Lionel Messi helped Argentina to a 2-0 friendly victory over France on Wednesday and Germany lost to Norway for the first time in 73 years when it was beaten 1-0. Fit-again striker Eduardo da Silva gave Croatia a timely boost by setting up the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Romania, but the Netherlands was held to a 1-1 draw by Tunisia. Jonas Gutierrez had already put Argentina ahead in Marseille when Messi collected the ball outside the penalty area in the 83rd, got through the home defense and beat goalkeeper Steve Mandanda with a shot inside his right post. The result gave Diego Maradona his second straight win as Argentina coach, but heaped pressure upon his French counterpart, Raymond Domenech. France fans called for Domenech to resign following a second half in which his team rarely threatened the visitors. The only previous time Norway had beaten Germany was at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, but Christian Grindheim scored in the 63rd minute in Duesseldorf with a close-range shot at the far post. Without a victory in 2008, Norway won its first game under new coach Egil Olsen despite missing some of its biggest stars. Germany, meanwhile, has now lost consecutive games ahead of its March 28 World Cup qualifier against Liechtenstein, having previously lost a friendly to England. Chelsea striker Didier Drogba marked his first international match for more than a year with an injury-time equalizer that earned Ivory Coast a 1-1 draw in Turkey. Greece drew 1-1 with visiting Denmark, while Sweden won 2-0 against Austria, Belgium beat Slovenia 2-0 and Israel defeated Hungary 1
