Liverpool: Gerrard Leads England To Brazil Win

We take a look at how our senior internationals faired around the world in last night's friendlies...

Liverpool and England skipper Steven Gerrard spearheaded the Three Lions to only their fourth ever success over the samba stars of Brazil last night.

Both the midfielder, who earlier this week was named his country's Player of the Year, and right-back Glen Johnson completed the full 90 minutes as goals from Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard sealed a famous 2-1 win at Wembley.

The hosts last tasted victory against the South Americans back in 1990 when Gary Lineker scored the only goal and you have to go back a further seven years for the last instance of an England side scoring twice against Brazil.

The evening saw Chelsea's Ashley Cole become the seventh player to reach a 100 caps for England; a feat Gerrard achieved in the previous fixture against Sweden.

One-time Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson was delighted with his team's display, telling reporters after the game: "I am very pleased with the way the players went about their business. I don't think we stole anything.

"Apart from a somewhat mad spell at the start of the second half when we conceded the equaliser by running the ball out from the back and then a bad backpass and a kick out gave them a second opportunity, I thought we dealt with the questions Brazil asked and posed plenty of our own."

Reigning World and European champions Spain recorded an impressive 3-1 win over Uruguay in Doha, Qatar.

Out of the three Liverpool players called up for the game only top-scorer Luis Suarez featured as Barcelona defender Carles Puyol become another player to celebrate his 100th cap by finishing on the winning side.

The 26-year-old Uruguayan striker played the full 90 minutes but had a largely quiet evening by his standards. Pepe Reina and Sebastian Coates were the Reds not selected.

Reserve goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi also failed to feature during Hungary's 1-1 home draw with Belarus.

Elsewhere, Danish centre-back Daniel Agger, who recently revealed he had declined a payment owed to him by former club Brondby to help the struggling side financially, was another who completed a whole match last night.

The 28-year-old had a night to forget however as his side slumped to a 3-0 defeat in Macedonia with all the goals coming in the opening 25 minutes.

Fellow Reds defender Martin Skrtel also tasted defeat when Slovakia were beaten 2-1 by Belgium.

Skrtel featured throughout and will have been disappointed to concede the winner in stoppage time after his side had drawn level as late as the 88th minute.

Meanwhile, summer signing Joe Allen had a better evening as Wales overcame Austria 2-1 at Swansea City's Liberty Stadium.

The victory was only their second in seven games under new manager Chris Coleman and the 22-year-old played a key part courtesy of an assist and a goal line clearance.

Finally, Fabio Borini scored for Italy U21s as the young Italians clinched a 1-0 friendly victory over Germany. The majority of other nations played their U21 games on Tuesday night - click here to see how Liverpool's contingent got on.

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