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Fabio Capello oversaw a winning start to his tenure as England manager with a 2-1 victory over Switzerland while his Italian compatriots scored an impressive friendly success over Portugal which augurs well for the Azzurri's chances at Euro 2008.

Despite England's abject failure to qualify for the European Championships in June their first game under Capello was always going to merit more than a Wembley sideshow and a healthy crowd was warmed by fine goals from Jermaine Jenas and Shaun Wright-Phillips on Wednesday.

In between times, however, the deficiencies of the Steve McClaren era were apparent at the back as Eren Dediyok stole in to notch a fine Swiss consolation.

From the team that started England's last match, a 3-2 Wembley defeat by Croatia Steve McClaren a place at Euro 2008 and his job, only Steven Gerrard, Gareth Barry and Joe Cole survived with off-form Newcastle striker Michael Owen dropped.

David Bentley shone in the space vacated by David Beckham on the right of midfield while veteran keeper David James returned just six months short of his 38th birthday and was in no way at fault for Dedijok's goal.

Bayern Munich forward Luca Toni opened the scoring in first-half injury-time and AC Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo doubled the advantage six minutes after the break with a bobbling shot from distance.

Ricardo Quaresma pulled a goal back with less than a quarter of an hour to play but two minutes later Udinese forward Fabio Quagliarella sealed the victory against a Portuguese side whose defending bordered on the chaotic.

"That was a great performance, we've shown once again that we're a great team," beamed Italy coach Roberto Donadoni.

Germany, gunning for their fourth European title this summer, were similarly untroubled as the ymuscled past Austria 3-0 in Vienna with goals from Miroslav Klose, his 37th for his country, Thomas Hitzlsperger and subsititute Mario Gomez.

German coach Joachim Loew was nevertheless not happy with a first-half performance which consisted of cruising at the Ernst Happel Stadium.

The Dutch dictated the game from the start despite lacking such luminaries as Ruud Van Nistelrooy and won with goals from John Heitinga, Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Vennegor of Hesselink.

In the Euro 2008 finals Croatia will have to do much better with the Germans in their path.

France also have room for improvement after a 1-0 loss to Spain in Malaga.

Israel beat Romania by the only goal, Slovenia bowed 2-1 at home to Denmark and Poland scored an impressive 2-0 win away to the Czech Republic.