The Argentina coach Diego Maradona felt his side made France look "ridiculous" at times as the South Americans claimed a 2-0 win in Marseille.
A goal in each half from Jonas Gutierrez and Lionel Messi preserved Maradona's 100% record as coach.
"The players did what I told them perfectly," the 1986 World Cup winner told TyC Sports.
"I told the players that if we were able to show the same form we did in the 30 opening minutes of the Scotland match, we could beat anyone. That is what happened.
"We did what we knew we had to do and in some moments we made France look ridiculous."
Les Bleus did create a number of decent chances in the first half, the winger Franck Ribery missing the best of them, but the twinkling feet of Messi constantly troubled them.
"We found it quite difficult to settle in the opening minutes because France have good players and we were unable to work out their abilities," Maradona added.
"The guys did their job perfectly. The important thing is that we had possession of the ball. There is no player I can say played badly ? (Gabriel) Heinze, (Martin) Demichelis, (Javier) Mascherano, Messi, all the guys played a great match."
Messi hailed the match as his "happiest day in the senior squad" and claimed Argentina have now found their best team.
"When we could, we played great football by passing the ball and making France run behind it," said the Barcelona player.
"This is the national team we have to have from now on.
"This is my happiest day in the senior squad, because of the score, the way we played, my debut under Diego and because we played and beat the World Cup runners-up."
Javier Mascherano believes the victory will boost confidence ahead of the resumption of their World Cup qualifying campaign.
"We played a good match against a good national team and we won. When you win, there are a lot of highlights ? the victory, the winning mentality and it is very good for the team to recover the confidence we had lost," he said.
"We were solid in defence too, as we have not conceded goals in two games.
"We know we have great players. The important thing is putting them altogether to build a big squad.
"The World Cup qualifiers are coming and we must start well this year. We must clinch the six points in March (against Venezuela and Bolivia) and that will be very important for the future."
*PA Sport
Student Of The Year 2
Director: Punit Malhotra
Stars: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aditya Seal
1.5 stars
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
Book%20Details
%3Cp%3E%3Cem%3EThree%20Centuries%20of%20Travel%20Writing%20by%20Muslim%20Women%3C%2Fem%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EEditors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiobhan%20Lambert-Hurley%2C%20Daniel%20Majchrowicz%2C%20Sunil%20Sharma%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EIndiana%20University%20Press%3B%20532%20pages%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Points to remember
- Debate the issue, don't attack the person
- Build the relationship and dialogue by seeking to find common ground
- Express passion for the issue but be aware of when you're losing control or when there's anger. If there is, pause and take some time out.
- Listen actively without interrupting
- Avoid assumptions, seek understanding, ask questions
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 258hp from 5,000-6,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm from 1,550-4,000rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.1L/100km
Price: from Dh362,500
On sale: now
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
