Friendly international

France 0 – Spain 2

France: Lloris; Jallet, Umtiti, Koscielny, Kurzawa; Tolisso (Lemar 80’), Kanté, Rabiot (Bakayoko 46’); Mbappé (Giroud 65’), Griezmann, Gameiro (Dembélé 80’). 4-3-3.
Spain: De Gea; Dani Carvajal, Piqué, Sergio Ramos, Jordi Alba (Nacho 86’); Koke (Ander Herrera 74’), Busquets, Iniesta (Thiago 52’); Pedro (Deulofeu 67’), Morata (Iago Aspas 84’), Isco (David Silva 52‘). 4-3-3.

Goals:
0-1. 68. David Silva (penalty). After Koscielny brought down Deulofeu in area.
0-2. 77. Deulofeu. Got on the end of Jordi Alba cross to turn shot past Lloris.

Yellow cards: Rabiot 19’, Jallet 55’.

Spain beat France 0-2 in their latest friendly fixture in Paris, a game in which the newly introduced “Video Assisted Refereeing” system played a big part. Only a minute after the restart a headed goal by France’s Griezmann was belatedly ruled out by VAR, and midway through the second half German referee Felix Zwayer waved away appeals by the locals to use the technology after he awarded a penalty for a foul in the area by Koscielny on substitute Deulofeu, David Silva firing home the resulting spot kick. Ten minutes later Deulofeu turned in a Jordi Alba cross only for Zwayer to disallow the goal at first, but once again the decision was over-ruled on video evidence. Before the interval the new French sensation Mbappé brought a good save out of De Gea, Piqué cleared a Koscielny header off the line and Iniesta went close a couple of times, but all of that was overshadowed by events in the second half. The right result in the end then, and proof that the system works, even if it needs a few finishing touches. Spain certainly won’t be complaining!