France reach semi-finals

Hosts France reached the semi-finals of the FIFA Confederation Cup with a 2-1 win against Japan in Saint-Etienne on Friday.

Penalty opener
The win maintained France's perfect record, and meant Jacques Santini's side qualified from Group A. However, Japan began the match brighter and matched France in every department in the first half, only to fall behind two minutes before half-time as Jean-Alain Boumsong's shirt was pulled by Junichi Inamoto and Robert Pires, captaining his country for the first time, converted the resulting penalty.

Deserved equaliser
However France, who were without Real Madrid CF midfield players Zinedine Zidane and Claude Makelele through club commitments and Arsenal FC's Patrick Vieira, ruled out by injury, continued to struggle and Japan deservedly drew level on the hour mark as Shunsuke Nakamura equalised with a curling free-kick.

Powerful shot
Parity lasted only six minutes as Olympique Lyonnais striker Sidney Govou collected a long ball inside the penalty area and shot powerfully into the net for what proved to be the winning goal. Undeterred, Japan continued to press, with Hidetoshi Nakata and Nakamura both going close while Yasuhito Endo hit the crossbar with a free-kick. France held on despite losing defender Willy Sagnol to a red card a minute into injury time.

Colombia comeback
In Lyon, Raffaele de Gregorio gave New Zealand the lead midway through the first half, but Colombia's Jorge Lopez equalised two minutes before the hour and, following the 69th-minute dismissal of New Zealand's Chris Killen, goals in the final 15 minutes from Mario Yepez and Giovanni Hernandez sealed a 3-1 win for Colombia.