Ribery and Benzema seal victory

France's Franck Ribery (in blue) shoots to score the first goal against Estonia during their international friendly soccer match at Mmarena's stadium in Le Mans, western France.

France's Franck Ribery (in blue) shoots to score the first goal against Estonia during their international friendly soccer match at Mmarena's stadium in Le Mans, western France.

Published Jun 6, 2012

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Paris - Karim Benzema and Franck Ribery were a class apart as France put the finishing touches on their Euro 2012 preparations with a 4-0 home win against Estonia in Le Mans on Tuesday.

Benzema netted either side of halftime after Ribery had opened the scoring following a fine one-two with the striker as Les Bleus stretched their unbeaten run to 21 matches.

Winger Jeremy Menez completed the rout in stoppage time.

With Samir Nasri and Ribery on the flanks and Benzema up front, France played some nice one-touch football although they sometimes looked shaky at the back.

After fullback Patrice Evra produced a miserable performance in a 3-2 win against Iceland in their first of three Euro warm-up games, it was Philippe Mexes's turn to raise concerns.

Estonia almost caught France cold twice in the opening 15 minutes, with a poor first touch from Mexes allowing midfielder Henrik Ojamaa to shoot narrowly wide across goal.

Ojamaa then got ahead of Mexes to meet a left wing cross but, off balance, could only volley wide.

Laurent Blanc's side, who start their Euro 2012 campaign against England on Monday in Donetsk, Ukraine, went ahead in the 25th minute when Ribery chested down a Benzema pass just inside the box before firing past Sergei Pareiko with a cross shot.

Seven minutes before the break, Benzema sent a curling shot into the far corner of the net to double the tally and scored his 15th goal for France by latchig onto Ribery's cross from the right.

Second-half substitute Menez added the fourth one minute into added time when he collected a fine backheel pass from Olivier Giroud to score from close range.

France travel to Ukraine on Wednesday before taking on England followed by co-hosts Ukraine and Sweden in Group D. - Reuters

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