ANTHONY MARTIAL scored a rare international goal Saturday but World Cup holder France stumbled again on its road to the 2022 finals in Qatar, drawing 1-1 with Ukraine in Kiev. Manchester United forward Martial forced in the equalizer five minutes into the second half to cancel out a superb strike by Mykola Shaparenko for Ukraine, the Euro 2020 quarterfinalist. It was just Martial’s second goal for his country on the occasion of his 29th cap, with his only previous strike coming in a friendly against Italy in September 2016. He has not scored for his club since February after a knee injury saw him miss the closing weeks of last season and led to him missing out on a place in France’s squad at Euro 2020. “It is a long time since I scored a goal so this will do me a lot of good,” the 25-year-old told broadcaster M6. France has now dropped points in successive games on their return to action following their exit from the European Championship in the last 16 on penalties against Switzerland. France was held at home by Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday but remained four points clear of Finland and Ukraine at the top of Group D. This was its toughest fixture on paper and it would be an enormous surprise if the side did not still go on to win the group despite its recent struggles. “It’s not easy having to play all these games in a row,” said coach Didier Deschamps. “We are maybe not in a better situation than we were before the match, but it is not any worse either.” Only the group winners qualify automatically for Qatar. Ukraine has drawn all five matches so far, while Finland beat Kazakhstan 1-0 in Helsinki and has two games in hand on its rivals. France hosts Finland on Tuesday looking for an improvement on its recent performances, although its display at Kiev’s Olympic Stadium was a step in the right direction. Martial was preferred to Karim Benzema up front while Kylian Mbappe was not involved after returning to his club Paris Saint-Germain with a calf injury. Deschamps made six changes to his line-up, including handing starts to West Ham United’s Kurt Zouma in defense, to Monaco’s Aurelien Tchouameni in midfield and to Bayern Munich’s Kingsley Coman on the wing. Martial should have put France ahead just before half-time but was denied by Ukraine goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov, and moments later the home side took the lead in style. Roman Yaremchuk’s cross from the right was intercepted by Zouma but the ball came out to Shaparenko and the Dynamo Kiev midfielder found the top-right corner of the net with a stunning first-time strike from 20 meters that left Hugo Lloris rooted.(SD-Agencies) | 