Nearly every national side worth its salt played either yesterday or Tuesday, on the first of FIFA's designated international match days of 2011.
It was an abbreviated window, as most of the big European leagues are in the homestretch of a long season, but there was still a ton of great (and a lot of not-so-great) soccer on display midweek.
The best of the bunch were likely the European versus South American matchups, with world class talent in abundance.
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Argentina 2-1 Portugal
This one was played on a crappy pitch in Geneva for some reason, but the conditions didn't damper yet another meeting of the two best players on the planet. Just like on the club level, Lionel Messi came out ahead of his duel with Cristian Ronaldo.
Messi bossed the centre of the park as he usually does, and made a breath-taking run through a few defenders before sending an inch-perfect chip to an on-rushing Angel di Maria, who made no mistake and slotting it home.
The Portuguese would not be outdone, and it was none other than Ronaldo who levelled things up, capitalizing on a defensive error.
Messi would put the game on ice with a late-game penalty, however, giving him yet another personal victory over Ronaldo in a season that has seen the two superstars utterly dominate the footballing world.
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France 1-0 Brazil
The rebuilding French side were looking to make a statement, and there's no bigger one than scoring a victory over the best nation to ever play the game.
A back-and-forth match saw plenty of chances for both sides, but it was a second-half strike by Real Madrid's Karim Benzema that secured the win for France, which looks to be shaking off the stench of a very poor past couple of years.
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Denmark 1-2 England
The English national team overcame a poor start to claim a 2-1 win over Denmark in Copenhagen. Goals by Darren Bent and Ashley Young sealed a comeback victory for England, nullifying an eighth-minute strike by the hosts.
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Greece 1-0 Canada
My colleague squizz did a great job capturing the essence of the match, but I just wanted to post up the highlights for anyone who has yet to see them.
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Some other results from notable friendlies involving European countries this week:
Republic of Ireland 3-0 Wales
Germany 1-1 Italy
Netherlands 3-1 Austria
Croatia 4-2 Czech Republic
Northern Ireland 0-3 Scotland
Poland 1-0 Norway
Spain 1-0 Colombia
Unfortunately, I couldn't find highlights of San Marino's 1 - 0 loss to Liechtenstein. Just picture the France - Brazil game in slow motion and with 1/100th attendance/excitement/skill.