So it was another night of drama and high jinx as three more teams qualified for the World Cup, the play-offs gave us a look at who might join them and some of those already qualified battled it out against each other.

The pick of the friendlies was England v Brazil (only just edging out Spain v Argentina of course) and Kevin McCarra of the Guardian watched the contest in Doha, choosing to focus on the efforts of captain-for-the-day Wayne Rooney.

"Wayne Rooney seldom suffers from apathy on a football pitch. The opportunity to be captain in Doha seemed to make him particularly animated, although frustration then gripped him even more quickly than usual. He had a craving to leave his mark on a game where the play was sometimes perfunctory, but this was one of his weaker outings for England.

The responsibilities that accompany the armband looked excessive for someone who expects so much of himself even when he is not an office-bearer. It was, after all, frustration that caused a sending-off at the 2006 World Cup when, as a lone forward, Rooney stamped on Ricardo Carvalho while the Portuguese was marking him claustrophobically."

Elsewhere, former England striker and 1986 World Cup golden boot winner Gary Lineker examined the missed chances of Capello's second string for the Mail.

"The real winners for England were the players who didn't face Brazil last night. Men like David Beckham and Joe Cole must surely have increased their chances of being on the plane to South Africa.

James Milner was the best of the wannabes, reasonable but not much more than that. Ben Foster, Joleon Lescott and Matthew Upson did okay but they made mistakes. Poor Darren Bent didn't have the service but sometimes a striker has to make things happen. Things didn't happen for the Sunderland man and as he walked off when substituted by Jermain Defoe, I fear his one big chance to grasp the nettle had gone.

Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch didn't do much more than Bent when they came on in the second half but the pressure wasn't on them in the same way.They have already scored goals for this season and their places in the squad are virtually assured. They will not have minded Bent failing to score. It is a terrible human trait to want rival players to fail when they are chasing your place in the team – I know, I have been there."