France ended Finland's hopes of qualifying for the World Cup for the first time as a 2-0 win in Helsinki condemned the Nordic nation to third place in UEFA qualifying Group D.
With France's place at Qatar 2022 already secured, attention in the group was firmly on the battle for a place in the play-offs between Finland and Ukraine.
Finland began the night in the box seat, two points ahead of Ukraine, but the situation was turned on its head in the second half.
Oleksandr Zinchenko and Artem Dovbyk secured a 2-0 win for Ukraine over Bosnia-Herzegovina while Karim Benzema's deflected strike and a superb individual effort from Kylian Mbappe saw the reigning world champions claim maximum points as Finland fell at the final hurdle.
A long-range Mbappe effort was the most threatening chance France could muster in a first half where both sides had just one shot on target.
France were forced to withdraw Leo Dubois after he was injured late in the opening period, with Benjamin Pavard filling in at right-back after the break.
The change had no impact on France's control of the game, with Les Bleus' backline rarely tested, and it was the visitors who eventually found a way through in somewhat fortuitous fashion in the 66th minute
Benzema and Mbappe played a neat one-two and the Real Madrid forward's effort nicked off Leo Vaisanen and beyond Lukas Hradecky.
Finland's goalkeeper was beaten in more convincing fashion 10 minutes later, Mbappe burning Vaisanen for pace down the left and bending an unerring finish into the bottom-right corner.
Hradecky's brilliant save denied Mbappe a second, with the Paris Saint-Germain star's second-half performance illustrating the gulf in class that made sure Finland will watch next year's World Cup from home.
Rumour Has It: Man City and Real Madrid to prioritise off-season Gvardiol signing
Josko Gvardiol won plenty of admirers during Croatia's run to the 2022 World Cup semi-finals.
The 21-year-old central defender is contracted until 2027, but has a hefty release clause that will become active in 2024.
As a result, clubs are likely to be competing to secure the Croatian's services in the next transfer window.
TOP STORY – CITY AND REAL PRIORITISE GVARDIOL SIGNING
Manchester City and Real Madrid have both made RB Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol their priority centre-back target for the next transfer window, according to 90min.
The report claims Leipzig wants £75m (€85m) for the Croatian defender, who almost joined Chelsea last off-season.
City and Real are also both in contention to sign Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham, complicating the Gvardiol move.
The report also claims City are willing to offload Aymeric Laporte to help facilitate any move.
ROUND-UP
– Liverpool are the favourites ahead of Manchester City in the race to sign Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount in the off-season, reports Football Insider.
– Manchester United are keeping an eye on Joao Felix 's situation with the Atletico Madrid forward currently on loan at Chelsea, claims Mundo Deportivo. Chelsea have been linked with a permanent deal for the Portuguese.
– The Sun claims Leicester City are keen on re-signing Harry Maguire on loan from Manchester United amid talk he will exit Old Trafford.
– Arsenal 's desire to land Dusan Vlahovic from Juventus could see the Gunners offer up Granit Xhaka and Nicolas Pepe as part of a deal, reports Calciomercatoweb.
– Fichajes claims Manchester City and Chelsea will battle it out to sign Milan full-back Theo Hernandez.
– Barcelona have prioritised a move for Liverpool winger Luis Diaz in the next transfer window, according to Fichajes.
St Louis' perfect start ended by Minnesota, Bernardeschi nets Olimpico for Toronto
Expansion franchise St Louis City's perfect start to their inaugural MLS season was ended by Minnesota United who triumphed 1-0 after Luis Amarilla's 78th-minute penalty on Saturday.
City had made MLS history by winning their first five games but that was ended by the Loons with Amarilla drilling home the spot kick after a needless challenge by Kyle Hiebert.
Hiebert brought down Amarilla just inside the box with a rash tackle when Jakob Nerwinski appeared to have Kervin Arriaga's wayward pass under control.
