France full of goalscoring threats in 4-2 win over Russia
By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) - France looked full of goalscoring threats just 10 weeks before they host Euro 2016 as they beat Russia 4-2 in a friendly international on Tuesday.
For the first soccer match at the Stade de France since last November's deadly Paris attacks, Les Bleus played attractive football and scored through N'Golo Kante, Andre-Pierre Gignac, Dimitri Payet and Kingsley Coman, four days after beating the Netherlands 3-2 away.
France's goals against the Netherlands were scored by Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud and Blaise Matuidi.
Alexander Kokorin and Yuri Zhirkov reduced the arrears for Russia on Tuesday, making the most of France's lapses in concentration on a rainy Paris night.
Security was tight in and around the Stade de France following the attacks in Paris by militant Islamists on Nov. 13 that killed 130 people.
The crowd also observed a minute's silence before kick-off in memory of the victims of last week's bombings in Brussels, Belgium.
France coach Didier Deschamps made six changes to the team that beat the Netherlands, and the former captain discovered he has some more options for the June 10-July 10 European Championship.
Leicester City's Kante celebrated his first start with his first international goal in the eighth minute on his 25th birthday with a low shot from inside the box after being played through by Griezmann.
The holding midfielder was also at the start of a nice move that involved Gignac and Paul Pogba.
Russia played rough but Gignac doubled the tally by heading home from Griezmann's corner kick seven minutes before the interval.
Les Bleus suffered a minor glitch when fullback Jeremy Mathieu, who had come on for Patrice Evra at halftime, limped off with a leg injury and was replaced by Lucas Digne.
Digne was caught cold by Kokorin, who beat him to the ball to latch on to Alan Dzagoev's free kick in the 56th minute.
Payet, however, restored a two-goal lead on his 29th birthday with a superb 30-metre free kick into the top corner in the 64th, two minutes after coming on for Griezmann.
Second-half substitute Coman made it 4-2 with 14 minutes left with a fine shot on the turn.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Stephen Wood)