There were some high-profile friendlies across Europe on Tuesday, with a major Messi-less blowout of Argentina and a VAR-inspired controversy at Wembley Stadium.
[ MORE: Pogba stars for France ]
England 1-1 Italy
VAR is in focus after Italy grabbed a late equalizer from the spot following an incident between Burnley’s James Tarkowski and Fiorentina’s Federico Chiesa.
Tarkowski landed on Chiesa’s foot, and the Italian hit the deck. It was a penalty but made far worse by the fact that VAR is what gave the kick and that Chiesa rolled around a bit. Lorenzo Insigne finished his chance.
To be fair, England had gone ahead on a bit of legal trickery, using a quick restart to send Jamie Vardy in on Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Spain 6-1 Argentina
Lionel Messi gets unfair grief from some for his record with Argentina — Messi has played 27 games for Argentina since the start of 2015. They’ve lost three of those, and two were in PKs — and the Atomic Flea’s absence in Spain was glaring for the visitors.
Isco had a hat trick, while Diego Costa, Thiago Alcantara, and Iago Aspas also scored as Spain flummoxed La Albiceleste with the exception of Nicolas Otamendi’s 39th minute goal.
Germany 0-1 Brazil
It’s only a small measure of revenge from 7-0, but Gabriel Jesus‘ goal ended the Germans’ long unbeaten run. Jesus scored a diving header to hand Joachim Low’s side its first loss in 23 matches.
Elsewhere
Russia 1-3 France — RECAP
Switzerland 6-0 Panama
Hungary 0-1 Scotland
Japan 1-2 Ukraine — RECAP
Armenia 0-1 Lithuania