French star Blaise Matuidi hit this sensational volley like a missile

To rub salt into Giroud’s wounds, manager Didier Deschamps decided to replace him with Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, who was linked with a switch to north London throughout the summer. Aleksandar Mitrovic pulled one back for Serbia five minutes before halftime.

With France automatically qualified for Euro 2016 as the host nation, Les Bleus lined up an array of friendlies while their counterparts endure the qualifying process, but that doesn’t mean they’re not making headlines with their performances. Olivier Giroud spurned two great chances before the indefatigable Matuidi struck an incredible left-footed volley – still rising as it hit the net – from 25 metres after Nemanja Matić headed a Mathieu Valbuena corner his way. He got three clear opportunities. Obviously if he had been more efficient the score would have been much higher.

Valbuena was playing a pivotal role in the hosts’ creative efforts, and after some neat interplay with substitute Geoffrey Kondogbia he curled a rather tame 25-yard effort into Rajkovic’s arms before the hour mark. “Obviously he knows about it. He’s the first to be sad about his lack of efficiency”.