Wednesday night’s draw between England the Netherlands in Amsterdam saw four of our squad in action at various times, Nigel de Jong playing the full 90 while Blues team mates Gareth Barry, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Wayne Bridge were up against him throughout the game.
Richard Dunne and Shay Given had a night they would prefer to forget, with Australia beating the Republic of Ireland 3-0 in Limerick. North of the Irish border, Tal Ben Haim came on for the second half of Israel’s draw with Northern Ireland in Belfast, but Ryan McGivern remained on the bench.
Robinho was replaced in the second half of Brazil’s win over Estonia as Dunga looked to give his European-based players some rest ahead of their domestic seasons. Martin Petrov replaced Valeri Bojinov for the final half-hour of Bulgaria’s win over Latvia. Kolo Toure did not play in the Ivory Coast’s game against Tunisia in Sousse.
Tuesday night brought a proud moment for Micah Richards, who skippered the England Under 21s in their goalless draw with the Dutch. Adam Clayton came on as a second half substitute in the Under 20s thumping 5-0 win over Montenegro, which was kick-started by Javan Vidal’s pass that allowed Fabien Brandy to bag the first.
