France fight back to earn flattering victory
Reuters - Sunday 27 May 2012, 21:11
Adil Rami struck
late to complete a France fightback which earned a 3-2 friendly
win over Iceland on Sunday two weeks before they start their
Euro 2012 campaign.
Centre-back Rami found the back of the net with three
minutes left after Franck Ribery and Mathieu Debuchy had
cancelled out Birkir Bjarnason and Kolbeinn Sigthorsson's
first-half goals for the visitors.
France, however, produced a terrible defensive display with
left-back Patrice Evra at fault for both goals two days before
coach Laurent Blanc has to trim his Euro squad from 25 to 23
players.
Les Bleus, in Group D at Euro 2012 with Ukraine, England and
Sweden, host Serbia in Reims on Thursday before taking on
Estonia in Le Mans on June 5.
"We cannot pretend the first half did not happen," Blanc
told French TV channel TF1 after France extended their unbeaten
run to 19 games.
"It is hard to find the balance between the attack and the
defence," said the former world champion, who fielded Yohan
Cabaye as the only holding midfielder.
It was the first time Karim Benzema, Jeremy Menez, Samir
Nasri and Hatem Ben Arfa started a game together since they won
the Under-17 European championship in 2004.
Iceland went ahead in the 29th minute when Bjarnason fired
an angled shot past Steve Mandanda.
Sigthorsson made it 2-0 six minutes later when he latched on
to a fine cross from the right at the end of a sharp counter-attack that left Evra trailing in Rurik Gislason's slipstream.
Seven minutes into the second half, right-back Debuchy
pulled one back, scoring from close range after being set up by
Benzema.
Yoann Gourcuff, one of a handful players not guaranteed a
spot in the final squad, produced an unconvincing performance
and was replaced with 15 minutes remaining by Ribery who had an
almost immediate impact.
Ribery lobbed Hannes Halldorsson in the 85th after a fine
one-two with substitute Olivier Giroud who also had a hand on
the winner.
Giroud headed the ball into the path of Rami who fired past
Halldorsson to give France a flattering victory.