England upbeat as Young guns shoot down Danes

FABIO CAPELLO got 2011 off to a positive start when his youthful side defeated Denmark 2-1 in Copenhagen last night.

Darren Bent and Ashley Young combined to ensure England enjoyed a wonderful night even though Jack Wilshere was not able to match his impressive billing and struggled in the holding midfield role; his contribution paling alongside that of fellow youngster Christian Eriksen.

The home side went in front after just eight minutes when Eriksen’s curling cross was steered home by defender Daniel Agger. However, Frank Lampard and John Terry will be disappointed Agger had so much space to direct the ball beyond Hart’s grasp.

The visitors were level just three minutes later when Darren Bent rolled home a simple tap in after Theo Walcott flew past Poulsen outside the box.

Bent had a second disallowed after the interval but Ashley Young scored the winner (and his first England goal) from close range on 68 minutes after Glen Johnson made the opening with a perfect pass.

In the Carling Nations Cup tournament at the Aviva Stadium, Scotland had an easy win over Northern Ireland with goals from Kenny Miller, James McArthur and Kris Commons.

Both sides started without key players with Scotland’s Scott Brown pulling up with a hamstring injury during the warm-up while, bizarrely, George McCartney was a late withdrawal from Nigel Worthington’s squad after he quit international football prior to the game.

Elsewhere, World Cup runners-up Holland had a facile 3-1 win over Austria in Eindhoven.

Wesley Sneijder continued his return to fitness with the opening goal and impressed for the 45 minutes he was on the field scoring the opener just before the half hour with Ibrahim Afellay and Dirk Kuyt, with a penalty, also on target for the Dutch.

Marko Arnautovic pulled one back with an 84th-penalty for Austria but it was Holland who completed their impressive form.

Ruud van Nistelrooy also continued his return to the international game after coming off the bench with a little under 20 minutes to go.

Germany drew one apiece with Italy at the Signal Iduna-Park stadium in Dortmund.

Miroslav Klose gave the German the lead after 16 minutes but Guiseppe Rossi equalised with nine minutes remaining for the visitors.

Nikola Kalinic bagged an assured brace as Croatia powered to a 4-2 win over the Czech Republic in tonight’s friendly encounter in Pula.

Former Arsenal forward Eduardo fired Croatia in front on 10 minutes before Kalinic opened his account to double the lead three minutes later.

The Czechs pulled one back through Besiktas defender Tomas Sivok before Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky levelled just before the break.

Blackburn striker Kalinic restored Croatia’s lead just after the hour while substitute Ivo Ilicevic made sure of the win with the fourth 16 minutes from time.

Of interest to Ireland will be Russia’s away defeat to Iran in another friendly fixture at Tehran.

The Russians currently top Ireland’s group in the race for the European Championships next year in Ukraine-Poland but Dick Advocat’s men went down 1-0.

Armenia were also defeated, this time 2-1 at home to Georgia.