Ousmane Dembele Nets Winning Goal for France in Friendly Action vs. England

Ousmane Dembele netted the winner as 10-man France downed England 3-2 in an entertaining international friendly at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France, on Tuesday.

Harry Kane opened the scoring early for Gareth Southgate's Three Lions side, but England were trailing by half-time after goals from Samuel Umtiti and Djibril Sidibe.

Kane netted from the penalty spot to equalise early in the second half after Raphael Varane was sent off for downing Dele Alli in the box.

But France were rewarded for their impressive response to the setback when Dembele lashed a finish across the goal and into the net 12 minutes from time.

The Press Association's Simon Peach provided the lineups ahead of kick-off:

England made a flying start, as captain Kane put them ahead in the ninth minute following a slick team move.

France lost the ball on the halfway line, and Alli picked out Raheem Sterling in the box with a sweeping ball. A neat back-heel by the Manchester City star found the onrushing Ryan Bertrand, who put it on a plate for Kane to tap home from close range.

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Five minutes later, Olivier Giroud had the ball in the back of the England net after a sensational volley, but the goal was correctly ruled out for offside.

The equaliser did come in the 22nd minute, though, when Giroud's header was palmed away by England goalkeeper Tom Heaton before Umtiti slotted home the rebound.

It was a similar situation on France's second goal just before half-time, when Heaton produced another fine save to keep out the 20-year-old Dembele only for Sidibe to reach the ball first and lash it into the back of the net.

Heaton could perhaps have done better to push both efforts further away from goal, but he was largely let down by his unresponsive defence, per The Times' Henry Winter:

In the first 45 minutes, Eric Dier and Kylian Mbappe also had good efforts at goal, while Paul Pogba was irresistible controlling the play for Les Bleus, per The Times' Matt Dickinson:

France had the momentum at the start of the second half, but they were dealt a hammer blow two minutes after the break when Varane felled Alli in the box to concede a penalty.

The Real Madrid defender was then controversially sent off—his challenge on Alli looked fairly innocuous and was likely accidental—after match official Davide Massa consulted with the video assistant referee, per football writer Robin Bairner:

Kane equalised from the spot by firing down the middle as his Tottenham Hotspur team-mate Hugo Lloris dived out of the way.

England's numerical advantage showed immediately after the equaliser, as they dominated possession, but France built back into the game and were clearly intent on playing for the win despite the absence of Varane.

Mbappe created space wonderfully in the box with some quick footwork 20 minutes from time, but his curling effort crashed off the crossbar.

The 18-year-old made amends eight minutes later, however, teeing up Dembele to fire into the corner from the edge of the box after poor defensive play by Gary Cahill.