Bouyant Spain ruin Beckham’s party with 2-0 win
Beckham came on as a halftime substitute in Seville for his 108th international appearance, but David Villa and Fernando Llorente scored to hand England its first loss in almost a year.
The loss of England’s unbeaten streak shows it still has plenty of work to do after missing last year’s European Championship, which Spain won. Euro 2008 runner-up Germany was also in friendly action Wednesday, losing to Norway for the first time in 73 years when it was beaten 1-0.
Lionel Messi helped Argentina to a 2-0 win at France, while Cristiano Ronaldo hit a penalty to give Portugal a 1-0 win over Finland.
Wins over Croatia and Germany meant England was confident its depleted squad could compete with Spain, but the home side kept possession well throughout and went ahead in the 36th when Villa collected the ball on the edge of the area, twisted through the defense and scored with a low shot.
Beckham came on as one of five halftime replacements for England, but it was a Spain substitute — Llorente — who made the biggest impact, heading in Xavi Hernandez’s cross.
Beckham said the result affected his enjoyment in equalling Bobby Moore’s appearance record. Only goalkeeper Peter Shilton, with 125 appearances, has played more games for England.
Croatia’s warm-up for its next qualifier for the 2010 World Cup — on April 1 at Andorra — went much better with striker Eduardo da Silva’s return from a year out through injury.
Ivan Rakitic equalized midway through the first half and Niko Kranjcar scored from Eduardo’s pass with 15 minutes remaining to take Croatia’s unbeaten streak to three matches since a humbling 4-1 home loss to England in September.
Jonas Gutierrez had already put Argentina ahead in Marseille when Messi collected the ball outside the penalty area in the 83rd, got through the home defense and beat goalkeeper Steve Mandanda with a shot inside his right post.
Chelsea striker Didier Drogba marked his first international match in more than a year with an injury-time equalizer that earned Ivory Coast a 1-1 draw in Turkey. Gokhan Unal put Turkey ahead in the 11th with a shot into the top right corner of the net and Drogba missed several good chances in front of goal before tapping in a cross from the right in the second minute of added time.
Greece drew 1-1 with visiting Denmark, while Sweden won 2-0 against Austria, Belgium beat Slovenia 2-0 and Israel defeated Hungary 1-0 in other friendly matches.
Australia and South Korea both secured away draws to stay top of their groups in Asian qualifying for the World Cup. While the Aussies drew 0-0 at Japan to stay ahead of its opponent in Group 1, South Korea needed a late goal by midfielder Park Ji-sung to draw 1-1 in Iran.
Ireland beat Georgia 2-1. Albania drew 0-0 at Malta but still moved into third place in its qualifying group, ahead of Portugal. Northern Ireland won 3-0 at San Marino in the other European qualifier.
World Cup host South Africa’s five-match winning streak ended with a 2-0 home loss to Chile in a friendly. African champion Egypt drew 2-2 with Ghana, Morocco held the Czech Republic 0-0, Cameroon beat Guinea 3-1 and Jamel Saihi scored a second-half equalizer to give Tunisia its 1-1 draw against the Netherlands. Nigeria drew 0-0 with Jamaica in a friendly in London.—AP