15 February 2002
THREE of the nations in the World Cup's Group of Death failed to pull off psychologically boosting wins in friendlies yesterday as all of them had to settle for draws.
England will probably be the happier of the three as they drew 1-1 away with Holland and probably should have shaded it, while Argentina had to come from behind to scrape a similar scoreline with the not so highly-regarded Welsh and Sweden twice let a lead slip to be held 2-2 in Greece. Elsewhere two of the other highly-fancied teams for the finals, Spain and Portugal also shared the honours with a 1-1 draw in Barcelona.
Luis Figo will hardly have pleased the home fans who have never forgiven him for leaving for Real Madrid by creating the Portuguese goal with the freekick that Jorge Costa headed home.
Three of the traditional European heavyweights did win. World and European champions France beat Romania 2-1, Italy edged the United States 1-0 and the Germans went on a rare goalfest with a 7-1 walloping of Israel as Miroslav Klose scored a hat-trick.
Four of the darker horses from Europe for the World Cup won, the Republic of Ireland beating fellow qualifiers Russia, and landed a nice blow ahead of their meeting in the Euro 2004 qualifiers.
Poland saw off Northern Ireland 4-1 on neutral territory in Cyprus and both Belgium and Denmark won 1-0 over Norway and Saudi Arabia respectively - the Danes' scorer being the suitably named Ebbe Sand.
A superb goal by debutante Darius Vassell gave England a share of the spoils as he became the 176th player to score on his maiden appearance but only fourth in the last 10 years.
The 21-year-old, who has played just 36 Premiership matches for Aston Villa, scored with a bicycle kick in the 61st minute to cancel out Patrick Kluivert's fortuitous goal in the first half which was about the only time the Dutch threatened the English goal.
The youngster got the thumbs up from coach Sven Goran Eriksson, who employed a 4-3-3 formation for the first time.
"Vassell was excellent as it was his first game in the senior team," Eriksson said.
Eriksson, who handed Vassell, Michael Ricketts and Wayne Bridge their debuts in the starting line-up, revealed he had used the 4-3-3 strategy because he had no opportunities to try it last year.
"We had 10 matches last year but I never felt it was the right time to break up the traditional 4-4-2," he said.
"However we wanted to do it tonight and I am delighted we did because the players adjusted well.
"It was a much better performance today than it was last August (the Dutch beat them 2-0) when we played 4-4-2." In-form Newcastle marksman Craig Bellamy put Wales ahead in the first half only to be pegged back by Julio Cruz's 62nd minute leveller.
The Millennium Stadium's retractable roof was closed so the Argentines could experience the same conditions they will encounter when they meet World Cup rivals England in the Sapporo Dome in Japan in June.
Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa lived up to the motto hanging on his wall in his office - The possible has already been done. The impossible is what we are doing now. But for miracles we need time - by playing up the level he had expected of the Welsh.
"I never thought this would be easy," he said.
"I was not surprised by their (the Welsh performance) but I still think with the possession we had we should have scored two more goals," he added.
First-half goals from Patrick Vieira and his former Arsenal midfield partner Emmanuel Petit settled a solid night's work for the French, playing their first match since last November.
Romania, who missed out on a place in Japan and South Korea after failing in the play-offs last year, scored a spectacular late consolation goal through substitute Ion Ganea.
French coach Roger Lemerre cut a bemused figure at the end despite a pretty impressive performance.
"The first 20 minutes we were pretty bad but we pulled ourselves together.
"It was the same in the second-half when we were poor for the last 20 minutes and the last five minutes so bad it could have been fatal.
"However it was a good test against such a technically gifted side as the Romanians and we will be better for it," he added.
A second-half goal from substitute Alessandro Del Piero earned Italy their victory but left coach Giovanni Trapattoni far from a happy man.
Trapattoni showed his concern at their first-half performance by making no less than four half-time substitutions and it was three of those replacements who linked up for the vital goal.
Gianluca Zambrotta dispossessed David Regis and fed Chievo striker Massimo Marazzina who was well placed to score but instead unselfishly squared to Del Piero, who netted from close range.Trapattoni said: "Some people treated this game in too friendly a manner and that's not the right way to do it. They were much faster than us in the first half and they got people forward in numbers.
"1-1 would have been a fairer result." Arena said that the quadruple substitution made all the difference, saying: "We missed our opportunity in the first half. The four players at half-time made all the difference.
Spain struck back after Jorge Costa's opener when the current hottest scoring property in Europe Fernando Morientes shot home from close range for his sixth goal in two matches.
Spanish coach Jose Antonio Camacho, who will be hoping he can at last end Spain's reputation for performing below expectations at major finals believed that with more accuracy up front they could have nicked it.(ACONS)
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