Cristiano Ronaldo became Portugal's all-time top scorer by contributing two goals to a comfortable 5-1 victory over Cameroon in Leiria.
The Real Madrid forward broke Pauleta's existing record of 47 goals for Portugal in the 21st minute and he set a new benchmark of 49 when wrapping up the comprehensive win seven minutes from time.
Vincent Aboubakar had canceled his opener out, but Raul Meireles, Fabio Coentrao and Edinho put the hosts out of sight before Ronaldo added gloss to the result.
Didier Deschamps' France looked a side flush with new-found confidence against 2010 runners-up Netherlands, who could not muster up a response to first-half goals from Karim Benzema and Blaise Matuidi on their way to suffering a 2-0 defeat.
In Mannheim, an experimental Germany line-up beat Chile 1-0 with Mario Gotze scoring the winner on 16 minutes.
Turkey and Sweden went head-to-head in Ankara with the hosts triumphing 2-1 on the night.
Mevlut Erding hit the opener within two minutes and a quick exchange of goals between Ola Toivonen and Olcan Adin after the break tipped the scales in the Turks' favor.
Norway and the Czech Republic are also staying at home this summer but put on a good show in Prague.
Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky opened the scoring before Tarik Elyounoussi leveled and, after Matej Vydra gave the Czechs the lead once again, Morten Gamst Pedersen hit a late equalizer to settle a dramatic 2-2 draw.
There was little for supporters to cheer in Cyprus, though, as 10-man Northern Ireland ground out a goalless draw in Nicosia despite losing Gareth McAuley to a red card.
Fabio Capello's Russia were 2-0 winners over Armenia and Greece were given food for thought ahead of the summer finals as South Korea claimed a 2-0 victory in Piraeus.
Montenegro are not going to South America but beat qualified African nation Ghana 1-0 while Algeria trumped Slovenia 2-0.
Swansea's Wilfried Bony grabbed a late leveler as Ivory Coast held Belgium to a 2-2 draw in Brussels. Marouane Fellaini and Radja Nainggolan gave the hosts a two-goal lead but veteran striker Didier Drogba halved the deficit before Bony had the last word.
Switzerland's meeting with Croatia also finished 2-2, Nurnberg's Josip Drmic scoring his first international goals and Ivica Olic bagging a brace in response.
Romania sprang a surprise by holding two-time world champions Argentina to a goalless draw in Bucharest and Uruguay drew 1-1 with Austria. Goals either side of half-time saw Albania defeat Malta 2-0 and Finland recovered to down Hungary 2-1 in Gyor.
Slovakia proved too hot to handle for Israel as they clinched a 3-1 victory while goals from Gedo and Mohamed Salah decided a 2-0 win for Egypt over soon-to-be World Cup debutants Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Gibraltar lost 2-0 at home to Estonia in what was the British territory's third fixture since becoming a full UEFA member.
Elsewhere, Bulgaria beat Belarus 2-1, Lithuania and Kazakhstan drew 1-1 in Antalya and Azerbaijan edged the Philippines 1-0. Macedonia held off Latvia to win 2-1 in Skopje, Moldova humbled Andorra 3-0 and lowly Luxembourg played out a goalless draw with Cape Verde.
