Joe Cole made up for the absence of David Beckham with a match-winning, swerving free kick as England edged Serbia-Montenegro 2-1 on Tuesday in a Euro 2004 warmup game.

　　Cole, who plays for relegated West Ham, emulated the injured England captain when he curled a powerful shot round the wall and past motionless 'keeper Dragan Zilic seven minutes from the end as Sven-Goran Eriksson's team won for the fourth game in a row.

　　Eriksson said he was pleased with the result ahead of next week's qualifying game against Slovakia. "It's always good to win even if it's a friendly and it looks good for the match next week. They look still hungry after a long season," the Swede said.

　　Steven Gerrard had given England a 34th-minute lead only for Nenad Jestrovic to level in the final minute of the first half.

　　With Gareth Barry and Wayne Rooney also going close near the end, it was an encouraging finish for England which has been hit by injuries and also has other problems to handle.

　　England is under threat from UEFA of being kicked out of next year's European Championship if there are any major repeats of fan misbehavior. But the game went off without any trouble or the sort of racist chanting that marred thesgroups7 victory over Turkey in April.

　　Eriksson had eight players, including broken-wrist victim Beckham, missing as he prepared the team for a June 11 Euro 2004 match against Slovakia. None of them will be fit in time for that game at Middlesbrough.

　　With two Euro 2004 games to come against Finland on Saturday and Azerbaijan four days later, Serbian coach Dejan Savicevic kept most of his big names - Lazio's Sinisa Mihajlovic, Darko Kovacevic of Real Sociedad, Savo Milosevic of Espanyol and Predrag Mijatovic of another Spanish club, Levante - off the starting lineup.

　　The result was a tepid game played in a low key atmosphere until two goals came in the last 11 minutes of the first half. It also meant that England has not lost in six games to the former Yugoslavia since the 1968 European Championships.

　　In Campobasso, goals by Bernardo Corradi and Marco Delvecchio earned Italy a 2-0 win against Northern Ireland on Tuesday in a friendly match.

　　After a tentative start by the hosts, Corradi put Italy ahead in the 31st minute off a cross from defender Massimo Oddo, his teammate at Lazio. The score was Corradi's second while wearing the blue national team jersey. In his debut match for the "Azzurri," the striker scored in a 1-0 victory against Portugal in another friendly.Just moments before scoring, Corradi was lying on the ground complaining that he was fouled while going up for a header. As soon as he got up, he redirected the pass from Oddo with a low shot past Fulham goalkeeper Maik Taylor.

　　Delvecchio, who had come on for Corradi to start the second half, scored his fourth national team goal in the 67th. The AS Roma forward slipped the ball past Taylor on a swift counterattack with the defense in rapid pursuit.

　　Italy was in complete control despite the fact that coach Giovanni Trapattoni had left most of his top stars at home. They should rejoin the squad for a Euro 2004 qualifier against Finland next Wednesday.