Internationals: Remy sinks Spain

Loic Remy, who signed for Chelsea at the weekend, rose from the bench in Paris to score the only goal of the game as the hosts for Euro 2016 beat the winners of Euro 2012.

Remy was introduced by France manager Didier Deschamps just before the hour and finished off a well-crafted move with an equally fine first-time strike, drilling Mathieu Valbuena’s ball past a rooted David De Gea. It was his sixth goal for his country on his 28th appearance. 

Cesar Azpilicueta was part of the Spain defence breached by the goal in the 73^rd minute. He played the full game with Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas starting before being withdrawn with just over 20 minutes to play.

The match was a friendly with Spain starting their Euro 2016 qualifiers on Monday against Macedonia.

In Thursday night’s other games, Thibaut Courtois kept a clean sheet for Belgium in a home warm-up match against Australia, the result 2-0 with a goal in each half, Dries Mertens and Axel Witsel the scorers. Thorgan Hazard, who replaced Eden in the squad for this game, remained on the bench.

Mario Pasalic, signed by Chelsea in the summer and loaned to Elche in Spain, was given his international debut by Croatia, the 19-year-old midfielder coming on for Mario Mandzukic with 61 minutes played, shortly after his side had scored their second in a 2-0 win friendly win at home to Cyprus.

Moving down the age groups, Kurt Zouma captained France Under-21s to a big away win, beating Kazakhstan 5-1, a result which guarantees they will finish top of their qualifying group for the European Under-21 Championships.

They now go into a draw on Friday 12 September to determine who they face in a play-off round.

However the Netherlands Under-21s, long-time leaders of their group, have to wait until Monday to guarantee their place after a shock 1-0 defeat at home to Georgia.

Marco van Ginkel, captaining the side, was denied by a good save in the first half but the goal conceded in the second half means the Dutch, for whom Nathan Ake also played the full game, now have just a two-point lead over Slovakia, whom they host in their final group game next week.