The French national team defeated Russia 3-1 in a friendly football match held on Tuesday night at a stadium in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg.
The friendly match between the teams of Russia and France was played less than 80 days ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup at the 64,000-seat capacity St. Petersburg Arena. Some 48,000 tickets were sold for tonight’s match, according to organizers.
Both teams showed equal play for the most of the opening half of the game as the statistics showed the 50-50% of the ball possession as well as the equal of 1-1 shots on the goal attempts.

     The score, however, was opened by guests from France late in the first half, when Kylian Mbappe sent a ball in the left corner of the Russian goal from a swift pass delivered across the box from his teammate Paul Pogba.
After the mid-match break, France increased its dominance to 2-0 less than ten minutes into the second half. It was Pogba this time with a fantastic curler from a free-kick shot into the Russian net that left no chances at all for Russian goalkeeper Andrei Lunev to save the situation.
The Russian team had almost a hundred percent opportunity to score on the 58th minute into the match after a corner kick by Fyodor Smolov, but with the ball bouncing off wild in the box of the French goal, Russia’s Vladimir Granat kicked it wide amiss, although the net was open.
Russia’s home-pitch advantage finally paid off with a goal from Fyodor Smolov on the 68th minute of the game. Smolov’s goal brought excitement to the spectators’ stands at the stadium, but the local football fans went quiet after another goal from the guests.
The ball into the Russian net was put from the left wing after a brief dribble past the Russian defenders by Kylian Mbappe, who put the score at 3-1 in favor of his national squad. It was his second goal in the match against Russia and the third overall playing for the national team of France.
       The score of 3-1 in favor of France remained flashing on the scoreboard until the final whistle.
Tonight’s friendly match defeat was second for Russia in five days as last Friday the squad lost 0-3 to the national team of Brazil in a match played at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
The Russian national team is scheduled to play two more friendly matches in the run-up to the World Cup - in May against Austria in Innsbruck and against Turkey in early June in Moscow.