International friendlies wrap: Dutch win 6-0

Netherlands warmed up for their opening fixture of Euro 2012 against Denmark by crushing an inexperienced Northern Ireland side 6-0.

The Dutch are highly fancied to go far in the European Championships and did themselves no harm as they followed up their win against Slovakia with an impressive win.

The Northern Irish side, under new coach Michael O’Neill, lined up with just the solitary player in Grant McCann who had ever scored an international goal and the rookie line-up was duly punished.

The damage was done in the opening 15 minutes as Robin Van Persie and Wesley Sneijder scored to leave the visitors shell-shocked.

And, in fairness they never recovered as Ibrahim Afellay scored and Van Persie doubled his tally to go into half-time 4-0.

Changes were made at half-time and the tempo dropped but the Dutch managed to add to their lead through Afellay and Ron Vlaar to ensure the Dutch won by a large margin.

In Lisbon, Portugal suffered a shock 3-1 defeat to Turkey.

A brace to Umut Bulut in the 35th and 52nd minutes gave the visitors a surprise lead before Nani pulled a goal back in the 57th minute.

On a night Portugal will want to forget, Cristiano Ronaldo had a 65th minute penalty brilliantly saved by Turkish keeper Volkan Demirel after Miguel Lopes had been brought down in the box.

Turkey’s third and decisive goal in the 88th minute had all the elements of farce about it.

Eduardo tried to clear a cross but the ball hit Pepe and headed towards the goal-line. Ricardo Costa’s attempted clearance struck Pepe and went in.

Poland concluded their final preparations for Euro 2012 with a 4-0 victory over Andorra n Warsaw.

Ludovic Obraniak put the hosts ahead after 16 minutes, before Robert Lewandowski’s bicycle kick and Jakub Blaszczykowski’s penalty made it 3-0 before half-time.

Marcin Wasilewski wrapped up the victory with another penalty late on as Poland ended up their warm-up games with a 100 per cent record.

Denmark earned a convincing 2-0 win over a disappointing Australia.

A penalty kick won and converted by skipper Daniel Agger gave the Danes the lead at the half-hour mark, and substitute Andreas Bjelland put the match beyond any doubt with his first international goal midway through the second half.

After their disappointing loss to Brazil last week, the win was a welcome one for Morten Olsen’s men, who were untroubled for much of the game by an Aussie side happy to defend deep and play on the counter.

In other matches, Malta defeated Luxembourg 2-0 and Norway drew 1-1 with Croatia.