WC qualifiers: Sweden go top of Group A after Lloris clanger

France skipper’s horror last-minute mistake led to 2-1 defeat

STOCKHOLM: Hugo Lloris was left red faced on Friday as a dramatic last gasp Ola Toivonen goal from the half-way line gave Sweden a 2-1 win over France in their World Cup qualifier.

The France keeper will watch replays in horror after he dribbled out of his box and made a dreadful cut back intercepted by Toivonen, who lofted a snap lob from just inside his half and watched Lloris lose his desperate run to stop the ball rolling into an empty goal.

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The freak goal sent the massed ranks of yellow clad fans in Stockholm into a wild frenzy, but more importantly with four games to go it sent Sweden top of Group A, level on 13 points with France, with only the group winner getting a direct ticket to the finals in Russia next year.

"It was just awful. It cost us this game," stunned France coach Didier Deschamps told French TV after the game. "But I'm not going to heap blame Hugo, he has often been decisive with us, but it cost us. We still have four games, we'll have to crack hard to reach our objective."

A sumptuous Olivier Giroud volley on 37 minutes opened the scoring, but winger Jimmy Durmaz lashed his own left-footed rocket past the flailing Loris on 43 after he beat three France players to a loose ball.

The late goal also robbed Giroud of the headlines as the 30-year-old who only made 11 starts for Arsenal last season and who scored a hat-trick against Paraguay in a 5-0 rout a week ago, has notched up 17 goals in last 17 starts for France.