Soccer

Finland end France’s 12-match unbeaten streak

Round-up: Donny van de Beek scored for Netherlands in 1-1 draw with Spain

Antoine Griezmann during his team’s defeat to Finland in Paris. Photograph: Getty Images

Thu Nov 12 2020 - 09:32

France suffered a surprise 2-0 defeat to Finland in Paris on Wednesday night. Two goals in three minutes from Brentford's Marcus Forss and Onni Valakari clinched victory for the visitors, who are ranked 55th in the world.

Finland recently beat Ireland, home and away, in the Uefa Nations League to leave them in second place in the group. Seven points ahead of Stephen Kenny’s team and one behind Wales.

The result brought France’s 12-match unbeaten streak come to an abrupt end, giving Finland their first win against Les Bleus, having lost all their previous eight encounters going into the game at the Stade de France.

Premier League quintet Paul Pogba, Olivier Giroud, Moussa Sissoko, Lucas Digne and Kurt Zouma all started for the World Cup holders.

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Elsewhere Manchester United's Donny van de Beek scored as the Netherlands drew 1-1 with Spain.

The midfielder cancelled out Sergio Canales’ opener in their friendly in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

But there was an injury scare for Manchester City after defender Nathan Ake was forced off after just five minutes.

Real Betis' Canales scored his first international goal after 18 minutes when Juventus striker Alvaro Morata slipped him in and he found the bottom corner from 16 yards.

Van de Beek levelled immediately after the break when Owen Wijndal’s cross went across the area and he drilled low past Unai Simon.

Sergio Ramos came on in the second half for Spain for his 176th international appearance, which made him the joint most capped European man with Gianluigi Buffon.

In Leipzig, Gian-Luca Waldschmidt's early strike earned Germany a 1-0 victory in their friendly against the Czech Republic.

Vincenzo Grifo's double helped Italy to a 4-0 win over Estonia while Poland beat Ukraine 2-0.

Michy Batshuayi's brace earned Belgium a 2-1 win over Switzerland after Admir Mehmedi's opener for the visitors.

Wolves' Pedro Neto opened the scoring and Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 102nd international goal as Portugal beat Andorra 7-0.

The Juventus forward is now just seven goals behind Ali Daei’s world record of 109 international goals for Iran.

Paulinho scored twice on his debut for Portugal, with Renato Sanches, Joao Felix and Emili Garcia's own goal earning a comfortable win for the hosts.

Denmark beat Sweden 2-0, Austria won 3-0 in Luxembourg and Croatia drew 3-3 in Turkey.

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