World Cup finalists struggle on return

ITALY and France offered some encouragement to Walter Smith's Scotland side ahead of the forthcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers with far from successful returns to international action a little over five weeks after meeting in the World Cup final.

Only one player from Italy's squad in Germany - third choice goalkeeper Marco Amelia - was picked for their friendly with Croatia by new coach Roberto Donadoni and the unfamiliarity told as goals from Da Silva Eduardo and Luka Modric gave Croatia a 2-0 victory.

France also made a sluggish return to action as Bordeaux midfielder Julien Faubert scored in the last minute to give Raymond Domenech's side a hard-earned 2-1 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina. Chelsea defender William Gallas had earlier equalised Sergej Barbarez's opener for the Bosnians.

Steve Staunton's preparations with the Republic of Ireland for Euro 2008 received a setback as Holland ran riot at Lansdowne Road, easing to a 4-0 win. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored twice on his international debut, with Chelsea's Arjen Robben and Arsenal's Robin Van Persie also getting on the scoresheet.

Germany's new coach Joachim Loew picked up where Juergen Klinsmann left off with a 3-0 win over Sweden in Gelsenkirchen. The Germans, who beat the Swedes in the second round of the World Cup, again swept their opponents aside with Bernd Schneider and Miroslav Klose scoring in the opening eight minutes. Klose added a third shortly before the interval.

Guus Hiddink began his tenure as Russia coach with a 1-0 friendly win over Latvia. Pavel Pogrebnyak marked his debut with the winning goal three minutes into injury time in Moscow.

The Czech Republic slipped to a surprising home defeat to Serbia, playing for the first time without their Montenegro appendage. Jiri Stajner put the Czechs into an early lead but goals from Danko Lazovic, Marko Pantelic and Aleksandr Trisovic gave Serbia a 3-1 victory.

A Morten Gamst Pedersen goal helped Norway to a 1-1 draw with Brazil, who scored through Daniel Carvalho. The Norwegians have gone four games unbeaten against the South Americans.

Rangers forward Thomas Buffel and Belgium were frustrated by Kazakhstan in their first qualifying match for Euro 2008, with goalkeeper David Loriya pulling off a string of saves to help the visitors hold on for a 0-0 draw.

Taken from the Scotsman