France Beats Italy, Aussies Thrash Czechs

France underlined its World Cup credentials with its three forwards all involved in the goals that secured an impressive 3-1 friendly victory over Italy on Friday.

France showed the full extent of its firepower as defender Samuel Umtiti scored at the end of a Kylian Mbappe move while Antoine Griezmann and Ousman Dembele found the net, Reuters reported.

The Italians pulled a goal back through central defender Leonardo Bonucci, who fired home after the returning Mario Balotelli, new coach Roberto Mancini’s favorite, saw his free kick parried into the path of the Azzurri captain.

But France was a cut above Italy, which has missed out on the World Cup, with Umtiti putting Les Bleus ahead after keeper Salvatore Sirigu failed to deal with Mbappe’s shot.

Griezmann converted a second-half penalty and Dembele curled a splendid shot into the top corner as France hit the Italians on the break.

France has been drawn with Peru, Denmark and Australia in Group C at the finals starting June 14.

Just under two weeks before the finals start in Russia, Tunisia was held 2-2 by 10-man Turkey, Australia won 4-0 against the Czech Republic and South Korea suffered a 3-1 home defeat after Bosnia’s Edin Visca scored a hat-trick.

Tunisia faced Turkey in Geneva. Caglar Soyuncu scored a last-minute equalizer against the African side drawn in Group G with Belgium, Panama and England.

Cenk Tosun put Turkey ahead with a penalty early in the second half before Anice Badri equalized two minutes later.

Striker Tosun was then sent off just past the hour when he became involved in a verbal altercation with a Turkish fan and had to be restrained by his team mates.

Ferjani Sassi fired the Tunisians in front with nine minutes remaining, before Soyuncu’s late strike denied victory, but the result extended the team’s unbeaten run to nine games.

South Korea, which has a tough group with Germany, Mexico and Sweden, succumbed to a disappointing defeat by Bosnia, with Visca scoring all the goals for the visitors.

Jae Sung-lee immediately leveled on the half-hour after Visca scored his first goal but the Koreans lacked efficiency in front of goal unlike Bosnia which took its chances. Australia’s finishing was clinical as it found the net with four out of five shots on target. Matthew Leckie scored in each half either side of Andrew Nabbout’s strike with a Jakub Jugas own goal 10 minutes from time rounding off a convincing win for the Australians.