Europe's champions Spain justified their status as World Cup favourites by confidently outplaying France in a 2-0 victory in their friendly at the Stade de France last night.

Two first-half goals by David Villa and Sergio Ramos gave the visitors their first away win over France since a 3-1 victory in 1968 and a further morale boost before they leave for South Africa. "We made the match easy for ourselves with our attitude," Spain's coach, Vicente del Bosque, said. "We maintained a good position on the pitch and controlled the match easily even if we didn't have that many chances. There were some mistakes from both teams in the second half but I think we had the match under control at all times."

The Spaniards, who have now won 22 of the 23 matches they have played since their triumphant Euro 2008 campaign, were too fast and clever in midfield for a clueless French side showing signs of nerves at the back. The 2006 World Cup runners-up, in their first outing since a 1-1 draw featuring Thierry Henry's infamous handball gave them a controversial World Cup play-off win over Ireland on the same Paris pitch last November, were booed off by the French fans. Barcelona's Henry was jeered almost every time he touched the ball and even more so when he was replaced by Sidney Govou with 25 minutes of the game left.

"To lose at home is never pleasant but to beat Spain, you need everybody at his best, which was not the case tonight," said France's coach, Raymond Domenech, who has been under fire since his side's poor Euro 2008 campaign. "We needed to be exceptional and were not. We have three months left."

A first-half strike by Gonzalo Higuaín gave Argentina a 1-0 win over Germany in Munich last night. The Real Madrid striker collected a long clearance from Angel Di María in the 45th minute before beating the defender Per Mertesacker and slipping the ball past Germany's goalkeeper, Rene Adler, who had raced nearly 30 yards off his line. Higuaín slotted the ball into the empty net.

Germany, who had virtually no opportunities except for a couple of long-range attempts that were easily kept out by Spain's goalkeeper, Sergio Romero, are without a win in three games. "Our mistake was that we did not take too many risks going forward," said their captain, Michael Ballack, who was outshone by the veteran Juan Sebastián Verón.

"We needed to show to ourselves we could do what we did tonight," Argentina's manager, Diego Maradona, said. "We wanted to show against a good team that we are alive and we realise that we have not won the World Cup for 24 years. We dominated in every part of the field and we cancelled out Germany's most important players and their aerial game."