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Bittersweet century for David Beckham

Spain stuns Italy; Pato scores on debut for Brazil

— Photo: AFP

GETTING AWAY: Franck Ribery, the goal-scorer for France, wards off David Beckham, who earned his 100th England cap on Wednesday.

LONDON: Spain stunned World champion Italy with a goal from David Villa, the Netherlands staged a remarkable comeback to win 4-3 in Austria and European champion Greece beat Portugal 2-1 as all 16 Euro 2008 finalists contested friendlies on Wednesday.

England midfielder David Beckham will look back at his 100th international appearance with bittersweet emotions after Fabio Capello’s side, which did not qualify for the June tournament, suffered a 1-0 defeat to France in Paris.

At the Emirates stadium in London, AC Milan teenager Alexandre Pato scored on his debut for Brazil to give the five-time World champion a 1-0 win over Sweden .

England, looking for its first win over France in Paris since 1949, was fortunate not to concede more goals after a solid first half performance.

Paying the penalty

Bayern midfielder Franck Ribery steered in a 32nd-minute penalty after David James had brought down Nicolas Anelka and contributed to Beckham’s 38th-minute booking after the Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder pulled his shirt.

But Beckham was given a standing ovation by both sets of fans when he was substituted in the 63rd minute and was delighted after a good individual display.

“I am very proud of this 100th cap, it does not happen to everybody. It was amazing,” he told reporters.

“The most important thing was to prove my fitness and I thought I did. Tonight I enjoyed myself, that’s the biggest thing.”

Not satisfied with 100

Beckham indicated again that he was not intending on staying on 100 caps.

“Just to get the cap in the end was what I wanted, to start was a bonus,” said Beckham.

“I am very stubborn and things can change but I want to carry on playing for my country for many years. I proved my fitness and we (LA Galaxy) are not into our season yet. I felt a lot better tonight, I felt sharp and fresh.”

What Beckham will not savour is the first defeat for Capello as England manager after the 2-1 win over Switzerland in a friendly on his debut last month.

Easy for Germany

Germany, which won its last international honour at Euro 1996 in England, strolled to a 4-0 win over neighbour and Euro 2008 co-host Switzerland.

Mario Gomes scored two goals for Germany in Basel either side of Miroslav Klose’s opener and an 88th-minute effort by Lukas Podolski as all three strikers found the back of the net for the visitors.

Superb strike

In the Brazil-Sweden match, the 18-year-old Pato dispossessed keeper Rami Shabaan near the touchline and curled in a superb lob into an empty net midway through the second half.

Both sides were missing their top players. Brazil was without both Kaka and Ronaldinho, and Sweden was missing Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Important results: Austria 3 lost to Netherlands 4, Belarus 2 drew with Turkey 2, Denmark 1 drew with Czech Republic 1, Egypt 0 lost to Argentina 2, France 1 bt England 0, Romania 3 bt Russia 0, Scotland 1 drew with Croatia 1, Spain 1 bt Italy 0, Switzerland 0 lost to Germany 4, Greece 2 bt Portugal 1, Brazil 1 bt Sweden 0, USA 3 bt Poland 0. — Agencies.

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