The Les Blues hammered a 10-man South Africa 5-0 in what their first meeting in 12 years.

The striker Kylian Mbappé scored a brace of goals for France, while Olivier Giroud, Wissam Ben Yedder and Matteo Guendouzi all found the back of the net as well.

Late in the game the Mamelodi Sundowns defender Khuliso Mudau was shown a straight red card for a reckless tackle from behind.

Following the game, the coach of Bafana Bafana, Hugo Broos, said that the result of the international friendly was less important than the experience the players would gain from playing against the world champions.

“We knew before the game that there was a difference in level between the two teams”, said Broos.

But for us, as I said the result was not important, it was for the experience.

“We’re a young team with young players. We don’t have the experience that French players have and we don’t have the quality of players they have.

They are the world champions. We fought for it, we did what we had to do, but okay when there is such a difference of quality, it can happen that you lose the game with this result.”

Bafana will return to action in June to kick-off their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport