International friendlies are not usually my cup of tea especially when I was really getting into the Copa del Rey games. But with Bojan supposedly making his debut for Spain, and England playing their first game under Capello I decided to set the video for one game, the DVD recorder for the other game, go out to eat and come back and watch both games.

First up I watched England beat Switzerland 2-1 at Wembley in a pretty boring game that got better in the second half. Rooney and Bentley played well for England. I then put on the Spain-France game, winding the tape forward to the kick off and so missing any team news. The teams both played in unusual strips which I found put me off at the beginning, France in blue shorts and red tops while Spain were sporting a particularly horribly white shorts and yellow (mustard?) shirts. It was only after about twenty minutes that the commentator mentioned that Bojan wouldn’t be coming on as a sub as he had felt unwell before the match. There had been reports of him suffering from gastroenteritis on Monday but he had supposedly recovered; hopefully he will be ok to play for Barça, it may have been just down to nerves.

There were still plenty of blaugranas on show but pretty soon I was getting bored of the game. Xavi was playing well for Spain while Thuram was also doing a good job at the back for France. Iniesta and Abidal were doing fine while Henry was hardly seen up front for France. Anelka was looking the sharper of the French forwards and it made me wonder whether Chelsea might be ready to sell Drogba, especially as Drogba flirted again this week with Milan and Barça.

Another possible summer signing, Karim Benzema, came on for Anelka after an hour and immediately forced Casillas into making his first important save of the match, but the game was still boring me. Spain finally took the lead in the 79th minute after Iniesta’s shot was headed off the line by Diarra and Capdevila scored a simple rebound. Thierry Henry had two great chances at the end to equalize: in the 90th minute Benzema headed against the bar and Henry headed the rebound past the far post when it looked easier to score, then in injury time his shot was well blocked by Casillas. 

In the night’s other game involving Barça players, Gianluca Zambrotta came off injured in Italy’s 3-1 win over Portugal. It is still to early to say if the injury is of any importance, the first reports suggest an abductor injury. With Puyol injured, could this mean a return for Oleguer at right back against Sevilla? Deco played the first 45 minutes of the game before being substituted at half time.

Later tonight Mexico play a friendly in Houston, Giovani and Marquez are expected to feature. Let’s hope they don’t have any problems with flights and get back quickly. All in all tonight’s football has done nothing to change my opinion about international friendlies; I still think they suck.