Turks tend to go nuts whenever the national team plays but this fixture was so low key that I struggled to even find coverage of it last night. France bounced back from the embarrassing defeat by Nigeria to win 1-0 against Turkey in an incident-ridden friendly on Friday. A Karim Benzema penalty gave France the win, Anelka having been brought down by Ibrahim Üzülmez who received a red card for his efforts.
The second half was dominated by the French, who were denied a second goal by a string of great saves from Turkey goalkeeper Volkan Demirel. Sidney Govou hit the post from inside the area in the closing stages. The game was stopped by the referee with 12 minutes left after flares were thrown onto the pitch from a section of the Gerland stadium filled with Turkish supporters. A Turkish fan ran onto the pitch during the break, which lasted a few minutes.
