Belgium
Romelu Lukaku scored a hat-trick to lead Belgium to a 5-1 win over Luxembourg and boost his chances of being his country’s first-choice striker at the World Cup in the absence of the injured Christian Benteke.
The substitute Nacer Chadli and Kevin De Bruyne, with a penalty, scored the other goals. The game was also noteworthy for the debut of Manchester United’s winger Adnan Januzaj, who made an immediate impact.
“He gives us an extra dimension,” said Belgium’s coach Marc Wilmots, but warned Januzaj was still far off getting his spot in the starting lineup. “He faces a lot of competition.”
Cameroon
Pierre Webó picked up a left shoulder injury while scoring Cameroon’s first goal in a 2-0 victory over Macedonia in a World Cup warm-up game.
Webo beat Macedonia’s goalkeeper Tome Pacovski with an acrobatic bicycle kick in the 52nd minute but landed on his arm and left the field immediately. The Fenerbahce striker, who scored his 18th goal in 54 international matches, had his left arm in a sling though there was no immediate information on the extent of his injury.
In the 84th minute, Eric Choupo-Moting scored with a low shot after loose defending by Macedonia to double Cameroon’s lead.
Volker Finke’s team, which has been drawn in Group A with Mexico, Croatia and hosts Brazil, was without Samuel Eto’o, who is recovering from a knee injury.
Russia
Russia secured a workmanlike 1-0 victory at home to Slovakia, with the substitute Alexander Kerzhakov heading the only goal eight minutes from time. Fabio Capello chose a strong side, with seven almost certain to begin Russia’s opening World Cup game against South Korea in Group H. “Our training sessions were very intense last week, so the footballers were not in peak condition,” the coach said.
Croatia
Niko Kranjcar has been ruled out of the World Cup through injury. The Croatia midfielder limped out of Queens Park Rangers’ play-off victory over Derby on Saturday with a hamstring injury.
Germany
Joachim Löw has dismissed suggestions Germany’s pre-World Cup camp resembles a hospital due to the number of injured players and said all would be fit “within days”.
The captain Philipp Lahm and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer have yet to start training after injuries, while Bastian Schweinsteiger and Marcel Schmelzer are training alone. “We will travel to Brazil with a competitive and good team,” said Löw. “The players are working very well and as it stands now I am very satisfied. Some are still injured and cannot fully train with the team but they are all training individually and I am very confident that it will work out.”
Spain
Fernando Torres has dismissed concerns the Spain players may be over-tired after a gruelling season as the world and European champions’ squad gathered for Friday’s World Cup warm-up game against Bolivia.
Most of the Spain team will be drawn from Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid and the three clubs were involved in a tense La Liga title battle that was only decided on the final day. Real and Atlético also clashed in Saturday’s Champions League final, when forward Diego Costa came off injured in the ninth minute and the full-back Juanfran appeared to be struggling with an injury in the latter stages.
“It’s true that the national team players have been competing until very recently,” Torres said. “But you forget the tiredness when you go to a World Cup. It was the same with other tournaments in the past and it went well for us. The players from big clubs are used to having long seasons.”