International round-up: Northern Ireland taught a lesson by Croatia as France fail to fire against Ivory Coast

NORTHERN IRELAND were embarrassed this evening as Croatia fired three past them at Windsor Park.

Michael O’Neill’s men impressed during Friday’s 4-0 romp over Azerbaijan but were outplayed in every aspect by Croatia as the likes of Mario Mandzukic ran wild.

Reuters

Indeed, it was the Juventus superstar who opened the scoring after just nine minutes when he held off three opposition defenders to fire home.

Northern Ireland then went two behind when Duje Cop found the back of the net ten minutes before half-time.

And it already felt like game over when Leicester flop Andrej Kramaric smashed in an unstoppable rocket from 25 yards out in the 67th minute.

Getty Images

Getty Images

Meanwhile, the likes of Dimitri Payet, Paul Pogba and Olivier Giroud were all ineffectual as France were held to a bland 0-0 draw by Ivory Coast.

The Euro 2016 finalists dug deep to earn a 2-1 win over Sweden last week but stars including Ousmane Dembele and Kevin Gameiro failed to break down a stubborn defence containing controversial Paris Saint-Germain right-back Serge Aurier.

Reuters

EPA

Elsewhere, there were wins tonight for Iceland, Sweden and Ukraine, who respectively beat Malta, Hungary and Serbia all by a scoreline of 2-0.

But Czech Republic could only draw 1-1 with Denmark, while Austria were held to a goalless stalemate by Slovakia