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After a break of three years, Nicolas Anelka, who currently plays in Istanbul, was once again called up to the French national team and in his first match scored a goal, helping the French team snatch a victory in a friendly match against Costa Rica.
Anelka had not represented the French national team since November 2002 when he refused to join the team under the then coach Jacques Santini. Even though the striker apologized to the national team coach later that year, he was not forgiven and was not called up to help in the 2004 European Championship.
However, last week, the current French national team coach Raymond Domenech unexpectedly invited Anelka to represent his country in friendly matches against the national teams of Costa Rica and Germany.
In the eventful match, the Costa Rican footballers took the lead first, with Alvaro Saborio scoring a goal in the 14th minute. The situation of the French national team worsened even further when Danny Fonseca doubled his team's lead in the 41st minute.
As soon as the second half began, the French started to attack and it didn't take long for the result to change - in the 49th minute, a cross into the penalty area was confidently played by Nicolas Anelka, reducing the deficit. Just ten minutes before the end of the match, Djibril Cisse managed to equalize, and in the 87th minute, Thierry Henry, who had played a great match, scored the winning goal, forcing the Costa Rican goalkeeper to retrieve the ball from the back of the net for the third time.
The next friendly match for the French national team will be on Saturday against the world vice-champion team Germany.
France 3 - 2 Costa Rica 14` [0 - 1] Alvaro Saborio 41` [0 - 2] Danny Fonseca 47` [1 - 2] Nicolas Anelka 80` [2 - 2] Djibril Cisse 87` [3 - 2] Thierry Henry
