Internet Desk: Germany put an end to a 21-year wait for a win over Italy as they scored two goals in each half to record a resounding 4-1 triumph in Munich on Tuesday.
Having thrown away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 to England on Saturday, Joachim Low’s side bounced back in style to end a seven-match winless streak against their opponents.
Toni Kroos scored his second international goal in as many matches when his right-footed attempt from just outside the area broke the deadlock in the 24th minute.
Mesut Ozil made it 4-0 from the spot after Sebastian Rudy had been tripped inside the area by goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, although the visitors had the last word with a consolation effort from Stephan El Shaarawy.
Andre-Pierre Gignac replaced Olivier Giroud in one of four changes from Friday’s 3-2 defeat of the Netherlands and the Tigres striker made it 2-0 in the 38th minute expertly directing a header past Igor Akinfeev towards the end of the first period.
France monopolised possession and afforded Russia little space to attack, but the visitors did pull one back from a set-piece just before the hour mark – Aleksandr Kokorin (56′) nodding in.
Payet’s glorious free-kick restored the two-goal cushion with 64 minutes on the clock, less than 60 seconds after coming on, only for Yuri Zhirkov (68′) to hit back shortly after.
France finally put the match beyond Russia in the 76th minute, though, as Coman chased Payet’s pass, turned back on himself to escape Akinfeev and then slammed an extraordinary strike into the roof of the net to wrap things up.