International roundup: Giroud goes past Platini in France all-time scoring charts
Olivier Giroud became France’s second highest all-time top scorer on Wednesday in a 7-1 win over Ukraine, scoring twice to leapfrog Michel Platini’s total of 42 goals, and is now gunning for Thierry Henry’s all-time record of 51.
Giroud celebrating his 100th cap in style in front of visitors’ coach Andriy Shevchenko, one of his idols.
“I feel a lot of pride, it’s a great honour for me and I’m happy it happened for my 100th cap,” Giroud told French TV channel TF1. “I’m happy I did it on front of Shevchenko, he was one of my favourite players, if not my favourite player when I was a teenager,” the Chelsea forward said of the former Milan and Ukraine striker, winner of the Ballon d’Or in 2004.
Eduardo Camavinga opened the scoring for France with a brilliant bicycle kick, becoming France’s second youngest player ever to score for Les Bleus (17 years and 11 months). An own goal from Vitaliy Mykolenko and goals for Corentin Tolisso, Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann completed the rout.
Germany midfielder Florian Neuhaus scored on his national team debut but Turkey came back three times to earn a 3-3 draw.
Kenan Karaman slotted in a stoppage-time equaliser after Luca Waldschmidt fired in an 81st-minute volley that had put Germany 3-2 ahead.
Turkey twice before had levelled, with both teams missing several regular players.“We invited Turkey to score goals and again failed to hold on to victory,” Germany captain Julian Draxler said. “We have to be more dominant.”
Mexico handed new Holland coach Frank de Boer a defeat in his first game in charge as they enjoyed a deserved 1-0 win over their hosts.
Raúl Jiménez made up for several missed first-half chances by tucking away a penalty on the hour mark after Nathan Aké had pulled him back in the area.
Elsewhere, Italy beat Moldova 6-0, Croatia won 2-1 away at Switzerland and Portugal had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home to Spain after hammering the crossbar twice and João Félix missing a last-gasp open goal.
Earlier on Wednesday, Spain and Portugal signed an agreement to push ahead with their joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
The countries’ federations ratified an agreement “to promote the joint candidacy for the organisation of the World Cup in 2030, establishing strategies for the international projection of both federations and countries”, the Spanish football federation said in a statement.