to acknowledge the advantage of the debutant Serbian team at home. Although the hosts took the lead in the 3rd minute with a mistake by the goalkeeper, the Serbians equalized before halftime and scored twice in the second half to secure an impressive 3-1 victory.
Another debut coach was the Russian national team's strategist Guus Hiddink. The Russians dominated from the start in their match against Latvia, but they had to wait until the third minute of added time to snatch a victory from Pavel Pogrebnyak. Meanwhile, coached by Leo Beenhakker, the Polish team had to admit the superiority of the home team in Denmark - goals from 18-year-old striker Nicklas Bendtner and Dennis Rommedahl.
France, a future opponent of Lithuania, stole a victory in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last minute, while World Cup runners-up Brazil managed a draw against Norway in Oslo. The results of all Wednesday's international friendly matches are provided below.
Results of all Wednesday's international friendly matches:
Guatemala 1 - 1 Haiti
San Marino 0 - 3 Albania
Libya 3 - 2 Uganda
Russia 1 - 0 Latvia
Moldova 3 - 2 Lithuania
Namibia 0 - 1 South Africa
Cameroon 1 - 1 Guinea
Morocco 1 - 0 Burkina Faso
Finland 1 - 2 Northern Ireland
Romania 2 - 0 Cyprus
Tunisia 0 - 1 Mali
Belarus 3 - 0 Andorra
Luxembourg 0 - 1 Turkey
Denmark 2 - 0 Poland
Ivory Coast 0 - 1 Senegal
Egypt 0 - 2 Uruguay
Norway 1 - 1 Brazil
Liechtenstein 0 - 3 Switzerland
Czech Republic 1 - 3 Serbia
Austria 1 - 2 Hungary
Ireland 0 - 4 Netherlands
Germany 3 - 0 Sweden
Italy 0 - 2 Croatia
Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 - 2 France
England 4 - 0 Greece
Venezuela 0 - 0 Honduras
Chile 1 - 2 Colombia
Peru 0 - 2 Panama
