A weakened France side scored four goals for the fourth time in five Euro 2020 qualifiers as the Group H leaders swept aside Albania 4-1.
Their superior goal difference in head-to-head matches with Turkey and Iceland is what is keeping the world champions in first place as all three teams are level on 12 points.
Even without the injured Paul Pogba, and with Kylian Mbappé watching from the stands, there was little concern for the hosts as Kingsley Coman scored twice, with Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud and the debutant Jonathan Ikoné also on target.
In fact the biggest negative of the night for France, up until the moment goalkeeper Hugo Lloris conceded a 90th-minute penalty from which Sokol Cikalleshi scored, came before kick-off. The start of the match was delayed by seven minutes as the Stade de France public address system played the national anthem of Andorra – the visitors on Tuesday – with Albania refusing to begin until the error was rectified.
In Group B, Cristiano Ronaldo scored to help ensure Portugal jump-started their campaign with a 4-2 win in Serbia. The defending champions drew their first two qualifiers but broke the deadlock in Belgrade three minutes before half-time against the run of play through William Carvalho. Gonçalo Guedes doubled the lead when he skilfully cut back to his left foot to ditch his marker.
A Nikola Milenkovic header pulled one back for Serbia in the 68th minute, before Ronaldo, who had twice come close to scoring, took a through ball from Bernardo Silva and slipped it past the goalkeeper.
Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic hit Serbia’s second with five minutes left, before Silva scored Portugal’s fourth.
Portugal climbed to second place behind Ukraine, who won 3-0 in Lithuania. They lead the way with 13 points after five games.