Thaindian News

London, June 6 (DPA) Arjen Robben suffered a thigh injury, overshadowing the Netherlands’ 6-1 victory over Hungary in a football World Cup warm-up match here Saturday.
Italy followed up their defeat to Mexico with a 1-1 draw against Switzerland in Geneva, while Serbia came out on top in a seven-goal thriller against Cameroon.

In Saturday’s other friendlies, the United States, South Africa, Ghana, Slovakia and Algeria all won.

Robben had scored twice after coming on as a second-half substitute in Amsterdam. But, with three minutes remaining, he felt a sharp pain in his thigh muscle.

The winger will have a scan Sunday.

Coach Bert van Marwijk said that, if necessary, he will wait until the day before the first World Cup match June 14 against Denmark for a final decision on whether to replace Robben.

“We will wait with Robben as long as possible,” said van Marwijk, calling the injury a catastrophe. “I would have rather lost the match.”

The Netherlands have been highly impressive in their warm-up games so far, beating Mexico and Ghana. But they were stunned after six minutes in Amsterdam as Balazs Dzsudzsak put Hungary ahead with a ferocious swerving drive.

However, the Dutch soon began to dominate and they levelled after 22 minutes, Dirk Kuyt laying in Robin van Persie to tuck a neat finish into the bottom corner.

Nine minutes after the break, the Netherlands took the lead, Wesley Sneijder finishing off Gio van Bronckhorst’s cross.

Robben soon added a brilliant third from another Van Bronckhorst cross, and Mark van Bommell drilled a fourth from outside the box with 20 minutes remaining.

Substitute Eljero Elia squeezed a shot past Martin Fulop to make it five, before Robben added his second.

Italy fell behind after 10 minutes against Switzerland, who lost to Costa Rica earlier in the week, in Geneva.

Gokhan Inler linked neatly with Blaise Nkufo before firing home, but Fabio Quagliarella headed Italy level four minutes later.

Serbia twice fell behind to Cameroon in the opening 20 minutes in Belgrade, both goals for the away team going to Achille Webo, but had hit back to lead 4-2 by half-time.

Milos Krasic got the first equaliser and Dejan Stankovic the second, before a Nenad Milijas penalty and a goal for Marko Pantelic in the space of two minutes gave the Serbians the advantage.

Eric Choupo-Moting pulled one back midway through the second half, but Serbia held on for a morale-boosting win.

In Roodepoort, two goals from Edson Buddle helped USA to a 3-1 victory over Australia.

Buddle capitalised on a mistake from Vince Grella and fired in his second international goal from just outside the box after five minutes. The US should have been two-up when Robbie Findley rounded Mark Schwarzer only to fire wide.

Tim Cahill escaped Clint Dempsey to level on 19 minutes, but Buddle added his second before half-time from a Steve Cherundolo cross.

Herculez Gomez added a late third.

Slovakia were also impressive winners, beating Costa Rica, who missed on the World Cup in a play-off, 3-0 in Bratislava.

Douglas Sequeria scored his second own-goal in a little over a week to gift Slovakia the lead, before Robert Vittek made the game safe with his 19th international goal.

Stanislav Sestak added a late penalty.

Hosts South Africa stretched their unbeaten run to 12 games as they beat Denmark 1-0 in Pretoria. Katlego Mphela got the only goal after 76 minutes.

Ghana were also 1-0 winners, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie finally getting the breakthrough after 88 minutes in a game they had dominated against Latvia in Milton Keynes, England.

On a good day for most of Africa’s World Cup qualifiers, Algeria beat the United Arab Emirates 1-0 thanks to Karim Ziani’s 51st-minute penalty.

Honduras suffered a set-back, as they went down 3-0 to Romania in St Weit, Austria, the goals coming from Daniel Niculae, Geroge Florescu and a Mirel Radoi penalty.