No sign of away day Bleus for France
World champs make quick work of Kazakhs to take charge of 2022 Cup qualifying group
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Ousmane Dembele (No. 11) is congratulated by his France teammates after scoring his first competitive goal for his country. His opener set them up for a 2-0 win over Kazakhstan.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NUR-SULTAN • France coach Didier Deschamps said it was "up to us to do the job" following their World Cup qualifying 1-1 draw with Ukraine on Wednesday, and his players made sure not to disappoint him again yesterday.
The world champions clinched their first win of this campaign with a 2-0 Group D victory over the 122nd-ranked Kazakhstan at the Astana Arena - their first meeting in any competition.
"The job is done. We could have scored more goals if we had been more clinical after the break," Deschamps told French TV channel TF1.
"It's a good result even if we could have won by more goals as we had the chances to do that.
"We'll need to recover well as we have a third qualifier that will come around quickly."
Les Bleus took charge of the match as early as the 20th minute, when Manchester United's Anthony Martial fed Ousmane Dembele, who finished into the bottom left corner.
It was the Barcelona forward's third international goal in 23 France appearances and his first in a competitive fixture.
The advantage was doubled just before half-time, when Sergiy Maliy headed into his own goal from a corner.
France were awarded a 75th-minute penalty after a foul in the box by Nuraly Alip. But substitute Kylian Mbappe, with 30 goals in 36 appearances for Paris Saint-Germain this season, hit a tame shot which Kazakh goalkeeper Aleksandr Mokin parried to keep the score at 2-0.
Mbappe had won the spot kick himself, shortly after replacing Martial who came off injured.
Deschamps is facing an anxious wait over the forward's fitness while United, who host Brighton in the English Premier League on Sunday, will also be concerned.
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Consecutive matches France have won on the road, dating back to a 4-0 Euro 2020 qualifying win over Andorra in June 2019.
France have now strung together a seven-game winning run on the road and are also unbeaten in their previous 15 competitive matches following their 12th win yesterday.
The victory meant that the world champions are top of Group D on four points, before Ukraine hosted Finland later yesterday. Both teams have a point each.
The result of that match was not available at press time.
Kazakhstan, who are bottom after their first game of the campaign, will travel to Ukraine on Wednesday. France will visit Bosnia and Herzegovina on the same day.
REUTERS