Portugal stumble, France impress

European champions Portugal spurned a two-goal lead against Tunisia, stumbling to a 2-2 draw, as France, one of the World Cup favourites, flexed their muscles with a comfortable 2-0 win over Ireland in warm-up friendlies on Monday.

Portugal were without captain Cristiano Ronaldo after he won the Champions League with Real Madrid on Saturday and Tunisia exposed defensive frailties in Fernando Santos' side which Group B opponents Spain, Morocco and Iran will try to exploit.

Andre Silva and Joao Mario fired Portugal ahead in Braga but Tunisia's speed on the counter-attack was a problem for the hosts. Anice Badri and Fakhreddine Ben Youssef pulled the African side level, proving they will be no pushovers for Group G favourites Belgium and England, as well as Panama.

France put in a strong performance in Paris, with goals from Olivier Giroud and Nabil Fekir not telling the complete story of their dominance against Ireland.

Impressive surges from full backs Benjamin Mendy and Djibril Sidibe showed Les Bleus have attacking power outside their collection of talented forwards and Didier Deschamps' team selection highlighted their squad depth.

Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante did not start but Giroud, Fekir and Corentin Tolisso impressed in their absence.

However, French coach Didier Deschamps was less impressed with his side's performance.

"The game maybe didn't meet all my expectations, but we controlled it well, got the breakthrough before half-time and our movement was good, so there were plenty of good things to take from it," said Deschamps.

In other matches, Iran suffered a blow to their confidence, losing 2-1 in Istanbul against Turkey, who have not qualified for the finals. Cenk Tosun scored both goals for the home team early in each half while Ashkan Dejagah netted a consolation from the spot spot in the 92nd minute.

Meanwhile, forward Son Heung-min lashed home from distance as South Korea beat Honduras 2-0 in Daegu, getting their preparations for Russia off to a good start.

Former Barcelona B midfielder Lee Seung-woo, now at Hellas Verona, impressed on his debut and pushed his claims to be included in coach Shin Tae-yong's final 23-man squad. South Korea are underdogs in Group F, where they face Germany, Mexico and Sweden.

World Cup-bound Nigeria showed early promise but were held to a 1-1 friendly draw by DR Congo at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt Monday.

In another friendly, Mexico failed to turn possession and pressure into goals as they were held 0-0 by Wales in a World Cup warm-up at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

Brothers Giovani and Jonathan dos Santos put the Welsh goal under pressure in the closing stages after coming off the bench in the second half but could not beat Hennessey.