By DPA
Hamburg : England crashed 1-2 to Germany while in other friendly international football action Spain overcame Greece and Hungary shocked World champions Italy.
The prestige tie of Wednesday evening was at the new Wembley stadium where under-pressure England coach Steve McClaren was hoping to improve on a record of just two wins in eight games – against Andorra and Estonia.
But it wasn’t to be as Joachim Loew’s visiting German side came from behind to register a 2-1 victory.
Frank Lampard fired past Jens Lehmann in the ninth minute to put England in front but Kevin Kuranyi levelled after 31 minutes.
Christian Pander then marked his Germany debut by thumping a left-foot shot past Paul Robinson to give Germany the lead five minutes before half-time.
Italy fared even worse than England, going down 3-1 to Hungary despite taking the lead through substitute Antonio Di Natale, who deflected a shot by Filippo Inzaghi in the 49th minute.
But Roland Juhasz equalized with a left-footed volley in the 62nd minute and went ahead three minutes later from a Zoltan Gera penalty after Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro brought down Tamas Priskin in the area.
Robert Feczesin made it 3-1 with 14 minutes remaining in the worst possible build-up ahead of Italy’s crunch Euro 2008 qualifier against World Cup finalists France next month.
France warmed up nicely with a 1-0 win over Slovakia.
Two late goals from David Silva gave Spain a 3-2 win away to Greece on an appalling pitch in Salonica’s Toumba stadium.
Theofanis Gekas headed Greece ahead in the 18th minute, on a centre from Giorgias Karagounis.
In the 37th minute Carlos Marchena – one of the five Valencia players starting for Spain – made it 1-1 by heading in a free-kick from Xavi Hernandez.
Three minutes before half-time, against the run of play, Kostas Katsouranis restored Greece’s lead after being put through by the impressive Gekas.
Spain continued to dominate after the interval, and deservedly equalised in the 65th minute when Silva put away a rebound in the Greek six-yard area.
A 2-2 draw seemed on the cards. In the second minute of stoppage time, though, Cesc Fabregas put through Silva, who won the match with a calm left-foot finish.
Ireland had the perfect result ahead of crunch Euro qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Slovakia, crushing Denmark 4-0 in Aarhus.
Robbie Keane and Shane Long both scored twice for Steve Staunton’s side in what was Denmark’s first game since the ill-fated qualifier against Sweden in June when a drunk Danish fan attacked the referee.
UEFA subsequently awarded Sweden a 3-0 victory, and banned Denmark from playing its next two Euro 2008 qualifiers at its national stadium in Copenhagen.