Internationals | Wins for Van de Ven, Porro, defeat for Donley
Final World Cup warm-up matches delivered victories for Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro on Monday evening, while Jamie Donley’s Northern Ireland suffered defeat in a friendly with France.
At the start of the week which sees the big kick-off for the 2026 World Cup, Van de Ven and Porro both featured for their nations in important wins ahead of their opening tournament fixtures.
Defender Van de Ven played the whole game as the Netherlands picked up a dramatic 2-1 victory against Uzbekistan, in a friendly at the Icahn Stadium. Seemingly heading towards a straight-forward win thanks to Cody Gakpo's first-half penalty, Ronald Koeman's side were dealt a blow when Guus Til was dismissed in the 87th minute and Uzbekistan equalised through Igor Sergeev five minutes later.
However, Jan Paul van Hecke was fouled by Abdukodir Khusanov deep into stoppage time and Gakpo converted the 98th-minute penalty for the win. Next up for Micky and his teammates is a World Cup clash against Japan on 14 June in Dallas.
While the match was played behind closed doors, there was one special guest watching as Spurs and Dutch legend Edgar Davids was in attendance!
Gallery: Internationals - 8 June
Spain also rounded off their preparations with a win, with Porro featuring for the final stages of their 3-1 success against Peru at the Estadio Cuauhtemoc in Puebla, Mexico. Winning his 18th cap for his country, our right-back came off the bench in the 69th minute to replace Marcos Llorente and saw out the closing minutes without conceding.
Spain went ahead in the second minute thanks to a fierce drive from Mikel Oyarzabal, before Pedri doubled their lead before the break. Yeremy Pino’s delivery forced an error from Peru goalkeeper Pedro Gallese for 3-0, while Jairo Velez scored a consolation for the South Americans. Porro and his teammates will now head to Atlanta for their World Cup opener against Cape Verde on 15 June.
Over in Lille, outgoing France manager Didier Deschamps signed off his final home match with a 3-1 victory over Northern Ireland, although Donley and his team-mates certainly caused them problems at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
Although Michael Olise scored a wonderful hat-trick, the Irish produced a battling performance with Patrick Kelly reducing the deficit to 2-1 at one stage, while Donley had a goal ruled out for a foul in the build-up just before half-time. That was Northern Ireland’s last game of the season, while France now head to the US as one of the tournament favourites.