How England's Group D opponents warmed up for Euro 2012

 

Wednesday 06 June 2012 06:58 EDT
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Karim Benzema scored two of France's four goals
Karim Benzema scored two of France's four goals (Getty Images)

France 4-0 Estonia

France showed off the quality of their attacking players last night with a 4-0 victory over Estonia in Le Mans.

Franck Ribéry and Karim Benzema were both in thrilling form, creating and scoring three the goals between them, while Samir Nasri and Yohan Cabaye were also impressive. England will need to be clearly need to be at their best to stop them in Donetsk on Monday.

After a steady but slow start, Ribéry put Laurent Blanc's side ahead after 24 minutes. Ribéry passed to Benzema, who flicked the ball back into his path, and the Bayern Munich winger struck the ball into the bottom corner. Eight minutes before the break, a corner kick fell to Benzema who fired an unstoppable shot into the far top corner from the edge of the penalty area.

The third came one minute into the second half, when Ribéry's perfect right wing cross was turned in by Benzema at the far post.

France then controlled the game and made changes, with the Paris St-Germain winger Jérémy Ménez scoring the fourth from close range in added time.

Ukraine 0-2 Turkey

Ukraine, the Euro 2012 co-hosts and England's third opponents, lost 2-0 to Turkey last night in Dynamo Kiev's stadium.

Turkey did not even qualify for the tournament, after losing a play-off to Croatia, but the Fenerbahçe winger Caner Erkin put them ahead in the first half.

The Turks dominated against a poorly organised Ukraine side, who started with captain Andrei Shevchenko on the bench. The former Chelsea striker came on in the second half, and missed two chances, but Mustafa Pektemek sealed the win with a goal on the break.

Sweden 2-1 Serbia

The Sweden captain, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, scored the winner as England's second Group D opponents beat Serbia 2-1 in Stockholm yesterday, without playing their best football.

Sweden had gone ahead in the first half when PSV Eindhoven's Ola Toivonen tapped in following Branimir Aleksic's fumbling of a cross. Serbia soon equalised, though, when Neven Subotic headed in a corner. But Ibrahimovic won the game early in the second half with a powerful kick from the spot after Toivenen had been dragged down in the penalty box.

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