France produce comeback to beat Belarus and secure playoff spot

France twice came from behind to beat Belarus 4-2 this evening and secure a playoff spot for next year's World Cup, with goals coming from Franck Ribery, Samir Nasri and Paul Pogba.

Despite a sloppy opening exchange, France were the closest to going ahead midway through the first half when birthday boy Laurent Koscielny headed over from a corner.

The Arsenal defender was soon made to pay for missing his chance as Egor Filipenko put Belarus ahead in the 32nd minute following a mistake by French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

France were then presented with the opportunity to level the scores straight after the break as Belarus conceded a penalty, allowing Ribery to step up and break his side's 526-minute goal drought.

However, another piece of poor goalkeeping from Lloris saw a long-range effort from Timofei Kalachev fly into the net as Belarus took the lead again.

Yet French winger Ribery had other ideas as he brought things level soon after, before Nasri put his side ahead having only been on the pitch for 10 minutes.

The comeback was then completed when Pogba, given a starting place in midfield by Didier Deschamps, finished to secure France's playoff spot.