Hamburg  - A goal from Villarreal winger Nilmar was enough to secure a 1-0 win for Brazil over England in a friendly international played in Doha Saturday while Xabi Alonso scored twice to give Spain a 2-1 victory against Argentina.

The match between Italy and the Netherlands ended in a goalless draw, while Scotland crashed to defeat against Wales to pile the pressure on under-fire coach Craig Burley.

In Madrid Alonso gave Spain the lead in the 16th minute, before Lionel Messi levelled for Argentina from the spot in the 66th - only for Alonso to make it 2-1 with a penalty just four minutes from time.

The tight win confirms Spain's status as one of the favourites for the 2012 World Cup, while also demonstrating that Diego Maradona still has a lot of work to do with his Argentine team.

On Sunday Maradona will travel to Zurich to appear before a FIFA disciplinary committee with regard to his obscene comments after October's World Cup qualifying clash against Uruguay.

Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas said that: "It is always a hard match against Argentina, but I am pleased ... because we showed tonight that we can fight as well as play nicely."

In Pescara the world champions Italy were held to a goalless draw by the Netherlands, who lost striker Robin van Persie after just 15 minutes after a clash with Giorgio Chiellini and was replaced by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in the 15th minute.

As they often did in recent games, the world champions failed to entertain the home crowd due to the frequent imprecise passes that marred their first fruitless attempts.

A late goal from substitute Giampaolo Pazzini was disallowed after the Sampdoria striker admitted to having handled the ball in a close range deflection.

"I can't explain the percentage of mistakes in our passes," Italy coach Marcello Lippi said.

"We played a good game tactically and we grew up as we fielded new players. We didn't run risks in the second half and we played well in defence."

The income from the game are to given to the people of the nearby town of L'Aquila, which was rocked by a severe quake on April 6 and was visited by the Azzurri this week.

An injury-weakened England meanwhile, suffered only their fourth defeat under Fabio Capello as Nilmar netted the only goal of the game, 78 seconds into the second half, heading home from an Elano cross.

Nilmar also earned the Selecao a penalty when he was tripped in the area by England goalkeeper Ben Foster following a poor backpass by Wes Brown but Luis Fabiano blazed the subsequent spot-kick over the bar.

England failed to manage a meaningful shot until the 35th minute, when Wayne Rooney - captaining his country for the first time - struck a long-range drive well over.

James Milner volleyed just over from a Shaun Wright-Phillips cross, Brown blocked another Nilmar header and Lucio thrashed a drive against the post as the game opened up a little.

It petered out, though, in the final minutes amid a flurry of substitutions, and Brazil held their lead without any real scares.

The pressure continues to mount on Scotland manager Burley after his Scotland side crashed to a dismal 3-0 defeat to neighbours Wales in Cardiff.

Arsenal teenage star Aaron Ramsey scored once and set up the other two for David Edwards and Simon Church as Wales cruised to a comfortable win.

Two goals from Ramsey's club teammate Eduardo helped Croatia to a 5-0 drubbing of Liechtenstein with Mate Bilic also netting a brace.

In other action, Macedonia defeated Canada 3-0, Slovakia prevailed 1-0 against the United States - the same score by which Serbia won in Northern Ireland - while Saudi Arabia and Belarus played out a 1-1 draw.

Luxembourg drew 1-1 against Iceland, while Denmark played to a goalless draw against South Korea. Belgium beat Hungary 3-0. (dpa)