France come from behind to beat Chile in friendly

MARSEILLE: Olivier Giroud was among the scorers as France recovered from the loss of another early goal to claim a 3-2 friendly win over Chile at the Velodrome in Marseille on Tuesday.

The Euro 2024 favourites were let reeling ater conceding just eight seconds into their game against Germany in Lyon last weekend, which they went on to lose 2-0.

This time they fell behind within six minutes to a Marcelino Nunez strike, but came roaring back with goals from Youssouf Fofana, Randal Kolo Muani and Giroud, before Dario Osorio grabbed a second for Chile late on.

The result will ease some of the doubts which had surrounded the French team following their flat performance against Germany, as they prepare for the European Championship in June and July.

However, this was far from a first-choice French side, with captain Kylian Mbappe and midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni the only players to be retained in the starting line-up as coach Didier Deschamps made nine changes.

Among those to come in were the Marseille right-back Jonathan Clauss and the Real Madrid midfielder Eduardo Camavinga, both of whom were forced off injured in the first half in scenes that will worry their respective clubs. France appeared at risk of losing consecutive games for the first time since June 2015 as they fell behind early on to a Chile team geting ready for the Copa America.

Nunez of Norwich City swept in the opening goal for a Chilean team playing their second game under new Argentinian coach Ricardo Gareca.

Claussthenpulledupwithanapparenthamstring injury and had to hobble off, but France drew level on 18 minutes.skipper Mbappe, winning his 77th cap seven years and one day ater making his France debut, laid the ball back to Fofana, and the Monaco midfielder found the net with a shot from just outside the box that took a slight deflection on its way in.