World champion France slumped to a 2-0 loss to Turkey in Euro 2020 qualifying on Saturday amid a red-hot atmosphere in Konya.
Kaan Ayhan headed Turkey ahead on the half-hour mark and Cengiz Under fired in a second before half-time to give the hosts a first ever win over France.
Didier Deschamps fielded nine of the players that started last year’s World Cup final but France struggled to create chances, while Hugo Lloris denied Turkey on a number of occasions.\
Slap on the face
“That was a slap in the face for us and there’s not a lot I can say,” Deschamps told TF1.
“We have a different challenge on Tuesday and I have to say well done to Turkey. We need to get back to basics.”
“When you play like that on a collective level there is nothing positive you can take from the game.
“We didn’t put in the match we needed to against a team that played their game. That’s top-level football and it’s the same whether you are world champions or not.”
Victory pushed Turkey three points clear of France at the top of Group H after Senol Gunes’ side won for the third time in as many outings.
Impressive
Meanwhile, Germany assistant coach Marcus Sorg hailed an “impressive” performance after his team eased to a routine 2-0 win over Belarus in Saturday’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Borisov.
With Joachim Low still convalescent after his recent accident in the gym, Sorg directed proceedings from the dugout as a young Germany side outclassed Belarus.
“It was a bit unusual today but everything went well. We are all looking forward to Jogi’s return,” Sorg told broadcaster RTL.
“It was an impressive performance today and one we can build on,” he said.
Leroy Sane and Marco Reus scored either side of half-time in a dominant display which saw Germany notch up 23 shots to Belarus’ six.
The win puts Germany second in Group C, having played one game fewer than leader Northern Ireland, which beat Estonia earlier on Saturday.
The results:
Group C: Estonia 1 (Vassiljev 25) lost to Northern Ireland 2 (Washington 77, Magennis 80); Belarus 0 lost to Germany 2 (Sane 13, Reus 62).
Group E: Croatia 2 (Lawrence 17-og, Perisic 48) lost to Wales 1 (Brooks 77); Azerbaijan 1 (Emreli 69) lost to Hungary 3 (Orban 18, 53, Holman 71).
Group H: Iceland 1 (Gudmundsson 22) bt Albania 0; Turkey 2 (Ayhan 30, Under 40) bt France 0; Moldova 1 (Armas 8) bt Andorra 0.
Group I: Russia 9 (Cevoli 25-og, 41-og, Dzyuba 31-pen, 73, 76, 88, Kudryashov 36, Smolov 77, 83) bt San Marino 0; Belgium 3 (Mertens 11, Castagne 14, R. Lukaku 50) bt Kazakhstan 0; Scotland 2 (Robertson 61, Burke 89) bt Cyprus 1 (Kousoulos 87).
Group J: Finland 2 (Pukki 56, 68) bt Bosnia-Herzegovina 0; Armenia 3 (Ghazaryan 2, Karapetyan 18, Barseghyan 90+1) bt Liechtenstein 0; Greece 0 lost to Italy 3 (Barella 24, Insigne 30, Bonucci 33).
