Manchester United’s Anthony Martial helps France beat Portugal on debut

Mathieu Valbuena’s superb late free-kick earned France a deserved friendly victory over Portugal on a night when new Manchester United striker Anthony Martial made his senior debut for Les Bleus.

Martial became football’s most expensive teenager when United splashed out an initial £36m to sign him from Monaco, and to cap an unforgettable few days for the 19-year-old he was handed his France bow as a second-half substitute for Karim Benzema.

He could not mark the occasion with a goal but Euro 2016 hosts France still ran out 1-0 winners in Lisbon thanks to Valbuena’s dead-ball brilliance

The Lyon playmaker sent a superb curling effort over the wall five minutes from time and, despite Rui Patrício getting his finger tips to the shot, he could not keep it out.

Didier Deschamps’ men created the majority of the chances before half-time, with Blaise Matuidi being denied by Patrício before the same player fired over from a superb Paul Pogba cross to the far post.

Moussa Sissoko also spurned a decent opportunity when instead of shooting he chose to try to find Benzema, who was being too closely guarded by his Real Madrid team-mate Pepe.

Another Real star, Cristiano Ronaldo, had the last effort of the half, but the Portugal captain’s long-range effort was well stopped by Hugo Lloris in the French goal.

France were back on the attack at the start of the second-half with Antoine Griezmann, who had replaced the injured Nabil Fekir early on, drawing a parry out of Patrício. The Portugal keeper then needed to be alert to keep out a drive from Benzema as France continued to press for the opener.

Portugal, who are on course to qualify for the European Championship sitting top of Group I, looked to rally with an Éder effort that went over but France were back on the attack with Benzema and Raphaël Varane testing Patrício in quick succession.

Ronaldo was replaced by Ricardo Quaresma midway through the second half, but Portugal’s threat did not go with him entirely as Éder and Nani tried their luck heading into the last 10 minutes.