Salvador (Brazil), June 21: Former world champions France toyed with the Swiss defence to win 5-2 in a Group E clas at the Arena Fonte Nova here on Friday. This was France's second win in a row and took them to the last 16 of the tournament.

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The high-coring match was an absorbing affair throughout. Twenty minutes into the game, the French scored two goals in less than a minute and looked to have sealed the outcome of the match by the time of the interval.

The French looked the stronger of the two sides from the beginning as Karim Benzema, who plays for Read Madrid, almost scored in the first 10 minutes. The deadlock was broken by Olivier Giroud who headed in from a corner to give France its 100th goal in the World Cup.

The French doubled their lead within a few second when Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Blaise Matuidi took possession of the ball from the Swiss and drilled it low.

Switzerland's Granit Xhaka put one across French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in the 27th minute but the goal was ruled out as offside.

Olivier Giroud scored France's 100th goal in the World Cup

France had a wonderful chance to make it 3-0 when Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers penalized Johan Djourou for bringing down Karim Benzema in the box. But Benzema failed to get the ball past goalkeeper Diego Benaglio and even Yohan Cabaye's effort to smash the rebound home didn't succeed.

France did not have to wait for long as Mathieu Valbuena scored the third goal from a close range from a Giroud cross in the 40th minute. He almost netted his second but for Benaglio.

France led 3-0 at half-time.

The French pumped in two more goals in the second half to go up 5-0 with just 17 minutes left for the final whistle to go.

Karim Benzema chipped with his first goal in the 67th minute by converting Paul Pogba's neat pass while Moussa Sissoko's perfect finish six minutes later meant that the French were in no mood to spare the Swiss, whose defence looked similar to their cheese, full of holes.

The Swiss are 11 places above the French in the Fifa rankings and perhaps this factor was playing in their mind to prove in front of a more successful opponent internationally and the latter obliged happily. The Swiss were also perhaps rattled by the nasty injury of their centre-half Steve von Bergen and paid for it by losing the match.

Blerim Dzemaili pulled one back for the Swiss in the 81st minute when his free-kick entered the goal unopposed and six minutes later, Xhaka scored his team's consolatory second goal through a nice volley.

Benzema scored his second of the match but only after the final whistle had gone off. He could have ended up with three goals in this match but had to remain content with one.

Teams

France
Hugo Lloris (c), Patrice Evra, Raphael Varane, Mamadou Sakho, Mathieu Debuchy, Yohan Cabaye, Blaise Matuidi, Moussa Sissoko, Olivier Giroud, Karim Benzema, Mathieu Valbuena

Coach: Didier Deschamps

Switzerland
Diego Benaglio, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Steve von Bergen, Gokhan Inler (c), Haris Seferovic, Granit Xhaka, Valon Behrami, Ricardo Rodriguez, Admir Mehmedi, Johan Djourou, Xherdan Shaqiri

Coach: Ottmar Hitzfeld

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