It took a sliding tackle from Jens Jeremies to deny Cameron's run into the box and then Crawford finally glimpsed a sight of goal seven minutes before the interval as Gary Naysmith's corner reached him at the back of the box, but the striker tugged his right-foot shot wide.Though Douglas was required to touch a dipping long-range effort from Bernd Schneider wide to preserve the scoreline at half-time, Scotland knew they were still in the contest. The energy levels of the home players became more remarkable the longer the game went on and they almost restored parity in the 48th minute when Crawford showed lovely skill to flick the ball over the head of Arne Friedrich before conjuring up a shot that was beaten away by the fists of Oliver Kahn. Crawford returned the ball into the path of Cameron, but the midfielder failed to bury his shot from close-range.The pressure mounted and the three-times European champions did not enjoy the experience one bit, with their evident frustration underlined by Ballack earning a booking after he had cut down Miller and then engaged Christian Dailly in an ugly confrontation.However, Germany finally cracked in the 69th minute. Christian W? had cynically handled the ball to prevent it reaching Crawford, but it was quickly seized by Cameron, whose vision allowed him to thread a swift free-kick into the path of Miller. Turkey stepped up the pressure on England last night by winning 1-0 in Slovakia to go back to the top of Euro 2004 qualifying group seven.

The narrow victory was enough to send Turkey back to the top of the group table, two points clear of England, who play Slovakia on Wednesday at the Riverside.Iceland needed a late goal to beat the Faroe Islands 2-1 in Scotland's section, group five, where they are fourth with six points from four games. Unbeaten Germany lead the group on goal difference from the Scots.The substitute Tryggvi Gudmundsson, who was brought on in the 75th minute, earned Iceland the points in the 89th minute when he met Thordur Gudjonsson's cross from the right and sent a powerful header past Jakup Mikkelsen, who had kept his team afloat with some spectacular saves.After missing half a dozen good chances in the first half, Iceland took the lead four minutes after the break when Helgi Sigurdsson pounced on a rebound after Eidur Gudjohnsen's free-kick from just outside the box hit the bar.Faroe Islands drew level in the 62nd minute through Rogvi Jacobsen, who headed home Jakub Borg's free-kick from the right to convert the visitors' only chance as the Iceland defence looked on."It was a shock when they equalised. We're stronger in the air and should have prevented the goal," said Iceland's new coach Asgeir Sigurvinsson, after the defensive unit of Gudni Bergsson, Hermann Hreidarsson and Larus Orri Sigurdsson had failed to mark Jacobsen.In group nine, which Wales lead, Finland kept their qualifying hopes alive with a resounding 3-0 victory over 10-man Serbia-Montengro. Finland were inventive throughout and deservedly went ahead midway through the first half with a goal from the Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia.The visitors were in deep trouble in the 26th minute when Sinisa Mihajlovic was sent off for violent conduct after shoving Mikael Forssell, who is still on Chelsea's books but appears to be heading for Borussia M?engladbach. Joonas Kolkka made it 2-0 in first-half injury time, then a fantastic solo effort by Forssell in the 57th minute sealed the points. Apart from Joe Cole's spectacular goal and the odd threatening shot, and even more threatening glares, from Wayne Rooney, the most notable occurrence in the second half of England's friendly international against Serbia and Montenegro on Tuesday was a loudspeaker announcement asking the crowd to refrain from sending squadrons of paper aeroplanes gliding through the air at Leicester's Walkers Stadium.

When spectators are reduced to practising their aeronautical skills by fashioning paper planes from leaflets requesting good behaviour in the middle of an inter-national, we may have wandered away from the purpose of such gatherings.The very irritating Mexican wave - there was a bout of that, too - is an expressive enough indication of a crowd whose interest is at a loose end, but to force supporters into a mass origami session is some achievement. You can hardly blame them for being distracted by other pleasures while a staggering 21 substitutions are being made. The plot of an England performance is often more difficult to follow than a Beckett play, but when they keep changing the roles and the actors as well, the point of it becomes totally obscure.Why the Serbian coach, Dejan Savicevic, saw fit to join in the Eriksson shuffle is not known. Perhaps it is becoming a fashion among European coaches, or maybe he and Sven decided to have a substitution contest, in which case Savicevic won 11-10.In previous manifestations of his rapid replacements policy in friendlies I tended to sympathise with Eriksson. I felt that his anxiety to get unco-operative club managers on his side was the main reason why he exposed players to the minimum of injury risk while they were in his charge.

It wasn't a good reason, but at least it was understandable.No such reason was present on Tuesday, because the club season is over and the players are with him until after Wednesday's Euro 2004 qualifier against Slovakia in Middlesbrough. The theory is that he was saving his better players for that task, but surely you can take player protection too far. What they needed was a good workout and a build-up of confidence in their new formation.It may be a little premature to herald England's recently mined diamond formation as a success, but it certainly offered Steven Gerrard an apt vehicle for his special talents. Having established that fact, it was important to give it more rein. What was the point of tearing it all up at half-time and starting again? One or two second-half subs, such as Joe Cole and Rooney, could have explored a few extra possibilities, but sharing scraps of the action between 21 players was a nonsense that didn't seem to advance the cause.It was fortunate that Cole's goal was good enough to dilute the complaints.