Maxi Rodriguez gave Diego Maradona a winning start as Argentina coach in a 1-0 victory over Scotland on Wednesday, and John Terry atoned for a blunder to head England to a 2-1 victory over Germany.
Maxi finished off a slick move in the eighth minute after a run and cross by Carlos Tevez and flick-on by Jonas Gutierrez at Hampden Park in Glasgow. Maradona, who has been hired to turn Argentina's talented players into a team capable of winning the World Cup, spun around and punched the air to celebrate the victory, which was achieved despite the absence of rested stars Lionel Messi and Juan Roman Riquelme.
"We think it is a new era and it was very important to win," said midfielder Javier Mascherano, who was named captain by Maradona. "When you start to play with a new manager the motivation is so different maybe it's a little bit extra when you see Maradona on the bench."
Both of England's goals in Berlin were scored by central defenders in another impressive performance by Fabio Capello's team, which has also won all four of its World Cup qualifying matches.
Matthew Upson prodded home in the 24th minute after Germany goalkeeper Rene Adler missed Stewart Downing's corner. Germany punished a mixup between Terry and goalkeeper Scott Carson and Patrick Helmes equalized in the 64th minute, but the England captain made up by heading home a free kick in the 84th.
"The result is important. The performance was very good because we played in Berlin against a good team. We had a lot of chances to score goals," Capello said. "I liked the attitude of the team. We played with confidence and personality which is important."
In the only World Cup qualifying game to be played in Europe, the Czech Republic beat San Marino 3-0 to revive its chances of reaching the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
After San Marino kept the Czechs out during the first half, goals by Radoslav Kovac (47th), Zdenek Pospech (53rd) and Tomas Necid (83rd) made it an easy victory and moved the team up three places to second in Group 3, two points behind leader Slovakia.
In another of the 23 friendlies spread across Europe, European champion Spain cruised to a 3-0 victory over Chile to improve its unbeaten streak to 28 matches, World Cup holder Italy hit back to draw 1-1 at Greece, and France was held to a 0-0 draw at home by Uruguay with French fans calling for coach Raymond Domenech to quit.
Spain striker David Villa scored a 38th-minute penalty to take his tally to 24 in 41 matches, Fernando Torres added a second in the 67th and Santi Cazorla collected the third with four minutes to go.
Four minutes after Fanis Gekas had given the Greeks a 50th-minute lead, Italy striker Luca Toni leveled to maintain Marcello Lippi's record of 31 games without a defeat. Lippi guided Italy to the 2006 World Cup title and then replaced Roberto Donadoni and shares the unbeaten record with Javier Clemente of Spain and Alfio Basile of Argentina.
"This is an issue that's been chasing me for some time and of course I'm pleased ... but the big achievement was winning the World Cup," Lippi said. "I'm not sure we'll have to lose to stop worrying about the record. Anyway, I see all games positively. I hope we continue to win or do well in all our games."
Norway's John Arne Riise was sent off in his team's 1-0 loss to Ukraine for kicking the ball into the referee's back after disputing a decision.
Giovanni Trapattoni had his first loss as Ireland coach in a 3-2 defeat at home to Poland, and Robin van Persie scored twice in the Netherlands' 3-1 victory over Sweden.
Tuncay Sanli scored a hat trick in Turkey's 4-2 victory over Austria in Vienna where Andreas Hoelzl netted twice for the home side.
In Asian World Cup qualifying, Mark Bresciano's goal in the fourth minute of injury-time kept Australia on course for the 2010 championship with a 1-0 victory over Bahrain.
The result maintained Australia's perfect record from three games and the team, which switched from Oceania to the Asia Confederation to achieve a more direct qualification route, looks set to be one of the four qualifiers.
Japan's 3-0 victory over Qatar in Doha came with goals from Tatsuya Tanaka, Keiji Tamada and Marcus Tanaka as the team stayed two points behind the Socceroos with seven points. Qatar is third with four points.
South Korea moved to the top of the other group with a 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia with goals by Lee Kuen-ho and Lee Young-pyo. The Koreans took over from Iran, which drew 1-1 with United Arab Emirates.
In Oceania qualifying, New Zealand moved to the next phase despite losing to Fiji 2-0. The overall winner faces a playoff with the fifth-place Asian team.
World Cup host South Africa beat Cameroon 3-2 in a friendly on home turf in Rustenberg for its third win in four matches over the continent's top-ranked side.
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