World Cup 2014 Brazil » Group E » Live commentary: France - Honduras 3:0

Endgame Summary:
At the end it was a very one-sided game with Honduras having virtually no noteworthy attempts. France had two hits to the cross bar in the first half and scored the lead by converting a penalty just before the half-time break. Simultaneously Palacios was sent off for his second booking. After play resumed, it took Le Bleus only two minutes to increase their lead with a nice effort from Benzema, though it was declared to be an own goal. Besides, for the first time in world cup history, the Goal Control technology was needed to determine whether it's a goal or not. For the remaining time it was still France controlling the game, with Benzema finally scoring his second goal after 72 minutes. Los Catrachos stood out only for playing extremely rough as seen in their last friendly match. All in all, it's a well-deserved win for l'Equipe Tricolor.

They still have some energy left! Evra dashes to the left wing and plays a precise pass into the middle, but Matuidi's left footed onetimer goes right over the bar.

The final stage of this game is quite boring, because it's mainly France passing the ball back and forth and Honduras continuing to defend rather roughly.

France are only keen on keeping the ball in their possession and making los Catrachos run for it. Unsurprisingly this strategy works just fine.

France get a corner and Valbuena swings it in, but it comes to nothing.

Valbuena is able to escape on the right border of the penalty area. So Figueroa has virtually no other option than fouling the French winger.

Deschmaps is starting to give his key players a rest. Cabaye goes off and Mavuba is sent on the pitch instead.

Now with a two goal lead, France look pretty confident and don't give away control of the ball. La Bicolor on the other side is trying to play more offensively, but without any success.

Sissoko is substituted for Pogba, so Deschamps probably wants to decrease the risk one of his players of being sent off for a second yellor card.

Oscar García (Honduras) is shown a yellow card
Oscar García tackles Evra from the back and therefor is shown a yellow card. No discussion needed here either.

Goooal for France, 2:0 by Noel Valladares (own goal)
That's the first goal of the tournament where the Goal Control technology is needed! A superb diagonal cross from the right wing comes to Benzema, who converts it with a volley! His shot bounces off the right post onto the left one. There Valladares is trying to get a grip of the ball but instead puts it into his own goal.

Goooal for France, 1:0 by Karim Benzema
Benzema scores! The Real Madrid striker easily converts the penalty with a waist-high shot into the left side of the goal.

France get a penalty! While trying to win the header, Palacios jumps right into Pogba and though giving a penalty isn't mandatory in this situation, it's alright to do so, because Palacios could be a little more cautious.

But the corner comes to nothing! Right now the French are too harmless, they're just passing the ball back and forth, without finding a gap between the Honduran defenders.

More and more the favourties are getting frustrated and impatient despite being the dominant team here. They just have to be more endurance.

Paul Pogba (France) is shown a yellow card
... because of that, both players are shown the yellow card. One could also think about sending off Pogba, at least other referees did so in similar situations.

Right now it's solely the French team attacking while the Hondurans can't even find a way to get into the opposition's half. So clearly, this game is as one-sided as expected.

Honduras are defending quite effective, l'Equipe Tricolor can't find a way through the opposition's defense for now. Of course a player like Ribéry would help to shake things up a little bit.

Matuidi hits the crossbar! Valbuenas cross flies nicely thorugh the penalty area and to the Paris St. Germain midfielder. The 27-year-old immediatly shoots with his left foot from about eight metres distance. But Valladares can somehow deflect the ball with his fingers onto the bar.

Los Catrachos almost are able to counterattack! But they lose the ball too quickly and therefor can't create any upcoming danger for the French defense.

Patrice Evra (France) is shown a yellow card
Evra is booked early in this match for a tripping challenge on Najar.

This could prove to be a powerful instrument for Honduras, if they use it right! A long ball from the left hand side initiating from La H's half comes to Bengtson. But the striker with the Scandinavian sounding name is offside.

Here we go, the game begins!

By the way, this is the very first game between the national teams of these two Nations!

The French are missing their star and reigning "UEFA Best Player in Europe" Franck Ribéry because of a back injury. In the past few days, a dispute developed between the French team physician Franck Le Gall and Bayern Munich's (and Germany's) worldwide acknowledged team doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt. Le Gall accused the Bavarian club of using too many injections and thus causing Ribéry to be afraid of injections. However, yesterday the playmaking winger wanted to put things straight: "I am not scared of injections. But I did not want to be injected with cortisone by the French doctor."

Luis Fernando Suárez obviously doesn't mind since the Honduran national team manager afterwards was defending his team's style of play and partly also justifying it: "We played 16 games of qualifiers and had no red cards so that shows that we play within the rules. We play with a lot of determination and we are intense, but that is allowed and important in football."

Honduras on the other hand finished third in the CONCACAF qualifying, even leaving a strong team like Mexico behind. In 2014, la Bicolor played four friendly matches, winning against Venezuela (2-1) but losing to Turkey (0-2) and Israel (2-4). But in their last game before the WC los Catrachos did manage to achieve a 0-0 draw against England.

France came second in their qualifying group, finishing with only one defeat and a three-point-deficit to Spain. In the following relegation round Le Blues lost 0-2 to Ukraine in Kiev, but managed to bring in a 3-0 victory in the second leg and therefor qualified for this WC.