France in cruise control against Serbia

France enjoyed an ideal start to their UEFA European Under-19 Championship campaign, easing to a 3-0 Group B win against Serbia.

All three goals came in the first 32 minutes; Richard-Quentin Samnick's header, a Paul Pogba penalty and Thibaut Vion's predatory finish doing the damage. Serbia's Aleksandar Mitrović saw a straight red card on 66 minutes, helping a confident France cruise to victory ahead of their next fixture against Croatia on Friday.

A late call-up to the France squad as a replacement for the injured Lionel Zouma, Samnick was not involved in qualifying. It took 17 minutes for the defender to justify his selection, though, ghosting free to meet Jean-Christophe Bahebeck's free-kick with a close-range header.

A stylish half-volley from Mitrović then flashed over the France bar before Les Bleus doubled their lead on 26 minutes, Bahebeck again the architect. The electric winger's surging run was brought to an abrupt halt by Serbia No1 Filip Pajović, and from the resulting penalty captain Pogba sent the keeper the wrong way.

The mire deepened for Serbia six minutes later when a misplaced pass out from the back fell to Jordan Veretout. His strike proved too hot for Pajović to handle, and the lurking Vion accepted the invitation to make it three.

Serbia upped their tempo and showed some enterprise after the restart, initially taking their opponents by surprise, but once France settled they resumed control.

Alassane Plea went close from range, and a sliding Bahebeck was a whisker away from finishing Geoffrey Kondogbia's inviting back-post cross from the left. Swarming in defence and sweeping in attack, France's lead looked unassailable and it became so when Mitrović received his marching orders, as Les Bleus saw out the rest of the contest untroubled.