MUNICH: Germany regained wounded pride after their weekend upset by England as they defeated Italy 4-1 in Munich, their first win over the Azzurri since 1995.

Unlike as in their weekend defeat in Berlin manager Joachim Low’s world champions maintained control after establishing a 2-0 lead, Toni Kroos striking in the 24th minute and Mario Gotze doubling the advantage with a 45th-minute header.

Jonas Hector made it 3-0 just before the hour mark and Mesut Ozil added a penalty with 15 minutes to go, before Stephan El Shaarawy registered a consolation for the visitors in the 82nd minute.

Euro 2016 hosts France defeated Russia 4-2 in what was Les Bleus’ first match at Paris’ Stade de France since the November terrorist attacks in the city.

Goals from birthday boy N’Golo Kante and Andre Pierre Gignac had the French 2-0 up at half-time, and after Aleksandr Kokorin reduced the deficit, Dmitri Payet – also on his birthday – fired home a free-kick.

Yuri Zhirkov soon hit back, but an effort from Kingsley Coman then wrapped things up for Didier Deschamps’ men late on.

First-half goals from Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo steered Portugal to a 2-1 home win over Belgium, for whom Romelu Lukaku pulled one back after the break.

Sweden were held to a 1-1 draw by the Czech Republic in Solna, with Marcus Berg’s opener for the hosts being cancelled out by Matej Vydra.

The match between the Republic of Ireland and Slovakia in Dublin was also a draw, finishing 2-2 with all four goals coming in the first half.

Martin O’Neill’s side fell behind to Miroslav Stoch’s strike, and after a quickfire double of penalties from Shane Long and James McClean then had them 2-1 up, a subsequent own goal by Paul McShane brought things level once again.

Gordon Strachan conceded that the better side lost after seeing his Scotland edge Denmark 1-0 at Hampden Park. Bournemouth winger Matt Ritchie nipped in front of a hesitant Daniel Agger in the eighth minute to shoot past Kasper Schmeichel.

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