Australia gain revenge on Germany

Australia earned some measure of revenge for their World Cup thrashing at the hands of Germany with an unlikely 2-1 victory in their international friendly in Dortmund.

Germany looked on course to replicate their 4-0 win in Durban last summer when Mario Gomez scored a 26th-minute opener in a dominant first half for the world's number three ranked side.

But the Socceroos stunned their hosts with two goals in four second-half minutes, first through David Carney and then a Luke Wilkshire penalty, to claim their first ever win over the Europeans.

Lionel Messi was absent due to injury as Costa Rica held Argentina to a 0-0 draw in their friendly in San Jose.

Argentina's FIFA Ballon d'Or winner had suffered a groin strain in training with his national team and coach Sergio Batista elected not to risk the Barcelona forward. That proved an annoyance to the supporters at the new Estadio Nacional who had hoped to see the superstar in action.

Instead they saw Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas frustrate the Argentinians, who also drew with the United States at the weekend.

Oscar Cardozo hit an 18th-minute winner as Paraguay beat the United States in a friendly international in Nashville.

The ball ran kindly for Benfica striker Cardozo following a corner delivered from the right and he smashed a shot into the roof of the net from seven yards. Defeat leaves the United States still looking for their first win of the year, following 1-1 draws against Chile and Argentina.

World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay needed a couple of glorious finishes to edge out the Republic of Ireland 3-2 in Dublin.

Defender Diego Lugano opened the scoring from close range and, after Shane Long had cancelled out his strike with a 15th-minute header, his strikers took over.

Edinson Cavani and Abel Hernandez put the visitors in the driving seat with sumptuous strikes after 22 and 40 minutes respectively. Keith Fahey's 48th-minute penalty gave the Irish hope, but the South Americans held on.

Giuseppe Rossi and Alessandro Matri were on target as Italy won 2-0 in Ukraine while France and Croatia both squandered chances as they drew 0-0.

Micael scored twice, in the 10th and 71st minutes, as Portugal beat Finland 2-0 in Aveiro.

Slovakia, who top qualifying Group B, went down to a 2-1 home defeat to Denmark.

A Kornel Salata own goal put Denmark in front after three minutes, but Filip Holosko equalised just after the half-hour mark. Brondby winger Michael Krohn-Dehli fired in the winner in the 72nd minute.

First-half goals from Matias Fernandez and Jean Beausejour earned Chile a 2-0 win over Colombia in a friendly played in The Hague in Holland.

Martin Petrov's first-half goal earned Bulgaria a 1-0 win over Cyprus, while Greece and Poland drew 0-0.

Russia were held to a shock 1-1 draw by Qatar in a friendly in Doha on Tuesday.

Russia, 77 places below their opponents in the FIFA rankings, took the lead in the fourth minute through Mohamed Kasoula, but Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko levelled in the 34th minute.

The draw continued Russia's run of poor results after their 2012 qualifying draw in Armenia last week and friendly defeats to Iran and Belgium.

Andre Hainault's 58th-minute effort earned Canada a surprise 1-0 win over Belarus in Antalya in Turkey.

China beat Honduras 3-0 and Peru shared a goalless draw with Ecuador.