By Alan Hansen BBC Sport football expert

Andorra were never going to move from zero on the scoreboard

England's opposition Andorra were abysmal.

Steve McClaren's side had to dispatch them the best they could - but even though they won 5-0, I wouldn't say it was a vintage performance and it's very difficult to read anything into it.

To play the likes of Andorra is a total waste of time. The fixture list is crowded, there are too many games and it's causing friction between club and country.

You can understand why the club managers don't want their players to go and play international matches.

England's game against Greece was three days before the start of the season and then you have a Mickey Mouse game against Andorra.

There should be some sort of pre-qualifying for the likes of Andorra before the group stages.

England have done well in the two games they have played under McClaren but there is a tendency to get carried away - and the bigger and harder tests will come.

And until we have seen England play against quality opposition we just don't know how much progress England have made under McClaren.

Scotland did exceptionally well in their 6-0 win against the Faroe Islands - the most important thing was to get the result.

Scoring five goals in the first half gave Scotland and their supporters a bit of belief.

It was all smiles for Smith and Scotland on Saturday

Nobody is kidding themselves that they are going to beat Italy, France and Ukraine but Scotland have to make life difficult for the bigger nations and not get run over easily.

If Scotland can keep their team spirit high, we have seen before in international football that anything can happen.

People have been deriding Scottish football, saying it is on its way out. Now the players and the manager, Walter Smith, have a chance to prove everybody wrong.

Sadly, Northern Ireland's 3-0 defeat at home to Iceland was a catastrophic result.

This is where manager Lawrie Sanchez earns his corn - he has to lift his players and say the right thing.

It is not easy but they cannot sit back and feel sorry for themselves, they have to go and show it was a one-off.

They have to try to get back into the Championship. There is nothing worse than playing your fourth game of qualifying and you are out of the competition.

You have got to give your supporters something to shout about. Especially in the home matches.

Looking ahead, I expect England to carry on showing good form when they play Macedonia on Wednesday - they have a little bit of impetus under McClaren.

It will not be a game for the purists. I think McClaren will go in there, he will get the result and get out.

It is great for the Welsh players to come up against opposition of Brazil's quality

But I don't think it matters if you don't play exciting, attacking football. I think England just have to be very professional.

Scotland travel to Lithuania and they have to keep putting points on the board before they meet Italy, France and Ukraine.

They will go into the game with renewed confidence and hopefully they will get the right result.

I would not have thought Northern Ireland will get anything from their match against Spain.

But they have got to put up some sort of fight. It's really important for them to give a decent performance.

They need to keep it tight because if they are beaten by four or five, it will be very difficult for them to recover from that.

Going back to friendlies, I do think the game between Wales and Brazil is worthwhile - even though it comes between Euro qualifiers for the Welsh, who were beaten 2-1 in the Czech Republic at the weekend.

It provides a test for Wales, ahead of their match against Slovakia on 7 October - and Brazil remain the team that everybody wants to see.

It is great for the Welsh players to come up against opposition of that quality and it is a learning experience.

From Brazil you always get wonderful control of the ball, passing, movement - and a few party pieces.