World champions Spain suffered their worst defeat for 47 years as Portugal hammered their neighbours 4-0 in a Lisbon friendly arranged to promote the countries' joint World Cup bid on Wednesday. In another big derby, played in neutral Qatar, Argentina beat Brazil 1-0 courtesy of a stoppage-time Lionel Messi special.
France hand England first home defeat under Capello The heavyweight clashes were the stand-out matches on a night of almost 40 friendlies around the world, where swathes of debutants stepped into the international limelight as their coaches took the opportunity to experiment.
There were a clutch of impressive away wins in Europe as France beat England 2-1 at Wembley, Belgium upset Russia 2-0, Norway overcame Ireland 2-1 and Greece defeated Austria 2-1. World Cup runners-up Netherlands beat Turkey 1-0 but several of Europe's other big guns failed to ignite.
Germany were held to a goalless draw in Sweden, Italy, with four debutants, drew 1-1 with Romania in Austria in a game marred by racist chanting from Italian fans, while Denmark against Czech Republic also ended 0-0. In the night's two Euro 2012 qualifiers, Croatia beat Malta 3-0 and Finland thrashed San Marino 8-0.
The World Cup is becoming a distant memory for Spain, who since their July triumph have lost 4-1 to Argentina and made hard work of beating Scotland in a Euro 2012 qualifier. Spain beat Portugal 1-0 in the second round in South Africa but, despite having a near-full strength side, they were outclassed and slipped to their worst defeat since Scotland beat them 6-2 in 1963.
France continued their rehabilitation under Laurent Blanc by outplaying an inexperienced England team and handing them their first home defeat under Fabio Capello. Karim Benzema and Mathieu Valbuena finished off good passing moves to put the visitors 2-0 up before substitute Peter Crouch maintained his remarkable scoring record with his 22nd goal in 42 internationals seconds after coming on at the death.
Another 17-year-old had a night to remember in Cape Town as debutant Juan Agudelo scored five minutes from time to give a makeshift United States team a 1-0 win over South Africa. Croatia marked the 20th anniversary of their first match as an independent nation by beating Malta 3-0.