France produced a superb display to brush off Italy 3-1 thanks to goals from Sidney Govou (2) and Thierry Henry.

They would have been even more pleased had they produced this kind of form in the World Cup final two months ago..but that’s all in the past now.

Sidney Govou who started for the first time for France since the 4-0 thrashing of Cyprus in a World Cup qualifier in October 2005, took just 90 seconds to make his mark thanks to a beautiful cross from Arsenal’s new reruit William Gallas.It was all end to end stuff from that first goal with majority of attacking play and possesion belonging to the french.Franck Ribery was in impressive form and so were rest of the team and their constant attack on the italian goal paid futher dividends when Thierry Henry netted in France’s second goal of the night after Buffon had failed to deal with a thunderous shot from Florent Malouda.In reality though the goal was deflected by Cannavaro but the goal was credited to Henry.

France have dropped their 4-2-3-1 line-up since Zidane’s retirement, but the 4-4-2 system is proving highly reliable especially if you have someone like Ribery in your team than can run around any defence while Makelele and Vieira patrol their own defence.

Italy got a break just three minutes after Henry’s goal after Andre Pirlo’s freekick was met with a header from Alberto Gilardino, giving Gregory Coupet no chance.

Coupet however had a fantastic game and in the 28th minute made an absolutely fantastic save from close range that would have sealed his place as the first choice keeper ahead of Barthez.

The second half begin much like the first with France looking to extend their lead while Italy were looking to equalise.New Italian coach Donadoni threw in D Michele,Inzaghi and Rossi in the second half but it was to no avail as the Italians have produced a horrible Euro qulaifier so far with a 1-1 draw against Lithuania and a 3-1 lost to France.

Govou futher enhanced his reputation when he netted in France’s third goal in the 55th minute and injuring his head in the process after clashing with Cannavaro who also suffered a minor headache.

With Govou and Hnery in impressive form it may take some time before Trezeguet,Wiltord and Saha gettheir chance to shine.

Coach Raymond Domenech said his France team had produced an almost flawless performance.

‘The perfect match is the one in which you score on every attack and that your opponents are unable to put you in danger. We came very close to the perfect match tonight,’ he told a news conference.

‘Everybody was feeling great and technically we were well prepared for this outing. I hope that we will be capable to repeat such a performance.

‘Beating the world champions always means something special. We have tamed two world champions over the last two months,’ he added, referring to the 1-0 success over Brazil in the World Cup quarter-finals. ‘We can be happy and proud of ourselves.’

Final Score France 3 Italy 1