FRIENDLIES: BRAZIL BEAT FRANCE, FALCAO SCORE 2 GOALS

Oscar and Neymar scored as Brazil rallied past France 3-1 in a friendly on Thursday.

Raphael Varane scored following a corner kick in the 21st minute to give France the lead, but Oscar equalised shortly before half-time by poking home after a one-two with Roberto Firmino.

Brazil took full control after the break, and Neymar provided the lead in the 57th minute with a blast from the corner of the six-yard box following a counter-attack.

Luis Gustavo made the lead comfortable in the 69th minute by heading in a corner kick.

A fine finish from captain Neymar helped secure a come-from-behind 3-1 win for Brazil over France in a friendly in Paris on Thursday as they maintained their perfect record since the return as coach of Dunga.

Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane had headed the hosts in front on a cold night at a packed Stade de France, only for Oscar to equalise late in the first half.

Barcelona forward Neymar then controlled a Willian pass and lashed the ball high into the roof of the net from the left edge of the six-yard box in the 57th minute to put the visitors in front, and a Luiz Gustavo header secured the victory midway through the second period.

Brazil have now won seven consecutive friendly matches under Dunga following the heavy defeats to Germany and the Netherlands that saw their World Cup campaign on home soil last year end in such catastrophic fashion.

And this latest success against an accomplished France side will have been particularly pleasing to Dunga, back where he captained the Selecao in a painful 3-0 World Cup final defeat to the French in 1998.

"In football you win and lose, but it's always good to beat a team as strong as France," he said. "The team played well, but nothing was perfect. We still made mistakes that could have been avoided."

In the opposite dugout this time was Didier Deschamps, the current France coach who skippered Les Bleus on that glorious night 17 years ago.

"We were punished for our mistakes," Deschamps told TF1 television after the game. "Even if the World Cup was a trauma for them, they still have very, very good players and they did reach the semifinals.

"It was good for us tonight to have to face up to a difficult situation. We will learn from this."

Seeing Deschamps and Dunga lock horns once again added extra intrigue to an occasion which was also notable for the French Football Federation's decision to honour those who have won more than 100 caps for France.

World Cup winners Marcel Desailly, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane were all received by President Francois Hollande inside the stadium and then presented to the crowd before the game.

The French, without goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and midfielders Yohan Cabaye and Paul Pogba due to injury, had themselves not been beaten since exiting last year's World Cup in the quarterfinals to Germany and had not lost a friendly since a 3-0 defeat in Brazil in June 2013.

They started the game well and only a remarkable save by goalkeeper Jefferson prevented Karim Benzema – wearing the captain's armband in the absence of Lloris – from opening the scoring from point-blank range early on.

That chance had come from a corner and it was from another corner that the hosts got the breakthrough in the 21st minute, Varane rising to meet a Mathieu Valbuena delivery from the left and heading home.

It was a second goal in as many international outings for the defender, who also scored with his head in the 1-0 friendly defeat of Sweden in November.

Radamel Falcao scored two goals and set up another as Colombia cruised to a 6-0 win over Bahrain.

Falcao headed down a ball down to Carlos Bacca for Colombia's opener, then the Manchester United striker got behind the defence twice in a five-minute span to strike with single touches and give the visitors a 3-0 lead at half-time.

Falcao has drawn criticism for his recent play for Manchester United, where he has not started since February and has scored just four goals in 22 appearances while on loan from Monaco.

Adrian Ramos, Johan Mojica and Andres Renteria all scored for Colombia in the second half to complete the rout.

Chile slumped to a 2-0 defeat against Iran in their second-to-last warm-up game before hosting the Copa America in June.

Iran captain Javad Nekounam scored from short range in the 21st minute, and Vahid Amiri rounded off a counter-attack five minutes into the second half in Iran's first match since losing to Iraq on penalties in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup in January.

With a friendly against Brazil in London in three days, Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli rested several key players, including Arturo Vidal and Alexis Sanchez, though the striker came on to replace Fabian Orellana in the second half.

In other friendlies on Thursday, a first-half goal from Ali Assed helped Qatar defeat World Cup veterans Algeria 1-0.

Algeria didn't create much and Qatar could have had more goals, with Ismail Mohamed hitting the post just before Assed's strike.

African Nations Cup champions Ivory Coast defeated Angola 2-0 on goals from Ousmane Viera and Salomon Kalou.

Viera scored in the 23rd minute at Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, and Kalou added the second by earning and converting a 90th-minute penalty.

A heavy rainstorm left the field waterlogged in places in the second half but didn't dampen the spirits of the Ivorians, who ended a 23-year drought when they clinched their second African title last month in Equatorial Guinea.

Goals in the final five minutes from Bassin Morsi and Mahmoud Hassan allowed Egypt to defeat Equatorial Guinea 2-0.

Late goals from Suttinan Phuk-hom and Pokkhao Anan allowed Thailand to see off rivals Singapore 2-0, while Oman thrashed Malaysia 6-0.

Syria won 1-0 in Jordan on Hamdi Al-Masri's goal, and Tajikistan defeatedMaldives 2-0.

The final friendly of the day saw Costa Rica and Paraguay play to a goalless draw. Scoring chances were hard to come by for either team, who were both playing their first match of 2015.