France 1-2 Ivory Coast: Diallo winner caps stunning second-half comeback
Manchester United winger Amad Diallo struck six minutes from time as Ivory Coast mounted a superb second-half comeback to stun World Cup favorites France in Nantes.
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Les Bleus had looked firmly in control of their opening tournament warm-up match when Manchester City midfielder Rayan Cherki marked his fine performance with a brilliant, dancing run and low finish on the stroke of half-time.
But a sweeping set of five interval changes by Didier Deschamps including the withdrawal of captain Kylian Mbappé, who remains one goal short of matching Olivier Giroud’s all-time French record of 57 severely disrupted the hosts’ rhythm.
The visitors capitalised just eight minutes after the restart when Nicolas Pépé carved open the French backline with a perfectly weighted through-ball, allowing Strasbourg right-back Guéla Doué to race clear and fire clinically past Mike Maignan.
As the match opened up, France struggled to recapture their first-half fluidity despite late pressure from Marcus Thuram and Jean-Philippe Mateta. Instead, it was the African giants who carved out a historic first-ever victory over France.
Diallo capped off a devastating counter-attack in the 84th minute, ghosting into the penalty area to meet a cross with an instinctive, first-time finish into the bottom corner.
Deschamps will demand a swift response from his side when they continue their pre-World Cup preparations against Northern Ireland in Lille on Monday, before flying out to North America to begin their tournament campaign against Senegal.
