© EuroFootball.com
This week in the international football arena was the time for friendly matches. On Saturday, five friendly matches took place.
Yesterday, there were some surprises - the Greeks, who unexpectedly made it to the European Championship after an own goal, had to admit the victory of the remaining Polish footballers at the edge of the European Championship board.
Another surprise was yesterday's victory of the Belgians against the Dutch. Since 1999, the Dutch national team had not lost any friendly matches, but yesterday this streak was broken. Bart Goor scored the only goal from the penalty spot. The penalty was earned by Mbo Mpenza, who was brought down in the penalty area by Dutch defender Wilfred Bouma. The last time the Dutch lost was in June 1999, when the eight remaining Dutch players on the field had to acknowledge Brazil's superiority. Since then, in friendly matches, the Netherlands either won or drew.
In other matches, there were no major surprises recorded. In preparation for the European Championship, the Croats defeated the Slovaks with a minimal score, and after defeating the Romanians on Thursday, yesterday the Irish footballers had to acknowledge Nigeria's 3-0 advantage.
The Portuguese, with whom Lithuania will play a friendly match at the beginning of June, as expected, defeated Luxembourg 3-0. The goals were scored by Luis Figo, Nuno Gomes, and Rui Costa.
Results of Saturday's friendly matches:
Ireland 0 - 3 Nigeria
Poland 1 - 0 Greece
Croatia 1 - 0 Slovakia
Portugal 3 - 0 Luxembourg
Netherlands 0 - 1 Belgium
Today's upcoming friendly matches:
Japan - Iceland
Scotland - Trinidad and Tobago
Wales - Canada
Algeria - Jordan
Estonia - Denmark
Tunisia - Italy
