France produced a fine second-half performance to comfortably beat Armenia 4-0 in an international friendly in Paris this evening.
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The home side began on the front foot and only a brave block prevented Yohan Cabaye from giving the hosts an early lead.
Mamadou Sakho then headed over the bar from a corner, but Armenia slowly grabbed a foothold in the game and Hugo Lloris had to be alert to keep out Zhora Hovhannisyan's effort.
A few moments later, Artur Sarkisov came within inches of tapping home Karlen Mkrtchyan's cross, but the midfielder couldn't quite stretch enough to apply the finishing touch.
Gevorg Kasparov was then called into action twice in quick succession to deny Karim Benzema and Patrice Evra, but there was little he could do to prevent Antoine Griezmann from putting France ahead with an unerring strike into the far corner.
Cabaye doubled France's lead 10 minutes into the second half with a precise 20-yard shot that whistled into the far corner.
Benzema attempted to flick in Mathieu Valbuena's cross from inside the area in the 58th minute, but Kasparov made a smart reaction save to deny him.
However, Benzema found himself on the scoresheet in the 78th minute with a simple header from Griezmann's cross.
Just 60 seconds later, Benzema found the back of the net again as he raced onto Anthony Martial's through-ball before calmly finishing to round off a convincing win for the Euro 2016 hosts.
Kristian Johnson
