France 2 - 2 Morocco

France 2-2 Morocco: Late African leveller

Updated: November 16, 2007, 8:38 PM UK

PARIS, November 16 (International Friendly) - France warmed up for their Euro 2008 qualifier against Ukraine with an entertaining draw at home to Morocco on Friday night.

Raymond Domenech's men fell behind early on when Tarik Sektioui scored only to turn the game around with efforts from Sidney Govou and Samir Nasri.

But Les Bleus could not hold on with Youssef Mokhtari firing home the equaliser with just six minutes remaining.

Morocco, whose coach Henri Michel led France during the 1980s and is now back in charge of the Atlas Lions whom he coached in the 1998 World Cup, opened the scoring after just eight minutes.

Porto midfielder Sektioui was the first to react when home keeper Mickael Landreau spilled a shot from Youssouf Hadji, firing into an empty net.

France were behind for just seven minutes though, the impressive Nasri playing in Govou and the Lyon man made no mistake with a crisp finish.

Domenech made a string of substitutions at half-time and during the second period with one of the replacements, Nicolas Anelka, making an immediate impact.

The Bolton striker had only been on the pitch for 13 minutes when he nodded down a Jerome Rothen cross for Nasri, who controlled the ball nicely before firing past Morocco keeper Nadir Lamyaghri.

It looked as though that would be enough for France but Morocco would not be denied and grabbed a share of the spoils when defender Mokhtari lashed home from the edge of the area.

France will have already qualified for the finals of Euro 2008 before next Wednesday's trip to Kiev in the event of Italy beating Scotland in Glasgow on Saturday.

But if Alex McLeish's side get anything out of the match with the Azzurri then Les Bleus will have to get at least a point from the game to make sure of their place in Austria and Switzerland.