Substitute Samuel Adeniran came closest to equalising for St Louis, with a 95th-minute shot going over the bar after a great first touch from Klauss' right-wing cut back.
St Louis remain top of the table with 15 points from six games, but unbeaten Minnesota climb up to fourth in the Western Conference.
Cincinnati continued their impressive start to the season with a 1-0 home triumph over Inter Miami who slumped to their fourth straight defeat.
Yerson Mosquera scored the 45th-minute winner for Cincy, who are top of the Eastern Conference.
Giorgos Giakoumakis scored an early winner as Atlanta United moved up to second in the East with a 1-0 home win over New York Red Bulls, who are down in 12th in that conference.
Jordan Morris and Leo Chu scored first-half goals as Seattle Sounders stayed second in the West with a 2-1 victory at LA Galaxy, who are without a win and have only three points from five games.
LAFC remained unbeaten and third in the West despite a 0-0 draw at the winless Colorado Rapids, while SJ Earthquakes climbed to fifth with a 2-1 victory over Houston Dynamo with all three goals coming from penalties.
Vancouver Whitecaps snapped a run of three straight draws with a resounding 5-0 win over 10-man Montreal with Simon Becher scoring a double. Becher is the fastest player (87 minutes) in MLS history to score his first four goals.
Franck Boli rescued a 1-1 draw for Portland Timbers at Dallas, Chicago Fire and DC United drew 0-0 and Nashville triumphed 2-0 at Orlando City.
Federico Bernardeschi netted another spectacular goal with a strike straight from a corner in Toronto's 2-2 home draw with Charlotte.
Sporting KC remained winless after a 0-0 draw at Philadelphia Union, New England drew 1-1 with New York City and Real Salt Lake suffered their fourth straight loss, going down 4-0 to Columbus Crew.
Lukaku's profligacy frustrates Inter coach Inzaghi
Simone Inzaghi did not hide his frustration at Romelu Lukaku's struggles in front of goal after Inter lost 1-0 to Fiorentina on Saturday.
Inter's losing streak in Serie A was extended to their worst in six years as Giacomo Bonaventura's second-half header proved decisive at San Siro.
The Nerazzurri have now lost three straight top flight matches, with Bonaventura's winner coming shortly after a woeful miss from Lukaku.
Having rediscovered his goalscoring touch while on international duty with Belgium, Lukaku was unable to transfer that form across to his club side as he failed to hit the target from close range with the goal gaping.
No Inter player had more shots than his three, with Lukaku not managing to get any of them on target, despite accumulating 1.2 expected goals.
While not pinning the blame entirely on Lukaku – who is reported to have confronted Inzaghi about a lack of opportunities while he has been fit this season – Inter's coach was quick to point out the importance of those misses.
Speaking to DAZN, Inzaghi said: "If he had scored those chances, Lukaku's performance would be judged in a very different way.
"His role is to create the opportunities, make the movements that the team needs.
"He wasn't the only one who had chances today, so I wouldn't focus only on Romelu."
Inzaghi also stressed he is ultimately responsible for turning Inter's fortunes around.
"There is great disappointment, we lost two consecutive home matches," he said. "We need to work more, starting with me.
"At the moment, we need to be more determined, because we had so many chances to score and we should have done.
"I cannot ask for more in terms of effort, as the players did everything I asked of them."
Inzaghi is not wrong. While Fiorentina had more shots (19 to 16) and got the same number of attempts on target (three each), Inter finished with a 2.8 xG compared to the visitors' 1.2, suggesting the quality of opportunities that went their way was far greater.
Lukaku's glaring miss came from by far the best opportunity of the match, with Opta's model estimating the chance would be converted 92 per cent of the time (0.92 xG).
The 29-year-old's future is uncertain. He is on loan at Inter, but due to return to parent club Chelsea at the end of the season.
Before the match, Inter chief Giuseppe Marotta told DAZN: "[Lukaku's] love for the Inter jersey is 10 out of 10, we'll evaluate the prospects with Chelsea."
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
