Letzte Testspiele vor WM in Russland

The last few warm up games are now behind us and with that the attention switches to the World Cup kicking off on Thursday 14th July in Russia. While two FCA players can now finally have some time off, the other internationals are all set to begin their World Cup campaigns. Austria 0-3 Brazil The Austria national team fell to the Seleção in their final friendly before the summer. Coming into this game, Austria had beaten World Cup participants Russia (1-0) and Germany (2-1). FCA’s Martin Hinteregger was once again in the Austrian starting eleven, while Kevin Danso was subbed on in the 70th minute. Brazil proved their class throughout the game, even if the Austrians had their chances in the first half. Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring in the 36th minute. The Brazilians tightened their grip in the second half, as superstar Neymar and Coutinho added a goal apiece to end things at 3-0. South Korea 0-2 Senegal South Korea will be thankful that the game against Senegal was only a dress rehearsal, as the African nation came away with a 2-0 win against the World Cup participants. South Korea were equally unimpressive in their previous friendly against Bolivia, meaning they have only won once in their last six games. The game looked as though it would end goalless for a long time, before Young-Gwon Kim redirected a cross from Alfred Ndiaye into his own net. While Senegal grew in condifence as a result, the South Koreans retreated into their shell. A converted penalty from Moussa Konate confirmed the loss for Tae-Yong Shin’s side. Ja-Cheol Koo played the full 90 minutes. South Korea’s first game will take place on 18th June (14:00 CEST) against Sweden. Japan 4-2 Paraguay In contrast to South Korea, Japan were able to come away with a win in their final World Cup warm-up. Nevertheless, a poor first half left the score at 1-0 to Paraguay going into the break. Takashi Inui didn’t take long to put things right in the second half, as he scored the equaliser in the 51st minute, before adding another in the 62nd. An own goal and another strike from Shinji Kagawa sealed the deal for “Samarai Blue”. Takashi Usami was brought on for double-goalscorer Inui in the 79th minute. The 4-2 win will give Japan a boost of confidence going into their World Cup opener against Colombia on 19th June (14:00 CEST).