Cole to the rescue

England 2 Urugauy 1

Eriksson, exposed by a fake sheikh in the Middle East, watched as the frailties of his “best XI” laid bare by an outfit not good enough to join the world’s best in Germany.

Uruguay led 1-0 at half-time, before the friendly descended into a familiar circus of substitutions. But Peter Crouch cheered the frustrated Liverpool crowd with his first international goal in his fifth game.