Wednesday was scheduled for friendlies in the European football calendar. While Russia was not in on the action, Guus Hiddink team’s main rivals in World Cup 2010 qualifying round all put their skills to the test.

Germany 0 Norway 1

Germany were beaten one-nil in a friendly in Dusseldorf as Egil Olsen masterminded Norway's first victory since 2007.

Grindheim slide the ball home after a corner in the 63rd minute to give the Scandinavians their first victory over the three-time World Cup winners in 73 years, and Olsen the perfect start to his spell as interim manager.

Germany sits on top of Group 4 of the World Cup 2010 qualifiers, four points ahead of Russia, which has one game in hand.

Portugal 1 Finland 0

The Finns, who are fourth in the same group with Russia and Germany, performed well in Lisbon. The Portuguese stars struggled to break Finland’s defence for most of the game, but Chrisiano Ronaldo’s penalty on 78 minutes gave victory to the hosts.

Wales 0 Poland 1

Another of Russia’s rivals in the World Cup qualifiers, Wales, also went down with a 1-0 score to Poland, conceding the only goal with 10 minutes to play.

The post-match incident attracted even more attention than the game itself as Welsh captain Craig Bellamy quarreled with a local fan, who abused the Manchester City striker while he was giving a TV interview.

Spain 2 England 0

In Seville, David Beckham, who started on the bench, equaled Bobby Moore's record of 108 caps for an England outfield player.

Euro 2008 winners Spain took the lead after 35 minutes. David Villa was strong in the face of adversity and fired the ball into the net.

Beckham notched up his 108th cap after being brought on as a half time sub, but he couldn’t stem the red tide of Fernando Llorente, who rose above everyone to cement the Spanish victory 2-0.

France 0 Argentina 2

Coach Diego Maradona got his second win in as many games with Argentina. Goals from Jonas Gutierrez and Lionel Messi, often called Maradona’s successor on the football pitch, gave the Latin Americans a convincing win in Marseille.

In other games Ukraine saw off Serbia away courtesy of an early goal by Sergey Nazarenko making it 1-0, while it took Lithuania a minute before half time to break the deadlock against Andorra. The Lithuanians took the lead further in the second half, ending with a convincing 3-1 victory.

Cyprus survived a late comeback against Slovakia while Yossi Benayoun made all the difference as Israel beat Hungary 1-0.