As far as international friendlies go, few get bigger than France versus Spain.For Les Blues’ sparkling new generation though, it’s proven a jarring reality check at the hands of the 2010 World Champions.Goals from David Silva and Gerard Deulofeu helped the away side on their way to a hard-fought 2-0 victory at the Stade de France. However, the result could easily have favoured Didier Deschamp’s young side.

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After all, Antoine Griezmann had looked to head France into the lead just after half time. The freshly trialed video referee served to scupper his moment of glory, though, when Layvin Kurzawa was shown to be offside.

While the decision was absolutely spot on, France’s lead would have stood if it wasn’t for the benefit of the replay.

Brutally too, Spain were then given the opportunity to take the lead themselves when Laurent Koscielny felled Deulofeu in the area. A penalty was given and the so-called ‘fifth official’ gave it the green light as well.

Just a few seconds later, Silva sent Hugo Lloris the wrong way and slotted the ball into the bottom corner. It set Spain on course to victory and, surely, proved simply unavoidable from the lottery of the spot kick.

Well, it turns out that Olivier Giroud could have averted disaster for France.

Replays showed the Arsenal man pointing towards the bottom right corner of the goal before Silva even begins his run-up. It depicts the 30-year-old correctly predicting exactly where the Manchester City man would place his effort.

Lloris, however, took no notice and plunged to his right hand side. The episode can be seen below:

Whether or not Giroud was confident in his assumption or Lloris even saw the gesture is unknown, but the bottom line is that he was right. It could have been the moment of inspiration needed to keep France in the game.

Ultimately though, it was only an international friendly and Lloris won’t be losing too much sleep over the incident.

By contrast, even if the Tottenham ‘keeper had changed his mind; there is no guarantee that he would have made the save. Silva tucked his effort away well and it rewarded Spain for a spell of domination in the game.

Lloris might want to ask Giroud for his predictions on the lottery this week, though.

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