England deliver on encouraging night for Home Nations

7Feb 2013

Betfair

There were midweek victories for England, Scotland, Wales and Republic of Ireland, and a draw for Northern Ireland..

England's supposed Wembley curse may be vanquished after they enjoyed a sixth win in eight at their national stadium by overcoming Brazil 2-1.

The five-time world champions join Euro 2012 finalists Spain and Italy in having all fallen to the Three Lions in friendly action over the past 15 months. The competitive wobbles that followed the other two triumphs demonstrate the folly in gleaning too much hope from exhibition results though.

However, the occasion was as big as any for Brazil on their current friendly diet, and inflicting defeat on Luiz Felipe Scolari in his comeback match will impress upon their fans that nostalgia is no instant cure for the self-doubt fuelled by a sub-par few years.

Most encouraging for England on a night blemished only by defensive errors, including a major miscue from Gary Cahill that allowed Fred to equalise shortly after half time, were the accomplished performances of ever-improving duo Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott against top-calibre opponents.

Of course, beating the World Cup hosts means little if you don't actually qualify for the tournament and England still have plenty to do when the qualification process resumes next month with trips of varying difficulty to Group H bottom side San Marino and leaders Montenegro.

Having already been held by Ukraine and Poland, Roy Hodgson's men ideally need two victories. They remain convincing 1.58 favourites to top the group and 25.0 joint-fifth favourites to win the World Cup.

Scotland kept alive the feel-good vibe that accompanied Gordon Strachan's appointment with a 1-0 stroll past Estonia at Pittodrie. The visitors were modest but after one home win in 2012, this was a morale-booster for the Tartan Army that must be followed with three points when Wales come to Hampden Park in March.

Wales will also head into that on a high courtesy of a 2-1 Liberty Stadium success against Austria in which Gareth Bale continued his prolific campaign. Successive home wins suggest that the dismal run that followed the shock loss of Gary Speed has been halted, and justified Chris Coleman's brave assessment of this as "the strongest squad of my time in charge".

Over the Irish Sea, Republic of Ireland survived intense early pressure to see off Poland 2-0, with the accomplished display of Millwall goalkeeper David Forde and a first international goal for Wes Hoolahan created by debutant Jeff Hendrick all reasons for optimism.

Only Northern Ireland prevented a perfect night. Their 0-0 draw in Malta was no disaster but stretched Michael O'Neill's winless start as boss to eight games. On the bright side, the last four have been drawn. Russia and Israel arrive at Windsor Park next month.