International Friendlies: Hazard and Lukaku sink Sweden, France and Germany draw

Belgium's midfielder Eden Hazard (L) celebrates with Belgium's defender and team captain Vincent Kompany after scoring a goal during the friendly football match between Sweden and Belgium at Friends Arena in Solna, near Stockholm on June 1, 2014.
Belgium's midfielder Eden Hazard (L) celebrates with Belgium's defender and team captain Vincent Kompany after scoring a goal during the friendly football match between Sweden and Belgium at Friends Arena in Solna, near Stockholm on June 1, 2014.

Belgium 2-0 Sweden

Goals from Chelsea duo Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku were enough to give Belgium a comfortable 2-0 win in their warm-up match against Sweden ahead of the World Cup which starts on June 12.

It was Lukaku who opened the scoring for the Red Devils after he unleased a firing left-footed shot which past through goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson with ease in the 34th minute of the game., which was followed by another break from Chelsea winger Eden Hazard in the 78th minute.

Sweden, who were missing Paris Saint-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic due to a back injury had failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup after losing out to Portugal in the playoffs.

''In the first 10 minutes of the match I felt we were a bit hesitant, they played a bit soft,'' Belgium head coach Marc Wilmots said later. ''Then they got five to six opportunities and they found a solution to get into the game.''

Romelu Lukaku’s goal:

Lukaku's goal

Eden Hazard’s goal:

Eden Hazard’s goal:


Germany 2-2 Cameroon

On the other hand, Germany had to settle for a 2-2 draw against Cameroon in Mönchengladbach after Samuel Eto'o gave Cameroon a lead in the early second half, only for Bayern Munich attacker Thomas Müller to equalise four minutes later.

André Schürrle, who had come on as a substitute gave Germany a lead after tapping in an easy chance created by Arsenal forward Lukas Podolski (Watch the goal here). However, the lead was short-lived as Cameroon left-winger Eric Choupo-Moting was successful in equalising with an effort in the 78th minute of the game. (Watch the goal here)

Read the full report here.

Germany were without captain Philipp Lahm, goalkeeper Manuel Neur and talisman Bastian Schweinsteiger who have been struggling with their injury woes.

"It was a good opponent, they play hard," Germany manager Joachim Löw told reporters following the draw. "We lost possession often and they can counter."

Opener from Samuel Eto’o:

Opener from Samuel Eto’o

Thomas Müller’s equaliser:

Muller's goal


France 1-1 Paraguay

France were held to a draw as well after their warm-up match in Nice against Paraguay ended in a 1-1 draw with both the goals coming in the last ten minutes of the match.

Real Sociedad winger Antoine Griezmann who had come on as a substitute was the first one to register a goal from a curling effort into the right-hand corner after a shot from Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud was blocked by Paraguay keeper Anthony Silva in the 82nd minute.

But, it was Juventus’ Martín Cáceres who had the last say in the game after he headed the ball into the net following a Jorge Rojas free-kick to earn a draw for Uruguay in the dying minutes of the game.

Following the match, France head-coach Didier Deschamps said, “We’re not going to win all of our games 4-0. We made the breakthrough after creating a lot of chances against a team defending deep in numbers. We dropped too deep and they equalised.”

Antoine Griezmann’s goal:

Griezmann's goal

Other results:

FT Mexico 3 - 1 Ecuador (Montes, Fabian, dos Santos; Valencia)FT Colombia 2 - 2 Senegal (Gutierrez, Bacca; Konate, Ndoye)FT Panama 1 - 1 Serbia (Gomez; Ivanovic)FT USA 2 - 1 Turkey (Johnson, Dempsey; Inan)FT Honduras 2 - 4 Israel (Espinoza, Costly; Zahavi, Figueroa (og), Damari, Vermouth)

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