Norway 2 – 2 Paraguay

Neither England nor Sweden will be particularly worried by threat from Paraguay in Group B on the basis of last night's draw in Oslo.

Norway took the lead through Rosenberg striker Frode Johnsen after 22 minutes. Morten Gamst-Pedersen swung a superb free-kick in from the left and Johnsen dived to head home.

Paraguay failed to offer much resistance in the first half and Norway's aggression in midfield and direct balls into the Paraguayan penalty area kept the South American's on the back foot.

In the only other event of note in the first 45 minutes, Lyon striker John Carew was withdrawn for the Norwegians after receiving a kick to the foot. He was replaced by Ole-Martin Årst.

The Paraguayans looked livelier in the second half and got the equaliser only three minutes after the restart. Almost from the same position as the Pedersen's earlier delivery, Delio Toledo's free-kick was headed in by the unmarked veteran centre back Carlos Gamarra.

And just six minutes later, Paraguay took the lead through Nelson Valdez. He latched onto a long ball from deep and struck the ball past Thomas Myhre in goal, as Norwegian defender Brede Hangeland failed to catch the Werder Bremen frontman. Valdez is also in possession of a fabulously bushy head of hair which he has unwisely augmented with cornrows at the side, dyed red, white and blue on the right.

Valdez will bear a lot of the striking burden in Germany for the South Americans if Roque Santa Cruz fails to recover from tendonitis in his right knee. Santa Cruz has been injured for most of the season due to cruciate ligament problems in the same knee but came back for Bayern Munich's last three games of the season.

Norway got their second goal via the same double-act that scored the first. Johnsen heading his second from a Pedersen corner after Paraguay keeper Justo Villar made a mess of the cross. Normally very reliable, the Newell's Old Boy goalie looked uncertain all game under the barrage of high balls delivered by the Norwegians into his area.

The game rather petered out after that strike on the hour and Paraguay's World Cup opponents will take heart from their bloodless performance. The South Americans have two more official friendlies against Denmark on Saturday and Georgia next Wednesday before travelling to the World Cup.