Extending France’s streak to five games, Ukraine held the reigning world champions to a 1-1 draw in World Cup qualifying on Saturday. But the Les Blues still remain on top of Group D. 

Ukraine drew first blood late in the first half through Mykola Shaparenko, who stabbed home from 20 metres out wide to score his first international goal. 

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France had opted to rest a lot of their crucial players and were missing Kylian Mbappe through a calf problem. Manager Didier Deschamps relied on Anthony Martial to lead the attacking line. The 25-year-old repaid the boss’ trust as he equalised shortly after the break following a setup from Kingsley Coman and Adrien Rabiot.

It was Martial’s second international goal and it came five years and three days after the Manchester United forward’s previous strike in a friendly against Italy.

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In the 63rd minute, Moussa Diaby replaced Coman and Benzema came on for Martial.

Both substitutes combined nicely in the box with 15 minutes left, but Diaby’s shot hit keeper Andriy Pyatov’s right-hand post.

Ukraine also drew at France in March.

With the draw, France has nine points from five matches and Finland is next with five points from three matches after a header from Joel Pohjanpalo earned a 1-0 win over Kazakhstan.

Ukraine too are on five points from five matches, while Bosnia and Kazakhstan have two points each.

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Only the group winners directly qualify for the World Cup. Second-place finishers face a playoff.

In other results, Aleksandar Mitrović scored twice as Serbia beat Luxembourg 4-1 to move level with Portugal atop the group with 10 points in Group A.

Meanwhile, European Championship semifinalist Denmark extended its perfect start to qualifying with a 1-0 win at the Faroe Islands following a goal from Jonas Wind.

Barcelona forward Memphis Depay scored a brace and the Netherlands outclassed Montenegro 4-0 to stay second in the group behind Turkey, who beat Gibraltar 3-0.