FRANCE continued their impressive start to the World Cup as another imperious display helped them to a comfortable win over Switzerland in Salvador to take control of Group E.
Having already seen off Honduras in their opening game, three first-half goals blew away Ottmar Hitzfeld's side to all but secure their spot in the knockout rounds. The recalled Olivier Giroud opened the scoring with a well-taken header before Blaise Matuidi slotted home a second immediately following the restart.
Karim Benzema then missed a penalty before Mathieu Valbuena knocked home a third, with Benzema and Moussa Sissoko adding the gloss to the scoreline in the second half.
With 10 minutes remaining, Blerim Dzemaili hammered in a free kick for Hitzfeld's side before Granit Xhaka's fine effort came as consolation for the largely under-par Swiss.
Benzema, fresh from his brace in the victory over Honduras, curled a fifth-minute effort just wide of Diego Benaglio's goal as he came in off the left side following Didier Deschamps' decision to play Giroud through the middle.
Valbuena's outswinging corner was met by Giroud, whose header was too strong for Benaglio to keep out as the Wolfsburg goalkeeper could only get a despairing hand to his effort.
The lead was doubled just 13 seconds after the kick-off as Valon Behrami gifted possession to Benzema, who broke free and slid a pass into Matuidi whose low shot was good enough to beat Benaglio at his near post.
France should have gone three goals ahead after Djourou was penalised for tripping Benzema in the box, but the Real Madrid forward's poor penalty was easily pushed away by Benaglio and Yohan Cabaye volleyed the rebound against the crossbar.
Deschamps' side did go three ahead before half-time as Giroud broke clear down the left and delivered a perfect cross for Valbuena to tap home at the far post, with the Marseille playmaker coming close to adding another shortly afterwards.
Paul Pogba joined the fray and had an immediate impact as he lifted a perfect pass through to Benzema who finally got on the scoresheet, finishing coolly as Senderos failed to clear.
Patrice Evra broke into the box but could only clip an effort high and wide before Sissoko slotted home a fifth moments later. Benaglio then denied Valbuena with his legs and kept the score down to five by pushing away a Benzema strike.
Switzerland's first consolation came with 10 minutes remaining courtesy of a long-range free kick as Dzemaili drilled a low effort through the legs of Benzema in a flimsy French wall and out of the reach of the diving Hugo Lloris.
Xhaka added a second as he latched on to Gokhan Inler's pass to thrash a volley past Lloris as Switzerland finished strongly to reduce the deficit. Benzema thought he had added a spectacular sixth but the referee had already blown for full-time before he swept home from the edge of the area.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article