Lemar double puts France in driving seat
Thomas Lemar scored twice as France defeated a lacklustre holland 4-0 to take control of their World Cup destiny.
The Dutch looked a shadow of the side that reached the World Cup final in 2010 and then finished third in Brazil four years later, with defeat at the stade de France last night leaving their hopes of qualifying for russia 2018 hanging by a thread.
antoine Griezmann sparked the French rout on 14 minutes, sharing a give-and-go with olivier Giroud before the diminutive atletico madrid forward stroked the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen.
Cue Griezmann’s trademark celebration jig. he and his France team-mates continued to lead holland a merry dance thereafter and the only surprise was that the visitors went in at the break just a goal down.
It was more of the same after the interval and matters were made worse for holland when Kevin strootman collected two bookings in six minutes.
Lemar — the subject of a failed transfer deadline- day bid by arsenal yesterday — put the game to bed after 73 minutes with a sweetly struck long-range strike and then grabbed a second with a tap-in. Kylian mbappe scored at the death.
The victory took France to top spot in Group a after
SWEDEN went down 3-2 in BULGARIA.
The swedes twice came from behind, thanks to goals from mikael Lustig of Celtic and marcus Berg, cancelling out strikes from stanislav manolev and Georgi Kostadinov. But Ivaylo Chochev struck 10 minutes from time in sofia as Bulgaria claimed a famous victory. The result meant holland fell to fourth in the group, while Bulgaria are just a point behind sweden in third. In the group’s other game, LUXEMBOURG claimed a rare victory over BELARUS, the bottom side winning 1-0, thanks to Daniel Da mota’s goal.
In Group B, Cristiano ronaldo hit a hat-trick, including a sensational overhead kick, as PORTUGAL defeated the FAROE ISLANDS 5-1.
haris seferovic scored twice as table-topping SWITZERLAND eased past ANDORRA 3-0, while HUNGARY defeated LATVIA 3-1.
In Group h, romelu Lukaku (left) hit a hat-trick as BELGIUM thrashed GIBRALTAR 9-0. Thomas meunier grabbed a hat-trick and eden hazard was also on the scoresheet for the Belgians, who had axel Witsel sent off. Dries mertens also scored, as did Witsel before his red card.
BOSNIA’S qualification hopes took a hit as they went down 3-2 in CYPRUS, while GREECE allowed group leaders Belgium to extend their lead by drawing 0-0 at home to ESTONIA.
meanwhile, in the african section, Naby Keita scored as
GUINEA defeated LIBYA 3-2. Keita, who plays for rB Leipzig, this week agreed a deal to join Liverpool next year.