By Danny Wright
England slumped to a disappointing 1-0 defeat in France on Wednesday night. David Beckham earned his elusive 100th cap, only the fifth England player to do so, but even Goldenballs couldn’t add light to this turgid affair. To say England lack creativity is an understatement, although they were beaten by a classical moment of David James’ rash decision making; Nicolas Anelka found himself through on goal, only to be sent cart wheeling by the Portsmouth keeper. Frank Ribery converted the resultant spot-kick and that was that.
Scotland managed what England failed to last year, holding Croatia to a draw at home, 1-1 the score at Hampden Park. Niko Kranjcar deceived Sunderland goalkeeper Craig Gordon to put the visitors in front, only for Kenny Miller to equalise with the aid of a deflection. Gordon made a string of fine saves to earn new manager George Burley a creditable start to his international career. 
Freddy Eastwood bagged a brace as Wales saw off Luxembourg in a 2-0 win. The Wolves striker pounced on passes from Jason Koumas and Simon Davies respectively either side of half time to settle the contest. Boaz Myhill made his Wales debut, coming on after 46 minutes to replace Lewis Price. 
Northern Ireland comfortably saw off Georgia by a 4-1 scoreline at Lansdowne Road. 13-goal hit-man David Healy received a special award prior to kick off for his efforts in the Ulsterman’s ultimately vain attempts of Euro 2008 qualification, and the Fulham couldn’t keep off the score sheet in this clash. 
He first increased his side’s lead to 2-0 after Kyle Lafferty had put them in front, and Healy was on hand to score Georgia’s solitary goal – sliding into his own net after Maik Taylor had turned a penalty kick onto the post. Prior to that, Lafferty added his second to make it 3-0 and Linfield forward Peter Thompson finished the job with a close range finish.
Images – bbc.co.uk/sport
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