France "revenge" on Bulgaria with 4-1 World Cup qualifier win

Thanks to outstanding performance from Atletico Madrid attacking duo Kevin Gamleiro and Antoine Griezmann, France finally lived up to their names as the Euro 2016 runners-up came back to beat Bulgaria 4-1 in a World Cup qualifier here on Friday.

Gameiro, who wins just his tenth cap for his country, headed in the equalizer in 23 minutes before made it four in the 59th minute through a simple solo run after some good work from his Atletico teammate Griezmann.

The two sides' bosses Didier Deschamps and Petar Hubchev met as players in Paris on November 17, 1993 when Bulgaria beat France 2-1 to earn a miracle berth to the 1994 World Cup in the United States while having denied the hosts' chance.

Almost 23 years apart from the famous night, Deschamps' men conceded an early penalty again to the visitors but kept their nerve and managed to reverse the scoreline soon enough, improving to a 3-1 lead before interval.

Just six minutes into the game, Manchester city defender Bacary Sagna gave away quite an easy penalty after bringing down Georgi Milanov inside the box and Mihail Alexandrov stepped up to put the ball past Hugo Lloris.

After Gameiro's equalizer, Dimitri Payet improved it to 2-1 as the West Ham midfielder was set back a pass from Moussa Sissoko before bending a cross in towards the back post, which curled into the back of the net.

Then Griezmann claimed the third goal for Les Bleus, an easy goal at 37 with an unerring finish into the bottom corner after being picked out by Bulgarian defender Dimitar Pirgov's horrendous mistake.

The 25-year-old Atletico forward just received his award as the Player of the Tournament for Euro 2016 in the warm-up to the Group A qualifier against Bulgaria. He earned six goals and two assists this summer to help France reach the final where the hosts lost out to Portugal. Endit