Hearts to fore in friendlies

HEARTS players were to the fore last night in a host of international friendlies.

In Paris, Lithuania, who had named six players from the Tynecastle club in their squad, went down 3-1 to Mali with Edgaras Jankauskas scoring their goal.

New Tynecastle signing Laryea Kingston was on the mark for Ghana as they beat Nigeria 4-1 at Griffin Park, Brentford and Takis Fyssas played the first half of Greece's 1-0 defeat by South Korea at Craven Cottage, Fulham.

In other matches, Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo's unscheduled first appearance as captain in last night's 2-0 win over Brazil came at the request of the late Carlos Silva, the vice-president of the Portuguese football federation who died on Saturday. Scolari said that Silva had suggested that this match would be an ideal opportunity to give Ronaldo the responsibility of the captaincy.

"It was a request from Carlos Silva on Saturday," Scolari said.

Taken from the Scotsman