Deschamps: France's 'beautiful' win over Brazil helps bridge gap between sides

Didier Deschamps hailed France's "beautiful" victory over Brazil and believes his side have closed a gap to their counterparts.

France earned a 2-1 victory in Foxborough – where they will play their final World Cup group game against Norway in June – holding onto victory despite having 10 men.

Kylian Mbappe, now one goal away from equalling France's all-time top goalscoring record, opened the scoring in the first half, before Dayot Upamecano was sent off 10 minutes into the second half.

Hugo Ekitike then doubled their lead shortly after, and though Bremer pulled one back for Brazil late on, they could not find an equaliser.

And Deschamps, who recalled a 3-1 defeat at the Stade de France to Brazil 11 years ago, noted how important the victory was for their confidence.

"The victory is beautiful because it's Brazil," Deschamps told TF1.

"The last time [we faced them] was 11 years ago, and we took a big spanking. There was a big gap.

"I'm not going to say that it was reversed, but hey... What we were able to do in the first half were interesting things.

"We are not going to be more favourites [for the World Cup trophy] after this victory, we will not be less so either.

"But it's good to see that there is a good technical relationship between the players and an ability to hurt the opponent."

Mbappe beat Ederson with a lovely, dinked finish to take him to 56 goals for his country, just one behind Olivier Giroud's record.

Mbappe led all France players for shots (three, all inside the box), expected goals (0.6 xG), and touches in the area (nine), while also creating one chance and completing the joint-second-most dribbles on his team (two, Olise completed three).

He had a better time of things than his Real Madrid team-mate Vinicius Junior, who had two shots with an xG value of 0.6 and failed to hit the target, missing a glaring chance to equalise on the slide in stoppage time.

And Raphinha also struggled for the Selecao, as he managed just one off-target shot, though it was classed as a 'big' chance, and only three touches in the opposition box before being taken off at half-time.

Both players drew criticism for their performances after the game, but Brazil head coach Carlo Ancelotti was quick to come to their defence.

"I think Raphinha played very well. Then he had a problem at the end of the first half, and we had to change him, but he had a lot of opportunities and a very good movement without the ball," Ancelotti said.

"Raphinha had a problem, a muscle discomfort. I believe they will evaluate him [on Friday].

"And Vini always tries, always makes a difference. It's not always that a striker can score, but the work done by both is well done.

"I think the game speaks very clearly to me that we can compete with the best teams in the world. I have no doubt.

"We played against a very strong team, with a lot of quality, and we competed until the last moment, with the rival spending time to try to secure the victory."