Johannesburg  - World Cup hosts South Africa scored a morale-boosting 2-1 victory against under-strength Norway in an international football friendly on Saturday.

Substitute Siphiwe Tshabalala gave Bafana Bafana an injury-time winner in Rustenburg.

The game played as the annual Nelson Mandela Challenge, and marked the re-opening of the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, which has been upgraded for this year's Confederations Cup and next year's World Cup.

Hamburg  - Roman Pavlyuchenko was the man of the match as Russia defeated Azerbaijan 2-0 in 2010 World Cup qualifying on Saturday.

The Tottenham Hotspur striker opened the scoring in Moscow with a curling free-kick in the 32nd minute and fed Konstantin Zyrianov for the other in the 71st.

Russia improved to nine points from four games in qualifying Group 4, one point behind leaders Germany who were due to play minnows Liechtenstein later Saturday in Leipzig.

Johannesburg  - Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor gave Togo a perfect start to their final phase of 2010 World Cup qualifying by scoring the winner in a 1-0 against Cameroon on Saturday.

Although the group A game was Togo's home match it was switched to the Ghanaian capital of Accra as the stadium in Lome remains out of bounds after rioting occurred there two years ago.

Adebayor, whose inclusion in the starting line-up was only given the green light by Arsenal on Friday, scored in the 11th minute, to give the surprise 2006 World Cup finalist an early lead.

Hamburg  - Japan are a win away from qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa after beating Bahrain 1-0 in the Asian qualifying zone on Saturday.

There was also an important win for North Korea, whose 2-0 victory against the United Arab Emirates took them to the top of Group B, while Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia also kept alive their hopes of making it to South Africa with victories.

Hamburg  - Roman Pavlyuchenko was the man of the match as Russia defeated Azerbaijan 2-0 in 2010 World Cup qualifying on Saturday.

The Tottenham Hotspur striker opened the scoring in Moscow with a curling free-kick in the 32nd minute and fed Konstantin Zyrianov for the other in the 71st.

Russia improved to nine points from four games in qualifying group 4, one point behind leaders Germany who were due to play minnows Liechtenstein later Saturday in Leipzig.