France have continued their strong form as a range of Russia-bound sides warmed up with friendlies.
The French beat Italy 3-1, with a curling stunner from Barcelona star Ousmane Dembele the highlight in a confidence boosting victory.
Elsewhere, South Korea went down to Bosnia and Herzegovina by the same scoreline, while there were draws between Tunisia and Turkey, and Egypt and Colombia.
FRANCE 3-1 ITALY
Ousmane Dembele scored a terrific goal in an impressive display for France as the World Cup contenders defeated Italy 3-1 in a friendly in Nice on Friday.
Barcelona centre-back Samuel Umtiti grabbed the opening goal after eight minutes at the Allianz Riviera, converting a rebound from close range after Kylian Mbappe’s volley was saved by Salvatore Sirigu.
N’Golo Kante fired against the post from distance as Sirigu produced a fine fingertip save, but Antoine Griezmann added a second from the penalty spot following a foul on Lucas Hernandez by Rolando Mandragora.
Italy cut the deficit before the break when Leonardo Bonucci alertly followed up after Hugo Lloris failed to deal with a powerful Mario Balotelli free-kick.
Balotelli forced Lloris to save low with his foot within seconds of the restart after half-time, while Dembele rattled the crossbar moments later having burst past a pair of Italy defenders.
But the Barcelona forward sealed victory on 63 minutes, curling a sublime first-time shot into the top corner after Mbappe’s searing run was halted on the edge of the area.
“There are lots of things that pleased me beyond the three goals,” France coach Didier Deschamps told French television station TF1.
“It could have been a bigger scoreline. If we had been more efficient we could have been at ease a bit earlier.
“We’re not going to get carried away, there’s still a second part of our preparation ahead of us.” Paul Pogba though was jeered by a section of home fans in the second half after a misplaced pass, and again when he was replaced by Steven N’Zonzi with five minutes remaining.
Despite an underwhelming display from the Manchester United midfielder, Griezmann quickly sprang to his team-mate’s defence.
“The whistles are part of football, you have to stay tough mentally. We’re all playing for the same shirt. He plays his game, you’re used to him scoring. We don’t expect that from him, only that he rotates the ball and plays for the team,” Griezmann said.
“He has had a difficult season at Manchester United but he has a lot of confidence in himself.” The match was just the second in charge for Italy coach Roberto Mancini, who took the job last month after Gian Piero Ventura was sacked following the four-time world champions’ failure to qualify for the World Cup for the first since 1958.
“We made some errors but France are among the best teams,” said Mancini, whose side beat Saudi Arabia 2-1 in Switzerland on Monday. “We did some good things but we know that we must improve.
“I even had hope of equalising but I’m not going to say we deserved to win. France are better than us. Even if it’s a friendly nobody likes to lose.”
SOUTH KOREA 1-3 BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
South Korea were left with plenty to ponder ahead of this month’s World Cup after Edin Visca scored a hat-trick to give Bosnia and Herzegovina a 3-1 victory in a friendly in Jeonju on Friday.
The Koreans had been hoping for a win in their final match on home soil before heading to Russia but lacked accuracy in attack and looked fragile with a three- man defence at the back.
Winger Visca gave the visitors a 28th-minute lead but midfielder Lee Jae-sung, rested for Monday’s 2-0 win over Honduras, immediately hit back with a cool finish on the back of a rare fluent attacking move from the home side. Visca again found space down the right of the Korean defence to put Bosnia back in front on the stroke of halftime, though, and lashed home his third in the 80th minute to silence a big crowd at Jeonju World Cup Stadium. Korea coach Shin Tae-yong will cut three players from his squad before they head to Austria to make their final preparations for the finals, where they face Sweden, Mexico and world champions Germany in Group F.
TUNISIA 2-2 TURKEY
Tunisia conceded a last-gasp equalizer against 10-man Turkey on Friday to register a 2-2 draw in a World Cup warm-up for the second game running.
Four days after producing a two-goal comeback against Euro 2016 champion Portugal, Tunisia went behind to Turkey captain Cenk Tosun’s 54th-minute penalty.
Anice Badri fired in a rising half-volley from 20 meters (yards) to equalize two minutes later before Tosun was shown a red card after leaving the pitch to argue with fans.
Tunisia captain Ferjani Sassi put his side ahead in the 79th minute when his low shot went in off goalkeeper Serkan Kirintili’s right-hand post. Turkey then leveled in the 90th minute when Caglar Soyuncu scored from close range following a quickly-taken free kick, a goal that sparked a pitch invasion by its fans.
Tunisia will open its World Cup Group G program against England on June 18 before going on to play Belgium and Panama.
EGYPT 0-0 COLOMBIA
Egypt, without injured Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah, and Colombia were goalless in Bergamo, Italy.
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