France beat Italy 2-1

 PARMA, Italy, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- France overcame a sloppy¹ start to beat Italy 2-1 in a Wednesday night's international friendly in Parma.

In-form AC Milan striker Stephan El Shaarawi gave the hosts a first-half lead, and Mathieu Valbuena equalized for France almost immediately and then substitute Bafetimbi Gomis struck a second-half winner.

Italy, whose forward Mario Balotelli hit the post in the ninth minute, pushed hard for an equalizer in the closing stages but Sebastian Giovinco was denied by Hugo Lloris and Emanuele Giaccherini struck the crossbar as the Euro 2012 runners-up fell short.

Italy head coach Cesare Prandelli insisted his side did not deserve to lose the game, and saw it as a valuable experiment.

"We didn't deserve to lose this, but it was right to experiment and we will experiment again. We need to be ready for the tournament and that means using these games to test things out.

"We did some good things, it was the first time we were trying the 4-3-3, so some movements were not going to be solid," he said.

The victory earned France their first triumph on Italian soil since 1994 and saw them claim another impressive result under new coach Didier Deschamps having last month held Spain to a 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw in Madrid.

French veteran defender² Patrice Evra admitted France are "very proud" to beat Italy, even in a friendly.

"The French are very proud and have always had a great rivalry³ with Italy, so they'll be happy back home with the win," he said.

1 sloppy   

adj.邋遢的，不整洁的

参考例句：

• If you do such sloppy work again,I promise I'll fail you.要是下次作业你再马马虎虎，我话说在头里，可要给你打不及格了。
• Mother constantly picked at him for being sloppy.母亲不断地批评他懒散。

2 defender   

n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人

参考例句：

• He shouldered off a defender and shot at goal.他用肩膀挡开防守队员，然后射门。
• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。

3 rivalry   

n.竞争，竞赛，对抗

参考例句：

• The quarrel originated in rivalry between the two families.这次争吵是两家不和引起的。
• He had a lot of rivalry with his brothers and sisters.他和兄弟姐妹间经常较劲。