FRANCE GOT THEIR Euro preparations back on track with a convincing 2-0 victory over Serbia here on Thursday.
Les Bleus had toiled to beat the 131st-ranked Icelanders 3-2 on Sunday, with defensive frailties exposed as they fell 2-0 behind before coming back to win the game.
France coach Laurent Blanc insisted that the first friendly ahead of the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine would be about rebuilding fitness and rediscovering rhythm after a short break at the end of the season.
And the second friendly in Reims showed signs that lessons had been learned.
Two goals from Franck Ribery and Florent Malouda in the opening quarter of an hour were enough to see off a largely outclassed Serbian outfit not bound for the Euros.
But Blanc’s happy evening was marred by what seemed like a nasty injury to Rennes midfielder Yann M’Vila, linked with an off-season move to Arsenal.
M’Vila had his left ankle turned nastily in the first contact of the match with Dusan Tadic.
He soldiered on for a couple of minutes but had to be replaced by Alou Diarra, his right shin immediately bandaged on his arrival in the dugout before he was whipped away to hospital by ambulance.
The match was France’s first since Blanc announced his final 23-man squad for the Euros, with Lyon playmaker Yoann Gourcuff and Montpellier defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa the two men axed from his provisional squad.
Elsewhere, Germany laboured to a 2-0 friendly win over minnows Israel to pick up their first victory in three games and boost flagging confidence ahead of their Euro 2012 campaign.
Having suffered a shock 5-3 defeat to Switzerland in Basel last Saturday, the Germans managed to avoid their third straight defeat of the year, having also lost to France in February, in their final Euro 2012 warm-up match.A first-half goal from Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez put the hosts ahead before Leverkusen’s Andre Schuerrle came off the bench to double the lead eight minutes from time with a superb long-range strike.
But there was little else to cheer German fans on a damp night in Leipzig and captain Philipp Lahm succinctly summed up his team’s performance: “We have a sensational squad, we only need to show it.”
Germany coach Joachim Loew was happy with the victory, even if his team failed to impress in front of goal.
“That was a decent final test for us, it will give us some momentum,” he said.
“Not everything ran smoothly, we could have done with more goals, but the victory is good for us.“The organisation was better than against Switzerland, but there is still work to do.”
Having fielded an experimental team in Basel, Loew opted for a side which is more likely to start the opening Euro 2012 game against Portugal on June 9 in Lviv, Ukraine.
Vice-captain Bastian Schweinsteiger, missing his sixth straight international and nursing a calf strain from the Champions League final, was the only noticeable absentee as seven Bayern Munich stars started for Germany.
And finally, in tonight’s other game, Greece beat Armenia 1-0, with a goal from Kyriakos Papadopoulos.
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