It was a great start to the international week for Benjamin Pavard and Corentin Tolisso as France thrashed Ukraine 7-1 in a friendly in Saint-Denis on Wednesday night. Tolisso scored a delightful goal to make it 5-1, curling an unstoppable shot into the bottom right corner from around 20 metres out. Bayern teammates Lucas Hernández and Kingsley Coman did not feature.
Goal and assist for Tolisso
Tolisso impressed with numerous runs forward and strong tackling.
The defending world champions put in a strong performance against a Ukraine side who were not at full strength due to coronavirus cases. As usual, Pavard regularly got forward down his right side and set up a number of goalscoring opportunities. Tolisso was also heavily involved in attack and set up the second goal for Olivier Giroud in the 24th minute. For the French, it was a successful warm-up for their UEFA Nations League encounter against Portugal on Sunday (20:45 CEST). Ukraine, meanwhile, are Germany’s next opponents in the Nations League at the same time on Saturday night.
Lewandowski, Alaba & Germany players rested
Robert Lewandowski and David Alaba were rested and left out of the squad for their sides’ friendlies on Wednesday evening, as were Bayern’s German internationals. The Poles beat Finland 5-1, Austria were 2-1 winners against Greece and Germany drew 3-3 with Turkey. Lewandowski will be back for Sunday’s Nations League match against Italy (20:45 CEST), while Alaba and his team play against Northern Ireland in Belfast at the same time.
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