Keep it Boring Sven

Another week, another turgid England friendly with a scratch team grinding out an uninspiring 0-0 draw against Holland.

Still - maybe turgid is good.

The once great Red Devils, Belgium's national football team, were beaten 4-0 in a friendly match played in Cairo on Wednesday evening. The first half of the match looked promising for the Belgian team with a first goal by Thomas Buffel, refused (unjustly, according to outraged Belgian commentators) by the referee for off-side. But the Egyptians rose to the challenge and scored one goal before half time (El Sayed in the 31st minute). The second half turned out to be disastrous for the Red Devils who were down 3-0 by the 53rd minute of the game with a final goal scored by Egyptian Hosni in the 80th minute.

This was the Belgium's last preparatory match before playing World Cup 2006 qualifiers against footballing giants Bosnia-Herzogovina on March 26 and San Marino on March 30.

Oh dear...