Olise hat-trick fires France past Northern Ireland
Michael Olise scored his first career hat-trick to give Didier Deschamps a winning send off on home soil as France beat Northern Ireland 3-1 in their final pre-World Cup friendly.
Deschamps, who will step down from his role after the World Cup, oversaw his final match in France, with one of the nation's brightest stars taking centre stage.
France was, however, frustrated by Michael O'Neill's side, with Aurelien Tchouameni's shot from distance that struck the post the closest the host side came to taking the lead, with Kylian Mbappe also seeing a goal ruled out for offside.
However, Northern Ireland's resilience was broken two minutes before the break when Ousmane Dembele's deflected shot broke kindly for Olise, who was on hand to tuck home from close range.
Olise doubled his and France's advantage three minutes after the restart as Northern Ireland failed to clear its lines, allowing the in-form Bayern Munich forward to smash the ball past Pierce Charles from just inside the penalty area.
Despite going two goals down to one of the favourites to win the World Cup, Northern Ireland reduced the deficit in the 64th minute through Patrick Kelly, who tapped in from close range after Shea Charles did brilliantly to win possession from Dayot Upamecano.
But Northern Ireland's hopes of a remarkable comeback were dented 10 minutes later by Olise, who completed his hat-trick in stylish fashion when he bent a curling effort from the edge of the box into the top-left corner.
