I'national round-up: Captain Rio's England lose

Frogs 1-0 England
By Chris,
March 28 2008

Rio Ferdinand captained England as they lost 1-0 in France. Fabio Capello’s men produced a rather flat display at the Stade de France as a first-half penalty from Frank Ribery settled the contest. There were no fewer than nine Reds in international action on Wednesday, including the likes of Darren Fletcher, JS Park and Jonny Evans.

Owen Hargreaves, Wesley Brown and Wayne Rooney all joined Ferdinand in the starting line-up for England. Brown played 63 minutes and Rooney came off at half-time as Capello’s men produced a rather uninspiring performance against the French. Meanwhile, Darren Fletcher was in action as Scotland came from a goal down to claim a credible 1-1 draw with Croatia at Hampden Park. Kenny Miller bagged the goal for the home side. At Windsor Park, Jonny Evans was in action for Northern Ireland as they crushed hapless Georgia 4-1. The defender is currently on loan at Sunderland. Record-breaker David Healy scored for both teams, but the Ulsterman had striker Kyle Lafferty to thank for his impressive brace. Anderson played half-an-hour for Brazil as the South Americans beat Sweden 1-0 in a strange, glamour friendly at Arsenal's Ashburton Grove. Thousands of comical Gooners booed the midfield's every touch. J-Sung Park played for South Korea in their World Cup qualifier with Korea DPR which finished goalless. Elsewhere, Nemanja Vidic played the majority of the match as Serbia lost 2-0 against Ukraine, whilst Tomasz Kuszczak and Patrice Evra were unused substitutes for Poland and France respectively.