Shaun Wright-Phillips showed Fabio Capello he's made of the Wright stuff by coming off the bench for England to help engineer the 3-1 friendly victory over stubborn Egypt at Wembley.

SWP did his World Cup chances no harm at all by firing England ahead after 75 minutes then crafting the clinching goal five minutes later for fellow substitute Peter Crouch.

Blues team-mate Gareth Barry, a shoo-in for South Africa this summer, was his usual solid self in midfield, but in-form defender Joleon Lescott was left on the bench by coach Capello.

Micah Richards was the outstanding performer for England Under-21s at Doncaster but Stuart Pearce's men still lost 2-1 to Greece and are in danger of missing out on the European Championship finals.

Nigel de Jong's Holland beat England World Cup group opponents USA 2-1 in Amsterdam. The City midfielder insisted there was "no evil intent" in a challenge that crocked Bolton's Stuart Holden and earned him a booking.

Argentina beat Germany 1-0 in Munich and, incredibly, the scorer wasn't Carlos Tevez. Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain grabbed the winner on half time and was later replaced by Tevez.

Kolo Toure's managerless Ivory Coast went down 2-0 to South Korea at QPR and are targeting former Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink as coach for the World Cup. The current Russia coach is not due to take up a new role with Turkey until August.
  
Vincent Kompany's Belgium lost at home to Croatia thanks to a brilliant strike from Tottenham's Niko Kranjcar.

Ryan McGivern and his Northern Ireland team-mates went down 1-0 against Albania in a Tirana game that was in doubt earlier due to the heavy rain that produced a difficult surface.