Benzema brace fires France past Estonia
Reuters - Tuesday 05 June 2012, 21:22
Karim Benzema and Franck Ribery were a
class apart as France put the finishing touches on their Euro
2012 preparations with a 4-0 home win against Estonia in Le Mans
on Tuesday.
Benzema netted either side of half-time after Ribery had
opened the scoring following a fine one-two with the striker as
Les Bleus stretched their unbeaten run to 21 matches.
Winger Jeremy Menez completed the rout in stoppage time.
With Samir Nasri and Ribery on the flanks and Benzema up
front, France played some nice one-touch football although they
sometimes looked shaky at the back.
"It's important to gain confidence, it's important for the
strikers to score goals but, despite the scoreline, I think the
team were not as good as against Serbia [a 2-0 win in their last
friendly]," coach Laurent Blanc told French TV channel TF1.
"We were not good in defence. We need to play it more simple
at the back. We are like the other teams, we hope to be ready on
June 11," he added referring to their opening match against
England in Group D being played in Donestsk, Ukraine.
After full-back Patrice Evra produced a miserable performance
in a 3-2 win against Iceland in their first of three Euro
warm-up games, it was Philippe Mexes's turn to raise concerns.
POOR TOUCH
Estonia almost caught France cold twice in the opening 15
minutes, with a poor first touch from centre-back Mexes allowing
midfielder Henrik Ojamaa to shoot narrowly wide across goal.
Ojamaa then got ahead of Mexes to meet a left wing cross
but, off balance, could only volley wide.
Laurent Blanc's side went ahead in the 25th minute when
Ribery chested down a Benzema pass just inside the box before
firing past Sergei Pareiko with a cross shot.
Seven minutes before the break, Benzema sent a curling shot
into the far corner of the net to double the tally and scored
his 15th goal for France by latchig onto Ribery's cross from the
right.
Second-half substitute Menez added the fourth one minute
into added time when he collected a fine backheel pass from
Olivier Giroud to score from close range.
France travel to Ukraine on Wednesday before taking on
England followed by co-hosts Ukraine and Sweden in Group D.