Spain wins, Germany loses in warmups

 

LONDON — With the European Championship less than two weeks away, Spain showed it is in good shape to defend the title by beating Serbia 2-0 in its first warmup game.

 

It wasn’t such a successful night for two more of the continent’s heavyweight sides, however, with a Germany team missing its Bayern Munich stars losing 5-3 in Switzerland and Portugal drawing 0-0 at home to Macedonia.

 

Adrian Lopez made a case for starting up front for the Spanish at the Euros in place of the injured David Villa by opening the scoring in the 64th minute on his international debut, before earning the penalty that was converted by Santi Cazorla 16 minutes from time.

 

Germany rested its Bayern players who were involved in the loss to Chelsea in last weekend’s Champions League final and was made to pay as Eren Derdiyok scored a hat trick in Basel.

 

Stephan Lichtsteiner and Admir Mehmedi also scored for Switzerland, which failed to qualify for next month’s tournament in Poland and Ukraine, while Mats Hummels, Andre Schuerrle and substitute Marco Reus were the scorers for Germany. Denmark is the other team in a tough Group B at the Euros and the Nordic team was swept aside 3-1 by Brazil.

 

Vedran Corluka, Nikola Kalinic and Ognjen Vukojevic gave Croatia a 3-1 victory over Estonia in a warmup in Pula, Croatia.

 

The Croats played without star midfielder Luka Modric and forward Ivica Olic but still dominated.

 

Captain Corluka scored in the 16th minute and Kalinic followed two minutes later after a great pass from Eduardo da Silva. Vukojevic scored 10 minutes from the end from just inside the penalty box.

 

Estonia goalkeeper Sergei Pareiko prevented a higher score with some superb saves. Estonia replied from a free kick in the 83rd, when a shot by Konstantin Vasillev was slightly deflected by Vukojevic.

 

Croatia will play another friendly against Norway next week in Oslo.

 

Croatia will play Ireland on June 10 in the opening match of Group C at Euro 2012. Also in the group are Spain and Italy.

 

Russia holds Uruguay

In Moscow, Russia held Copa America champion Uruguay to 1-1 in the first of its three European Championship warmup games Friday.Bielsa silent on Bilbao future

 

Marcelo Bielsa offered no clues to his Athletic Bilbao future despite fans’ pleas for the Argentine coach to remain after a 3-0 Copa del Rey final loss to Barcelona Friday.

 

Athletic Bilbao fans chanted “Bielsa, stay on” at Vicente Calderon Stadium at the close — just over two weeks after the Basque side lost the Europa League final 3-0 to Atletico Madrid. — Agencies