France 3-2 Chile: Les Bleus recover from early deficit to claim home victory

France rallied from an early deficit to defeat Chile 3-2 in a friendly at the Stade Velodrome on Tuesday, with goals from Youssouf Fofana, Randal Kolo Muani, and Oliver Giroud.

The visitors' early pressure paid off, as Marcelino Nunez scored after six minutes with a low shot off the right wing following a fine passing move.

But Fofana equalised for France in the 18th minute, when Kylian Mbappe set him up on the edge of the box to fire past goalkeeper Claudio Bravo after a deflection from the defence.

"We got that first goal (equaliser) early on in the game and it was good to come back, which we weren't able to do against Germany," France coach Didier Deschamps told TF1.

"These are friendly matches and even though it's the French team our opponents put in a lot of energy and we had less. It's good to win but some of the things we did were a bit hard work."

Kolo Muani put the hosts ahead with a close-range header from Theo Hernandez's pinpoint cross in the 26th minute, and Giroud sealed the victory in the 72nd, taking his total to 57 goals as France's all-time leading scorer.

"Pretty tight game. We were determined to respond after the match against Germany," said Kolo Muani. "We were able to step up both offensively and defensively.

"Every match is important but above all it's a collective effort. It's all good if I'm on the pitch but everyone showed their class today."

The South Americans fought back eight minutes later with a long-range strike from Dario Osorio, but they could not avoid their first defeat under new coach Ricardo Gareca.

"I think we played a very solid game, we competed at the highest level and I think that's what we have to take," Chile captain Bravo told ESPN.

"We have the players, we have the capability and I think this game was very useful to measure what we can do. In general terms we're happy."

SportsLigue