France thrash Kiwis

Thierry Henry scored his 20th goal for France

France 5-0 New Zealand

France secured top spot in Group A at the Confederations Cup with a crushing win over New Zealand.

The hosts will now play either Cameroon, Brazil or Turkey in Thursday's semi-finals.

Auxerre's Olivier Kapo opened the scoring in the 16th minute before Thierry Henry added a second soon after.

Another Auxerre star, Djibril Cisse, made it 3-0 in the 70th minute after some strong build-up play from Henry.

Defender Philippe Mexes - reportedly a target for Manchester United and Arsenal - produced a sublime backheel to set up Ludovic Giuly for a spectacular injury-time volley.

And substitute Robert Pires completed the rout with a low shot off the post in the dying seconds.

"We wanted to play as many people as possible in the first three matches to allow the others to have a good rest," said France coach Jacques Santini.

"As a team, we're progressing nicely and I think we'll be even better for the semi-final."

---

France: Mickael Landreau; Lilian Thuram, Philippe Mexes, Marcel Desailly (captain), Bixente Lizarazu; Benoit Pedretti (Ousmane Dabo 69), Ludovic Giuly, Olivier Kapo, Sylvain Wiltord (Robert Pires 76); Djibril Cisse, Thierry Henry (Steve Marlet 74)

New Zealand: Mike Utting; Gerard Davis, Chris Zoricich (captain) (Duncan Oughton 73), Danny Hay (Scott Smith 81), Ryan Nelsen; Noah Hickey, Mark Burton (Chris Jackson 69), Raffaele De Gregorio, Simon Elliott; Chris Bouckenhooghe, Vaughan Coveny

Referee: Masoud Moradi (Iran)

Have your say on 606
The nation's biggest football debate