World Cup hosts Germany suffered a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Italy in their warm up for this summer's finals. Italy snatched two early goals from Alberto Gilardino and Luca Toni before a Daniele De Rossi header put the game out of reach for the Germans. Alessandro Del Piero completed the rout for the Azzuri 11 minutes after restart while Robert Huth scored the consolation goal for the visitors eight minutes from time. Elsewhere, Dario Simic headed home in injury time to give Croatia a 3-2 win over Argentina. Ivan Klasnic put Croatia ahead as early as the 3rd minute before goals from Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi gave Argentina the edge. Darijo Srna tied for the Eastern Europeans in the second half.
Joe Cole World Cup favorites France also succumbed to a 2-1 home defeat to Slovakia, which ended their 17-match unbeaten streak. Szilard Nemeth and Jozef Valachovic scored for the visitors while Sylvain Wiltord netted France's only goal from the penalty spot. In Liverpool, England came from a goal down to register a 2-1 win over Uruguay. A cracking first-time volley from Omar Pouso gave Uruguay a surprise lead but second-half goals from home-boy Peter Crouch and Joe Cole gave England the win. In other matches, Holland beat Ecuador 1-0, Portugal crushed Saudi Arabia 3-0 and Spain edged past Ivory Coast with a 3-2 win.
