Round-up: Janssen, Narsingh bring England back to earth

Sport360 staff 09:04 30/03/2016
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  • Vincent Janssen equalised from the penalty spot for the Netherlands.

    Substitute Luciano Narsingh’s contested 77th-minute winner brought England back down to earth as the Netherlands came from behind to claim a 2-1 victory in Tuesday’s friendly at Wembley.

    England were looking to build on Saturday’s fine 3-2 win over world champions Germany and went ahead late in the first half when Jamie Vardy completed a neat move to score his second goal in two games.

    Sturridge and Lallana both threatened early in the second half — the former testing Jeroen Zoet at his near post, the latter curling wide — but within five minutes of the restart, the visitors were level.

    Stones’s calamitous slip let in Janssen and although Forster produced a one-handed save to thwart him, the AZ Alkmaar striker prevailed at the second attempt with a penalty after Narsingh’s cross from the right struck Rose’s dangling right hand.

    England looked to reassert their advantage, Zoet acrobatically repelling Vardy’s long-range strike and Theo Walcott, a replacement for Sturridge, seeing a shot blocked by Daley Blind before driving over the bar.

    Further attacking reinforcement arrived in the shape of Harry Kane, who replaced Lallana, but it was the Netherlands who struck again.

    But Vincent Janssen equalised from the spot in the 50th minute and then teed up Narsingh for what proved to be the winner, despite appearing to barge England substitute Phil Jagielka to the ground in the process.

    RONALDO SEALS VICTORY FOR PORTUGAL

    Cristiano Ronaldo was on target as Portugal edged out an injury-depleted Belgium side 2-1 in Leiria.

    Nani opened the scoring in the 20th minute before Real Madrid star Ronaldo warmed up for this weekend’s El Clasico against Barcelona with the second to end a four-game drought for his country.

    The Belgians – missing a raft of stars like Vincent Kompany, Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard – hit back through in-form Everton striker Romelu Lukaku.

    Elsewhere, Turkey pulled off an impressive 2-1 victory in Austria as two Euro 2016 hopefuls went head to head. Zlatko Junuzovic opened the scoring for the hosts in the first half, but Hakan Calhanoglu levelled before Arda Turan won it just before the hour mark.

    Two more teams hoping to challenge in France this summer went head to head in Solna as Sweden entertained the Czech Republic.

    Markus Berg opened the scoring on 14 minutes only for Matej Vydra to hit back 10 minutes later.

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