France crushed Switzerland 5-2 on Friday to all but insure their place in the World Cup knock-out rounds.
Goals
from Olivier Giroud, Blaise Matuidi, Mathieu Valbuena, Karim Benzema
and Moussa Sissoko gave rampant France a thumping victory. Blerim
Dzemaili and Granit Xhaka scored for Switzerland.
After
beating Honduras 3-0 in their opening match, France will see their
qualification from Group E ratified if Honduras beat Ecuador later
Friday.
Switzerland went into the game as the group's
top seeds ranked 11 places above France in FIFA's list at six. But their
coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said before kick-off that 1998 world champions
France were the true favourites.
And in a one-sided
affair, Benzema also missed a first half penalty and had a goal ruled
out because it came two seconds after the final whistle.
Arsenal forward Giroud set the ball rolling by thumping home a Valbuena corner with his head.
Just
a minute later, Benzema anticipated a Valon Behrami pass back and teed
up Matuidi to beat Swiss goalkeeper Diego Benaglio, who should have done
much better, at his near post.
Johan Djourou was
harshly penalised for a foul on Benzema in the box but justice was done
when Benaglio parried the French striker's spot-kick. Yohan Cabaye
firing the rebound against the bar.
But the respite was
short-lived as Giroud crossed for Valbuena to tap home on a lightning
counter-attack, giving France a 3-0 lead at the break.
Switzerland
capitulated late on as Philippe Senderos missed a through ball from
substitute Paul Pogba and Benzema nutmegged Benaglio.
The
Real Madrid forward then set up Sissoko to fire home from an angle as
France ran riot before Dzemaili's late free-kick crept inside the post
and Xhaka slammed pas Hugo Lloris after latching onto a chip over the
top
No comments :
Post a Comment